Free Math Lesson Plans from NASA

Space Math is a NASA website containing space-themed math lessons for students in elementary school through high school. You can search for lessons according to grade level or mathematics topic. The bulk of the materials seem to be PDFs of directions for carrying out the lesson plans. The exception to that pattern being the middle school (grades 6-8) resources which include the use of some of NASA eClips videos.

The featured lesson plans on the Space Math homepage today are designed to have students use some free apps on their smartphones to record data and learn about sound, light, radiation, and magnetism.

Applications for Education
Each of the Space Math lessons align to different NASA missions. The NASA missions provide the context for the math lessons. That alignment makes Space Math lessons a good option for an integrated science and mathematics lesson.

How to Handle Stage Fright

The winter concert season is upon us in many schools. For some students the experience of being on stage is truly frightening. For others it isn't so scary. This is a good time to bring up this TED-Ed lesson that explains why people get stage fright and how to deal with it.


Applications for Education
Understanding why something happens and accepting it are the first steps to changing it. This TED-Ed lesson could be a great little lesson to share with students in the weeks before they give presentations in your classroom.

Start 2019 With a Practical Ed Tech PD Course

As you may know, one of the ways that I keep Free Technology for Teachers running is with the revenue generated through my other site, Practical Ed Tech. On Practical Ed Tech I offer online professional development courses. In January I am hosting three professional development courses on PracticalEdTech.com. Enrollment is limited to 25 people in each course.

Teaching History With Technology
Teaching History With Technology is a series of five live webinars starting on January 8th. Each interactive webinar features practical ideas for using technology to create new, engaging lessons or to update some of your existing “go-to” history lessons. Detailed handouts are provided with every webinar. And if you miss a meeting or you just want to see something again, a recording of the webinars will be available to you too. Register by December 31st to save $15.

Video Projects for Every Classroom
Start the year with this five week webinar series in which you will learn how to create and complete five video projects that can be used in almost any classroom. Whether your students use Chromebooks, iPads, Android, Windows, or Mac, you can do these projects. Making videos gets students excited about polishing their work for others to see. From Kindergarten through high school students can make videos to showcase their skills, knowledge, and creativity. Click here to register and learn more. Register by December 31st to save $15.

Getting Going With G Suite in 2019
Every year this is my most popular online course. It has been updated for 2019 to include all of the latest features of G Suite for Education. This course offers everything you need to know to take advantage of the great things that G Suite offers to teachers and students. Getting Going With G Suite is a five week course covering everything you need to know to integrate all aspects of G Suite for Education including Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Calendar, and Google Sites into your practice. Click here to learn more and to register. Register by December 31st to save $15.

FAQs

• Each of these courses is five weeks long. They all start the week of January 7th. 
• Each course meeting is scheduled for one hour of instruction plus time for Q&A. 
• You can receive a PD certificate for five hours. 
• All of the live sessions are recorded so that you can go back and watch them whenever you like. 

Speakd - Listen to Your Google Docs

Speakd is a free Google Docs add-on that will read your documents aloud. When you have Speakd installed in Google Docs you can open the add-on and press play at any time to hear your document read aloud. Unlike some other text-to-speech tools, Speakd doesn't require you to copy and paste text to hear it read aloud.

Applications for Education
Voice that Speakd uses is very robotic. That said, Speakd could be a good tool for students to use to hear their documents read aloud as part of the editing process before turning in a final submission.

PBS Kids ScratchJr - Scratch With a PBS Twist

PBS Kids ScratchJr is a PBS Kids-themed version of the popular ScratchJr app. PBS Kids ScratchJr is available as a free iPad app and as a free Android app. The app is designed to help five to eight year old students learn basic programming concepts through a drag-and-drop interface.

Just like the ScratchJr app, on PBS Kids ScratchJr students program a story or game by selecting background settings and characters for each frame of the story. Then in each frame students select the actions that they want their characters to take. Students snap programming pieces together to make characters move and talk in their stories and games.

The difference between PBS Kids ScratchJr and the regular ScratchJr app is found in the character and background choices. In the PBS Kids version students can select backgrounds and characters from some of their favorite PBS Kids programs including Nature Cat, World Girl, and Arthur.

Applications for Education
PBS Kids ScratchJr provides a fun platform through which students can learn programming concepts while animating stories based on some of their favorite PBS Kids characters. Visit the PBS Kids ScratchJr landing page to find resources for teachers getting started with the app or planning how to use it in a K-3 classroom.