Creative Bridge - A Next Vista for Learning Video Contest

I have been a fan and supporter of Next Vista for Learning for the last decade. Next Vista is a video site for students and teachers to share video lessons with other students and teachers. Videos submitted to Next Vista are reviewed for accuracy before they appear on the site. Speaking of videos on the site, one of the ways that Next Vista acquires new submissions is through student and teacher video contests.

The latest Next Vista for Learning video contest is called Creative Bridge and it is now open for submissions. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on December 13th. Submissions received by November 15th receive bonus points. The contest is open to students and teachers. There is a category for student-produced videos, a category for teacher-produced videos, and a category for videos created through the collaborative efforts of teachers and students. Regardless of the category, all videos must teach a lesson in 90 seconds or less. The lesson can be about almost any concept a person would learn about in elementary, middle, or high school. Take a look at this video made by a Kindergarten class or any of the previous contest's finalists here for some inspiration.

Contest winners receive iTunes gift cards and the pride of showcasing their videos for a larger audience.

Complete Creative Bridge contest rules and guidelines are available here.

Google Forms Features You Should Know How to Use - Video

After Google Earth, Google Forms is the Google product that I get the most excited about helping other teachers use. From gathering survey data to organizing event registration to creating online quizzes there are lots of things that can be done efficiently if you know how to use Google Forms. That said, Google Forms has lots of little features that are sometimes overlooked even by people who have made lots of forms in Google Forms. In the following video I demonstrate five features of Google Forms that every teacher should know how to use (if they use Google Forms).


The add-on that I mentioned at the end of the video is called Certify'em. My tutorial on how to use is is embedded below.


Subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified whenever I add a new tutorial video.

Mind Maps, Rubrics, and Cats - The Month in Review

Good evening from Maine where the sun is setting on a busy month of September. Between webinars, working on a book, and taking over a computer science program the posting here was a little less frequent than usual. I still managed to publish more than 60 new posts. It will get back up to my usual 85-95 posts in October.

These were the most popular posts in September:
1. Ten Free Tools for Creating Mind Maps and Flowcharts - Updated for 2019-20
2. My Top Twelve Tools for Social Studies Teachers and Students
3. How to Avoid the Google Calendar Scheduling Mistake I Keep Making
4. Ten Google Product Updates for Teachers to Note
5. Ten Sites & Apps to Help Students Learn New Vocabulary Words - Updated for 2019-20
6. My Top 5 Google Tools for Social Studies Teachers and Students
7. How to Use Rubrics in Google Classroom
8. 15 Digital Citizenship Resources for K-12
9. Fraidy Cats' Book of Courage - An eBook of Writing Prompts
10. 5 Features of Google's Advanced Search Menu

Bring me to your school or conference. 
I'm already booking my 2020 workshop and conference schedule. This will be my tenth year of speaking at schools and conferences. Click here to learn how to bring me to your school or conference.

Thank You for Your Support!

• More than 400 of you have participated in a Practical Ed Tech webinar this year. Thank you!
• Book Creator is my favorite tool for making multimedia ebooks.  
• PrepFactory offers free, personalized SAT and ACT prep. 
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County has been supporting this blog for many years.

Other Places to Follow My Work

Besides FreeTech4Teachers.com and the daily email digest, there are other ways to keep up with what I'm publishing. 

• Practical Ed Tech Newsletter - This comes out once per week (Sunday night/ Monday morning) and includes my tip of the week and a summary of the week's most popular posts from FreeTech4Teachers.com.
• My YouTube Channel - More than 15,000 are subscribed to my YouTube channel for my regular series of tutorial videos including more than 300 Google tools tutorials. 
• Facebook - The FreeTech4Teachers.com Facebook page has nearly 450,000 followers. 
• Twitter - I've been Tweeting away for the last twelve years at twitter.com/rmbyrne
• Instagram - this is mostly pictures of my kids, my dogs, my bikes, my skis, and fly fishing. 

What's in Pumpkin Spice?

Walk into a Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, or Tim Horton's at this time of year and you're bombarded with offerings for pumpkin spice this and pumpkin spice that! According to this CNBC report pumpkin spice is a $600 million flavor.

What's in the pumpkin spice that so many people love? That question is in this SciShow Kids video. Before answering that question the video explains what spices and herbs are and how they are combined to create flavors. Click here to watch the video or watch it as embedded below.

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good morning from Maine where the the air is cool and crisp, the leaves are colorful, and everyone is dressed in their favorite flannel. These are the days that everyone pictures when they think about New England in the fall. I can't wait to get outside! I hope that wherever you are this weekend that you can get outside too.

This week was my first full week back in the classroom on a full-time basis. That's my reason for having fewer blog posts that usual. But I'll get back up to speed after I get my classroom on track. I took over a computer science program that had an instructor quit in the first week of school so I'm trying to fill in a lot of gaps right now.

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. 15 Digital Citizenship Resources for K-12
2. Fraidy Cats' Book of Courage - An eBook of Writing Prompts
3. 7 Styles of Classroom Video Projects - Tools and Tips for Making Them
4. How to Find and Create Primary Source Lessons With DocsTeach
5. Loop - A Nice System for Gathering Feedback from Students
6. How to Create a Transcript of Any YouTube Video
7. The Practical Ed Tech Podcast Episode #10 Featuring Adam Bellow

Bring me to your school or conference. 
I'm already booking my 2020 workshop and conference schedule. This will be my tenth year of speaking at schools and conferences. Click here to learn how to bring me to your school or conference.

Thank You for Your Support!

• More than 400 of you have participated in a Practical Ed Tech webinar this year. Thank you!
• Book Creator is my favorite tool for making multimedia ebooks.  
• PrepFactory offers free, personalized SAT and ACT prep. 
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County has been supporting this blog for many years.

Other Places to Follow My Work

Besides FreeTech4Teachers.com and the daily email digest, there are other ways to keep up with what I'm publishing. 

• Practical Ed Tech Newsletter - This comes out once per week (Sunday night/ Monday morning) and includes my tip of the week and a summary of the week's most popular posts from FreeTech4Teachers.com.
• My YouTube Channel - More than 15,000 are subscribed to my YouTube channel for my regular series of tutorial videos including more than 300 Google tools tutorials. 
• Facebook - The FreeTech4Teachers.com Facebook page has nearly 450,000 followers. 
• Twitter - I've been Tweeting away for the last twelve years at twitter.com/rmbyrne
• Instagram - this is mostly pictures of my kids, my dogs, my bikes, my skis, and fly fishing.