Lemon Tech Tidbits

Everyone is overwhelmed right now. The last thing you want to find yourself doing is creating something from scratch that takes hours and hours of your time. Thankfully, there are many people out there who find creating templates to be relaxing and enjoyable. What’s even better is when they freely share their creations with others. In the latest blog post by Nick LaFaye , he shares ten engaging templates you can use right now with your students no matter what your curriculum or unit. The templates include: Instagram Template for historical characters, book characters, animals, etc. NetFlix Template for students to share their knowledge in a fun and different way Amazon Template for students to create a “product” to sell or a list of items needed. His example: what if cells had to shop for their organelles? 7 Great Google Slide Templates for student creativity assignments using critical thinking. Check all of these out by going to his post located here.

The other day, I was on some social media site (can’t remember now) where the conversation was about apps teachers absolutely love. Many people responded by saying “Watertank Math for the iPad!” So of course, I had to take a look and investigate. What is Watertank Math? It is a visual representation of adding and subtracting numbers using a water tank and/or a toilet. In the app, there are different categories such as work tank, into words (math problems), show me, and practice. Where can I get it? There is an app for iPads . The app is free to download and use. Why use it? The app was created by a team of math teachers as a fun way for elementary students to learn about math symbols used in addition and subtraction while presenting a visual representation of what happens. What more math app suggestions? A blog post from Online Tech Tips shares 6 of what they feel are the best math apps for students. You can access the entire list here.

  Students love to play games. Because of this, teachers have used many different sites promising to gamify content in an easy way for either review or for formative assessments. WordWall is one of those sites. With Wordwall.net, you can sign up for a free account that will allow you to create 5 activities. To create one is very easy. All you have to do is click on a template to use, fill in the boxes with the information required, and then print out your activity or play it online. If you are short on time, you can use one that has already been created. Whether you are using one you created or not, you can click on the Share button at the bottom and then follow the prompts to add it seamlessly into Google Classroom. If you want more information, click on this video . (around 18 min.) If you want to know more about it but don’t need voice commentary, try this video . (around 12 min.)  Want to try out a game yourself? Try this one or this one.

With a new semester comes new students in my technology classes at the MS and the HS. I decided to have the students introduce themselves using Flipgrid. This allowed each student to not only play around with all of the new features available on Flipgrid but to introduce themselves to everyone in class in a fun way.  Flipgrid is one of those apps that I feel every student K-12 should use. There are so many cool features available and it is all for FREE! One of those cool features is the new ability to add pictures. Kristina Uihlein Holzweiss has created a Google Photos Album full of borders that you can use when creating a fun Flipgrid video. You can access them here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jg9NsBomAHwvxPmz5 If you are new to Flipgrid or need a refresher, take a look here . Here is a blog post on how you can use Flipgrid for Social Emotional Learning. Here is an article about how some teachers are using Flipgrid to play an educational version of Among Us. Just in case you are st...

     How many of us want to be in the present mode in Google Slide yet still be able to edit it at the same time? I find this is a huge pain myself. Maybe I have a slide where I want to draw or add text after class discussion. Or maybe I want to be able to move objects around when I need to. You either have to project your Google Slide presentation in the Edit mode which shows your thumbnails or stick with the presentation view. That is unless you install the Fullscreen Interactive Google Slide Extension.      Download the extension. Next, open up the Google Slide in the edit mode. Finally, click on the extension which will automatically open up the slides in the full screen just like in presentation mode but still allow you access to the toolbar above. This means you can easily edit slides while still projecting it to the class. Once you are done, simply click the Esc key to return to normal mode. The app was created especially for teachers to use during...

A fun new AI generated tool created for animation has emerged called Scroobly. It is a way to quickly bring your own doodles (or one already created) to life.  Watch this quick video introduction. Now try it out yourself. Go to scroobly.com and click on the word START. Read the instructions and select Next. Repeat. Give the site permission to access your camera. On the next page, you will see different doodles to choose from. You can select one of them or create your own. Once you are done, you will see your doodle move with your actions. To get a full-body image, you will need to stand further back from your webcam. You can turn the background on and off by sliding the button. Once you are comfortable with your doodle, click on the red button and record a short video. Once you are done, you can download it as an mp4 or as a GIF. Super Fun! (ps, it is easier on your phone) Want more information on how to use it? Click on this video .