Lemon Tech Tidbits

     Project-Based lessons ready-to-go with Tract for Teachers. Richard Byrne goes more in depth over what Tract is on his blog.       Musical Timers to use in your class. Make sure it is in present mode, click on the time you want and it will automatically go to that slide and play the song with lyrics while the time counts down.      35 Thrillingly Fun Halloween Songs are the spotlight in this blog post by WeAreTeachers.      5 Podcast for Middle School Students by Melody McAllister. My favorite? The 6 minute podcast. Great for the end of the class period while they wait to leave your room. Or use it as a bell ringer to get them to their desk in a quick fashion.      Have your students show their understanding of a topic by creating a Meme using Kapwing! There are many great meme templates ready to go. You can read all about it on this blog post by Nick.      Digital Halloween is a Wake...

    Yesterday in our presentation, we learned about Inquiry Design and the importance of compelling questions . To go along with this, I would like to introduce you to a tech tool called Parlay.  Parlay was created for educators to easily find quality and compelling questions to lead class discussions and sharing of ideas. On the site are thousands of discussion prompts organized around subjects.  As a teacher, you have the choice of adding a prompt to your classroom with the touch of a button. You can then make as many edits as needed and save everything for later use. In addition, you can create your own prompts and share them with others. Why is it so good? Each prompt includings a learning goal, a short video or picture to build interest/inquiry, discussion questions and finally peer feedback suggestions. All ready for you to use! Parlay is an excellent resource to use to add Inquiry Design into your own curriculum.

       Richard Bryne’s latest blog post is about reading newspapers around the world for students to build a better understanding of the different cultures, politics, and viewpoints.      In August, he had a post where he talked about how he uses maps to show news from around the world when talking about current events in his social studies classes. You can read the entire blog post here: https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2021/08/exploring-newspapers-through-maps.html      But recently, Larry Ferlazzo shared another great site to find all of the headlines from around the world. The site is called Today’s Front Page .      You have three options to explore the front pages. You can look at them in a gallery view, by list, or by map. One of the issues though is the newspapers are in a different language when you first view them. However, for many newspapers, you have an option of opening it up on a website and then can click ...

Google is continuing with their updates so I thought I would pass on a few for all to be aware of. Gmail: Searching for an email will be easier with advanced drop-down menus. Google Classroom: Soon, Admin will have the option to decide if students can unenroll themselves from Google Classroom. Google Drive: A new “card” will make it easier to access your Google Drive files from a new tab in Chrome. Google Docs: You can now add an image watermark to appear behind the text on Google Docs that will appear on each page. Comment size in Google Docs has been increased to make it easier to use. Google Forms: Settings are now easier to see Google Sites: Create your own custom theme Restore a page via version history Google Slides: The button for Present at the top right-hand corner will now say Slideshow