Lemon Tech Tidbits

       If you have not signed up for the FREE educator’s account in Canva, you really should do it now. There are many wonderful, and easy, things you can do with this program. In this blog post, Richard Bryne describes how you can now use Canva to create animated videos.   Earlier, he shared how Canva just released a new video editing tool. In this blog post , he creates a video covering the basic features. The video option reminds me of Adobe Spark in that you build the video frame by frame by adding in text, pictures, etc. The final product is a video made from each frame one right after another.  What makes Canva a little bit different from Adobe Spark is the ability to change the speed between the frames and the wonderful built-in images and GIFS available to use.  Again, Canva is completely free for educators to use for educational purposes as long as you sign up for a free account as a teacher (and student).  To learn more about Canva, click here.

     Share with your students a fun and stress-free activity by having them color in a Christmas picture from Google.      EVERYONE needs to incorporate Digital Citizenship curriculum into their classroom. Luckily for us, there are many organizations willing to provide everything you need to do so. For grades K-6, I suggest Google Be Internet Awesome. For grades 5-9, take a look at all of the free resources from 21 Things 4 Students put together by a group of media professionals in Michigan.      Decorate a Holiday Tree by Eric Curtis is a Google Slide project students can do in their free time. Another is to have them do a Winter Poetry assignment where they drag and drop words to create their poem. If neither of those interest you, how about decorating a gingerbread house?      For elementary math, try this digital escape room I created called Snowman Math. If that doesn’t work, you can try this Winter Math Word Problems digital escape room.      How about going on a virtual fie

  Twig Create was created for teachers and students with one huge difference than other video creation websites...ready-to-use outstanding graphics and videos. This is especially true for SCIENCE. To get a quick peek, take a look at the introductory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=sIcHmh54jm0&t=16s There is a fee if you want to have students collaborate and create their own videos but it is completely free for teachers. (you have to ask for a price quote so I am unsure of how expensive it is. However, there is a free trial version available!). When I first heard about this new site, I decided to give it a trial run. I signed up and created a very short video over dinosaurs in about 5 minutes. It is literally drag and drop the elements you want. You can then add text on top, edit the clips, and add your own voice.  The company, Twig Education, has shared an example of a 6th grade student talking about what they learned in their science class.  You can watch it here:

  Shannon McClintock Miller has created many holiday choice boards for elementary. All links will work for students, including the books, until January. They include: Hanukkah , Gingerbread , December , Kwanzaa , and other December Holidays . Gail Feix has created and shared a Gingerbread Countdown Calendar . Each number has an activity. You can use it as is or customize it by following her directions. Along with her countdown calendar, Gail has shared “Create your Own Gingerbread Man” that combines technology with writing skills for elementary students.  Richard Byrne shared a post about a new app called NBA Math Hoops . It can be used on an iPad or Android device and is a way for elementary students to practice their math skills.  Have your students learn how to use Google Slide with this very cool Google Scavenger Hunt.   Use a cool new background when you or your students record a video in Flipgrid! Canva just released over 100 new backgrounds free for education .  WeA

     I was looking at Flipgrid to do a quick summative assessment over Misinformation for my 8th grade tech class when I discovered there is a whole group of ready-to-use Flipgrid lessons by NewsLiteracy for High School.      From WeAreTeachers comes a blog post with the best Thanksgiving songs for elementary students.      Want some more ready-to-use templates for brochures, certificates, posters, social media posts, etc? Take a look at MockoFUN . They are now offering a free premium account for all teachers.      I shared this earlier but in case you didn’t see it, Eric Curtis has delivered another easy-to-use template perfect for the holidays. This time, it is Build a Turkey!      Eric Curtis has also recently shared his templates for a Google Calendar that displays all twelve months at a glance for the year 2022/23.      Need a quick science project or lesson? Take a look at 3M Young Scientist Lab for free Interactives. These can be used for upper elementary through high school.

       Google Classroom is really good but there are some areas that I still feel can be improved. For example, if I want to reuse a post, I find myself facing the same issues Alice Keeler explains in her latest post. I hate having to search for one assignment and then search again for another. So I was intrigued when she talked about using Schoolytics .  Schoolytics is a Google Classroom partner that takes all of the data and resources you already have and presents it in a better and easier way to utilize in your day-to-day teacher life. It is completely FREE for teachers.  Once you sign in, you can easily connect to your current classes in Google Classroom. Once you do, you will be presented with a dashboard that shows you student engagement, students missing work, assignments to grade, and more.  The best part? It allows you to easily create charts and reports to help you analyze the education happening in your classroom.  Give it a try!