Lemon Tech Tidbits

Quizziz is a website that allows you to student-paced formative assessment in an easy and fun manner. It works on any device and is easy to set up. In addition, there are thousands of quizzes already created by other teachers and students ready to be used. Recently, Quizziz announced a few additions to this great site. Now, a teacher can set the quiz to be read aloud to the student. For students who struggle with reading, this is a great new feature! You also have the option of setting how many retakes a student can take, hide answer feedback, and allowing answer review (without showing the answers) automatically. In addition, you can unlock flashcards in the reports section and allow students access to them. Quizziz works very well with Google Classroom allowing you the ability to post to many different classrooms with the results showing up automatically as the students play. Quizziz has a series of videos that walk you through exactly what it is, how to get it set up, and ho...

We have all been there. You know you created a wonderful presentation or document last year for the unit you will be teaching but you can’t find it in your Google Drive. You end up spending way too much valuable time looking through all of your folders and files with no luck. You do a search in the Google Drive search box and still can not find out. A new update will now give you more options to easily and quickly find exactly what you are looking for. Now, when you type in a query in the search box, you will see a new range of options including: Suggested search queries: Click on a term to search for it.  Your top collaborators: Click on a person to search for files that you’ve collaborated with them on.  File types, edit history, priority items, and more: Click to show files that match the highlighted criteria.

Never underestimate the power of angry people on social media. Verizon has backed away from charging Remind for SMS messages sent from the popular social media platform. Here is a statement from the people of Remind: "We have heard from Verizon that they don’t have plans to change the fee structure applicable to Remind for SMS messaging," Grey said in a statement on Thursday. "This means we will no longer be forced to shut off text notifications for Verizon Wireless customers using Remind. There will be no service disruptions for Verizon Wireless customers." So what exactly is Remind? Remind is an app that is used by many teachers, sponsors, and coaches. It is a way to communicate with parents and students quickly and efficiently in a safe environment. For more information on Remind as well as how to create your own account, click here: https://www.remind.com/teachers

John Green and his brother, Hank, along with some friends have created many wonderful videos over everything from understanding Shakespeare plays to famous historical events throughout time called Crash Course . All of the Crash Course videos are arranged by subject and have their own playlist. So far, they are: Statistics Engineering Physics Economics Literature Theatre and Drama Media Literacy Intellectual Property Computer Science U.S. Government & Politics U.S. History World History World History 2 World Mythology Big History (Big Bang to now) History of Science Biology Chemistry Anatomy and Physiology Astronomy Ecology Psychology Sociology Games Film History

Perfect for younger students. The Amoeba Sisters was started by two sisters who love science and want to share it with others. They have created a very popular Youtube Channel focusing on Biology . Each video is less than 10 minutes long and comes with recommended handouts . In addition, they have custom made GIFs and cartoons free to use in your instruction. (make sure to give them credit though). 

Did you have an Etch-A-Sketch you loved to play with as a child? Well, there is now a website version! It is called Web-A-Sketch . Here is an article posted by Erin Whalen giving you all of the information including some ideas of how it can be used in a classroom. *I have been playing around with it on my MacBook and it is as challenging (and addicting) as the original toy. I do wonder though how it would work with students who have a touchscreen computer….

If you haven’t heard, Remind will no longer allow any text messages to be sent to phones using Verizon for free. The reason is Verizon is going to start collecting fees on “spam,” even if the “spam” is from a teacher to a student or parent. (you can read an article detailing the situation here ). Because of this, many youth coaches, sponsors, and teachers are looking for other solutions. You can use Google Classroom as a way to send notifications but to do so successfully, the student and parents will need to download the app onto their phone. For younger school students, there is ClassDojo or Bloomz as an alternative.