💥 tech tools - Killer deal on Amazon Echos, free music, free app, some great tech tools!

Misc: Web sites and tools

Do you want to be a Google search pro? - 41 Pro Google Search Tips for Research, Marketing, and Fun

How to Add Filters to Your Images in Google Slides 

The iPevo Whiteboard Chrome app is worth taking a look at!  The awwapp site is still great too, but this one may add a few things to your tool belt as well. 

WOW -  Self-Editing Tools for Student Writing in Google Docs. Great tools! 

Customize Google Drive With Drive Apps - Short 2 minute video.  (This video shows Pixlr Express... I love the PicMonkey add-on for Drive as well.) 

Killer Deal on the Amazon Echo! 

AMAZING deal on Amazon Echo - $75 and 3 free audio books. j  I LOVE these things! Ordered 1 more for my place. (I have way too many of these already, LOL.)  

6 Android Apps to Try on a Chromebook - Check it out

New Staff - HS and MS staff - your Acer Spin units already support Android!  More Chromebooks will be supporting Android soon.  

The Google Classroom app allows easy markup/drawing on assignments, 

Google Sheets -

Create Dynamic Dropdown Menus in Google Sheets - 3-minute how-to video

Free Music

Nature Sounds Collection: Sea Waves, Vol. 1 (Ocean Coast) -Not sure this is music, but it may be relaxing.  On Amazon  and also Google Play 

Free App - IOS and Android:

Runtastic Mountain Bike Pro (Android )

Both were free for a while... the Android onestill is!  

Free eBook - PDF 

Not sure if this thing work a cent... but hey it's free so I tossed it in our list! 

The free PDF eBook (a direct download, no registration required) is now available in English or Spanish. The Kindle version (English only) is now even cheaper (only a $1). 

FREE - Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day [leannebrown.com] (PDF, 1st Edition, ENGLISH)

GRATIS - Bueno y Barato: Aliméntate Bien a $4 al Día [leannebrown.com] (PDF, ESPAÑOL)

Some great tools and tips for the start of the school year.

Web sites and tools:

My Three Favorite Classroom Timer Tools - via Richard Byrne @rmbyrne

A Literacy Resource You Must See to Believe -  The aim [of The Literacy Shed] is to provide high-quality resources that can be used in stand-alone literacy lessons, can form the basis for a whole literacy unit, or can support literacy units that you already have in place.

Spiral Education promotes strong classroom collaboration for free!  IOS - Android and Chrome app

Help 1-8 students learn more than 1,000 crucial math skills for free - Nice game based learning motivates students to work outside the classroom too! (Over 4 million users and growing.) 

The Write Stuff - Some great tech tools for creativity and writing in the classroom. 

5 Apps to Use with Google Cardboard

5 Nearpod Tips and Tricks for this School Year 

7 Tech Tools to Capture Stories: Creation Apps & Websites

6 Exciting AR Apps for Student Learning with #ScannableTech

4 Free Digital Storytelling Tools for the Classroom via SimpleK12 

-Comics Head

--Blabberize (Talking Avatar)

--Befunky photo apps 

--Animoto 

My Animoto notes: 

Animoto  Is a great site for creating videos from pictures! Sign up for free edu account. First sign up for a free account, then visit this site to apply for the teacher account:

http://animoto.com/education/classroom  (You can easily embed the Animoto, or link to it on your website too!)  First, create a free account, then request the education version to get the pro features for free.)

Soundtrap - allows students to capture audio, edit, collaborate and publish their final podcast, radio show, etc...  Designed for creating and sharing music too!  (Works great on Chromebooks... since it's all through the web.) 

Infographic of 12 Chrome extensions for student research. 

WOW! - I like this tool! Google's new Tour Builder is great for telling a story with maps! https://goo.gl/AzDnMj   Example Tour here. 

Need to manage events and registrations ... This Google Sheet add-on will manage it for you! 

This is my favorite new Chome Extention for Gmail!  --> The New and Improved Gmelius Extension. It adds some great features that I really like! 

Google Docs & Apps:

How to Make Columns in Google Docs -- Great tip via BetterCloud Monitor | If you’ve ever tried to create columns in Google Docs (for example, if you’re making a newsletter), you might have noticed that there’s no built-in feature for it. Don’t worry, though—the workaround is easy. Here’s a simple method for making columns.

Google Templates for Students - Great list from TCEA 

Advanced Tricks for Making Your Google Slides Better with Multimedia

How to Link to a Specific Paragraph in Google Docs via BetterCloud Monitor 

If you ever have a Google Doc that’s tens or hundreds of pages long, it can be difficult to find a specific section of text that someone has asked you to reference. To save time, it can be valuable to provide a direct link to a specific paragraph in your document. (Hint... it's using the bookmark function.)

5 Google Sheets add-ons that supercharge your data! 

Google Forms Guide: Everything You Need to Make Great Forms for Free

Google Apps Education Newsletter for June 2016. 

Chrome Extensions:

WOW- This is a great list.  I personally use every one of these!  The 8 Best Chrome Extensions As Chosen By Teachers

Google Calendar:

Take Google Calendar to the Next Level with These 3 Extensions

Google Drawing:

Easy Poster Projects using Google Drawing

Google Slides:

Are you looking for tips to make your presentations more engaging and captivating? Check out this episode and learn more about some cool Google Slides advanced features, that will help you improve your presentation design and flow!

Google Sites - It's new and improved! 

Google sites have been updated, and they are great!  (There are some new features.... and a few things I hope they add... ) We are a rapid release domain, so this new feature is available for our users.  You access the new sites here. 

This cheat sheet should help get you started.  (I have also added it to our tech docs in drive.) 

Google Classroom:

7 Hacks for Google Classroom

Google Classroom – Grade the Folder

Google Classroom - A nice Pinterest board with resource links. 

CoolCat Teacher's 100+ Google classroom resources. 

Classroom now lets you plan ahead by scheduling announcements, assignments, and questions to post at a later date or a specific time

Just announced from Google -Coming this fall: keep parents and guardians in the loop

Later this year, we’ll launch email notifications from Classroom for guardians so they can stay involved and help to motivate their students. Guardians will be able to sign-up to receive daily or weekly email digests of their student’s progress, upcoming work and class announcements. Administrators will be able to invite guardians directly and set domain-wide policies for guardian linking and notifications.

IOS Apps:

Thanks to free mobile apps, creating flashcards with students has never been easier. IOS & Android - FREE Flashcards by Dictionary.com looks like a winner. 

Play review games or learning games in your classroom?  Turn your iPad into a game style buzzer with this free app - Game Buzzer Free -Which I had this one when I was still in the classroom. 

Want to create some excitement with projects?  These apps are great for the K-12 classroom! Animate with avatars, pics and more.  This presentation from the ISTE conference will get you started.  It has Chatterpix Kids (Which is awesome for the young kids... and you hear a lot from teachers that love it!) but it also includes a ton of other ones that look great.  Check it out. 

Google’s new Arts & Culture app brings the world’s art, virtual tours and more to your smartphone Experiencing the world’s art just got a little easier, thanks to Google’s newly launched Arts & Culture application which puts works of art from over a thousand museums across 70 countries into the palm of your hand.  

7 Favorite Apps to Use with Book Creator  - Did you know we have licenses for Book creator for use on our iPads?  It's an amazing tool!

This si a great list!  The Explain Everything app is one that we provide free to teachers!  Need a code... drop me an email. 

Eight great apps for chemistry teachers. (IOS and Android)

Android Apps:

Five free Android apps for recording voice notes - Via TechRepublic

Google makes working on mobile easier with new Android Add-ons for Docs & Sheets! 

Tech tips, free apps, free jazz music albums and more in this weeks posting.

A few more house cleaning notes for our Norris Teachers: 

This is a list of our Google Groups in nsdtitans.org with no members.  If you own any of these groups and no longer use them... please delete the group. 

Remember - If you have any files to delete on your Z drive, now is a great time to do it!  I would upload anything you want to Google Drive.  (Teh Z drive is not going away next year, but you never know in the future.)

Still room in the tech classes - So we would love you have you.  (If you are sitting in on the class for non-credit, make sure you let me know so I can plan on you!) 

Web tools and sites:

Got a list of text in the wrong format? Tell Transformy  how you want it and it'll do the rest.

Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Good Ways to Send Text & Push Notifications to Students & Parents - A Handout 

You can give your classroom learning centers or stations a makeover with technology! The collection of activities teachers provide their students at a center can be enhanced with technology, even if there’s only one computer or tablet available. Nice downloadable PDF graphic.

Google Search: 

12 Google Search Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know 

I am now using the Tab key to enhance my Google Searches, here is why -- http://goo.gl/De2jOP 

Google Apps:

4 Tips For Making Professional Looking Google Docs

6 things From Excel That You Didn’t Know You Could Do In Google Sheets

Quick tips for using Google tools in your classroom

Send a link to any student in your classroom running this Chrome Extention via sound. Kind of cool.  (I still recommned using Google Classroom for this, but this is a quick alterative too!) 

6 Futuristic Google Tools That Feel Like Science Fiction

Google Classroom:

Add Multiple Teachers to a Class in Google Classroom

Android Apps:

10 indispensable Android apps for teachers

IOS Apps:

The free iPad app Paper by FiftyThree now includes ThinkKit for creating diagrams and mind maps: 

Stay up to date with all of the new features and additions to Google Apps:

Google Apps updates alerts feed is a nice place to start with the latest updates listed in a short feed.

What's new in Google Apps siteWhat's new in Google Apps site and newsletter -  You can sign up to receive the monthly newsletter here. 

Sign up for the Google Apps for Education newsletter. 

The Google for Education blog has all of the latest announcements concerning

A little free Jazz music:

Google Play Store is offering few Digital MP3 Albums listed below for Free.

Note, must be logged into your Google Account to take advantage of these offers. (You can log into your nsdtitans.org account and grab them, and then log into your personal gmail account to grab them there as well.) 

• Playlist: The Very Best Of Billie Holiday (Digital MP3 Download) Free
• Playlist: The Very Best Of Miles Davis (Digital MP3 Download) Free
• Play: Jazz Pioneers: Various Artists (Digital MP3 Download) Free

Free Apps, web tools, a Samsung 32" LED TV for less than $100... and more... in this weeks tech tips.

Nothing but a great deal:

This 32" Samsung TV is a great deal, especially for a second TV, etc...  It gets great reviews on the web too!  If you have a use for the $125 gift card for other purchases... your final cost is $93! 

Dell Home & Office has a 32" Samsung UN32EH4003FXZA 720p 60Hz LED HDTV + $125 Dell eGift Card (added to cart automatically) on sale for$217.99. Shipping is Free The Dell eGift Card will be sent via email approximately 10-20 days after purchase.

Speaking of deals... look at our last tip on getting Amazon Prime for free! 

Web sites and tools:

30 websites to download free photos: designskilz.com/free-photos/

Actively Learn (activelylearn.com) offers a great, free way for students to interact with reading and the teacher.

5 Good Sites and Apps for Elementary School Language Arts Lessons via Free Technology ...

Great tool for the younger kids to help get them writing! The Write About This app, gets great reviews by teachers. This short 3 minute YouTube video will tell you more.  They have a free version and the paid version unlocks more features.  (Here at Norris... let me know if need the full version!) 

America by Air - An Online Smithsonian Exhibit 

5 Tools for Adding Questions and Notes to Videos:

If you have not tried Canva ... You are missing out.  I have mentioned this one before, but its worth another shout-out! This is an awesome design and drawing tool.  Add it to your tech tool belt along with Lucid Press and Lucid Charts... and you are all set! 

Make Marvelous Movies — Via Learning in Hand. Some nice Apps, tools, advice and more. 

Lucid Press - An amazing free tool for education! 

Work with students doing resumes and portfolios? This blog post will teach you how to make digital resumes and portfolios with Lucidpress.

Whether you’re a student, teacher, or working professional, you might be assigned to give a presentation. You can make an online presentation with Lucid Press too.  This article will show you how.

Google Apps - Tips, Tricks, Apps, and more...

Free Technology for Teachers: Create a Word Cloud Within Your Google Documents

Schedule appointments easily with a little help from Google Forms & the Choice Eliminator add-on - This 3 minute YouTube will walk you through how to set this up. <--- This is cool!

Are you using Google Classroom yet?  My Google Classroom -Tips and Tricks Doc will help you get started. This doc also includes a tip on how to get text messages based on emails. This is a great way for students to get text messages based on classroom announcements. 

Create your own Docs story, with Google Story Builder.  Great intro to presentations and lessons.  Check out my own short story here: http://goo.gl/yDJ6G0

New Google Chrome extension launches your own apps from Google Drive, not Google's. (This is an Amazing app!  But the key is that you have to have the Google Drive Syncing program installed...as noted in the article.) 

• Here at our school (Norris)... if you install the Google Drive Sync tool, do not place the folder on your desktop or Z drive, place it on the local C drive.) 

The Google for Education November 2014 Newsletter can be found here. (If you are not subscribed, I would recommend it!)  Sign up here! 

Have you not done much with Google Apps yet? This free online class may help get you jump started! 

Google Basics for Teaching This self-paced, online course is intended for anyone - of any technical skill level - hoping to use Google's educational tools in the classroom. Through videos, use-cases, and examples you'll get ideas about how to bring Google for Education (including Google Apps for Education with classroom, Google Maps and more) into your teaching.

The course is available from November 18 - December 19, 2014 with support from Google Certified Teachers, peers, and content experts.

IOS Apps and tips:

Lapse It Pro • Time Lapse & Stop Motion Camera • Professional HD

By Interactive Universe FREE TODAY - 11-4-14 <---

New Features Added to Google Drive for iOS 8 - Nov. 2014

The 55 Best Free Education Apps For iPad 

Chrome tips and tricks:

The Secret Powers of Chrome's Address Bar 

Android items:

Best Free Android Apps: Google Opinion Rewards gets you free apps and Google Play credits.

Amazon Prime for Free! 

Great tip from our very own Josh Murtaugh: 

Get Amazon Prime free for 6 months free with edu account. Note: Many teachers have EDU accounts through Doane, UNL, and other post-secondary institutions, so you can take advantage of this offer. 

Some Apps, sites and tools for the week! (Nice Scanner app for the iPad is free today!

Web sites and tools: 

Daum Equation Editor is a Chrome Extension that adds an equation editor into Chrome. 

Free Technology for Teachers: Three Good Tools for Building Flipped Lessons That Include Assessment Tools

From Kyle Steinkuhler (@KSteink) 

Beginning projects on Native Americans with students, just showed them instagrok.com/index.html A great resource! (Research any topic with an interactive concept map, that you can customize and share.)

I have been promoting Remind lately... and here is another tip: Video - How to Embed Remind (101) Messages Into Blogger and Google Sites - Short 5 minute YouTube. 

IOS Apps, tips and tricks:

iOS 8 Tips and Tricks for Teachers and Students - A nice 10 minute YouTube by Tony Vincent.  I would subscribe to his YouTube channel. 

A couple free eBooks with iPad apps.  These are in ePub format, so this site, also recommends a nice Chrome extension Readium for reading ePub format eBooks. (At Norris, I have placed them eBooks on the N drive under our eBooks folder.) 

CamScanner HD Pro for the iPad is free today 10-23-14. (Reg. $4.99) http://goo.gl/ttBU8e  nice scanning app!

Android Apps and tips:

Two Free Android Apps for Creating Flipped Lesson Videos 

Google Apps and Tools:

gMath for Google Sheets is worth checking out. Create graphs and complex math directly from the sidebar into a cell in your Google Sheet. 

Do your research and write your essay all in one place with these 3 easy steps. Using the Google research tool 

New feature - Google+ polls lets you create a poll to share with your Community: ly.tcea.org/gfhju

A Step By Step Guide on How to Locate and Add Add-ons to Your Google Drive ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

Google Docs handles numbered lists in an automatic way that can mess with MLA formatting... and drive you crazy when you do not want that automatic numbering. Here is a video on how to work around this: http://youtu.be/8F-p6AGhhe4

Manage Revisions is finally available in the New Google Drive -a nice 2 minute YouTube. Manage Revisions was available in the previous version of Google Drive, but it just now made its way to the new Drive. This is great for those of you working with images Office files, as well as PDFs and much more!

If you have not switched to the new Google Drive - Learn more in this 2 minute YouTube.  

Infographics:

 5 Great Online Tools for Creating Infographics: 

10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics

Some people include Lucid Charts in the infographic tools.  (We have that one added to Google Apps in our domain.) 

A twist on clickers:

Don't have clickers... but would like to check out this tip from out very own Becky Wilhelm:

I just tried out Plickers with one of my classes. I had a lot of doubts on how well this app would work, and I was pleasantly surprised. It worked great! Even better for me, it can be used with large classes and kids don't need devices. It was easy to set up (but some trial and error was necessary because they don't have very good directions). This is slick and I will definitely use it again. If you have a teacher that wants to use clickers but do not have them, I would suggest you check Plickers out.

Socrative is another great choice for "clicker" use. 

Mobile voice survey reveals teens love to talk... but adults are not too far away: Google blog Article (Graphic Below from this article.)

ree apps, Google tools, web tools and more in this weeks list! Including one free app (Reg $30).

Web tools and sites:

Free stock image sites for your website, classroom, posters & more. http://goo.gl/4zFiMU 

The ‘Google For Online Courses’ Exists And It’s Called SlideRule - Find a ton of online classes (Many free) using this great tool.  It includes nice sorting features and reviews too. 

A nice resource for the K-6 teachers... A great daily list of free IOS (iPhone/iPad) apps, free Kindle books, and more... by the iMums. (I subscribe to their daily email.)

30-Second Tech Trick: Write Better Papers with Google Scholar (A little bit of humor with this one too,)

20 Google tools teachers should try (and how to use them in classrooms) Interesting list - A few surprises that I would not have picked. 

A Comparison of 11 Mobile Video Creation Apps 

Plinkers.com - Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. Tailor instruction with instant feedback -- Use Plickers for quick checks for understanding to know whether your students are understanding big concepts and mastering key skills. It's a sin on clickers that's worth checking out! 

An Interactive Map of George Washington's Life via Free Technology for Teachers - MountVernon.org 

For the younger kids -- My Storybook lets students create simple books with their own text and pictures: mystorybook.com

Great for the homeowner... if you do not have a ChromeCast ($35) here is one more reason to get one... Chromebooks now support Chromecast streaming for Google Drive videos. 

I have mentioned this one in the past... and ran across it on a great Twitter feed again this week... This word cloud generator will work on almost every device: http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm

Create Screencasts with these great tools: 

Screencast-O-Matic - A Great Tool for Creating Screencast Videos

Make screencast videos with Screencastify extention for Chrome: 

This tip comes from our very own Janelle Coady - 

Screencast lets you download the clips, but it is even easier to just upload to YouTube and link to it online. Easy to use... give it a try.  Here is a sub plan that she created using this great tool! 

Gooru:

If you have not looked at Gooru... now may be the time!

Gooru for iPad Updated to Include Progress Reports. Gooru is a service for creating and sharing collections of educational videos, images, and texts. Go to Gooru, and click the signup button and signup with your Google Account. 

Lucid Press:

If are not using LucidPress ... You are missing out.  It's better than Publisher, and is all web based and free for EDU. Here at Norris it's built right into our Google Apps. 

Richard Byrne (@rmbyrneRichard Byrne (@rmbyrne) - Agrees with me!

The Best of Apple's Pages With the Best of Google Documents - Check out his article hereThe Best of Apple's Pages With the Best of Google Documents - Check out his article here.

Google Apps: - Google Apps for Education has over 30 million active users around the world!

Turn a Set of Spreadsheet Cells Into Easy to Read Documents with this Spreadsheet add-in.  This short video shows you how. (This was featured in an email Janelle Cody sent out earlier this week to staff.) 

How to Enable Text Notifications for Your Google Calendar Events via Free Technology for Teachers ...  This is a great thing for students to do with your class calendar! 

Short video tutorial on how to add descriptions to Google Docs for better Drive search:ly.tcea.org/wvyvh

2nd graders can use Google Classroom!  From another district... 2nd graders into Google Classroom today. pic.twitter.com/moa9mSLWsQ

Sharing has changed in Google Docs.  Here is a short 2 minute videoSharing has changed in Google Docs.  Here is a short 2 minute video about this changed feature. 

New! ThingLink & Google Docs Integration | Via... ThingLink Blog. Great example of ThingLink embedded in our very own Matt Rosenau's website - Colonial Village Project

6 little-known Google tools you should try today - Via the Daily Genius There are several gems in this one!

New handy feature: automatically create bulleted or numbered lists in Docs, Slides, and Drawings. More at: goo.gl/aQhxeA

10 Excellent Google Drive Templates for Teachers (The link in this article takes you directly to Drive's templates... but I like having the Drive Templates Appfor Teachers (The link in this article takes you directly to Drive's templates... but I like having the Drive Templates App installed too.)

Tip:Tip: Use revision history in Drive to make sure all of your students are participating in group projects.

How to Create Custom Maps on My Maps (Formerly Google Maps Engine Lite) - (I have used this one for vacation-trip planning too!) 

Amazing... I did not know you could do this in Google Presentations: The days of dry slideshows are over. Get creative with dynamic Google Slides and get your students talking.  youtu.be/bt9F7tKcZcU  (This would take some time! ... but cool.) 

Google Classroom -Google Classroom - More on this great product!

Doctopus + Classroom + Goobric = One awesome combination. This 10 minute YouTube = One awesome combination. This 10 minute YouTube will show you how.  Just watch it!

Google Classroom tutorial playlist - Nice set of YouTube videos to get you going with this great Classroom resource.

Google Classroom resources: Nice set of resources in this LiveBinder.

Edmodo:

How to Add Free Apps to Your Edmodo Group.  Edmodo is an awesome LMS system that's free for teachers. 

Android Apps:

Android 4 Schools» Peter Pig’s Money Counter Helps Students Learn About Money

IOS Apps and Tips:

Saving Images with Google+ on Shared iPads - a unique idea

Vizzywig - Video Editor Movie Maker and Multi-Camera Film Edit Effects Slideshow Music Editing Credits App - Free Today (9-14-14)  <--- Normally $29.99

iTunes U:

If you have an iPad... many people do not realize all of the free content, classes, books and more that are availble!  Here's one... 

Learn the core concepts of organic chemistry from @DukeU. tw.itunes.com/6010oV9I

Here's Harvard on iTunesU

1000 Free Online Courses from Top Universities - Just a list to peak your interest.