Happy 2016!

Welcome back! 

Christmas break is over and the new year is here. As you are preparing your students for 1st semester exams most of you are also planning for 2nd semester. So... any edtech resolutions? Planning to try something new or just continue progress toward making your classroom more collaborative, engaging and interactive? Below I've listed two recent updates to popular tools and one new iOS app that may spark some new creative classroom lesson plan ideas.
Share your ideas or new tools, apps, edtech finds in the comment area!

1. Send EdPuzzle Lessons to Google Classroom: Free Technology for Teachers blog has a video tutorial to walk you through how to do this.
Are you an Google Classroom user? Do you also use EdPuzzle to assign and assess student learning using various videos? Well now you can send your EdPuzzle lessons to Google Classroom and keep everything in one place for your students. Richard Byrne, author of the

2. Start a Google Doc, Slide or Sheet from a Template on the iPad:

What??? Previously this wasn't possible on iPads but in December this feature was added. Within the appropriate app (Docs, Slides or Sheets NOT in the Drive app) tap the red + sign in the lower right corner and you now get an option to Choose Template along with New Document. You can choose various templates designed for the app type such as brochures (yup!), essays, etc. in Docs. Budget or grade books, etc. in Sheets and various slide presentations in Slides. Also fairly new in Docs and Slides is the ability to add images, shapes/lines, and tables. Yeah Google!

3. Create a meme using Adobe Post:

Adobe Post is a new iOS app (it's designed for iPhone but still works well on the iPad) that allows the user to use photos from their library, take a new photo or choose from free online photos.
They can then design their meme by adding text in various styles, changing the color palette, etc. Students can then share their finished photo. Sharing options include saving to Google Drive and Google Classroom. Students could demonstrate their understanding of a particular concept using just one photo and a few well chosen words, design a meme for a character in a book or show how they are feeling about their learning that day!