Dinosaster

Culture Street, who creates numerous online activities for education, has created a game about Dinosaur extinction called Dinosaster. The object of the game is to gather all the dinosaur bones, and with each bone collected, a card is revealed about why the dinosaurs became extinct. Read a full review with lesson plans on Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers.

WriteReader App

WriteReader is an App allowing young learners to develop literacy skills. It basically teaches them how to read by creating their own books through the App. Here's a full review from Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers.

Classroom blogs

If you're wanting to setup a classroom blog, here are a few mistakes many teachers make when creating one (this list is according to Richard Byrne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers):

1. Making it optional -- few students will do it if it's optional and parents won't buy in
2. Inconsistency -- start small, like one post a week, and be consistent with the expectations
3. Lack of purpose -- have a reasons for your students to blog (example: weekly learning reflections)
4. Running before walking -- set realistic blogging goals for your students like once a week
5. Creating too many blogs too soon

 Anything you would add to this list?

FREE Google Apps webinar (3/31)

Richard Byrne and SimpleK12 are hosting a FREE webinar on the ways to use Google Apps in your classroom. The webinar starts at 11am MST and ends at 3pm MST on March 31st. Also, they will keep the webinar available for register attendees for an extra 2 weeks after the live viewing. Even if you can't attend, sign up and view it at your convenience! Register HERE and read more about it on Richard Byrne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers.

Google Chrome tips

Educational Technology & Mobile Learning posted some helpful tips for working with the Google Chrome web browser. They include a helpful lists of extensions to make using the browser a little more user friendly. Also, they have embedded videos showing users how to translate web pages, work in "incognito" mode, use Chrome on other devices, spot malware, change your settings, and keep the browser updated.

Google Extensions

Another Google post! I love using Google extensions with my Google Chrome web browser. Mainly because I use Google Drive religiously, but I also appreciate all the extensions for web browsers. TeachThought created a list of their favorite Google Extensions for teachers. A few of my favorite extensions are:

1) Google Drive -- allows you to transfer web pages to your Google Drive & turn them into Google Docs (or images, HTML format)

2) CleanPrint -- allows you to remove all the unnecessary ads, images, or content from a web page when printing.

3) Save as PDF --allows users to turn web pages into PDF files.

4) Evernote Web Clipper -- allows users to transfer any web page into a document, bookmark, or screenshot into a notebook on your Evernote account (great for saving ideas)

Google Tools

Edudemic released a post about Google Tools available for teachers. Whether you're creating a Google Hangout, Google Sites, or a specialized Google search engine, Google provides outstanding tools for teachers to use. Also, within our district, students have Google accounts so they can take full advantage of all these excellent tools.