Email is often decried as a waning, outdated form of communication. However, it shows no signs of leaving us anytime soon. Why? Email remains an important part of most people’s workflows. It’s predictable, manageable, and if you subscribe to the right sources, it can also be a valuable place for new learning. To that end, I decided to create my own email newsletter. Here’s the scoop.
Continue reading Introducing: The Tech Nuggets Newsletter
Most people spend the majority of their time working in a browser. However, if you want to be productive, you need to be able to master your tabs. In this post, I will show you some Chrome tab management tips and tricks that you can use to become faster and more efficient when working online.
Continue reading The Ultimate Guide to Chrome Tab Management
Workflowy is one of those apps that I tried years ago, but I never quite connected with it. At the time, I just couldn’t get my brain around how I might use it. In some ways, I still feel the same way, but I am a lot more comfortable with it than I used to be and it has become one of my favorite new tools for planning and note-taking. In this post, I am going to give you a rundown of what the Workflowy app is and how I’m using it to stay productive.
Continue reading The Workflowy App is Wonderful!
Online privacy is increasingly a rare thing. However, that’s not to say there are not some steps you can take back some control over how much of your personal data is being collected by the online services we like to use. Search engines are a prime example. Google is the number one search engine in the world, but most people know that their business model is focused on collecting your search data so that it can better serve ads to you. Private search engines don’t work that way. In fact, they go out of their way to make sure that your internet searches are not recorded or seen by others. Here are three of the best.
Continue reading 3 Private Search Engines for More Privacy Online
Google Chrome may well be the browser of choice for the majority of internet users, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t without its problems. Privacy concerns and performance issues are most often at the top of that list. Google will happily collect your personal information to sell you personalized ads, and it does it with a browser that is known for being a resource hog. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can get the same Chrome experience from Chromium-based browsers like Brave, Edge, or Vivaldi. They give you better battery life and more control over your privacy without sacrificing the Chrome features you love.
CommonLit and ReadWorks are two of my go-to resources for teachers who are looking for digital reading materials for their classrooms. Both are completely free to use and both are designed to help elevate reading skills in students of all ages. Recently, CommonLit got even more compelling when it launched CommonLit 360, a comprehensive and free curriculum for secondary English Language Arts teachers. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s what you are missing out on.
Continue reading Introducing CommonLit 360: Free Curriculum for English Language Arts
One of the biggest things that keep people coming back to Canva is the templates. They have templates for every occasion. However, as more and more templates are added to the collection, it can be hard to uncover the gems that are really going to make your day. In this post, I am going to round up some of the best Canva templates that you might not have heard of before. As a Canva for Education customer, they are free and easy to personalize so that you can make them your own.
Continue reading 7 Canva Templates You Might Not Know About
With education budgets being stretched further than ever, the pressure on schools to provide the necessary resources for teachers and students is never ending. Thankfully, there are a number of benevolent edtech companies that have created free premium plans for schools. These plans frequently include features that their business customers have to pay for. To help draw attention to these generous companies, I decided to write about seven of the best free education accounts that you can sign up for. Some of these services are just for teachers, but others include student accounts too, so make sure you read the fine print and see what you qualify for.
Continue reading 7 Free Premium Accounts for Teachers
In November, 2016, Google launched a brand new version of Google Sites. It featured a simple drag and drop interface and responsive designs that were better suited for the modern web. Today, almost five years later, some of those classic Google Sites still exist. They have still to be converted to the “new” versions of Google Sites, and sometimes with good reason. If you find yourself in that boat, your time is almost up. Google has extended the deadline more than once, but when September 1, 2021 rolls around, your classic Google Site will cease to exist. Here’s what you need to know.
Continue reading It’s Time to Convert Your Old Google Sites
We all have our pet peeves. Things that we wish were different, but things that are unlikely to change any time soon. Towards the top of my list are tabs, or more specifically, those who use tabs as a to do list. Don’t get me wrong, I like tabs as much as the next person. I will often have 8-10 tabs open at one time as I navigate my way between multiple sites for the projects I am working on. However, my tabs are not my to-do list. They might be related to things I need to get done, but I close all my open tabs at the end of the day, and you can too. Here’s how.
Continue reading Your Tabs Are Not Your To Do List