Category: Technology

Tech Training Outside of Content

Our district is distributing 13,000 iPads in the next 24 months. We have ~1,300 staff who need to be trained on instructional methods with technolo... Read more

Desmos in Science

I’ve wanted to try the Desmos activity builder for a long time, so I finally did. We were finishing up the nervous system, so I grabbed a graph of ... Read more

Privacy Concerns are Just Beginning

Bill Fitzgerald already wrote an analysis of what can happen now that Congress has essentially erased privacy rules governing how Internet Service ... Read more

Review Questions with Spreadsheets

I wanted to use a new method of reviewing with students as we wrap up our cell activity unit. I’ve been working with my students on forming questio... Read more

Building a Custom Registration Form with Google Apps

One of the main responsibilities my team has is offering and running training on a number of resources teachers in the district have access to. The... Read more

Developing on a Chromebook

I do some (really) amateur web development when I get a chance to. I enjoy building things that make life easier for me, and others, using the Inte... Read more

Random sort a Google Sheet easily

I was working on student grades in a Google Sheet last night and I needed an easy way to randomly sort students so I could show some score adjustme... Read more

Networking, IndieWeb, and Finding a Place to Put Stuff

I feel like I’m on a social networking pilgrimage. I left Facebook two years ago and haven’t looked back. (Well, technically, like Alan Levine, I’m... Read more

Link Two Google Docs for Translating

An interesting Stack Overflow question popped up about auto-translating one document into another when edits are made. Most Google services have th... Read more

Looking for Help with Canvas LMS

We’re using Canvas this year in our district and I’m trying to figure out how to actively (and successfully) utilize the Learning Mastery gradebook... Read more

Displaying Aggregate Data in Google Sheets

Our students are required to have their student ID on when they come into the building each day. This is mainly for security, but their ID also all... Read more

Old Post Revisit – The New Education Economy of “Free”

This is a new post format I’m going to try out from time to time. I don’t remember where I saw the original idea, but that person suggested going b... Read more

More on Licensing Culture and Owning What You Pay For

I was talking with our school librarian today about why we don’t offer ebooks for students to check out. It came up because I grabbed a real, hardc... Read more

Push Announcements With a Chrome Extension

Patrick Donovan put out a tweet the other day with a screenshot to a Chrome extension he had just put together. It caught my attention and led to t... Read more

Registering Help Requests in Trello from Google Sheets

I’m on a new team with the school district (I don’t think I’ve written about that change yet…). I’m teaching one section of AP Biology and working ... Read more

Commenting on Periscope in a Blog Post

A week or two back, Lisa Dabbs, known for starting and moderating #ntchat wrote a post (a second post, actually) on why new teachers should use Per... Read more

Another Free App is Closing

News came down this week that [Zaption](http://www.zaption.com), a popular web app that layers quiz question and other interactive features on top ... Read more

Recognizing Devaluation in EdTech and Teaching

ISTE 2016 is in full swing and right on cue, my hype-o-meter tolerance has dropped significantly. A huge concentration of edtech vendors and Twitte... Read more

Using the Hypothes.is API in a Google Apps Script

I’ve started using the [Hypothes.is](http://hypothes.is) annotation tool more lately, mostly at the behest of [Kris Shaffer](http://www.twitter.com... Read more

The Education Freeconomy Gobbles Up Another

Free in education is a big deal. Don’t bother mentioning paid apps in front of teachers because you’ll lose the group. Last year, we saw [Geddit](h... Read more

Expanding the SBG Tracking Gradebook

I mentioned Evan Weingberg’s standards-based tracking system in a short snippet a couple weeks back. I want to expand on that thought a little bit.... Read more

My Favorite Video Tool

I’ve done a ton of labs with students this month. We’re learning about waves and there are some fun demos and experiments you can use to illustrate... Read more

Running WordPress Without Jetpack and Why That Matters

I gave up using Jetpack a while ago on my blog because I couldn’t control where it sent information. I wish it was more modular in nature because i... Read more

Quickly Format Articles for Annotations

We’re working very hard with students on annotating articles in preparation for the new state test sections. The goal is to help them find pertinen... Read more

An Easier Way to Get Plain Text

Our school is moving to more active use of Lexile scores for reading selections. The Lexile website has a nice analytic tool which allows you to up... Read more

My Robot Will Fight Your Robot

Spam on Twitter feels like an all-time high right now. Twitter itself is woefully horrible at taking reports of abuse and spamming and all a user c... Read more

Quickly Make Bulletin Board Words

Marc Seigel is always doing great things in his classroom and he tweeted out a great picture of a bulletin board that now lives at the front of his... Read more

QR Codes Everywhere

In my continuing effort to make things more available for students, I’ve started rearranging my Google Drive files. I’ve realized that thinking of ... Read more

Thinking Smarter

I want to think smarter. I don’t want to know more facts or spout more trivia. I don’t want to just work smarter, either. I want to actually think ... Read more

Think Before You Periscope

Bill Fitzgerald is someone you should follow on Twitter if you need help interpreting Terms of Service or Privacy Policies. He pays real close atte... Read more

Google Sheets Student Response System

Part two of a post from the other day. First, head over to the master spreadsheet and make a copy. What Now? It's important to note that this works... Read more

Making Endnotes from Footnotes

**Update 12.22.2016** Since this has become quite a popular script, I’ve converted it into a Google Docs Add On so it can be used across documents.... Read more

Transparency Matters

Some backstory. A month ago I wrote about Geddit going out of business this summer. I mentioned another response-system app, Kahoot!, which has exp... Read more

Creating docs with Python

Another extension to what I wrote last night, mainly for my own purposes so I don’t forget what I did or where I put scripts. bash is great, but it... Read more

Making Sub Plans Easier

I hate missing school. It’s stressful. I have to do multiple days worth of planning ahead of time, plus know what’s happening the day I get back. T... Read more

Get in touch

Comments are always open. You can get in touch by sending me an email at brian@ohheybrian.com