Are your students ready to dive into the wonders of science through engaging, interactive activities? Look no further than The Concord Consortium – an awesome collection of free, scientifically accurate models and activities tailored for every grade level and subject area!

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Shanna Martin: 00:00:19

Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers

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podcast, where each week we talk about

a free piece or two of technology

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that you can use in your classroom.

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I'm your host, Shanna Martin.

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I'm a middle school teacher and technology

instructional coach for my district.

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Fuzz Martin: And I am her

producer and husband Fuzz Martin.

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And I bring the beakers to

your speakers this week.

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I was like, tools,

teachers, podcasts, science.

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Shanna Martin: Wow.

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That was special.

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Fuzz Martin: Thank you.

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Most of the time they are pretty special.

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Shanna Martin: They are.

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Oh my goodness.

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So, so many things.

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We're at episode 182.

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The school year is like, we're there.

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Yeah.

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Like, we're not there.

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Fuzz Martin: But we're getting there.

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But we're

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Shanna Martin: getting there.

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Fuzz Martin: Pretty close.

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Shanna Martin: Yeah.

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Are

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Fuzz Martin: we there yet?

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I think that's more likely

the question right now.

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Are we there yet?

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Are

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Shanna Martin: we there yet?

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Are we there yet?

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Are we there yet?

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So many field trips happening.

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There's just so many things.

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So, so I, I'm saying so

like a thousand times,

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Fuzz Martin: it's weird.

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Shanna Martin: So there's one of our

science teachers at my school recommended

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the site and use it all the time.

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And I noticed it in her classroom.

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And I was like, What

is that on your board?

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That looks really cool.

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And she's like, it's this really

cool free resource to use.

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I'm like, Ooh, free resource.

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Tell me more.

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And so it's cool.

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So the whole thing is based on the Concord

consortium is like collected all of

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these cool STEM and science resources.

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As a teacher, everything

is offered for free.

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It's free.

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It is so cool.

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So you sign and you register as a

teacher and you say, I'm a teacher.

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And then you just have to put in

there, where you're from, like, it'll

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ask you, like what school you're from

and district and things like that.

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You have to like be a part of a district

or have a connection to a school.

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And then once you do, you're Everything

is available to you and you can create a,

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you can create the classrooms where you'll

load your students in and then you choose

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the curriculum that you want to teach.

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And there's so many cool

collections and resources.

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So the teacher that I work with

uses it for her genetics unit

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and they have all these different

videos and interactives with kids.

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And what's great is kids can work

through the different pieces.

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And it tracks what they've

done and how they've answered

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the questions and grades it.

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So they earn like gems, and then like

this kid, if they earn like four gems,

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it means that they got so many right.

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So they can work independently, and

you can teach it, like it's a whole

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curriculum, so you can teach it as a

teacher, and then there's all these

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different supplements that go with it.

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And they're all digital and the kids

just pulled up on their Chromebooks.

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So you can do like the video in class

together and have the discussion and

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go through the directions, like we're

going through our stuff on their own.

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Fuzz Martin: It's gamified,

which just makes it, it's just,

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Shanna Martin: it's so cool.

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So, and it, there's just so many

topics from boreal forest fires

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to, like earth science resources to

evolution, to genetics, to hurricanes,

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to, you know, To precipitation

to, I can't even the tech rocks.

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They talk about like the rocks

and waters and, wildfire impacts.

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So you can choose like a collection.

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So I just picked wildfire risk and impact.

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It'll tell you like, you can

choose the five, eight, or it goes

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from like five, eight, nine, 12,

choose the unit lasts about a week.

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Then you can run the teacher edition,

which will show you like all the different

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pieces that the teacher is available.

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So as a teacher, I can pull up the

lesson, like feeling hot, hot, hot.

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There's an introduction that goes with it.

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There's like slides and

information that goes with it.

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There's an activity that goes with

it and video that you show the

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kids gives teacher tips in there.

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It'll say like, watch the video, it'll

give you the questions, and then gives

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you an exemplar, so you can see like,

this is what we're looking for when

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the kids are answering questions.

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And as a teacher, you can use

all of it, or you can use pieces

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of it, and you can apply what's

appropriate for your students.

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This thing goes to like the his

wildfire history in the United States.

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Again, there's questions that prompt it.

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There's then, the images that

go with it, with the slides.

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Like there's just so many different pieces

that you can, again, pick and choose

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what you want to show in your classroom.

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Then there's an activity that

you can share with your students.

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And then you get a summary of the week.

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So like, these are all

the different pieces.

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These are all the different questions.

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This is what kids have worked through.

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This is what's happening.

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There's just.

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So much that it offers,

you can choose that.

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And there's like a classroom dashboard.

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So you can keep track of like, who's

doing what and what's happening.

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And there's just so many different ways

that you can build these pieces into the

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classroom based on these cool, like very

relevant science topics, which is awesome.

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They also have.

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Different guides to help you out.

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So it's like additional information

and then they have modules so you

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can, like, there's a pre test and

there's a post test and you can assign

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or you can see the teacher edition.

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You can print it.

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There's just, oh, like unit after

unit created for you as a teacher with

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all kinds of really cool resources.

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And options for students to have access

to, and as a teacher to build it from.

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Yeah, it's really cool.

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Fuzz Martin: Good, cool.

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Shanna Martin: You're like, okay.

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Fuzz Martin: I can't see most of it.

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Shanna Martin: I know.

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Because you have to be a teacher to be

as cool as all the other teachers are.

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So for an example, like if I am

in the middle of, Earth and space.

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You can also search by activity.

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So you can do like an air pollution model.

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You can do seismic hazards, risk.

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You can do assessing volcanic hazards.

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You can do, how do we

feed a growing population?

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And then again, it'll give you

the assignments to go with it.

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So like you can choose by collection,

you can choose by topic you can choose

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by all of these different things.

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And it's just a really

cool resource for teachers

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Fuzz Martin: and it's free

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Shanna Martin: and it's free

like everything is free about it.

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Fuzz Martin: That's great.

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Shanna Martin: Yeah,

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Fuzz Martin: How do they

make this all so free?

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Shanna Martin: It's a great

question They love teachers.

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Obviously.

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Yeah, I should point out the website.

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It is a learn le ar n.

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con cord C o n c o r d that or G So learn.

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concord.

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org.

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Fuzz Martin: So, Concord is

a non profit organization.

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They're based in Concord, Massachusetts.

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Hence, Concord.

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Shanna Martin: I wonder

if they have grapes.

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Fuzz Martin: I wonder if they have grapes.

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If you tuned in to the last episode,

you'd know that grapes are a fruit.

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But their, their work is to help bring

technology, into reality for education

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in science, math, and engineering.

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And so I'm guessing that all these,

this is just, is a part of their

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mission is providing this kind of

content to help support STEM education.

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Shanna Martin: Right.

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And it's awesome.

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Like, it's just not one or two resources.

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It is a ginormous collection and super

helpful for teachers across the board,

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with all kinds of supports, put it in

resources and questions and again, just

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an amazing amount of information for

teachers to use and share as they need to.

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So it's very cool.

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And I'm so glad that she pointed

out to me because, cause it's all

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aligned with NGSS, which is always

the biggest piece too, which is the

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science standards and the practices.

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And it's all aligned.

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So you know exactly what standards

would go with what lesson

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and how to find all that too.

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So I'm so glad.

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That it was shared with me

because it's a very cool resource

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and very helpful for many.

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So you should check it out,

whether you're a science teacher,

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math teacher, STEM teacher.

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I think that there's a ton of

resources for so many people out there.

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Fuzz Martin: Very good.

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Learn.

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concord.

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org

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Shanna Martin: Yes.

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So cool.

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Yeah, I love a good resource.

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Fuzz Martin: There we go.

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Shanna Martin: So thanks for tuning in.

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This has been the tech

tools for teachers podcast.

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If you ever have any questions, you

can find me on the app formerly known

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as Twitter at smartinwi or threads.

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And if you want to get more information

on the links to the technology and discuss

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this episode, you can visit smartinwi.com.

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If you'd like to support the show, please

consider buying me a coffee or two.

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Visit buymeacoffee.com/smartinwi

Or visit smartinwi.Com and click on

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that cute little purple coffee cup.

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Your donations help keep the show going.

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New episodes each week.

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Thanks for listening.

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Go educate and innovate.

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Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions

expressed in this podcast in the

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smartinwi website are those of the author,

Shanna Martin, and not of her employer.

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Prior to using any of the technologies

discussed on this podcast, please

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consult with your employer regulations.

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This podcast offers absolutely no

guarantee that these tools will work for

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you as described, but we hope they do.

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That's why we do this show and we'll

talk to you next time, right here on

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the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.