Amy Mayer

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Amazing Veteran Teacher Shares Her Best Secret for Classroom Management, and You Can Execute it TODAY

By Amy Mayer / September 1, 2023

Dear Teachers, This is Amy, CEO and founder of friEdTech, and I have a story for you that you will not want to miss. I wish I could call every one of you and tell you individually, but since that’s not practical, I’ll tell it here on this blog. It started when I read a…

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Pam's Tribute

Tribute to Our Friend and Colleague, @EdTechThatWorks Pam Cadwalder

By Amy Mayer / April 19, 2022

Pam Cadwalder, @EdTechThatWorks It’s rare that someone in this small world we call “ed tech” exits too soon and not of their own choosing, but unfortunately, this week, we will say goodbye to our friend and colleague Pam Cadwalder, who left us too soon. Her life was cut short by a wrong-way driver. I’d like…

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The Top 4 Ways to Get Students Writing

By Amy Mayer / April 13, 2021

As a former English teacher and lifetime lover of education technology, I’ve thought a LOT about student writing with technology. I am also always interested in ways to motivate students to do what we all know is best for their learning in sneaky ways, kind of like when you hide the broccoli inside the cookies.…

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Jefferson Parish Public Schools logo on map

Jefferson Parish’s Online Transition Plan with Google Tools

By Amy Mayer / April 2, 2020

Our company has worked alongside Jefferson Parish Public Schools, the largest school district in Louisiana, located in New Orleans and surrounding areas, with approximately 50,000 students, for over a year now, and we were proud they thought of us when they wondered how to get teachers working online quickly during the crisis. Kamala Baker, Director…

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Illustration of head with headphones

Start Webinars with Music

By Amy Mayer / March 26, 2020

We’ve been playing some tunes for our webinar participants this week while we were waiting for start time. This has had the unintended yet desirable consequence of allowing our participants to make sure they are hearing sound from their computer as well, and we’ve been asked about a hundred times, “How did you do that?”…

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Virtual Online Teaching: Crash Course

By Amy Mayer / March 16, 2020

In 2019, schools all over the nation and world found themselves moving to online learning, and we’re hearing from teachers that there is a knowledge gap that needs filling immediately. For this reason, the friEdTech team recorded a series of free webinars focusing on the top questions we’ve been asked as the pandemic started. Please…

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Top 5 Ways to Provide Meaningful Feedback for Students

By Amy Mayer / November 13, 2019

Providing immediate, meaningful feedback to students has been a challenge for teachers as long as education has existed. The story goes something like this: If a teacher spends ten minutes “marking” a paper, the student will spend ten seconds looking at and taking in the information. There are few arguments to the contrary . .…

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Emojis on keyboard

Type with Emojis on your Mac, PC or Chromebook

By Amy Mayer / May 27, 2019

It’s true! You can type in everyone’s newest favorite language—emojis—on your Mac or PC laptop, and it’s SUPER easy! Emojis are a crucial way that young people interpret and share emotions in the digital age. So while they are certainly fun and cute, there are other beneficial reasons to use them in your communication with…

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Question word cloud

Encore for the Mighty Question Slip

By Amy Mayer / August 27, 2018

We first introduced the Question Slip in 2011. When I learned about the technique from a Canadian conference presenter (if anyone knows who, please let me know! I can’t recall), I quickly found that more than any other simple technique it transformed my students into self-motivated learners. One idea to make sure Question Slips become…

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