Control Alt Achieve: EdTech Links

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup
🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

This week I have 4 resources from around the Internet and 3 resources from my blog.

🎃 Googley Halloween Activities

Resource Link

It is officially Fall, so it is time once again to share my Halloween-themed educational activities with Google tools including:

🎃 Build a Jack-O-Lantern with Google Slides
👻 Halloween Rebus Stories with Emojis and Google Docs
🦇 Halloween Drag and Drop Poetry with Google Drawings
🍬 Skittles and Google Sheets Math Activities

Check out my blog post to get your own free copies of the templates, as well as detailed directions for each project. If you do any of these activities I would love to hear how they go and see some of your students' creations.

💬 Recorded Webinar - Promptcraft: Building a Better AI Prompt

Resource Link

I recently recorded a webinar about creating better AI prompts. If you were unable to join us for the live stream, you can now access the recording of the webinar, as well as all of the resources from the session, at the link above. In this session we explored:

🏆 Top 10 tips for writing better prompts
💡 100's of examples of excellent ready-to-use prompts
🛠️ Tools to help you build the best prompts for your needs

🍳 Upcoming Webinar - Your Brain on AI: Moving from Crutch to Catalyst

Resource Link

I am excited to be presenting a free webinar titled "Your Brain on AI: Moving from Crutch to Catalyst". When students use AI, are they learning or just offloading? As beneficial as AI can be, overreliance on it can hurt thinking skills, creativity, and understanding. How do we avoid this?

In this session we explore the 'Wrestle, Rap, Reflect' framework, a powerful, practical solution that keeps the human in the loop by requiring learners to engage their own brains before and after the AI interaction.

🗓️ Thursday, October 8th, 2026
⏰ 3pm ET / 2pm CT / 1pm MT / Noon PT
▶️ The webinar will be live-streamed and also recorded for those who can't attend live
✅ Register at the link above

Feel free to share with others and I hope you will join me for this exciting webinar!

💎 New EduGems

Resource Link

Each week I try to add new Gems to my EduGems website. Since last newsletter the site has now reached 159 Gems! Below are the newest ones added to the site:

❓ Quiz Me - Help students master academic concepts for any topic with an encouraging, patient, and adaptive personal quiz tutor
⚖️ Would You Rather? Activity - Design high-impact, standard-aligned "Would You Rather?" learning activities for any K–12 grade level and subject area
🤝 Kagan Strategy Planner - Transform any lesson, topic, or learning target into an active, collaborative experience using structured Kagan Cooperative Learning strategies
🤷 When Will I Use This? - Answer the question of "When will I EVER use this?" by connecting your lessons to real-world scenarios and classroom-ready tasks

📅 Google Docs Calendar Templates for the 27-28 School Year

Resource Link

Several years ago I created some Google Docs templates for a colleague who was looking for a simple one-page document to show important calendar dates for an entire school year. The templates were a big hit and many people found them to be helpful.

Although it still feels like the school year has just gotten started, I have already received emails from folks asking if I have made a version for next year ... the 2027-2028 school year. You can get your copy of the templates at the link above.

🍪 NYT Bite-Size Daily Lesson Plans

Resource Link

The Learning Network from the New York Times has been a great source of classroom content for many years. This school year they are adding a new daily lesson plan resource. Here are the details:

Short lesson plans around 15 minutes long.
A “going further” option if you want to extend the lesson.
Different subjects each day:

Mondays: English language arts
Tuesdays: social studies, history and civics
Wednesdays: science, math, health, technology and engineering
Thursdays: media literacy or the arts
Fridays: A cross-curricular activity

Lessons cover important national and global front-page news as well as all sorts of other things
Media and news literacy will be built into many of the lessons.

📖 Make Opaque

Resource Link

I always have my eyes open for new tools and extensions to support learners. You can see my current collection in my resource document for "Tech Tools to Support all Learners" here http://bit.ly/curts-support

Recently I came across another free extension to add to this list. The extension is from one of my EdTech colleagues, Wanda Terral, and is called Make Opaque. Here are the details:

Eliminate screen clutter and guide your eyes with a customizable reading overlay.
By dimming the surrounding screen and creating a clear, transparent “opening” in the center, it acts as a digital reading ruler, guiding your eyes exactly where they need to be.
Whether you are reading long articles, studying for exams, managing ADHD or dyslexia, or just trying to reduce eye strain during late-night reading sessions, Make Opaque gives you complete control over your reading environment.

Learn more and install this extension from the Chrome Web Store.

🌻 Infinite Flowers

Resource Link

Sometimes we all just need to take a break and relax for a bit, and Infinite Flowers might be just the website to help you with that. This site is an infinitely zooming painting by Nikolaus Baumgarten that keeps zooming in across a scrolling terrain filled with colorful trees, plants, and of course flowers. I have to admit that I don't really understand how it works, but I guess part of relaxing is just letting go of such concerns.

Thanks to Tony Vincent and Tricia Louis for alerting me to this!

🚨 Factile

Resource Link

3 Jeopardy Rules That Get Students Thinking - "We'll take Science for 400!" Jeopardy-style review works because its rules reward thinking, not just speed. Three worth keeping when you play with Factile:

Get it right, pick next: Teams choose a familiar topic or stretch into harder material, and that ownership keeps them engaged.
Wait for the whole clue: Buzzers activate only after it's read, so students listen, recall the answer, then ring in.
Wager before the final clue: Knowing only the category, students weigh their confidence. Since no lead is safe, they are engaged to the end.

One rule to relax: answering in the form of a question. Instead, give teams time to discuss, then ask, "What led you to that?" to reveal misconceptions before test day.

Create a game around your lesson or pick a ready-made board. It's free to start. See the complete Jeopardy rules before you play.