Have you ever wondered how many emails are sent worldwide in a day?  How about how many tweets are posted every second?  If so, then Internet Live Stats might be a site that interests you.

Through Internet Live Stats users can watch the Internet grow in real time while monitoring social media usage such as worldwide internet users, Google searches, Facebook and Instagram posts, and more!

Go to www.internetlivestats.com/ and prepare to be amazed!  

Want to see how many YouTube videos are viewed every SECOND?  Click the link in 1 second and start scrolling!  

This site definitely helps put the world's technology usage in perspective for adults and students.  The in 1 second option gives users a fantastic visual of the actual usage rather than only a large number that many students, young and old, would find impossible to comprehend.  This site could jump start great discussions with students and could even be used as a topic for a writing prompt.  

How would YOU use this site in the classroom?  Leave a comment below!

For many of us, it's important to know what is happening in the world and, typically, news worthy = lots of Google searches.

Google Hot Trends is a handy visual that displays the latest news trends based on Google searches.  If you see a trend and you would like more information, just click the link and a Google search page with related articles will open in a new tab.  

To access Google Hot Trends go to ​https://www.google.com/trends/hottrends/visualize.  The site will default to showing one trend at a time.  To change this, hover your mouse in the top left hand side of the screen until you see a 3x3 grid.  

Then, hover over the grid and highlight the number of trends you would like to see at once.      ​

A really cool feature of Hot Trends is that users can search trends in different countries or regions of the world!  I LOVE this feature for the Social Studies classroom! If you are studying a specific region, pull up the Hot Trends in that region and have a class discussion.  Compare the trends in that region to the trends in the United States.  To change the region, look for the link at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.  Trends will default to All Regions until you change it.     

If you plan to use Hot Trends regularly, I would recommend bookmarking it for easy access later.

As teachers, we have all struggled to keep our classroom noise level in check at one time or another.  Bouncy Balls is a FREE and FUN way to monitor classroom noise and it is guaranteed to make you and your students smile!

This website activates your microphone to detect noise levels in the classroom.  The louder the noise, the quicker and higher the balls on the screen will bounce!  If the noise level is low, the balls will mainly stay still.  You can even adjust the sensitivity of the microphone depending on the level of noise you would like for a specific activity!  

​This website is very easy to use.  Just go to www.bouncyballs.org and click BEGIN BOUNCING!  

Be sure to turn your microphone on or the balls will not bounce!  If the microphone icon has a line across it, just click it to turn it on.

Adjust the settings and that's all there is to it!  You can even change the balls to emojis, bubbles, or eyeballs!  KIDS WILL LOVE IT!

Use this tool as students work in pairs, groups or independently!  Do you have any cool ideas for how to use it?  Leave a comment below!