Google's Santa Tracker Village allows you to learn coding skills, explore holiday traditions, play holiday games and so much more! Each day a new activity is available.

Have you ever wondered what you would look like as a Lego figurine? Now, you can create your family and friends out of Legos! Lego Miniature Holiday Card allows you to create a holiday scene that can be shared with friends and family.

"Published by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), this eagerly anticipated annual collection of holiday games started as a mistake in 1955.

On Dec. 24, 1955, a call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, CO. However, this call was not from the president or a general. It was from a girl in Colorado Springs who was following the directions in an advertisement printed in the local paper – she wanted to know the whereabouts of Santa Claus.

The ad said “Hey, Kiddies! Call me direct and be sure and dial the correct number.” However, the number was printed incorrectly in the advertisement and rang into the CONAD operations center.

On duty that night was Colonel Harry Shoup. He received numerous calls that night, and rather than hanging up, he had his operators find the location of Santa Claus and reported it to every child who phoned in.

Thus began a tradition carried on by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) when it was formed in 1958."

"Technology in the Classroom." Five Great Holiday Websites. Teach Hub, 2015. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://www.teachhub.com/technology-classroom-5-great-holiday-websites>.

Tackk is a free, simple way to create beautiful pages and collaborate in the classroom. Teachers can use Tackk for assignments, presentations, blogs, discussions and more. It is also very easy to embed, email and share on various social media networks.

EduCanon supports flipped instruction by allowing teachers to embed multiple-choice questions into YouTube, TeacherTube, or Vimeo videos. Videos can also be chopped so students view a portion of a film. Student viewing mode also prevents students from fast-forwarding, to assure they watch the entire assignment. These videos can then be assigned to student classes and given due dates which the teacher monitors for accuracy and completion, or simply linked to or embedded in a website for public viewing.

Love playing Jeopardy like games? Teachers can create their own game-show with FlipQuiz. Teachers can use FlipQuiz for questions, test preparation, quiz or knowledge bowls and much more. Keep students engaged with FlipQuiz.

Part white board, part digital post it notes, this organization and management tool site gives students and their educators another way to present notes, ideas, and information. Try out Beyondpad.

Advent My Friend allows you to create a beautiful calendar with videos and images that can be shared easily with friends and family. Sharon Gullett, an educational consultant, created the following calendar to share with you today. Click on each calendar day to receive your gift.

Invite your students to chat with Santa on Monday, December 14th from 2:00 pm to 2:30 pm (CST). Santa will answer pre-submitted and live questions from children about goings on at the North Pole via a Google Hangout. He’ll talk about his big ride and the preparations leading up to the Christmas Eve deliveries, what the elves are doing, his favorite cookies, and more. He may even have time to read a short story to the kids. Find out about this amazing opportunity at the link below.

Teachers and students can create music quickly for projects and presentations with Soundtrap. Use your own instruments or the ones provided by Soundtrap. Record, create and publish original music in minutes!

Apps Bar is a free mobile app builder!

Spiral has free collaborative apps for 1:1 classrooms and bring your own technology devices. The Quickfire app is a formative assessment tool allowing you to gather data from your students in real time. The Discuss app allows students to explore deeper learning through discussion.

Spiral Chrome Web Store Link

Socrative is a formative assessment tool that allows you to assess student learning in real time. The following link to a Google sheet has Socrative quizzes on a variety of subjects that you can import and use. Socrative Shared Quiz List

At last count, there were 1,675 quizzes on the spreadsheet! Thanks to Peggy Reimers at TCEA for sharing this incredible Google sheet.

Next week you can Join educators around the world to celebrate computer programming. Students who learn to code have a technology skill that can help shape their future. Code. org is a free resource with easy to use tutorials including Star Wars, Minecraft, Frozen and Flappy Birds. Code.org tutorials are available all year to teach coding skills to students of all ages. Happy coding!

Now, you can embed webpages into a video to make a unique interactive experience with Touchcast.