How to Save Money Shopping Online

This time of year brings lots of shopping for most people, so I thought I'd write a post about how I save money shopping online. While you could always apply these tricks to classroom purchases such as school supplies or furniture, this obviously isn't my typical educational technology content...if this isn't your jam, feel free to skip this post and re-visit the blog later for the regularly scheduled programming. :)

I personally use all of these tools and can attest that they are legit and worth your time!

Use Coupons/Promo Codes

eBates 

• How it works: eBates partnered with almost 2,000 major retailers {click here to see the full list} to offer you cash back when you shop from those stores online. Each store offers a different percentage of cash back. I've found that the more popular a store is, the lower the percentage of cash back they offer. So, for instance, Walmart is typically 1-2% while Snapfish is typically 10% {I've found that these percentages jump during the holidays, though, which is an even bigger incentive for using eBates for holiday shopping!}. When you shop online, you simply activate your eBates before you check out. After you check out, you'll receive an e-mail telling you how much cash back you got for that particular purchase. eBates will send you cash back once a quarter -- either in the form of a mailed check or cash in your PayPal account. 
• What you do: Once you sign up for a free account {click the link to sign up with my referral code, and I will love you forever! :)}, simply activate your eBates before purchasing something online. Watch this video tutorial to see it in action. And: Here's the link to Snapfish, that photo website I use and mentioned in the video, if you want it. :)
• Bonus: There's an eBates app that sometimes offers double percentage cash back. Download the app and allow notifications on your phone. When you get a notification about double cash back from a place you needed to buy from anyway, I like to do the shopping on my laptop because it's easier to navigate, see the details of an item, etc. I always fill my shopping cart from a computer. Then I just launch my app from my iPhone, activate my eBates shopping trip to the store of my choice, and check out with what's already in my shopping cart. :) 

Honey Extension for Chrome

• How it works: When in a shopping cart online, Honey scours the web for all the coupons and promo codes floating the WWW for that store. Honey applies each one and, in the event that multiple codes work, it automatically applies the coupon that saves you the most money. 
• What you do: In the Chrome browser, add the Honey extension. Then just shop! If a pop-up does not appear on the right side of your browser when you're in an online shopping cart, that typically means there are no coupons available for that retailer. When the pop-up does appear, however, just click the gold "try codes" button, sit back, and watch it work! Watch this video tutorial to see it in action. 

Price match

Slice

• How it works: Slice tracks packages for you based on receipts sent to your e-mail inbox. It also tracks the price of things you've purchased and will alert you if the price of anything you purchased drops within a specified time. If you purchased something that dropped in price, the Slice app will compose an e-mail to customer service with the order number, original price, and new price, requesting a price match, and all you have to do is press "send!" 
• What you do: Sign up for a free account at slice.com, and download the free app {available in The App Store and the Google Play Store}.  In your settings, go to "linked inboxes/accounts" in the upper, right corner. Select an e-mail inbox to give Slice permission to scour your inbox for receipts. 

Internet Alerts

IFTTT 

• How it works: IFTTT allows you to create "recipes" of a cause and effect nature {hence, the title: "if this, then that"} so you can automate your online life. There are a ton of uses for IFTTT {partly because it links to almost 250 "channels" or other sites}, but in terms of saving money while shopping, you can set it up to alert you when a new item is posted or about price drops, depending on the retailer. 
• What you do: Create a free IFTTT account. Create a new recipe and select a trigger channel from the "commerce" section. Follow the on-screen prompts to set up the alerts of your choice. Watch this video tutorial to see it in action {this video is password protected due to personal information shared...CISD friends, the password is our plural mascot.}
• Bonus: This post gives you more details about IFTTT, and this post tells you how to use IFTTT to help you monitor the weather for recess duty.

CamelCamelCamel

• How it works: CamelCamelCamel only works with Amazon items. If you have anything on Amazon that you'd like to buy {individual items or even an entire Amazon Wish List}, you can put the URL into your CamelCamelCamel account and set an ideal price. CCC will e-mail you when the item dips to your ideal price. 
• What you do: Create a free CamelCamelCamel account. Either paste in the URL or search for a particular keyword in the search box at the top of the home page. From there, set your price and ask CamelCamelCamel to start tracking.  Watch this video tutorial to see it in action.

Notebinder

I've been racking my brain for ways that I could implement a paperless science notebook -- at least with my 4th graders. One of the options I found is called Notebinder, and it's an iPad app.

Via

Screenshot from the app

Screenshot from the app

Features

• Create binders, just like you would in real life {this reminds me of LiveBinders}. At this time, I cannot find a maximum number of binders you're allowed to have on one device.

• Customize your binder. You can name the binder {with a couple of subtitles}, choose the color of the cover, and choose the type of background design on the pages of your binder. 

Naming a binder and adding details

Choosing the color of the binder. I color-code my days, so since my 4th graders come on Tuesday, they are my yellow group.

Choosing the background paper {these options include medium grid, red areas, and blue areas} 

Choosing the background paper {these options include plain off-white, narrow-lined, and white-lined}

Choosing the background paper {these options include plain white, white legal, yellow legal, and gray narrow-lined}

•  Add tabs {called "folders" in this app, which I find really confusing} to your binder to help you organize materials. At this point, there is a limit of 7 folders per binder.

I have to admit: I'm a little bummed about this limit because my original plan was to have a new tab for each new entry in the science notebook, which could be as many as 35 added during Science Lab with additional tabs added in the homeroom classroom. 

Now I'm having to decide if it would be best to divide the folders up by unit {there are 6-7 in each grade level} or by semester. Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments. :)

• Add text by typing or writing on the screen with a finger or stylus.
• Much like Blogger or Evernote, add tags to pages to help with organization. At this time, you can add up to 4 tags on each page. The tags appear like those little flag Post-It notes, so you can color-code your tags, too. 

• Add images to pages from a variety of sources.

• Add audio and video to pages. 

Unfortunately, you have to record the audio when you're in the app; you cannot import it from anywhere else.

Screenshot of the FAQ section of the Notebinder app website

• Speaking of importing, you can import from your mailbox, Dropbox, or Google Drive. You can import an iTunes file, a previously-created backup from the Notebinder app, a PDF, a PNG, or an image from your photo album or mailbox.

• On the flip side, you can export your binders to the cloud for easy backup and sharing. 

If you want to view the binder on other devices or on an iPad that doesn't have the Notebinder app installed, you can choose to export as a PDF.


If you want to be able to bring the exported file back into the app {like a backup}, you can export as an .nbzip file. You'd store the backup in your Dropbox or Google Drive, but you wouldn't be able to open it in any other app besides the Notebinder app or on any other device besides the iPad.

The backup method mentioned above is also how you would share templates, binders, or pages with other Notebinder users {like your students}.

I might create a template for the way I want our science notebooks set up. For instance, I could create a folder for each semester or unit, and have the first page be one of instructions about how to work with the digital science notebook. I could save that in my Dropbox, and then export it to all students at the beginning of the year. It would also be great for students who transfer in the middle of the year; their notebook would already be ready to edit with instructions at the beginning.

• Share content via WiFi Sharing. 

This would be wonderful for sharing, say, a pre-made graph that I need students to fill in to record data at the end of their experiment. I could also send students the experiment directions; students could add the directions to their notebook as part of the experiment write-up.

• Timestamp pages

If you want students to turn in work, you could have them export to your Dropbox or Google Drive account. You could review the page you want to grade and time stamp it. Once a page has been time stamped, it cannot be edited again. You would save that student's binder and export it back to your cloud account. When the student imports the binder during the next class session, he/she could see the time stamp you put on it and be unable to go back and change anything on that page.

• Save random ideas or writings in the Sketch Pad. 

Sometimes students need scratch paper to work to problems or jot down ideas. That paper may not have a place in their binder, but they still need a place to save it. The Sketch Pad comes in handy for those moments. 

• Change the layout based on the dominant hand.

The default is set to "righty" since most people write with their right hand. The blank pages appear on the right side of the page in case you want to use your stylus to write or draw. {I think I read somewhere that there is also wrist protection so there are no stray marks at the bottom of every page when you write with a stylus.}

If you change it to "lefty" mode, the entire layout is flipped, so that lefties don't have to reach cross menu bars to write with a stylus.

Cons

1. It's $4.00 in The App Store. If you plan to use it every day for a whole year, and it replaces paper/pencils/glue and various other school supplies, it's totally worth it. But I rarely pay for apps, so $4 is expensive to me.
2. There is no way to create an account, which means that all of your work is stored on the iPad. That becomes a problem when students start sharing iPads, which is the case in many classrooms. While Notebinder gives the option of importing and exporting notebooks {so you could probably delete all work off the app between each class and then have incoming students import their notebook from their last session}, it is not convenient at all -- especially if you're working with younger students in a time crunch.
3. It's only available for iPad. While I don't use other tablets {so that lack of availability doesn't affect me}, I would like the option to edit on a laptop computer. 

While I don't think this app is perfect, it might be the closest thing for my idea of digital science notebooks.

Have you ever used Notebinder? What was your experience with it? If not, would you consider using it now that you know its capabilities? Do you have any other suggestions for digital notebooking at the elementary level?

FarFaria

The FarFaria app is an app designed for children ages 2-9; it provides a plethora of stories and options for reading those stories. I was so excited when I found it that I e-mailed everyone at my school to share it with them. One of my colleagues downloaded it for her 1st grade daughter and 4 year-old son that night. She said they stayed on it for over two hours over the weekend! So there's proof that kids like this app. :)

The app is available for both iPad and Android devices. Since I own an iPad, those are the screenshots you'll see in this post. :)

Here's what you'll see when you search for FarFaria in the App Store.

FarFaria boasts a collection of over 600 children's stories, and 5 new ones are added each week. Every story has a "read-to-me" feature that makes it easy for younger/ESL students or struggling readers to enjoy the stories, as well.

When you first download FarFaria, you see'll screens like this:

If you're in the free version, you click the "Try One Free Book a Day" to start.

After you're "in" the app, you see this cool layout featuring 11 different "islands," or themes for stories.

When you click on an island, you can scroll through a list of the eBooks that are offered in that theme.

Obviously, these are some of the books offered in the "Mt. Make Believe" island. 

Notice that you can sort the available books by popularity, release date, reading level, or titles in alphabetical order. This would obviously come in handy if you had a subscription and your child had already read all the books and was anxiously awaiting new releases!

I randomly selected a book and was met with this screen:

In order to open your first book, the parent has to give their e-mail address and put in their birth year. I'm annoyed that I had to put in my e-mail address -- I hate getting spam in my inbox! -- but I understand why that would be necessary if you had a subscription. {For the record, though, you have to put in your e-mail address just to read one of the free books.} Any time you click on the "settings" gear in the bottom right corner, you're instructed to input your birth year, too. I thought this was a clever way of making sure the child doesn't change anything without your knowledge. ;)

E-mail address blocked for privacy reasons ;)

After I "signed up" for the website, I could view the book I'd picked:

I loved the 3 options {auto-play, read to me, and read myself}. This conveniently makes it so that your child can read any book at any level, regardless of his or her reading ability. The "auto play" feature has someone read the book to the child, and FarFaria automatically turns the pages; it looks just like a movie on the screen. The "read to me" feature reads the words on the page, but your child has to manually flip the page when they are finished looking at the pictures. And obviously, the "read myself" feature takes all the audio out of it.



















You have the ability to add your book(s) to your "favorites" list so you can find it easily next time. I think I remember reading somewhere that the "favorites" option only works if you have a subscription, but I can't find that statement now. Anyway, the "favorites" option also makes the book(s) accessible for offline reading so your data plan isn't eaten up when your kiddos read. :)

When you're finished with the book, you see this screen:

This little "photo finish" option is unique and cute: take a picture of your little reader after he/she finishes the book, add a frame, and share it on social media with your loved ones.

If you don't have a subscription {so you're using it for free}, you'll see this screen if you try to read another book in the same day:

You can still browse the lists of book in each island after you've read your free book for the day -- you just don't get to open it until your day resets.

Someone was kind enough to give me a free subscription for 6 months, so at this point, I went ahead and redeemed my code so I could continue checking out this app.

As a former English teacher, I was intrigued with the "Classics Grove" island. Here is a screenshot of some of the available books there:

I love that they took classics like The Wizard of Oz and Romeo and Juliet and made them kid-friendly!

One unique island is called "Sing Along City."

Every book in this island is sung instead of read if the child uses the audio feature. It adds a fun and playful twist to reading.

Since the first book I looked at was a very low reading level, I went back and chose a book at level 4 -- the highest level offered. I chose Between O-Ween:

It was a cute book that I thought was appropriate for an on-level 2nd or 3rd grader.

There is no obligation to pay as long as you're cool with 1 story a day. If you wanted to use it for multiple kids or to read multiple stories, you might be better off purchasing a subscription. From what I can tell, the app lets you purchase 1 month at a time, while the website offers 6- and 12-month subscriptions. Both the 1-month and the 6-month subscriptions average about $4/month. The 12-month subscription is slightly discounted -- at ~$3.33/month -- and can be purchased on their web page. {You can also gift a subscription to a friend from their website if you want.}

A note about subscriptions: their website says you can cancel at any time, but I saw a review in the App Store that said it is difficult to unsubscribe. Their website makes it  easy to contact customer support, but I'm not sure what their response time is... Anyway.

If you have little ones or teach little ones, FarFaria is an app you might want to consider downloading.

LiveBinders

I love organizing. Because of that, three-ring binders have played a huge part in my life ever since elementary school. Binders were {and still are} a great way to organize tons of paper.

But with the push toward paperless classrooms and storage in the cloud, the traditional three-ring binder is becoming obsolete as we eliminate paper from our lives.

However, we still need a good way to organize files. I've talked before about my love affair with Dropbox {shameless plug: use my referral link to sign up, and we'll both get more free space!} and how much it has helped me store and organize my digital files. But there are times when a prettier visual and more than just file storage is needed. This is where LiveBinders comes in.

Logo from the Live Binder website

How It Works

1. Create a virtual "binder" via the LiveBinders website. 
2. Add tabs and subtabs to organize your binder. 
3. Upload files, import links from around the web, or type directly into the binder. 
4. Make multiple binders and organize them on virtual shelves for easy access. 
5. Share your binder(s) with others or keep them private. 
6. Make copies of others' public binders and edit them to your liking. 

Ways to Use Live Binder in Your Class

1. Have students create ePortfolios using LiveBinders.
2. Create a tab for each student in your class. Use subtabs to upload files you would keep on those students -- RtI information, assessments, examples of work, etc. 
3. Create a "back to school parent binder." Upload all the information you would normally print for "meet the teacher" day at school, and pass out the link, instead. 
4. Store lesson plans and their corresponding materials online and share them with your team, across the district, and/or with teachers from around the world.
5. Create a substitute binder where you've pre-loaded information about your classroom procedures, schedule, and even emergency lesson plans. When you're sick, the sub just has to pull up the link to your binder, and you can go back to bed and rest. 
6. Create a professional portfolio for yourself if you're job hunting.
7. Create a binder full of common links students will need to visit in a digital classroom. {Here's an example.}
8. Create a binder full of instructions for accessing classroom websites, navigating classroom digital tools, etc. 
9. Have students turn in work via LiveBinders -- you just need access to their binder. Then you can grade it and not have to print anything at all. 
10. Not sure what to do with all the links and files you get from professional development? Upload them to a binder

Here's a binder about how teachers are using this site in their classroom:

                

    

How Teachers are Using LiveBinders

Cool Features

• Go paperless! Stop trying to keep up with pages of paper. Scan things in to your computer and file them away in LiveBinders. It's a three-ring binder for your computer!
• Add others' public binders to your shelf so you can access their information quickly and easily. 
• Link to your LiveBinders and/or embed them into your classroom website.

There are even free apps so you can access binders via your tablet or smartphone.

Click here to visit the iTunes store to download this app

Other Helpful Info

• Click here for a good tutorial about how to use LiveBinders
• Here are some tutorials directly from the LiveBinders website.  
• Here's a LiveBinders tutorial:

               

   

LiveBinders Tutorial

• Live Binder tips and tricks:

               

   

LiveBinders Tips and Tricks