teacher tools
Although not a tool, this site is a "must explore" for new and future teachers. Mitechkids provides teachers with a variety of technology resources for grades K-5. Take a look! I am sure there are things you will want to bookmark here!
Interactive sites - these are just a few examples of websites you can use with an interactive whiteboard.
8 Great Websites for Newbie Teachers - This is a great resource, especially for new teachers who have enough things to remember...just bookmark this and you have the tools available. GoNoodle - Movement for children is essential. This website provides videos to help teachers create movement times that don't disrupt learning time. Citation Tools - this is a collection of tools you can use to cite your sources! Super important tools!
Screencastify and Screencast-o-matic - screen recording tools are a must for teachers even if you are not teaching remote. The ability to post recordings for students to revisit or even for parents to see is invaluable. Dropbox - need a place to backup your data? Want to share files of any type? This tool is one of the first cloud-based storage tools that provides free storage and will give you more if you refer people. The beautiful part of Dropbox is a local folder that automatically backs up anything you drop into that folder. I use Dropbox to share files with colleagues and to access my work from any of my many computers. Watch this video to learn how to use Dropbox Flippity - an add-on to Google Sheets for creating flashcards and other study aids. You can also randomly pick students, create partners, groups or teams. flippity has so many tools you can use, it is best just to explore! Here is a great short video to explain this tool. |
Common Sense Media - a website that provides reviews and lessons for appropriate websites, books, apps, and movies. This is a great resource for teachers and parents alike.
Boom Learning (Boom Cards) - digital task cards. Teachers can use free, buy or build sets of digital task cards for students to complete. Students love them. The only con in my opinion is there are not a lot of free boom cards. TED - Ed - If you have ever watched a TED video, then you know how valuable these can be. But TED-Ed does more than provide you with inspiring videos. Teachers can use the amazing animations (created by teacher/animator teams) and lessons or create their own. There is a lot to this tool so explore! Khan Academy - this site has thousands of video-based instruction modules for a variety of subjects. It has grown to include activities and quizzes as well. Student learning can be personalized and tracked by the parent or teacher. Wizer - I debated where to put this tool as it is also an assessment tool, but I think it fits better here. Wizer allows you to create digital worksheets. Teachers and students can create these and include text, image, or video questions. You can even record directions. QR Code Tools- a QR Code scanner lets participants scan an image and be taken to a website, image, video or other digital tool. QR Code generators allow teachers to create these amazing images! Using QR codes in the classroom saves time like no other teacher tool I know. Watch this video to learn more about QR Codes. |
Classroom Management Tools
Classroom Screen - this tool has a large number of classroom management and productivity tools built into it. It is very simple, but effective.
Class Tools - a website that has tools for managing your classroom. Random Name Picker and Online Timer are the tools I use the most.
Class Dojo - a classroom management tool that works online or in an app. Students can receive positive or negative feedback. Parents can also be connected to the tool and teachers can collaborate. A recent update has added some great tools like online timer, random student selector, noise monitor and more. Watch this video to learn more about Class Dojo.
Random Name Picker Tools - I love using a digital tool to randomly call on a student, or randomly decide anything! Here are several of the top random name picker tools:
Class Tools - a website that has tools for managing your classroom. Random Name Picker and Online Timer are the tools I use the most.
Class Dojo - a classroom management tool that works online or in an app. Students can receive positive or negative feedback. Parents can also be connected to the tool and teachers can collaborate. A recent update has added some great tools like online timer, random student selector, noise monitor and more. Watch this video to learn more about Class Dojo.
Random Name Picker Tools - I love using a digital tool to randomly call on a student, or randomly decide anything! Here are several of the top random name picker tools:
- Rand Name Picker by ClassTools - Classtools.net is filled with a ton of great activities and tools. RNP is just one of them; but an easy to use one.
- ABCYa's Random Name Picker - Again, ABCYa is filled with a lot of different tools.
- Wheel of Names - that is all this site does...randomly pick from the words/names you enter.
Academic Search Engines for Teachers and Students - a teacher or student who relies on Google for answers risks:
- results of a search can give you incorrect information
- results might be missing important information
- inappropriate or unrelated information may appear
- sponsored links appear at the top - you might be influenced by them
Lesson plan resources
Planbook - an online lesson planning tool. This tool allows you to create your lessons in a calendar format, color-code units, and plug in standards - including Common Core.
ReadWriteThink - high-quality lessons in reading and language arts. Interactive activities, printouts and more. ALMOST a one-stop shop for teachers. Here is an overview of the website.
PhET - Math and Science simulations and resources. You can browse by curricular area or grade level.
Scholastic - Although a lot of what is on this site costs, there are some GREAT resources. Check out the Lessons and Ideas area.
PBS LearningMedia - a large collection of resources for all curriculum areas.
EDSITEment! - lesson plans, teacher guides, and student activities related to humanities.
Wide Open Schools - This site powered by Common Sense Media provides parents and teachers with resources to learn. It was set up specifically for distance learning activities but has a great collection of resources.
ReadWriteThink - high-quality lessons in reading and language arts. Interactive activities, printouts and more. ALMOST a one-stop shop for teachers. Here is an overview of the website.
PhET - Math and Science simulations and resources. You can browse by curricular area or grade level.
Scholastic - Although a lot of what is on this site costs, there are some GREAT resources. Check out the Lessons and Ideas area.
PBS LearningMedia - a large collection of resources for all curriculum areas.
EDSITEment! - lesson plans, teacher guides, and student activities related to humanities.
Wide Open Schools - This site powered by Common Sense Media provides parents and teachers with resources to learn. It was set up specifically for distance learning activities but has a great collection of resources.
student centered environment
MUST have extensions
Although we talked about extensions in our Google unit, I have to emphasize the value of a few. You will use them once you see how they save you time and help you manage your classroom.
Here is a comprehensive list of extensions recommended for education. My top extensions are
Here is a comprehensive list of extensions recommended for education. My top extensions are
- Bit.ly - URL shortener - I use this all the time when sharing websites with parents and colleagues.
- DF Tube (Distraction Free YouTube) - Life saver! This extension removes all the related videos, adds, and comments surrounding your YouTube video so you can show it to your class without them getting distracted.
- Scrible - This extension lets you annotate on any website containing text. You can even save your annotations to access in the future...AND...create a bibliography citation! You might want to use this tool NOW.
- Tab Scissors - Divide one browser window into two. When you are working on research or building a lesson, having your windows side-by-side saves you a massive amount of time.
content curation:
Content curation is a fancy way of saying saving and organizing your online resources. You may use tools like Pinterest to keep your online life organized, but there lots of tools made specifically for teachers to save, organize and collaborate or share online tools. Here are two of my favorites.
Symbaloo - a website collection tool, also called a social bookmarking tool. This allows you as a teacher to collect and share websites with your students. Because the websites are represented as tiles, this tool is great for non-readers and readers alike. To create your free account, visit Symbaloo. If you decide Symbaloo is the tool for you, visit the Symbaloo Pro for Teachers site to learn all the amazing things you can do!
Wakelet - a website collection tool, also called a social bookmarking tool. This allows you as a teacher to collect and share websites with your students and co-teachers or even parents. You can change the layout of your collections to fit your audience. Wakelet has a great support section where you can learn how to take advantage of all of its great features. |