Now that we’re deep into remote, hybrid, and in-person learning, we’ve found dozens of apps and tech tools that make teaching and learning easier. Today we thought we’d share some of our PLS instructor’s favorite classroom management tools with you.
Shawn Robbins recommends:
Class Dojo
Best for grades K-8
ClassDojo is an educational technology company. It connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day, and messaging that can be translated into more than 35 languages
“This app can be a great communication tool between school and home. Families can communicate with the teacher using the site, all while pictures and videos can be uploaded. A neat feature is the behavior monitoring component.”
Kahoot!
All grade levels
Kahoot is an educational learning games website. It makes learning engaging and interactive for students of all ages in a playful way.
“This is a great interactive formative assessment. You can make it competitive by assigning points to the questions, which will create a ‘race’ to see who can score the correct answer the fastest. If you do not assign points, it will not show who was the quickest person to answer.”
Plickers!
All grade levels
Plickers is a tool to collect student data without them using any digital devices. Students use cards to share answers with only the teacher through an Android or iOS app where they have access to respond back quickly.
“Students are assigned numbers and hold cards. The teacher can then walk around the classroom with a single device and score student responses.”
Nearpod
Best for grades 5 and up
Nearpod is an interactive presentation tool that helps boost engagement in students. The app allows you to add PowerPoints or PDFs into a presentation with the addition of interactive activities.
“This site allows teachers to use Nearpods already created (if you pay for the Library), or you can create your own presentation by uploading a PPT or Google Presentation. You can then embed interactive components to make the presentation more engaging.”
Brittany Frey recommends:
ThingLink
Best for grades 3-12
ThingLink is a student-centered, interactive tool to add new content onto existing images, videos, sounds, links, and more. It also has a learning tool to engage people with diverse language backgrounds.
“Used as an interactive tool for ‘get to know you’ activities, vocabulary review, & presentations.”
Mindy Lower recommends:
Remind
All grade levels
Remind mobile app is a communication tool to keep students up to date with their work and parents in the loop about their child’s work and progress.
“Use as a communication tool for keeping in touch with students and parents.”
Heather Paden recommends:
OneDrive
Best for grades 5 and up
OneDrive is a great tool for teachers and students to share files, documents, photos, and videos with each other. It helps with organization and accessing shared documents.
“Sharing assignments with teachers, team meeting notes, and student to student group projects.”
Brooke Thurston recommends:
SeeSaw
All grade levels
SeeSaw captures what students are learning through activities and videos. It is also a great communication tool between teachers and families.
“This is a FREE online Blog type format. Students are able to keep a journal of their writing, videos, photos and parents are able to follow your class and see what their kids are doing. Did I mention this is FREE? It’s a great tool that really helps to build student confidence online. :)“”
EPIC
Best for grades K-5
EPIC is a source that gives educators free access to share high quality books, audiobooks, and videos with their elementary students.
Another FREE resource. Students are put into a class and choose up to date books to read (online) or have them read to you. Parents are able to see what their kids are reading too. I use this during my Daily 5 Listen to Reading Time.
Jill Bergerhofer recommends:
Padlet
All grade levels
Padlet is a tool where you can create online post-it boards to share with students which allows them to share notes, photos, videos, or links with you. The students have the ability to post anonymous or with their names shown.
“Padlet creates an announcement wall for users to collaborate by adding post-it notes with videos, links, files, and text.”
Poll Everywhere
All grade levels
Poll Everywhere is an online tool where students can give anonymous feedback about different interactive questions.
“Poll Everywhere is a presentation tool to gather responses from participants using mobile devices. View results immediately.”
Evernote
Best for grades 3 and up
Evernote is a great organization tool that keeps notes in order. It allows you to share and save notes in a secure manner where you can access them on any device.
“Evernote is a note-taking tool, bookmarking tool, audio recorder and more! Evernote can be accessed from multiple devices. Even though there are many features available in Evernote – choose what works best for your needs.”
Sheila Rattigan recommends:
KenKen Puzzles
All grade levels
KenKen Puzzles gives students of all ages access to free challenging puzzles that develop their math and logical thinking skills.
“Free math challenge puzzles for basic computation and logical thinking skills. Great as bell ringer activities.”
Sharon Casciole recommends:
Quizlet
All grade levels
Quizlet provides a variety of engagement activities for students to use to learn and memorize study material. Students can study through online flashcards, games, and practice quizzes.
“This is a fantastic interactive app. It allows students to study content with learning tools such as flashcards and games. You can use existing material or create your own. I use it to review math concepts. The students love it!”
OneNote
Best for grades 5-12
OneNote works as a digital notebook to gather notes and to help stay organized. It allows you to share or keep notes private and keep them safely stored in one place.
“OneNote is like a virtual notebook. It helps organize almost anything..notes, drawings, videos, recipes, images, etc. It allows for multi-user collaboration which is great as a classroom tool.”
Lisa Miller recommends:
Flipgrid
All grade levels
Flipgrid is an online source that allows students to have video discussion boards. This is a great source to use to engage students and interact with them.
“Flip grid is a website where teachers can create a grid with a specific prompt and students respond through recorded videos. Each grid is like a message board where teachers can pose a question and their students can post 90-second video responses. Students can also comment on videos. This works great in an online setting and it could even be used in PLS graduate online courses.”
Did we miss any?
Share your favorites and why you like them in the comments section below.