I want to share with you 4 tech tools I use in my own classroom on an almost daily basis. Two of these tools are completely free for teachers to use, while the last two are either free or at a minimal cost. I know teachers spend hundreds of dollars a year on materials for their own classroom, but these are so helpful to me I consider them essential and their benefits far outweigh their costs.
1. Remind101 - Making School Communication Easy!
First, and maybe most importantly, this is completely free!! That's right - it costs nothing for you to set up a teacher account, add classes, and send messages, pictures, and files to parents and students through the app, text messages, or email.
Teachers can either add students/parents manually or give out class codes for stakeholders to use when they sign-up. Teachers can send class messages, group messages, or individual messages.
I have use used Remind101 to send pictures of project examples and answer keys to completed work, reminders of test dates or homework assignments, links to Quizlet and Quizizz study games (more on those below), and to communicate with individual parents via text message.
Even better, your Remind can be connected to your Google Classroom, Quizlet account, and others so with a simple click you can automatically send a message about an assignment that needs to be completed with the link already attached!
Quizizz allows you to find amazing quizzes made by other teachers, or create your own quizzes and share them with parents and students. Start a "Live" game in class, or use Remind101 to assign Quizizz as a fun "Homework" or "Practice" task.
During a Quizizz game, students play together using their own devices, but each at their own pace. Students compete to get the highest scores by not only answering questions correctly, but faster than their classmates. Use funny memes (both for correct and incorrect answers) add to the fun! Teachers can display the leaderboard to increase the sense of competition!
Review your students' work when it's all over using Quizizz’ detailed class and student-level reports to understand where your students need help or extra review.
When you're ready, use Quizizz in "Test" mode to give a quick assessment (think vocabulary quiz) without using a single sheet of copy paper!!
During a Quizizz game, students play together using their own devices, but each at their own pace. Students compete to get the highest scores by not only answering questions correctly, but faster than their classmates. Use funny memes (both for correct and incorrect answers) add to the fun! Teachers can display the leaderboard to increase the sense of competition!
Review your students' work when it's all over using Quizizz’ detailed class and student-level reports to understand where your students need help or extra review.
When you're ready, use Quizizz in "Test" mode to give a quick assessment (think vocabulary quiz) without using a single sheet of copy paper!!
3. Quizlet - a tech twist on tried-and-true flashcards!
I hope you found these 4 tech tool descriptions helpful to you. Maybe you already use some in your own classroom, but if not, I hope you consider giving these 4 a try to make your teaching life a little easier and perhaps a little sweeter!
I often used flashcards to study when I was in high school and college - index cards with words on one side and definitions or information on the other.
Quizlet gives a tech twist to this tried-and-true study method by allowing teachers to make study sets (or search millions of already created sets) to share with their students. Students can use flashcards for vocabulary study, practice spelling, play learning games, test their knowledge, collaborate with other students and more to enhance learning and understanding.
Quizlet has a free version and a paid version. The paid version offers lots of extras (obviously) for only $35.99 per year. The paid version will remove ads, allow teachers to use different fonts to highlight important words or text, add diagrams and labels (very helpful for Science teachers), and collect data for teachers to use.
4. GradeCam - don't take your grading home!
GradeCam turns your phone, tablet, or laptop webcam into an optical grading machine similar to a Scantron. Teachers use tests, exit-tickets, quizzes, etc they already have and simply add a GradeCam answer sheet students use to bubble in their answers. The device camera reads the bubble answer sheets and provides instant feedback.
It does take some time at the beginning of the school year to load class rosters, assign GradeCam ID numbers, and teach students how to use the answer documents. It also has a price tag - $15 a month for an individual teacher. However, I gladly pay this to have so much of my grading completed for me instantly.
GradeCam can be used for T/F, multiple choice, matching, rubrics, even handwritten responses (I have yet to try this feature). GradeCam will even save multiple versions of answer keys for a single exam. For example, I use Examview Assessment Software to create my unit assessments, print 5 different versions (my students are seated in groups of 4 or fewer) with the push of a button, load the 5 answer keys into GradeCam and then students can not cheat off the student next to them because it's a different version - or if they do, make a 20 or 25!! Answer keys are saved from year-to-year, making it simple to reuse exit-tickets or quizzes.
I hope you found these 4 tech tool descriptions helpful to you. Maybe you already use some in your own classroom, but if not, I hope you consider giving these 4 a try to make your teaching life a little easier and perhaps a little sweeter!
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