Top Online Teacher Tools: Jumpstart Your 2021–2022 School Year

You may be ready to hang up your online teaching hat for good after the last school year. But don’t stash your ChromeBook just yet. Many online teaching tools can be brought into your in-person classroom as we head back to school. We’ve got you covered with some practical advice on moving forward and starting your year on the right foot with some common sense ed tech tools.

What have we learned from distance learning that will help us in the future?

We get it. We know last year was tough. But some of the best lessons come from the most challenging experiences. (That’s what we keep telling our students, at least.)

Schools addressed students’ basic needs first

During the pandemic, we saw how school systems prioritized student health, nutrition, happiness, and safety. This matters. Schools had their priorities together. What’s the lesson for individual classrooms?

Stick to the basics. Make sure the tools and technology you bring into your classroom will make your classroom better. Take a moment to evaluate whether new ideas are checking some “basic need” boxes:

• Will this new idea help my students learn better?
• Will this new idea help my students feel safer in my classroom?
• Will this new idea or piece of tech help me gauge student learning better?
• Will this new piece of tech be sustainable in my classroom and simplify my teaching so I can focus on more important values and needs?

If not, invest your time in tech tools that will satisfy your needs better. Your time as a Teacher is valuable. A tool for teaching should never hold you back or make your job harder. Any new tool or piece of technology that you bring into your classroom should make your life easier.

Be pragmatic and use existing resources

A recent report on lessons from the pandemic classroom found that schools with the most success with the technology used what they had rather than creating an entirely new curriculum. This makes sense. Educators know what works, and changing the delivery method shouldn’t change the essence of your lesson. Don’t reinvent the wheel just because you’re using technology.

Online tools for educators for the beginning of the school year

Here are some practical tips and tools for Teachers excited to go back to the classroom but would like to keep using some technology. We’ve rounded up a few ideas to use tech seamlessly at the beginning of the school year.

Use Google Forms to expedite the start of the school year tasks

Chances are, you have a form or inventory to give your students at the beginning of the year. These forms are essential to getting to know a lot of students fast, but doing a paper form or notecard can get laborious. Streamline the process with a program like Google Forms.

Google Forms data can be expedited to a Google Sheets. From there, you can quickly scan and sort data from your beginning of the school year survey. It’s also a great way to quickly group students together based on attributes.

Create a classroom management system with ClassDojo

It’s essential to have a classroom management plan in place for student behavior on day one. ClassDojo could be the answer for this. Students are rewarded for good behavior in a digital format. It’s also easy for Teachers to see behavior data to share with parents and administrators.

Google Slides with guided notes for notetaking skills

It’s not too hard to upload your existing powerpoints into Google Slides so students can have access to them. From there, students can comment and ask questions on what is going on in class. You can even link Cornell note-taking forms for students to complete as you teach. The best part, you won’t be hanging out at the copy machine each day going this route.

Edpuzzle to make classroom videos less passive

Students became overexposed to videos in the classroom last year. It’s a good year to incorporate a strategy that highlights essential videos in the classroom and makes the act of watching media less passive for students. A trick for this is to use Edpuzzle. Edpuzzle tracks which students watched a video, and you can imbed lessons and questions throughout the video.

Use TeacherMade and Mote for audio comments

Audio comments can be so helpful when students are working away from you. It has never been easier to add audio comments and feedback to your materials and assignments.

TeacherMade is an app that converts PDFs, images, and Microsoft Docs to digital worksheets. You can easily read a portion of text, give verbal reminders, or just say good luck on an assignment. Every assignment can be an opportunity to coach your students.

Mote is another excellent piece of tech for adding audio comments. Mote is a Google Extension that allows you to easily add audio to your Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides, and even email.

Your students will feel like you are sitting alongside them as they complete their assignments. You can coach a student to success with audio comments because your voice is one of your most powerful tools.

TeacherMade for higher order questioning

It can feel like online assignments have to be simplified because the tech can’t handle all the options that a paper and pencil assignment can cover. This is not true with the TeacherMade app. TeacherMade is an online interactive worksheet maker that takes existing PDFs and images of worksheets and turns them into engaging online assignments.

There are various question types to incorporate into your online assignments like short answer, open response, matching, hot spots, dropdown, and more. You can even require your students to show their work, just like a traditional paper assignment. Using the audio tool, you can require students to explain their thought processes.

TeacherMade gives you the flexibility to ask students the exact question you need to ask. This means you will be able to assess them at a much higher level.

Be practical and flexible for a smooth start to your school year

School will be different this year, but it’s different every year. Before you jump on or off the ed tech wagon, be practical with your methods. Trust your instincts, and do what’s best for your students. Online Teacher tools should never feel harder to use than what you’re usually doing in the classroom. They should support your teaching and not supplant it.