We want our students to learn in an engaging way while they are in class. The best way to accomplish this is to use a variety of teaching tools and techniques when teaching your lesson plan. So how do you know what works and which ones not to use for your classroom? To help you with this problem we have come up with a list of teaching tools and examples that are helpful for teachers.
Teaching is a skill that involves communicating information to others and providing feedback based on a set of goals, such as effective communication according to identified learning outcomes.
Prezi
- suitable for students of all ages
- suitable for teachers
Prezi is a digital software for creating interactive presentations. According to their research, the innovative way in which Prezi helps you make presentations – by zooming, leads to more effective, more persuasive, more effective, and more engaging presentations compared to presentations made with PowerPoint. If you are still unaware of what you can do with the software, we strongly recommend that you check it out and present it to your students. Who knows, maybe this would be one of the digital tools for the classroom that would help you keep the attention of the kids.
Haiku Deck
- suitable for students and teachers
A digital tool with whose help you can easily make presentations on your iPad, iPhone, and on the web. The tool works online and offers a huge database of stock photos with which you can create image-based slides. Haiku Deck makes it easy to create presentations on the go and literally carry them in your pocket. Haiku Deck can be also integrated into Google Classroom which has been very popular lately.
Scratch
- for students primarily between 8 and 16 years old
Although mainly purposed for students, Scratch can be used by people of all ages. This digital tool lets students create engaging projects like games, animations, interactive art, stories, and more. If your students have an interest in making programs, Scratch is definitely one of the digital tools for the classroom you have to introduce them to. This program would give the little ones a brilliant start to make them think in an innovative and creative way.
Animoto
- suitable for students of all ages
- suitable for teachers
Video is one of the most engaging mediums of the modern-day which is why you should definitely incorporate it into your classroom. Animoto is one of the digital tools for the classroom that can be used by both teachers and students for educational purposes. Animoto helps you create animated videos easily. You can create photo slideshows, stitch various videos together, add text and more images to come up with a truly engaging video in the end.
Pixton
- suitable for students of all ages
Why make students write a story when they can draw it for a change? Digital tools for classrooms like Pixton boost the children’s visual thinking and creativity while it engages them to the fullest. This tool allows little and big students to make comics and storyboards. This activity can be both educational and fun. If you are an educator, you can try Pixton for free before introducing it to your kids.
BoomWriter
- suitable for students of all ages
A great digital tool for collaborative writing. BoomWriter is suitable for children of all ages but especially for the little ones who are still reluctant to write. BoomWriter encourages students to write a story together by voting for each person’s version of the story.
Boom Cards
Boom Cards are self-checking interactive activities that give students real-time feedback on their responses.
Here’s how they work:
- You create the Boom Cards in advance or use pre-created decks from other teachers
- You use the fast play option (for free) and get a link to send to students
- Your students are shown one question at a time and given real-time feedback on their answer
- They can correct themselves or simply discard the card
- You can also differentiate instruction with Boom Cards and assign certain cards to certain students
You can only use the fast play option with the free version and you will not be able to track progress but you can upgrade at any time under different price packages. I love the idea of Boom Cards for a creative way to assess students where they won’t even realize they are learning!
Nearpod
Nearpod allows teachers to make any lesson interactive. Take those boring worksheets and make them fun and engaging. Or, pull in videos and other interactive content into your Nearpod lesson.
Let’s check out how it works:
- Jump over to Nearpod and create a free account.
- Browse Nearpod’s thousands of lessons in the Nearpod Library or create your own.
- Once you create your own lesson you just add slides like you would in any presentation software.
- The difference is that instead of just adding text or images (which you still can), nearpod has lots of other fun options like quizzes, polls, and games to make it fun.
- You give your students a code to enter and then you are ready to go!
The difference between Nearpod’s free and paid versions is the amount of storage you get and the number of students that can join at one time.
Quizlet
Quizlet is a free tool that helps teachers create learning activities for students, like flashcards, study material, and interactive quiz games. The amazing thing about Quizlet is that it can really be used at any grade level and any age! Students love the game-based feature of Quizlet and you are helping them get prepared for assessments without even realizing it.
So, let’s take a look at how it works:
- You, as the teacher, create study sets for your students.
- These study sets can be used as review activities or it can be a quiz game to help students review for a test.
- The student can log in and choose the appropriate study set, either created by the teacher or by others.
That’s it! It’s that easy. In my opinion, Quizlet is great for students because it allows the teacher to:
- Differentiate instruction with the activities that you create
- Teach collaborative skills because students are working together
- Help prepare students for assessments and tests
Quizlet, while is a great free tool for teachers, does have limitations and should be used as one resource in your classroom among the many others that you have access to.
Kahoot
Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that makes it really simple for teachers to create and share learning games or quizzes in a matter of minutes with their students. Once you create a Kahoot quiz or game, you share a simple access code that lets students log on and join the game. Teachers can create their own assessment games or use premade lessons from other teachers in the Kahoot library.
Here are the steps to making the magic happen in your virtual or online classroom:
- Create – you can design your own kahoot with images and diagrams to make your questions more engaging and to support all learners who are playing
- Play – Once the kahoot is created, teachers share the unique PIN with their students who can join on their own device wherever they are located. It is best played live in a group setting either in a classroom or a virtual classroom. However, teachers can also send challenges that players complete at their own pace (ie: homework or remote learning)
- Share – Kahoots can be shared with the broader Kahoot community which lets others access your Kahoots
Parlay
For those of us who like to discuss rich texts with students, Parlay lets us connect with students remotely, facilitate discussion, and track how the dialogue builds. As students respond, Parlay shows who is contributing and where the conversation is moving as the software visually tracks student responses in a discussion web. Teachers can use built-in tools to assess the frequency of students’ answers in real-time even when students are not in the same room. Teachers can then spend their time on a deeper level assessment of the depth of student responses, which can also be recorded.
Flipgrid
One of the most popular tech tools in schools, Flipgrid won praise from teachers across the country because of the flexibility it gives students to submit digital projects and how it effectively supports peer and teacher feedback.
Conclusion
Teaching is a profession that has taken on many different forms. It means something different to everyone. It could mean the work you do to improve your students on the material you are covering in your class. Or, it could be the students who come to you for help after hours in your office. Teaching is a broad term that can cover just about anyone who wants to help along the learning process of another person or group of people. No matter what form teaching takes for you, there are numerous tools available now that you can use to help make the process easier and more effective.