If we learned anything from the pandemic, it is that there are a lot of amazing, helpful, timesaving digital resources out there for teachers. Sometimes we can be a little reluctant to try something new because of the effort (or expense) it takes to try new things. It’s a different story, though, when another teacher can vouch for the awesomeness/practicality/ease of that resource, so we thought we’d share six of our time-tested favorites with you.
Our Favorite Time-Saving, Effort-Saving, Paper-Saving Digital Resources
A game changer in our approach to teaching texts both long and short. Embed questions into texts from the AL library or upload your own. Add links, videos, audio, you name it. There are both free and paid versions of this platform. Money well spent in our opinion!
You can also add questions to audio and video, making this a multi-use platform, and we all know the fewer places we have to send our students, the better!
After more than a decade of teaching grammar using bell ringer lessons we cobbled together and enhanced ourselves, we decided to cut our losses and try Quill. Students take placement tests to determine specific grammar skills they need help with. Personalized lessons mean everyone works at their own level. This free program offers resources for English learners all the way through Advanced Placement.
Quill is always adding to and refining their offerings, which is so refreshing. They’ve recently expanded their offerings to include reading resources focused on helping your students read a text and find evidence to support a writing prompt. Lots of students will benefit from that practice.
Another pandemic find that is still useful back in the classroom. If you know students will have difficulty following directions, not remember what you told them, or would benefit from seeing you run through a quick “how to,” Loom is the solution. Rather than repeat yourself, direct students to the screencast.
Digital resources like Loom are also helpful for absent students and students with IEP and 504 plans that require more detailed directions. Parents (yes, even of high schoolers) have appreciated it too, especially when they’re trying to help their students at home but aren’t quite getting a full picture of what happened at school.
There are lots of flashcard apps for students, but Kahoot is meant for teachers, meaning it’s easy to see who’s done what, embed activities in your LMS, and use it in the classroom. Make sure your students get accurate information (is there anything more ridiculous than seeing your students have all selected the absolute worst set of flashcards for studying literary terms, word parts, or other content you’re assessing? ?).
We love watching our students engage in a little friendly competition with live classroom play or having our students practice independently and see where they land on the leaderboard. Kahoot is the type of resource we often think of when we’re talking about digital learning and digital resources (or if you’re more opposed to the idea, the gamification of learning), but it does get students reviewing those flashcards much more willingly than their paper predecessors. The option to add graphics and GIFs can help make less engaging review material more fun, or help your second language learners more easily decipher meaning.
We all have nothing but the best intentions to keep up with the newest, most popular YA books so we can make meaningful, engaging book recommendations to our students . . . and then life gets in the way. Rather than stop making recommendations or locking yourself away for the weekend to catch up on your YA reading (which could be fun), check out Brightly. This site is an excellent resource for YA book finds covering many areas of interest.
This might also be one of the digital resources you add to an ongoing list to share with parents at back-to-school night or during a conference when you’re trying to encourage recreational reading with your students.
Anyone else dread making new seating charts? It feels like a nearly impossible puzzle to construct and someone is always unhappy with their placement. Not only do you have to keep in mind the needs of special education students and those with 504 plans, you have to remember who is tall and who is short, who needs a new prescription in their glasses, and who talks so softly you can’t hear them if they’re more than three feet away.
You have to keep in mind personalities that conflict, those that go together too well, and the couple that may or may not make it to the end of the week. We have tried A LOT of seating plan apps and even tried to come up with our own solutions (very time-consuming and not user friendly). One of our life-saving (okay, time-saving) digital resources, Mega Seating Plan is so easy to use and even allows you to mark students who cannot be sat together . . . even when you randomize your seating charts because, let’s be honest, that’s where we all start.
