Remember that a great lesson is a balance of these tools as well as traditional lessons and activities. If you use individual devices only instead of actually teaching you will bore your students to death.
10 Google Classroom
Google Classroom should be your go to tool for sharing assignments and communicating information with your class. Google Classroom is Google’s Learning Management System. I couldn’t imagine running a class without it anymore. Check out the link above to learn more about Google Classroom.
9 Google Sites
Google Sites is another valuable tool for sharing lessons and information with your students. You can build interactive web pages to present lessons through text, videos, images, maps, and more. You can even embed Google Forms or slides into a Google Sites page. That means you can create lessons with assessments or check for understanding activities built in. Having students research and learn a topic themselves to create a website explaining it to others is engaging on the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy as well as developing excellent real world skills.
Here is an activity I created to help 4th and 5th graders learn to build a Google Site. The drag and drop block format of Google sites is very intuitive and easy to use. Here is an example of a lesson built in Google sites with imbedded Google Forms, Slides, and Drawings.
8 Google Slides
Google Slides is the Swiss Army tool of the Google Suite. You can use it to make graphics and interactive assignments as well as presentations. You can publish slide shows to the web to share them like websites. You could add music to a published slideshow and share it like a video. You can imbed web cam videos or YouTube videos directly into a Slide to reinforce concepts when teaching a lesson.
7 EdPuzzle
EdPuzzle is a Fantastic tool that lets you imbed check for understanding questions into videos from YouTube, Khan Academy, Vimeo and more. EdPuzzle also gives you data about how much of the video your students watched. You can prevent students from skipping ahead. If you use multiple choice questions you can seet an answer key to have them graded automatically. EdPuzzle integrates with Google Classroom to seamlessly post assignments between the two. Check out my Lunch and Learn presentation on EdPuzzle. This unit on Civil Rights and the Reconstruction Amendments includes two example EdPuzzle activities.
6 Flipgrid
Flipgrid is now Flip, by the way. Flip is a FFANTASTIC tool for collecting responses from students verbally or as a video which is an absolute game changer for ESL students. Flipgrid is a very easy and engaging way to collect responses from students. Flipgrid allows students to record video responses. It also lets them upload a prerecorded video or photo. The app lets students customize their video with Emojis and more. Here is my page about using Flipgrid in class. Flipgrid works across most devices and platforms. It also integrates with Google Classroom.
5 Teachermade
Teachermade.com is one of the coolest tools I have ever seen. Teacher made lets you take your existing worksheets and overlay interactive elements to allow students to complete them digitally. Teachermade has lots of answer options that even grade student responses for you. Here are my resources about teacher made including an introduction and a walk through making an assignment, Teachermade does integrate with Google Classroom.
4 Nearpod
Nearpod is one of several interactive presentation tools that you can use live in class to keep students engaged and constantly check for understanding. You can also assign Nearpods to students to be completed at their own pace. Learn more about Nearpod here. Nearpod has replaced Peardeck for me on the top ten.
3 StudyStack
StudyStack is a tool that lets you take flash card formatted information and upload it into a system that will convert it into a dozen or so different game based activities for your students. Learn more about Studystack here.
2 Wakelet
Wakelet replaces Padlet for me now because it is FREE and a little bit cooler. Check out my review of Wakelet here and get inspired to find ways to incorporate it in your classes.
1 Canva
Templates for everything for you and for your students to make every amazing kind of project that you can imagine from infographics to greenscreen video productions. Please explore these Canva resources to find out how you can take advantage of your free district premium Canva account!
