The purpose of this article is to share with you this helpful collection of back-to-school resources to use with your students in the classroom. I’ve tried to cover as much ground as possible and bring you the best educational technology tools to help you optimize your teaching and improve student learning throughout the new school year.
I’ve organized these tools into different categories, including tools to create a classroom website, tools to manage student noise, teacher-parent communication tools, formative assessment tools, books for the first school day, back-to-school activities and worksheets, etc.
1. Tools to create a classroom website
Creating a virtual space for your classroom is one of the best educational investments you can make for your students. While you can create a class website/blog at any time of the year, the ideal time to do so, in my opinion, is during the first few weeks of the school year. This way, you can simultaneously document your students’ learning as well as your teaching.
There are different ways to use a class website with your students: It can serve as a portfolio platform where students share their learning artifacts and upload their work projects. An online classroom can also provide students with a friendly discussion center and collaborative space where they can share ideas, exchange resources, and engage in meaningful conversations.
Teachers can also use the class website to share resources with students, post important dates and class announcements, and establish communication. channels with parents. Check out this list to learn more about the best platforms to use to create class websites and blogs.
2. Tools to manage noise in the classroom
Transitioning from holiday mode with all its loud and exuberant character to the more focused and absorbed mode required for classroom learning usually takes time and effort. The first weeks of the new school year are usually difficult for teachers on many levels, especially at the level of classroom management, where sound level meters come in handy.
These are tools that help you monitor and reduce noise levels in the classroom by making the noise visible. Allowing students to visualize their noise sensitizes them to their sound levels and makes them aware of noise. There are several noise measurement tools and apps to use in your classroom to reduce student noise and help create optimal learning experiences. This list contains some of the best class noise counters to test in your class.
3. Parent-teacher communication tools
Parental involvement in student learning is an important part of the learning/teaching process. Studies have clearly demonstrated the pedagogical benefits of establishing channels of communication with parents. Indeed, there are several tools and web apps you can use to communicate with parents, two of my favorites are ClassDojo and flip.
4. Formative Assessment Tools
Formative assessment is a teacher’s friend. This is an assessment of learning and it is one of the activities you will do repeatedly throughout the school year. Formative assessment helps you identify learning gaps, discover what worked and what didn’t work with your teaching, and assess student understanding.
Information gathered through formative assessment can be used operationally to inform your teaching methodology and to design remedial and differentiated instructional strategies in the future. There are a wide variety of tools you can use to conduct rapid formative assessments in your classroom, including:
5. Printable Back-to-School Worksheets
It is a collection of resources that provide access to various printable back to school worksheets to use with your students in the classroom. These worksheets offer tons of ideas and activities for the first week of school, ranging from getting to know me activities to finding a friend, you’re sure to have plenty of ideas to use during those first few days. of the new school year.
6. Back-to-school activities
This is a collection of practices back to school activities to use with your students in the classroom. For each of these activities, I offer web tools and apps that can best help you achieve your teaching goals. Activities include Time Capsule (helps students set their goals for the whole school year), Learn to say student names correctly (for example, through the use of Edpuzzle and Wevideo), the activity of agreement in class and many more.
7. First day of school books
This is a collection of some of the best books for the first day of school. The books cover many topics and stories relevant to class group discussion. These include the importance of pronouncing students’ names correctly as illustrated in Yangsook’s book The Name Jar, the importance of creating diverse and inclusive learning environments in the classroom, stories of successful children overcoming crippling back-to-school anxieties, and more.
8. Presentation creation tools
In this collection you will find my favorite tools to create and share presentations. From having access to pre-designed presentation templates to collaborative features to work on the same slides in real time, these tools will help you take your presentation skills to the next level. Consult them to find out more.
10. Educational Technology Websites
In this list I have compiled what I think, based on my long experience as an EdTech blogger, among the best educational technology websites for educators, teachers and parents. The goal is to provide you with ready-to-use educational technology resources to help you leverage the potential of technology to grow professionally and create optimal learning experiences for your students in and out of the classroom.
