Work Smarter Not Harder: 3 Life-Hacking Teacher Tech Tools

While I love fall, it’s also the time of year when our stress level starts to rise and teachers begin digging into their toolboxes to find resources that will not only make their students happy, but their lives easier. Recently I had a teacher stop by after school looking for a new tech tool to help with a project she was debuting with her students. She was looking for a tool that would work with the Google Education Suite that would allow students to organize and create timelines. 

After going through some of my notes from our last NETA conference, I found some amazing tools that would more than rise to the challenge! 

Here are three tools I am going to promote to my teachers to help them work smarter not harder over the coming months.

• Flippity.net: If you have a Google Account you need to know about Flippity. It links with your Google Account and provides you with templates for teacher go-tos such as: name choosers, brackets, timelines, quiz shows, word searches, and crosswords. Since it links with your Google Account no log on is necessary. Download the templates, check out the easy to follow instructions and give Flippity a try…it’s flipping awesome!
• Classroom Screen: This is a great tool for any classroom and will save your sanity as a teacher! Classroom Screen allows you to customize a browser window by adding tools such as a sound level meter, QR code generator, work symbols, timers, and name generators. No sign on is necessary and could easily be set as your home screen so that you could open a new tab and access the whiteboard. This would be perfect for classrooms with an interactive whiteboard especially with the quick access to an exit poll.

• PDF Candy: PDF Candy allows you to change, edit, or transform any PDF into another form. Imagine taking the PDFs and editing them, download them to Microsoft Word, merge two PDFs so that they print together, or SPLIT a PDF into two different pages. PDF Candy allows you to do this and so much more. One of my favorite features is that “Extract Text” option that eliminates ads and pictures prior to printing a larger file. Without a whole lot of bells and whistles PDF Candy gets the job done.

I hope these tools will not only make your life a bit easier, but help create a fun and enjoyable classroom experience for your students and teachers!