10 Sites Teachers Really Love

10 Sites Teachers Really Love (Sorry Admins)

Though it’s the administrators’ job to steer the ship with regards to technology use in school, every teacher has their favorite edtech websites and apps they love to use with their students.  After all, teachers are the ones who work most closely with their students and know which technology best meets the specific needs of their class.  I’ve heard from many teachers over the years I’ve been writing this blog of new tech tools and their standby favorites.  Here’s a list of some of teacher’s most talked about edtech websites and apps that might not yet be on your admins’ radars:

*In no particular order

1. emaze — Emaze brings presentation creation to the next level.  With beautiful template designs and engaging animations, whether you’re creating an overview for a lesson or having students create a presentation for a project, emaze is sure to inspire your class.  Emaze is easy to use, fun for all, and will spice up any presentation. (https://www.emaze.com/education/)

2. BoomWriter — Using a unique collaborative writing and peer assessment platform, BoomWriter features interactive tools for fiction writing, vocabulary development, and assignments across grades 2-12 for all subject areas.  On BoomWriter, students write their own individual pieces, submit to you for feedback, and then all review the anonymous submissions of their classmates to vote for the best entry.  This process continues until the story, assignment, or project is complete. (https://www.boomwriter.com/)

3. Kaizena — Kaizena is one of the most innovative way to provide students with personalized and in-depth feedback.  With audio feedback, curated lessons, chat features, and skills tracking, Kaizena is your comprehensive solution to provide each student with the detailed assessment you want, easier and faster than grading by hand.  Kaizena also seamlessly integrates with Google Drive, so keeping track of everything is a breeze. (https://kaizena.com/)

4. TextHelp — Using award-winning assistive learning technology, TextHelp supports students of all ages through reading, writing and language learning.  With a host of different learning solutions, TextHelp can help build students’ confidence and understanding both in the classroom and at home.  Many of TextHelp’s tools integrate with Google, and their software for exams and assessment is aligned with the Common Core and other State Standards. (https://www.texthelp.com/en-us)

5. Formative — Formative is a great standards-aligned way to go paperless in your classroom for all your assessments.  You can easily and quickly transform your current files onto Formative and start getting live results from students.  Students can show their work and receive your feedback in real-time. (https://goformative.com/)

6. Canva — Infographics are a great way for students to showcase their comprehension of a lesson, and Canva features great templates that make it easy for students to create and design.  Canva has tons of presized and themed templates great for students to incorporate in their work and projects. (https://about.canva.com/education/)

7. Buncee – Buncee is a wonderful tool that educators are using everywhere for project based learning, digital storytelling, presentations, flipped lessons, and much more.  Best of all, is the educational portal that allows teachers to create/manage student accounts in a safe environment.  There is even a free iOS app for mobile learning that allows users to share projects publicly/privately.  Finally, there tons of educational resources/projects for educators to browse through on the site or app.  (https://edu.buncee.com/home)

8. EDpuzzle – Edpuzzle is a fantastic free tool (site/app) for editing a video, cropping, adding quizzes/polls, narration, etc. then embedding into a site/blog.  It is being used to flip a classroom or lesson, project based learning, grading/assessing, and even for differentiating instruction.  The educational portal allows students to sign-up w/out needing an email account and lets educators to track student progress in real-time.  (https://edpuzzle.com)

9. Storyboard That – Storyboard That is an excellent Web 2.0 site/graphic organizer for schools that educators everywhere are using for a wide variety of purposes such as: digital storytelling, writing prompts, project based learning, timelines, and much much more.  Also, the educational portal makes it easy to track and monitor student progress while generating detailed reports.  (http://www.storyboardthat.com/education)

10.  The Answer Pad – The Answer Pad is a great student response system and mobile learning tool that allows educators to turn their classroom paperless and do all testing/assessing on an iPad.  Teacher are using Answer Pad to differentiate instruction and assess learning in real-time as they push out their lessons to a student’s iPad. (http://theanswerpad.com)