Teachers: Find Teaching Strategies that Work with these 10 Online Tools
As the new school year approaches, many young people will begin their diligent work in pursuit of an education. My son will be starting his first year of kindergarten this month, and I’m sure his teachers have been hard at work in preparation for their new students.
To do my part to help teachers find new ways to incorporate online tools into their teaching strategies, I’ve compiled a short list of resources on the web to assist teachers from kindergarten to college.
10 Teaching Strategies
1. Prezi
Although using Microsoft Powerpoint has been a staple of teaching strategies for years, new web-based technologies like Prezi are gaining ground, making the creation of lesson plans simple and even cool. One feature that can be a great asset to teachers is PreziU, which is a built-in educational community that inspires the contribution of new presentations across the globe. Prezi has also integrated Facebook, Twitter, and other popular sharing options to make this product more social.
Browse the Prezis on their website, and you’ll find lesson plans on multiple subjects to help you decide how to build your own. When conducting my own search, I found a presentation, which emphasized the importance of storytelling to businesses, called What are Great Stories Made of?
Prezi is easy to use, and is a more contemporary learning tool for students to relate to. Don’t be surprised if you see your students using Prezi themselves.
2. DropBox
Imagine you’re a History teacher. Upon arriving to your classroom, you realize that in your rush to feed the cat as you left for work this morning, you forgot a vital document like a syllabus. Are you doomed? Probably not, because if you’ve setup a DropBox account, you’ll have access to your important files not only on the web, but on your laptop, and mobile device as well. Things happen. Laptops get drenched in coffee. But since the possibilities for calamity are endless, choosing DropBox will always provide you with a backup you can access on the road at a teachers conference, or on a stressful first day of class. The key features are highlighted in this video, which provides a synopsis of the merits of DropBox.
Video: Using DropBox
There are many reasons why teachers will find DropBox not just a useful tool for keeping their documents safe and available no matter where they are, but as a way of organizing their workflow. With DropBox, teachers can also collaborate on teaching strategies by sharing files via the web with their colleagues. Being able to collaborate without conducting a meeting makes for a more flexible workday, which can be useful considering the demanding schedules teachers often have.
3. FollowUpThen
Building successful teaching strategies is only part of the work of making yourself more productive. Being proactive can sometimes be a chore, and even exhausting. Many teachers find themselves on committees or other organizations that require a great deal of following up on their part. So if you’re taking the lead on an organizing effort, why not use FollowUpThen?
This email-based product is one of the simplest online tools I’ve encountered. You don’t even have to download any software. Just send an email to 2minutes@followupthen.com in the To: section of your email and you will see an example of what FollowUpThen has to offer. Now you can be sure that colleagues you send emails to will follow up, or you can be reminded when an important task is due yourself.
The fact is that online tools can be hard to find and sometimes difficult to incorporate into your daily routine, but FollowUpThen takes a skill you use each day and makes it work for you.
Video: Using FollowUpThen
A list of online tools for teachers wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Google Calendar. It’s safe to say that most people have an email account by now. If you don’t, prepare for extinction. What some may not know is that Google’s email solution, known as Gmail, also includes a suite of other products. One of these products is your Google Calendar.
When sending emails back and forth via Gmail, you’ll also be able to send invites to important events, share your schedule with other teachers, and access your calendar via Google Calendar on your mobile device. You can even organize your family plans with Google Calendar. So while you’re planning that important PTA meeting, you can also be planning your summer vacation.
5. Skillshare
Traditional educational paths are becoming, well, less traditional. As the video below demonstrates, there are many ways to use online tools to bridge the gap between traditional teaching strategies and web-based resources.
If you’re an expert at public speaking for example, you may want to share your highly desirable skill with people in your community. But maybe teaching a class at the community college is not your ideal choice. Skillshare provides you with web-based tools for bringing that vision to reality, and the best part is you might even get paid for it.
As I scrolled through potential courses being offered, I found a free class in San Francisco called “How to Teach a Skillshare Class.” This may be a great place to start. Just think of all the skills you’ve gathered throughout your career. Share them with the world for free, or as a way to make a few extra bucks.
Video: What is Skillshare?
Here teachers will find plenty of resources for their classrooms. From articles on teaching strategies to reviews of the latest software, as well as ways to incorporate technology into your classroom curriculum, WeAreTeachers.com will provide you with great content related to teaching. You’ll even find tips on getting grants for your teaching projects.
Considering the big hit education has taken in recent years, odds are it’s good to know where to look when you’re on the job hunt. TeachforAmerica.org not only helps put prospective teachers to work in communities all over the country, it also manages a blog based on trends in the education industry, providing tips for teachers and community leaders.
Grammar seems to slip up even the most apt pupils of the English language, but with Grammar Monkeys at your side, you’ll find a down and dirty guide to monkeying around with language. The often funny blog maintained by the Wichita Eagle will have you going bananas.
So maybe you just need a laugh, or maybe you’d like to introduce a fun way for students to learn grammar usage. Either way, you’ll get a kick out of this fun blog about the peculiarities of the English language. Grammar Monkeys does a great service to education with its highly informative blog.
9. Poets.org
As a poet, I have to include this on the list, not just because I love poetry, but because I believe that poetry is a great resource for educators. You won’t just find poems here, but a whole section devoted to education, providing practical examples of how teachers can incorporate poetry into their curriculum. Also, it’s never too late to start planning for National Poetry Month, either.
10. Sophia.org
With this online tool you’ll find your students more engaged, and you’ll be teaching them valuable computer literacy skills at the same time. Sophia.org is asking teachers to “flip” their classrooms. They’re attempting to challenge the traditional model of lecture-based pedagogy, which uses homework as its barometer for success.
Sophia.org will provide teachers with quick web-based training on how to use their tutorials as homework and increase in-class engagement with interactive learning plans. They’ve shown that 85% of teachers who flipped their classes have seen improvements in grades.
Hopefully these web-based tools will help you to get the school year started off successfully. Feel free to share your favorite online tools in the comment section below.
Bonus: One last website worth mentioning as a bonus, is Khan Academy. If you haven’t heard of it yet, see for yourself. It saved my life in my senior year of college while I was studying Statistics.
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