The Ultimate Teacher Toolbox: 5 Tools to Get You Started

     Technology is vast. It can be confusing. I can't even imagine being a teacher who is a digital immigrant on the downside of their career. How would I get started in the vast area of ed tech? This blog post is for you. This post gives you one tool to start using in almost every area you will need. It's a starting place. Hope it Helps!

Learning Management System- Edmodo

Well the first place to start is finding a learning management system that fits your needs. A learning management system basically allows you to have a class online. You can post assignments, take up assignments, post reminders, have discussions, have quizzes, and so much more. There are many out there, but my favorite by far is Edmodo. It's my favorite because it's the easiest. Its structured very similar to Facebook where you post items on a wall.  Below you will find a how to get started tutorial video

Behavior Mangement

Now that you have that learning managed, you need to have some way to manage behavior. Class dojo is a great place to start. Class Dojo allows you to set up a class, and then you award positive and negative points based on a students positive and negative behaviors. It does look a little childish for the older grades, but if you explain the purpose for it and have incentives it can be very effective. The best part about tt though is that you can give parents a code where they can access their students behavior in real time. It becomes another way to communicate! Below is a tutorial to get you started!

Communication- Remind

Most people in today's world communicate by text. Why not take that great and easy way of communication and apply it to education. Remind allows students and parents to join a teachers group. The teacher can then text them Reminders and other information from the Remind App without either side seeing phone numbers. It's a great way to bring that classroom outside the walls. Below you will find a basic tutorial for it.

Office- Google Drive

DEATH TO MICROSOFT OFFICE! Microsoft office is played out and quite frankly its behind. If you need a word processor, a spreadsheet maker, or presentation maker, its time you move to Google Drive. Google Drive gives you Microsoft Office in the cloud. It also has great functions to share, annotate, and so much more. Watch the video below for more

Website Building- Weebly

Weebly is an easy to use website builder. If you want your own site, this is the way to go. It allows you to input a vast array of things such as video, audio, text, forms, and much more with an easy drag and drop. If you go to education.weebly.com you can also get 40 free students accounts. Watch the video below for more!