With the summer holidays looming, end-of-term tests to grade, reports to write, recommendations for new class sets to make and prizes to award, July is one of the busiest times of year for teachers. From tying up the loose ends of the syllabus to preparing students for the challenges and opportunities of a new academic year, the tasks on teachers’ to-do lists are positively endless.
The countless tools and education technology resources the internet has to offer are fantastic for shaping up lessons and finding innovative and exciting new ways to learn, but did you know they can also help tired teachers save valuable time? Check out these top five timesaving tools to help you make it through the end-of-term chaos and slide safely into the well-earned rest of the summer holidays!
5 Timesaving Tools For Teachers
1. Quicklyst
A fantastic and aesthetically pleasing note-taking tool, Quicklyst can help save time for you and your students! Quick and easy to use, it features an outline style design and is secure and regularly backed up, making it easy to access your notes, to-do-list or brainstorms from anywhere. So remembering a stack of papers or a pile of notebooks is one thing less to worry about. One of the best things about the tool is its compatibility with a wide variety of electronic devices, including iPads, iPhones, Kindles and Android devices, so you can pick up your notes easily anywhere, anytime.
2. Collaborize Classroom
This fantastic free collaborative education platform allows you to collaborate easily and safely with students online, using the new ‘Topic Library’ feature to create and share topics, curriculums and lesson plans and distribute assignments. Better still, you can collect student responses and analyse them online, allowing you to cut out time-consuming paper collection and reduce grading time (it claims) by up to two hour per week.
3. Study Ladder
For teachers who are under time pressure, this great site is a fantastic source of ready-made education resources, quizzes, tests and games across a whole range of subjects, with graded difficulty levels and a logical progression from one activity to the next. It is a great place to find printable worksheets, or the perfect website to let students test their skills in subjects from mathematics and literacy to music, art and languages. The site also features a great resource for interactive whiteboard activities, for days when you don’t have as much time as you’d like to plan ahead.
4. Lucid Chart
This great site enables you to quickly and easily turn complex data like end-of-term test scores and percentages into simple to read charts, graphs and diagrams. In only a few clicks, busy teachers can create charts to show student progress, achievement and class performance in eye-catching and understandable ways. A great way to present a vast amount of information in a concise and efficient manner, perfect for busy teachers who need to gather different strands of data together in one place.
5. Skype in the Classroom
Using Skype’s ever-growing education site is a great way to communicate acrossclassrooms, borders and even countries. For the busy teacher, using Skype can be a fantastic way to communicate and conference with students virtually, particularly when giving feedback to mature students or long-range support to distance learners. And for teachers of younger students, using Skype can be an innovative and exciting way for your class to communicate and learn with pupils from all around the world, effectively garnering the benefits of an international field trip without ever spending time packing your bags or leaving the classroom!
What are your most successful timesaving tools? Share your tips using the comments box below!
Image courtesy of Flickr, woodleywonderworks