3 Simple Web Tools That Every Teacher Will Love.

The education technology landscape is a swirling storm. There are so many tools, so many promises, so many flashy websites with the allure of "sign up free". Some of this chaos is the natural consequence of a complex educational landscape (more on that at another time.) But amid the howling storm here are three super simple tools that will make any teacher's life easier....

How many times have you found yourself in some variant of this scenario: You are in the middle of talking to a student and in that conversation, you say to them "remember to study for the quiz that is on Friday." At this point the kid has a befuddled look on her face. You realize, 'perhaps my whole class has forgotten about that quiz.' Yikes.

Remind is incredibly simple. Your students and parents sign up (very easy to do). When you realize you need to remind your students or parents of something you open the app and send a group text message. Better yet, you can schedule the text message. Set a text to go to all parents at 6pm on Thursday night saying something like "Please ask your child if they have studied for the quiz in science tomorrow. " Parents will love you, students will appreciate the reminder. And that text you sent at 6pm, you wrote at 2pm two days before... thankfully taking it off of your todo list. 

HEAD HEART HAND

Simple... When you need a quick activity. To fill a moment of time, to handle a transition. When you completely forgot to plan an advisory activity.... Head Heart Hand comes to the rescue.

Sometimes my brain is just too full to come up with a simple idea or concept to frame a discussion. Head Hand Heart is ready to go. Have I mentioned how simple it is?

If you have not yet taken the dive into Google Apps for Education, this is the perfect way to start. Google Classroom makes it simple to share documents with all of your students, manage online assignment submissions, and communicate with you students.

If you are already using some sort of modern LMS (like Edmodo, Project Foundry or Schoology) then perhaps Classroom might be unnecessary, but if you are the technology pioneer and are looking for a way to get your staff to adopt Google Apps... Classroom makes it super easy and un-intimidating.