Pay attention to this list, since it will bring you 11 best productivity tools for teachers.
If you are a teacher or if you aspire to become one in the future, you probably want to know what are the best teacher productivity sites. Generally speaking, productivity tools are applications or sites specifically designed to produce presentations, documents, databases, charts, graphs, music, videos and many other things to make everyday tasks easier. We live in the age of technology, and it would definitely be a shame if we don’t use it whenever possible, even in classrooms. To start with the basic explanation, productivity tools definition would sound something like this; tools for increasing teachers’ productivity, being designed also to make students more involved in the teaching and learning process. So, the tools are not just for teachers, but can also be regarded as productivity tools for students, since they increase their performance and help them in their learning process. Generally speaking, technology helps us organize everything better, so if you are a user of Apple’s smartphones, check out our list of 9 Best Productivity Apps for iOS.
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New technologies for teachers develop according to the needs of the both students and teachers, and no matter how hard it looks like to keep pace with all the innovative things, some tools can undoubtedly help you express your creative side and improve your teaching. There are some awesome productivity apps for modern teachers and don’t look at them just as an additional burden to your lesson planning, but completely opposite, as something that can help you release the burden and reduce the amount of your job. For example, some productivity tools for tech-savvy teachers, those who know a lot about modern technology and use it all the time, can help teachers organize their time better and finish their tasks, leaving a little bit more time for some rest and leisure activities. These tools can help you create your schedule, share documents and power points with your students, make folders where anyone can contribute with their notes, images, files, and lists. All in all, benefits of using productivity tools are numerous, and the right time to start using them is now. Among all, student productivity is probably the most critical during the college time, since they want to focus on so many things, being the reason why there are some tech tools for college students, and LifeHack provided an amazing article related to them.
As the school year begins after a long summer holiday, the topic regarding free tech tools for teachers is more relevant than ever. In order to make the list, I was surfing the Internet and I was honestly surprised by the number of possibilities that the development of technology offers. Some websites like Teach Thought, Brilliant or Insane, Cult of Pedagogy, and Educational App Store offered a number of possibilities regarding the tools for increasing teachers’ productivity. Tech – savvy teachers were also discussing the possibilities on Quora, so I learned a lot from there as well. I gathered the useful information from all of these sites and many others and made the final classification paying attention to those tools that were mentioned most and given a lot of credit to, being marked as useful and life-changing. The ranking was made according to the ranks of these applications on various sites, such as App Store, PCMag, Chrome, EdSurge, Glassdoor, and Expert Reviews. It was impossible to find the ranks on one website, but since all of the apps are usually highly ranked, I don’t think this is a big deal. Eventually, whichever you try from the list, you will be satisfied.
Begin a new school year like a boss with our list of 11 best productivity tools for teachers.
11. Notability
This note taking app is incredible and it will definitely change the way you take notes and organize your schedule. Besides a simple note-taking, there are also additional sketching tools to capture every detail you need. To continue with the benefits, you can also add and annotate PDF files you need together with your notes. This app is perfect if you think about the organization of your classes in advance, and you can also share it with your students. The good thing is, you can use it outside the school as well!
10. Sketchboard io
This app was initially developed for business and working in teams, but it definitely found its way to teachers. If you think of yourself and your students as of a team, you should definitely share this app. As the name itself says, it is used to sketch and draw your ideas, tasks, and many other things, and the virtual white board can be filled by many people, not just one person.
9. Wunderlist
Wunderlist it’s on our list of best productivity tools for teachers because it can definitely help you in teaching, and there are actually tips for teachers on how to use this app in your classroom. The main thing is a good organization, and this app provides it. Whatever you plan and whatever you need to be done in a certain period is much easier to do with Wunderlist.
8. Edmodo
This app enables you to have a virtual classroom and to establish a control over it in a very creative and proactive manner. Edmodo has a large number of features and unlimited storage, and it can help you in creating groups, assigning homework, scheduling quizzes, managing progress, and many other things. Check it out and you will see why it is one of the best productivity tools for teachers.
7. Prezi
Prezi will definitely change the way you make your presentations and your students will definitely love it. The best thing is that you will look like a professional with the smallest effort, since the amazing features that this app offers enable you to do amazing things with presentations. You can also motivate your students to make the presentations using Prezi since it can help them express their creativity and ideas in the best possible manner.
6. Newsela
Before going into more details about this incredible reading app, I will post a link that can serve as a quick guide for teachers on how to use Newsela. This is the most convenient app for literature teachers, and it will definitely change the way your students see books and reading in general. It is made initially to develop reading comprehension among students, and it delivers relevant, daily articles from trusted news sources at the reading level for your students. It is effective, engaging, and easy to use.
5. Slack
Next in line on our list of best productivity tools for teachers is Slack. Again, the initial use of this app is for business and people who work in a team, but if you are the right teacher, you will regard your students as such. Here is an article on how to successfully use it in your classroom, as it serves to connect people who work together on the same projects. Everyone can make their contributions, connect with hashtags and @mentions. I am sure your students will love it!
4. Zipgrade
Every teacher I know thinks that grading is actually the hardest and most demanding thing to do, but this app brought it to a whole another level. It is why it should definitely be inevitable to use it if you are a teacher who does not like to bring papers home and spend nights and days grading them. This app will turn your phone into an optical grading machine, and it can also provide instant feedback to students by grading exit tickets, quizzes, and formative assessments the moment they finish.
3. Nearpod
When you open the page, you will see that it states “empowering teachers, inspiring students”, and it is really like that! Nearpod is one of the best productivity tools for teachers, because it helps you create your lessons in the best possible manner, by letting you import files such as pdf, ppt, jpg or Google slides, and share them with your students. Additionally, you can also deal with some interactive activities, websites, and videos, and if this does not help your students engaged, I really don’t know what will do!
2. Fresh Grade
This app is made, not only for teachers, but also for students and their parents, and it makes the communication among them much easier and very convenient. Besides some tools such as grading, tracking students’ achievements, as well as documenting daily classroom activities, it can also capture videos, photos, and audio of classroom work. The collected data can be published, and by sending the notifications, teachers can inform students and parents about the overall achievements, which is much easier for all of the parties.
1. RescueTime
5-star rating on Expert reviews
Generally speaking, what we all want to achieve in our lives is to manage our time better, and especially if you are a teacher, this becomes of a huge importance once you realize you have so much to do and so little time. In short, RescueTime will help you track and manage your time, as the program is designed specifically for busy people who want to achieve best from their time. The good thing is, it blocks distractions and has the mechanism of making you focused while you do things such as online grading, presentation making or similar things. It can track the amount of time you spend on various activities, also checking the statistics to see where you are losing time unproductively. The fact that we all need RescueTime in our lives brought it to the first place on the list of best productivity tools for teachers.
