Now that many teachers have been hybrid and remote teaching for some time I thought it would be a good idea to make a blog post of some of the best online teaching tips that work. Some are maybe already that you use and some may be new.

Online Teaching Tips

Windows 10 Snip and Sketch Tool

This has improved my own personal workflow so much. If you are making slides or just want to share part of something to insert it into any other document. Click this little tool or remember to press windows key + shift + S and snip away. Serious game changer!

PDFCandy

Do you need to extract only a few pages of a PDF, do you need to merge some pages with another document, do you need to change your document to a PDF – then PDFCandy can help – there are so many things you can do with this cloud-based platform. If you are working at all with PDF’s and don’t have Adobe Acrobat Pro then check out this tool.

FormMule

If you are using google forms for ANYTHING – then this Google Sheets Add-On is For you! An “add-on” is a tool that takes a regular product, such as Google Docs, Google Slides, or in this case, Google Forms and really turns it into something even MORE powerful. If you are using forms to collect any kind of data from your students, turn on FormMule and you can automatically generate an email to your student/parents. You can create up to 10 different templates all based on different conditions. It might have a tiny learning curve and take some time to set it up, but once you set it up, it is READY to go! Lifesaver, online teaching tip, and productivity booster in one.

WhiteBoard.FI

Wow. Just Wow. If you don’t believe me, jump over to https://whiteboard.fi/ right now and just play with it but don’t forget to come back, read and pin this blog post because the online teaching tools I share just get even better! Ok, you know in class you can give your students personal whiteboards. You pose a question and they answer on their whiteboards and hold it up to you. Well, THIS is the online version of that. The awesome thing is that you can go in and create all the “whiteboards” that you need or even better add your own custom image on the whiteboard and then push each board out to students as you work on them and you see what they are doing IN REAL TIME. Online teaching GAME CHANGER!

Turning Handwritten Notes / Anchor Charts into Typed Documents

If you still use your hand to write (I do!) – then you can digitize your writing for students to have easier access to it. Look to the left, click it to make it bigger and you can see the steps I go through but essentially you take a photo of your handwritten document. Then go on your computer and find it in your drive. Right-click on the image and choose “OPEN WITH” and choose Google Docs and voila your handwritten anchor chart or notes have turned into a typewritten document.

Mote Google Extension

I bet your remote students might feel a little bit disconnected from you. Please, please, please leave feedback on their work. I know you are swamped but leaving your students feedback on their work is essential. This extension makes it easier than typing it out and makes it a lot more personal because they hear your voice and more importantly they hear your voice say their name. Please consider using the extension Mote, to help you leave voice feedback on their google docs, slides, etc.

Online teaching is new to many of us. This is a pivotal point in education where we can change things moving forward. We can try all the tools in the world but if they do not help student engagement, student learning, or help us manage ourselves then it is a tool that will not work for you. The good thing these days is that tools to make teaching, learning and productivity are being produced all the time. I want to bring you the tools that I think are the most interesting and useful. Please pin this blog post for reference.