Being a successful educator takes a great deal of work and dedication. Many teachers pursue a masters in education to develop additional areas of expertise, and most teachers work to embrace technology that can make their jobs easier. Here are some popular web 2.0 services and tools that can make a big impact.
- Curriki brings teachers together to collaborate and share curriculum. This app facilitates the sharing of templates, study guides, handouts and lesson plans. This is a great resource for finding fresh ideas or supplemental activities.
- Shmoop is an excellent tool that provides study guides for many disciplines including poetry, literature, civics and US history. The guides are geared toward children with enjoyable, easy-to-understand content.
- ClassMarker makes quiz and test creation simple. Create tests easily using short answer, true or false, multiple choice or essay questions, or a mix of question types. Teachers can randomize the questions and results can be provided instantaneously.
- GradeFix helps students schedule time for homework around activities and commitments. The site is easy to use and helps students avoid the traps of procrastination and better allocate their time.
- TeacherTube takes the idea of YouTube and tailors it to a teacher’s needs. The site features educational content, tutorials and lesson plans in many forms that teachers can use in the classroom.
- BrainHoney is a free resource allowing educators to personalize lesson plans, author curriculum, access grade books and communicate with students and parents.
- Engrade makes efficiency and organization achievable. Teachers can post assignment due dates, create student reports and manage attendance and grade books.
- DOC Cop makes it easy for teachers to check for plagiarism in student writing. The app cross-checks both online and offline sources and provides a report detailing possible issues.
- SparkNotes helps students work on basic skills including how to study for tests, write papers, and achieve educational goals. The site makes supplemental learning easy with summaries of literary classics.
- CreateDebate provides a dynamic environment that helps students debate and discuss their thoughts in a virtual setting.
- Exploratree helps teachers create better lesson plans, called thinking guides. Thinking guides help students think through different issues while leveraging or considering other aspects or points of view.
- Google Applications for Educators provides a suite of applications such as Google docs, notebook, book search, and their newest app Google picnic, which helps teachers create ideas for lesson plans and classroom resources. Teachers aiming to excel in education are always seeking to improve their skills and efficiency. Teachers are also incorporating web-based educational apps to streamline administrative tasks and expand their repertoire of inspired, engaging classroom activities. This was a guest post by Michael Leon who writes about Masters in Education Guides.
