My Current Favorite Tech Tools for the Classroom

I bet I am not alone in feeling like since Covid, students seem extra quiet and less engaged. I keep trying to think of ways to make lessons more engaging and to spark interest in my classes. I teach English 11 and Yearbook, so I mostly have upperclassmen. Below are some of the tools I am liking lately. They certainly aren’t anything new and you may already use and enjoy some of them- They are simply the tools I have been focusing on incorporating into class lately and spending time learning more about.

1. Canva: I have been using Canva in the classroom for years. I use it to create presentations (it can be used like a way more fun and flashly PowerPoint program), make graphics for newsletters or emails, websites, social media, worksheets, digital learning material, and more. I use it as a coach, as a teacher, and I teach my students how to use it, too. They like it for their Harlem Renassiance presentations coming up in a few weeks. It has endless font and color options, fun graphics and design templates, and a LOT of ideas that you can use or recreate. Make logos, menus, charts and graphs, flyers, posters, group work, comic strips…it truly can be used in endless ways! I made the above graphic for this post in Canva in about five minutes.
2. Popplet: Popplet is a really fun way to encourage students to visualize ideas and brainstorm. It lends itself well to creating digial maps and webs- I see it being great for book reports, character maps, timelines in history classes or novel studies, concept maps, or classifying groups of items/animals/etc. I have been playing with Popplet recently and thinking of ways I can incorporate this tool. I plan on using it next year when we read Of Mice and Men to create character maps and theme maps. You can add words, pictures, and links into the Popplets you create, all pieces added called “popples”.
3. Sutori: This is amazing- Use it for poem analysis, vocabulary activities, country reports, blogs, data visualization, reading comprehension, review activities. You can invite and enroll your students into your Sutori class and give formal assessments. Once you create and assign a “story”, students can interact with it- comment, edit, answer questions- all depending on the settings you select. Great for absent work or at-home learning, too. I like this for introducing or reviewing a unit.
4. Google Forms: Okay, not new or exciting at all, I know. BUT I only recently started to think about using Google Forms with my students as data collection. They can answer questions, give opinions, feedback, or collaborative ideas in Google Forms. You can make surveys, short answer questions, T/F, multiple choice, essay questions. Plus, it is so easy to give studnets a link or QR code to your form then analyze data after everyone has completed it. You can embed it into Canvas or Google Classroom, or whatever else you use. Easy and effective in more ways than I previously gave it credit for- I am now using Google Forms to do all of my coaching data collection, like tryouts registration, rules and regulations contracts, and gear sign ups.
5. Other apps and sites I love: Nearpod, Goosechase, Gimkit, ClassDojo, and Kahoot.