Digital Productive Tools for the Teacher

A list of apps to help teachers better manage their time and productivity when it comes to delivering their best in the classroom and beyond.

• Technology has allowed us to be more efficient now, and teachers can benefit from that.

• Change up your lessons by gamifying education.

• Keep things organised with a few simple steps.

• Explore your creativity along with your students

Between grading assignments, setting test papers and other administrative tasks, teachers really do juggle a lot on their hands!

Thankfully, technology has allowed us to be more efficient than ever before in our daily lives — be it at home, on the go, or in our workplaces. And we believe that should be a reality for everyone, especially teachers who are both heavily involved in the classroom with their students, and behind the scenes with their fellow colleagues.

Teachers should be able to give their best without compromising the quality of their work just because they are bogged down with too many tasks at once.

That’s why we have compiled a list of apps that are available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store to hopefully help our teachers to keep their productivity levels up in an easier and more manageable way.

Kahoot!

Most teachers are already familiar with this app, and for good reason!

Kahoot! is an app that gamifies education by allowing the user to create quizzes in an engaging way to spark fun. You can also keep track of your students’ records and their results from the quizzes, which will help with recording improvements in their understanding of your lessons.

Google Drive

While there are numerous organisational apps out there, we picked Google Drive because it is the most widely accessible, while still customisable enough to keep all of your materials in one place.

With Google Drive, you can keep your documents, images, videos and other files in organised folders according to your preference!

You can also easily share them with colleagues, students and parents, simply with an email address.

Google Calendar

Hands up if you have a physical calendar on your desk, filled with meetings and appointments. While it is useful for whenever you need to quickly glance for a reminder, you may find the need to check your schedule when you’re away from it.

The Google Calendar app helps you to keep track of appointments, meetings and deadlines on the go — you can also instantly create meetings with colleagues, students or parents with merely their Gmail address, and get notifications to keep you updated on your schedule.

Canva

Move over WordArt, there’s a fancy new design tool in town.

In all seriousness, Canva is a powerful platform that offers many creative design choices for your resources, whether that’s for your classroom posters, lesson plans, newsletters or even PowerPoint presentations!

Introducing Canva to your students will also encourage them to explore their creativity and design thinking skills with projects as well.

OneTab

Being an educator usually means you might be poring over resources online constantly, and we can all attest to times when we have had multiple tabs open on our browser, and how confusing it all gets after hours of research.

While this is not a phone app, OneTab is a seamless and useful way of keeping your open tabs on your laptop in one easy and convenient list, and it also helps to manage your browser speed. You also have the option of restoring those tabs individually or all at once.

A New Era for e-Learning

Teachers have truly had to adapt to unprecedented circumstances throughout this year, and we salute them for the innovation and creativity we’ve seen from them during recent times! For the teachers reading this, what are some apps you use and recommend?