Teachers Should Make Use Of These Helpful Apps For A Smooth School Year
After a year’s worth of lockdowns, isolations, and online teaching, schools are finally opening their doors again and welcoming students back into the classroom. The pandemic has shown many technologically inept teachers how beneficial apps and tech can be. This year, many teachers are going to be taking advantage of applications to aid them in their teaching. Incorporating applications into your teaching can also help to improve the parent-teacher communication process because you’re able to record student interactions and participation.
In this article, we’re going to provide you with a list of helpful applications that will help this school year to pass by smoothly.
Klassly
Klassly is a very helpful application. In fact, it’s one of the best apps for teachers when it comes to communicating with their students’ parents. It’s a very straightforward application that can be used in combination with other classroom applications. Klassly allows teachers to open their classroom up to parents digitally, allowing parents to keep up with what’s going on inside the classroom. Parents are also able to organize activities and track their child’s homework. This helps parents to stay up to date with their child’s progress at school.
Google Drive
Google Drive is a great resource if you’re a teacher. On there, you can upload learning material that your students can go back and view in their own time. Google Drive is completely free and very easy to use, which is why it’s recommended by academics throughout the world. You’re able to create documents, spreadsheets, and folders that your students can view and interact with. Google Drive is especially useful because it allows teachers to create documents and reports viewable by parents, aiding in parent-teacher communication post-pandemic, where most tasks are performed online.
Bloomz
Bloomz is a very helpful messaging application that allows teachers to update parents on school-related matters, including their children’s homework and classroom progress. Bloomz is very similar to Klassly, although it isn’t as effective. Applications like Bloomz eliminate the need for newsletters, emails, and phone calls. This ultimately saves the school and teachers a lot of time. Parents are able to log on at the end of the day and find out how their children have performed. If their children are performing poorly and behaving badly, then the parent can receive immediate alerts and notifications. Bloomz, like Klassly, is offered on Android and Apple devices.
Remind
Remind is another useful application, but unfortunately doesn’t have the same handy features that Klassly does. Even so, Remind is a very helpful application that enables teachers to message teachers and students immediately. They can do this to remind students to bring equipment, to prepare for exams, or to bring their homework. It also allows teachers to schedule important dates and appointments. Teachers are able to send mass messages, providing their class with daily reminders and learning summaries. Like with previous applications mentioned in this article, teachers can notify parents of their children’s poor performance and bad behavior.
Schoology
Schoology is an interactive application that enables students to view and receive assignments and to monitor their grades remotely. While it isn’t necessarily used for parent-teacher communication, parents are still able to download and use the application to get an overview of their children’s performance. It’s a very engaging application that’s worth incorporating into your classroom this year. Parents, after viewing their children’s performance, can then get in touch with you and make inquiries. The app’s main focus is students, however. It will make their lives much easier and also give their parents an insight into the way that they learn.
Brightwheel
Brightwheel is a very unique application, that can be particularly useful to parents who have busy work schedules. On Brightwheel, parents can monitor and manage their children’s billing, enrolment, attendance, learning plans, and message their child’s teachers directly. The application is more of a childcare app than it is a teacher’s aide. It can be a very helpful application. It can help teachers to streamline their work and reduce waste paper. Governments around the world are focusing on reducing carbon emissions, which means a lot of things are going digital. Brightwheel is an application that’s very useful to schools trying to cut down on waste paper and emissions.
ParentSquare
ParentSquare is another parent-teacher communication app, that’s similar to Klassly, but unfortunately isn’t as effective. Even so, it offers urgent alerts, attendance reports, secure document delivery, group messaging, direct messaging, and online video conferences. It also has a calendar, which parents can use to RSVP to events. Parents are also able to manage their children’s tuition fees and pay invoices through the application. In addition, parents can view their children’s health screenings, which is especially important in today’s post-COVID world.
Classting
Classting is another parent-teacher communication app, with many of the same features as the applications already mentioned. One feature unique to Classting is the virtual field trip ability. This allows teachers to connect to teachers from around the world and attend field trips through video chat. It also allows parents to supervise and watch as their children attend real-world field trips, that are live-streamed to other teachers internationally. Classting’s virtual field trip feature makes it very useful to parents who are concerned about their children’s safety when they are taken on field trips. It also allows them to supervise what their children are being taught.
ClassTag
ClassTag is a completely free parent-teacher communication application, designed to allow parents to communicate with their students’ families. On this application, teachers can organize events, create schedules and learning plans, and report back to parents about their children’s classroom performance. ClassTag can also convert a teacher’s message into an SMS text or email, which means that parents don’t even have to open the application to receive alerts or notifications. Because it’s free, parents can download it at home without having to worry about expensive subscription payments. Schools can also incorporate it into their classrooms without spending a fortune.
A teacher’s life can be very busy, which is why they need to make use of the helpful applications listed in this article. Opening lines of communication with parents and streamlining work can be very helpful.