Today I’m going to go through the tools that I use the most in my online classes. Now, each of these tools serves a different function in the online classroom, but putting them all together is going to make sure that your classes are productive, fun, and engaging for your students.
Zoom
So, the first tool is where are you going to teach? Obviously, when you’re teaching online, you don’t have a classroom. So, I use Zoom. Zoom, for me, is the best video conferencing tool out there for online teaching. I love their scheduling options. It’s so simple to set up a meeting, send it to your students, and for your students to get access to the class. It’s also very stable. We used it during the pandemic with over 400 students, and there were very few problems, which is pretty impressive. You can also annotate the screen, so you can take anything you’re looking at and start to annotate over it. There’s also a chat function, which works really well, especially if your students are having problems connecting to the class. And there are also some nice video filters that can add something fun to the classroom too.
Zoom’s whiteboard
Once you’ve got a place where you can teach your students, in this case Zoom, you’re going to need this: a whiteboard. Now, the whiteboard I’m going to recommend is Zoom’s whiteboard. This makes sense if you’re going to use Zoom; you might as well use their own whiteboard, which is actually one of the best out there. It’s got all the features you’d expect with a whiteboard. You can have your students annotate the whiteboard as well, so you can get your students collaborating. And now, with Zoom’s new whiteboard, you can create up to three whiteboards before the class.
If you’d like to find out more about Zoom’s new whiteboard, then go check out my post right here.
Padlet
My third tool is Padlet. For some students, the experience of receiving classes online can make them feel a bit isolated and disconnected. So, any kind of activity that gets the students collaborating with each other is really important. Padlet has a really cool variety of collaborative boards that can help get your students collaborating instantly and also help them to be creative.
There are lots of different activities that are perfect for the online classroom, and I wrote a post on those just right here.
Baamboozle
The next tool that I have to say I use in almost every class is Bamboozle. Bamboozle is a perfect way to review and even test your students’ knowledge of content you’ve been studying in class. The variety of games that are available means that no game is ever the same, and your students will always respond positively to practicing language in this way. It works with almost any age group or level because you can use it with kids, teens, and even adults. Actually, the adults are the ones that like it the most. Like I said, I’ll use it to review language, but I’ll also use it at the end of the class just as something fun to do before we all say goodbye. Remember, it doesn’t always have to be a game about something you’ve been studying; mix it up, play games that are about content that the students are not familiar with. While content is just a bit of fun.
I did a tutorial on Bamboozle, which is just right here.
Quizizz
The next tool I want to talk about is how I test my students, and testing is a big part of any classroom. For this, I use Quizizz. The reason why I use Quizizz is that when you go to assign a quiz, there are a lot of different options that make the quiz a little less serious. For example, we can limit the amount of time the student has to do the activity. We can show the answers after they’ve completed each question or after they’ve completed all the questions. We have a Redemption question, we have an extra life and power-ups, we can also set a timer, show the leaderboard, play some funny music, and even show the students some memes after each question. Now, you don’t have to use all these options, but using some of them will make the test feel a little less serious, and hopefully the students will perform better in the test.
Classdojo or Google Classroom
Now, the next and final tool that is really important in an online classroom is how are you going to keep in touch with your students when they’re not in class? So, I’ve got two recommendations. If you’re working primarily with children, I recommend Class Dojo. If you’re working with teens or adults, I’d recommend Google Classroom. Both free. Class Dojo is perfect for kids as you can get the parents involved, and you can give students points for good behavior in class, and it’s all about positive reinforcement. So, we use Class Dojo in our school, and our students love it. You can share documents with your students; the students can build their portfolios, and the parents can connect and see how their student is getting on by looking at how many points they’ve won this week and the previous week.
If you’d like to learn more about Class Dojo, then I did make a tutorial right here.
Also, if you are looking for a tool that allows you to monitor your students more carefully, then check this post here.
For those working with teens or adults and you want it to be a bit more professional, then Google Classroom is another great option. It’s completely free, and it’s really simple to use. You can get your students into the classroom really easily by inviting them or giving them the code to access the classroom. All they need is a Gmail account. And with Google Classroom, you can share everything you need to share with a student: you can share videos, websites, documents, anything. So, if you’re the kind of teacher who likes giving your students homework, well, Google Classroom is for you.