10 apps that can make life easier for teachers

​Edmodo

Edmodo is like a social network for the classroom. You can post assignments, engage students, hold class discussions, and even post a library of resources for your students to use.

You can also add parents using Edmodo's parent app, allowing them to communicate easily with you and keep tabs on their child's progress.

Edmodo is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: Edmodo

​Remind: Safe Classroom Communication

Remind is a collaboration tool, but it's different from Edmodo. It's designed to be more of a messaging app so that you can reach out to your students and their parents from one easy platform.

You can configure Remind to send messages to smartphones, regular cellphones, through the Remind mobile or web app, and through email. With that many channels of communication you can be sure you'll find a way to get through to your young learners.

Remind is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: Remind101

​TeacherKit

TeacherKit is designed to be your one-stop gradebook, attendance roster, and student tracker. It allows you to create separate areas for each class you teach, as well as making notes about students' attitudes and any incidents that occur throughout the year.

It's also able to store contact info for your students' parents so that you can get in touch with the tap of a screen. Say goodbye to that old paper roster!

TeacherKit is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: ITWorx Egypt SAE

​Socrative

Getting students to raise their hands in response to questions can be hard, but not with Socrative. Using the teacher app you can create quick quizzes, questions, and other interactions that your students answer on their devices with the student app.

Socrative gives instant feedback and allows you to share stats with your students in real time. You can also share quizzes and lessons you've created with other users--you may never have to be stuck coming up with a quiz again!

Socrative is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: Socrative

​Scholastic Book Wizard

Elementary teachers need to plan reading lists for students at different levels, which presents a unique challenge: are children in your class ready for a certain level of books? Scholastic Book Wizard wants to make it easier.

The app allows you to scan a book's barcode and get instant info about difficulty level, appropriate grade, lexile level, and more. You can save books into a library and order them directly from Scholastic, or you can simply organize a reading list for the coming year.

Scholastic Book Wizard is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: Scholastic

​Explain Everything Classic

Tutorials are great. They can explain the basics of using a website or program, give an educational lesson, or save a substitute from having to jump into the middle of a semester and teach a class with no preparation.

Explain Everything Classic is a great way to help make all of those scenarios simple. The app allows you to create animated presentations that you can annotate, record video and audio, import documents and files, and then upload to the cloud so students, parents, and subs can all make use of them.

Explain Everything Classic isn't free, but it could be worth it. You can get it for $3.99 on Android and $5.99 on iOS.

Image: Explain Everything

Seesaw

Seesaw is a digital portfolio app for students. They can upload documents and photos, make text notes and drawings, and even annotate their items with audio recordings. Those portfolios are available for you to look at whenever you need to, and they can also be shared with parents.

Seesaw's goal is to help students reflect on what they've learned, which is a major reason for them to include the audio capture option. You can have students upload reflections on assignments or progress reports and use the app to get good feedback, which every teacher needs to succeed.

Seesaw is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: Seesaw Learning

​Plickers

Anyone who's been through college in the past few years knows all about lecture hall clickers. That same system can be beneficial in the classroom, but let's be realistic: those clickers are expensive, could get lost or broken, and simply aren't practical for younger students.

Plickers is the answer to all your anonymous student polling problems. Rather than giving students an electronic device you simply give them a few printed cards. They hold them up, you scan them using the camera and the Plickers app on your mobile device, and boom--instant feedback.

The Plicker cards themselves can be linked to specific students so that you know who's responding in what way. It's just as good as lecture hall clickers without all the hassle!

Plickers is available on Android and iOS devices.

Image: Plickers

​Google apps

This last entry isn't about a specific mobile app--it's about Google apps that anyone can access from a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive are all free and powerful tools for the classroom.

You can use Google Drive for organizing your documents, and your students can use it for storing theirs in a file you both collaborate on. Docs, Sheets, and Slides are all great free alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, with the added benefit of being housed in the cloud so no one can forget their assignment at home.

If your school is using Google For Education you can also access Google Classroom, which is designed for cloud collaboration with students. If not, sorry: it's not an app you can just choose to use--it's available to schools who get completely on board with Google.

Without Classroom you can still make great use of Google apps. The cloud is the future of education, and it's time to transform your classroom.

Image: Google