January 12, 2020

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Featured EDTECH Resources Reviewed by TeachersFirst

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Stay Connected In & Out of the Classroom

This week we feature a collection of resources to keep the lines of communication open--starting with tools to communicate with your students. 

Grades K-12

FreshGrade

Create eportfolios for all students that will easily capture, provide feedback, and share student work. With this tool you can post lessons, assignments, due dates, and grades. Students can share images, videos, and comments. Parents can also comment.

Grades K-12

Class Responder

Interact in real-time with your students. Assign lessons, create quizzes and activities, then view student responses on any device. Use in a 1:1 classroom for students to demonstrate understanding real-time or as exit slips to identify areas to review.

Grades K-12

polltogo

Connect with your students in many ways. Use this tool on any device to create polls for student response during a meeting or class time. Create a question and select the type of answers, how long the poll will last, password or not, and more options.

Keep Families in the Loop

Keep parents informed about what is happening in your classroom and with their student(s) using these handy, free tools.

Grades K-5

Casa Notes

Use this site to send notes home as reminders about field trips, conferences, student performance, and more. 12 templates are included for your use and customization.

Grades K-10

Seesaw

Invite parents (and students) to join Seesaw, a digital portfolio that is free and works on all devices. Students can share their work, videos, text, drawings, and images. Students can comment on other posts and get feedback from teachers and parents.

Grades 7-12

Class Pager

Send text messages, reminders, and polls to students and parents while maintaining privacy. Teachers only see student names (not phone numbers). Messages sent via ClassPager will go to all enrolled in the class.

Unique Communication Tools

Skim through these three helpful tools for communication in (and out) of your classroom. Find resources for all grade levels. 

Grades K-12

Duck Soup

Forget worksheets, upload any PDF or Word document to your account to quickly turn it into an e-sheet gradable activity. Receive feedback in real time as students complete work. Students can even "write" on documents as they would with pencil and paper!

Grades K-12

Skype

This is an oldie but a goodie for connecting your students with authors, other classes, and subject matter experts anywhere in the world. Many new features have been added, so if you haven't visited in a while - check it out!

Grades 2-6

Tocomail

Utilize this safe and simple email service for kids by first creating a parent email account and building a safe contact list for kids to use. Once the account is set up, younger students receive and send emails in a kid-friendly format.

This Week at TeachersFirst

Check out two upcoming opportunities to learn more about classroom communication tools. Join us this Thursday (1/16) for a Twitter chat on school to home communication, plus view a related post in our Infusing Technology Blog. And, don’t forget, registration for our Winter 2020 OK2Ask® Virtual Workshops is ongoing. Finally, in this week’s poll, tell us how you communicate with parents.


  Twitter Chat: Tech Tools to Enhance School to Home Communication image

Thursday 1/16, 8 pm ET

Twitter Chat: Tech Tools to Enhance School to Home Communication

Join our first Twitter chat of 2020 Thursday at 8 pm ET to discuss the importance of school-to-home communication and tools that can be used to share information. Use and follow the hashtag #OK2Ask to learn and share about successful tools and strategies.

See schedule and learn how to participate in #OK2Ask Twitter chats »


  Practical (and easy) Tips for Communicating with Parents image

Infusing Technology Blog

Practical (and easy) Tips for Communicating with Parents

As we focus on communication this week, take a few minutes to revisit this insightful post about parent/teacher communication. Be flexible, be proactive, be clear. These are a few of the tips offered in this post which also features many helpful tools.

Learn about communication strategies and tools »


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Earn PD credit hours online

Register for Virtual Professional Learning

Registration is open for our popular (and FREE) OK2Ask virtual workshops. Winter 2020 topics include Flipped and Blended Learning, Tech Integration Made Easy with Flipgrid, Data and Charts and Graphs Oh My! Let Google Tools Be Your Guide, and others.

See full schedule and register today »


  Weekly Poll image

Share your thoughts

Weekly Poll

This week our poll asks: How do you most often communicate with the parents of your students? Submit your response and view the replies of others.

How do you share information with families? »

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TeachersFirst is a collection of curated, classroom-ready content and ideas — including teacher-authored reviews of thousands of web resources. Built-in guidance from seasoned professionals makes effective classroom technology use trouble-free. TeachersFirst is made available free to K12 teachers by The Source for Learning, Inc., a nonprofit that has been providing educational resources for more than 40 years.