Any teacher will know that preparing for lessons can be a bit hit-and-miss. It’s a balance between finding educational tools that work come class time and making sure that any time dedicated to preparing for lessons is used efficiently. Whether you are a teacher or a homeschooling parent we wanted to share with you some great teacher tools to make your teaching time more efficient and help you save time overall. These classroom management tools are a great way to help you be prepared for your lessons. Let’s take a look at some educational resources and online tools that will help you educate in an engaging way.
Creative Fabrica Teacher Club Card
As a former teacher myself, I am very happy when I see that teachers get to share their problem-solving content with other teachers. It’s great to be able to see that some of the best teaching tools available are actually created by other teachers! The Creative Fabrica Teacher Club Card is a really great tool for teachers looking to buy content that has been tried and tested (and created) by other teachers. Not only will you get your hands on some great resources, but you will be able to help other teachers as 100% of the money from the Teacher Club Card membership goes back to the teachers.
So, how can you get your hands on some of the best teacher tools?
Our readers can take advantage of a great offer! For only £2.99 a YEAR you will be able to download 5 teaching resources per week. That’s a whopping 260 resources a year! You can basically have a new resource for each day of the school year. This is a popular option for teachers because you can always have a resource on the go. From worksheets for elementary school-aged children to high school-aged children, you are bound to find some great ways to get the kids engaged in learning.
When I was teaching I would look for high-quality resources that would save me time on my to-do list. Creative resources bring a lesson to life and help you teach various topics making complex subject matter more accessible to your students. To have so many resources in one place is a game changer as you don’t want to waste valuable time searching the internet.
Another advantage of Creative Fabrica Teacher Club Card is that it helps you differentiate in the classroom – or adapt (as teachers are now advised to call the process). By being able to purchase a range of resources you will be able to meet the needs of all students on your class list, ensuring no child or learner is left behind.
I would especially value using an interactive quiz or a range of question types prior to carrying out formative assessments. Doing a class quiz or small group activity students that still have gaps in their learning and knowledge will hopefully be filled by other students in the class. Pupils often learn best from each other and hearing an answer or explanation from peers can help students who have struggled to understand a concept previously. As a teacher, I always say that if a student can teach or explain a concept then they fully understand it.
You can also teach your students how to study and how to brainstorm as this aids learning in the long run.
In addition to classroom resources there are also printables including teachers planners and support materials. This can help you plan your priorities and times more effectively. Teachers work so hard and need to take the shortcuts that they can – I always said that there was no point reinventing the wheel.
You can purchase the Creative Fabrica Teacher Club Card today via this link.
Use free online resources
Another great way to save time is with free online resources. These resources can help you craft your own lesson plans and keep yourself organised too. Take, for example, the Google suite of products. From using Google Calendar as an online calendar to Google Slides, many of the Google Apps will help you out in many ways. From keeping track of homework assignments on set days with Google Calendar to crafting up presentations with Google Slides. These will make it efficient for you as they are a free tool that you can use anytime and even on the go thus replacing the likes of Microsoft word and Powerpoint presentations.
Create and use video content
Another way to make learning fun and to stay in the loop with your students is by presenting content to them in a way that will make it easier for them to grasp. Kids are now used to consuming video content on their mobile devices which makes it easy for you to incorporate videos into learning. This not only helps your kids learn in a simple way but it helps you present information in a more efficient way regardless of the grade level.
Look at the popularity of series’ like Horrible Histories, for example. They not only present content that stimulates critical thinking but they provide it in a fun way! This helps it stick in the kids’ minds thus making learning more efficient and fun for everyone.
Sure, you don’t have to create the video content yourself, but you can if you want to. If you do, you can continue using it for subsequent years and edit it if you need to. But if you don’t want to and want to save even more time, you can use other resources and teacher tools that are already out there like what was mentioned before.
Interactive whiteboards
Many years ago if a teacher wanted to share something with the entire class they did so via a chalkboard or blackboard. Then came the traditional whiteboard. While these two methods worked, they weren’t that neat or efficient. You needed to make sure you always had a supply of chalk or marker pens and you usually needed to wait until the last student was done copying the notes before moving on.
A much more efficient option is an interactive whiteboard. Interactive whiteboards allow teachers to display presentations, videos, and images to the entire class at the same time. The electric screen the images are projected onto allow teachers and students to click, draw, write, and touch the screen instead of the computer.
These interactive whiteboards help with student work and are great for all sorts of interactive content. They are a staple in UK schools and are present in over 90% of the classroom in Britain.
Find online resources
This may seem like a generic recommendation, but with the vastness of the internet, you can make this work for you however you see fit. There are so many online resources that can help you find teacher tools that will work for your classroom specifically.
Whether you are looking for math books and flashcards to help the kids with maths or anything in language arts or social studies you can find anything that will personally make things easier for you online. All you need is an internet connection and you’re good to go! There are also online learning and online game style learning sites that kids seem to respond to well, making it a great option as well both for your kids and for yourself.
There are many different ways that you, as a teacher, can make strike a balance between how your kids learn and finding the most efficient way to manage your time with teacher tools that help. Whilst there isn’t only one most popular tool or specific new product that will help with student understanding you can always choose from a variety of resource types and choose what will end up working for you.
