Five Ways to Leverage Tech for an Awesome Start

Better Your Gmail

Spend a few minutes organizing your inbox and contacts. It goes a long way to have a system in place that allows you to stay organized and on top of all the emails coming and going. Consider using the star method and labels to remember to reply soon when you cannot respond right away. Create folders for content that comes to you repeatedly, like “School Trip”, or use the Schedule Email option for end of day emails to go out. Create a group for your advisory parents so that group communication is efficient when necessary. You can check out more great ideas here from my friend at Ditchthattextbook.com.

Google Classroom

Use Classroom whenever possible. Use it for your advisory group. Add co-teachers as teachers in your classrooms as a way to share content and increase collaboration. “We already have a shared G-folder”, you say? Google Classroom is even better because it creates a timeline of content and our students love the ease and accessibility of it. 

Use new Google Classroom add-ons. There are a host of add-ons that Google has added to Classroom. The most relevant add-ons for us is Edpuzzle, Genially, Nearpod and Formative. You can check out more from Techlearning.com here.

Use Images

Use images to learn more about your students, especially those you advise. I love using iPad for this along with an app like Piccollage or Clips to add text and stickers to their photos. You can then use this any way you like. I have used student images on the cover of my advisory Google Classroom. For this I created a banner in Canva, see below, and added the images that way. It is fun for them to see their photos again at the end of the year. 

Create Beautiful Content

Use Canva to create an “All About Me” poster for our upcoming parent night. If you haven’t used Canva yet to create content, presentations, posters, infographics, etc. it is time to check it out. Educators can receive the full version for free simply by verifying your school email address with Canva. Then the sky is the limit on what you create. Still stuck in Google Slides or Powerpoint? Move on to the beautiful images and layouts in Canva today!