There are quite a few guides out there for students looking to really take their learning to the next level, but what about educators? After all, you really can’t have one side of the discussion without having the other. There are plenty of great teachers out there that don’t want to just keep their performance — they want to be better than ever before. When a teacher wants to go above and beyond, we can’t really do anything except make sure that they have the resources they need to hit their goals.
The good news is that if they have an Android phone, they actually have quite a few resources at their disposal already without even realizing it. So, if you’re one of the teachers that are now rocking that little green robot phone, here are five apps to really make your life easier in and out of the classroom.
1. ClassDroid
Now, we have to say — out of all the Android apps we found, we’re most impressed by ClassDroid. That’s why it’s at the top of our list. You see, this app for Android lets a teacher control a lot of information in a very neat way. For starters, a teacher can simply take a picture of a student’s work and add it to the student’s online portfolio. This portfolio will incorporate everything a student is working on into a visual presentation that is quick to view in more ways than one. Parents that are concerned with their student’s performance will be able to see exactly what’s going on, as well as what they need to cover in order to keep everything on track. Students will like the app in action because they can see immediately what areas they’re awesome in, and what areas they need to work on.
2. Remember the Milk
OK, so this isn’t quite the only software for Android that teachers can use. Everyone can use RtM, but the software has a special place in every good teacher’s toolbox. For starters, it’s task management on steroids without the side effects. If you need to keep track of 20 different tasks for a day, then you can do that. What makes this software a bit different from others is that you can sync it between devices, which means that if you carry a second phone for personal use, you won’t have to worry about losing tasks and details. It’s also a good example of cloud computing, since your information is stored on the Cloud itself — but you can also shell out $25/year to keep your sync operations intact. As a teacher, you know how important it is to make sure that you’re staying on track all the time — anytime you get behind, it can feel like it takes forever to catch up again, and who really wants to feel that way to begin with?
3. iGrade
Every teacher has one task that seems to always come into play everyday — grading papers. It’s difficult to make sure that you will be able to grade papers on the go, especially when you have to also make sure that you’re keeping weighted averages in mind. Thankfully, there’s iGrade — it’s designed by a teacher, which means that the programming is specifically meant to make a teacher’s life a lot easier. These days, class sizes have risen dramatically, especially in the public school sector. This means that you will need to make sure that you pick up the right software to handle all of those courses.
4. Shmoop
If you put the best elements of Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, and SparkNotes into a blender, Shmoop is probably the app that you would get. The app offers study materials for literature, US history, and many other topics in the liberal arts world. There are even full biographies of famous people through history. Instead of being meant to confuse kids, the language is written clearly and in a way that’s easy to understand. When children have information presented them in a language they understand, it just makes it much easier to enjoy the learning experience on the whole.
5. PrimaryPad — Teachers have to be team players — after all, lesson plans don’t get created in a vacuum anymore. If you’re in a planning session, you will need PrimaryPad. It helps you collaborate in real time with other teachers, as well as pupils. Anyone can edit and create new information, and it’s on the screen so that everyone can actually benefit from the shared information.
Information sharing, collaboration, grade control — these are all issues and topics that appeal most to teachers. If you’re looking for ways to really make your Android phone perform better, you really can’t go wrong with something from the list mentioned above. Most of these apps are free, or there is a demo version available — so why not check them out for yourself today?