Top 10 Tech Tools

Starfall is a student focused website geared toward teaching English literacy and fluency. The site mainly focuses on teaching proper reading and spelling skills, but does offer activities to assist in learning math, about seasons, telling time, and even more. For one of the upper proficiency levels it offers, children have the option to learn about poetry, music, and even the people who created a certain piece of music or poetry. Each activity has some sort of interactive aspect, the option to have things read aloud directly from the story page, and most (if not all) feature short quizzes at the end to test what and how much information a child has retained, and to engage their critical thinking skills.

StoryJumper is a free website that students and teachers alike can use to create their own digital stories, complete with simple mechanics, customization features that are easy enough to use, and even more handy features that make for the production of fully unique projects. StoryJumper could be (and has shown to be, even) incredibly useful in getting students engaged in different lessons- no matter the material- and help them to apply the information in ways they can understand. As it's free to use, it's also free to share, meaning you can invite anyone to view your creations and share them through various platforms such as email, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter to name a few. You can even purchase your story as a physical book or ebook if you want, which makes for a great way to show parents what your students have been learning in class!

AR Flashcards is a free app meant to be used with physical flashcards that are available to print for free off of the app's website. When using the app, you or your students can use the camera on your respective smart devices to scan the cards (letters, planets, colors, shapes- and more!), and the app will display a figure that corresponds to whatever's on the card. With the animal alphabet pack, for instance, when the card is scanned, the app displays a 3d-rendered animal that matches what letter is on the card's face, that even reads out the name of the animal and makes the animal's sound. This is a great way to get students involved and interested in their lessons, and will probably something that's very hard to get bored of, considering the range of topics that the card packs cover. And sure, some of the renderings might look a little wonky, but that just adds to how cute the app is!

Quiver is a free app that functions somewhat similarly to the AR Flashcards app, in the way that it uses augmented reality to bring a "flat" concept to life. With Quiver, kids of all ages can print pages off of the app's website, color them, and then scan them using the app and camera on their respective smart devices, and watch their handiwork turn into a fully-rendered 3d figure right on their screen- that looks just like the one they colored. There's a variety of themed pages, and even an app from the same developer that's specifically geared towards education. Certain coloring pages even have little cinematics or games that run once they're colored and scanned, which makes the experience even more interesting and fun!

Quizlet is a website that can be used by teachers and students alike, and it really can be used to learn just about anything. The most typical way it's used is to create flashcard sets that can be accessed by anyone from basically any device with online capability, so that they can review information that was taught in a lesson they may be covering in class. There are even ways to create interactive games and lessons as well as the basic flashcard sets, which makes for a great interactive learning experience.

Piktochart is a website made for creating graphic organizers, infographics, and charts about virtually anything. With easy-to-use customization features, it'll be a breeze to make graphic organizers for your lessons or posters for your classroom- or whatever you want! With easy-enough features, students could even use the site to connect to information they've been learning in their lessons in ways that are unique to them, making it fun to draw on things they've been taught in class. Basic features of the site, such as a multitude of templates, backgrounds, and fonts are free to use and fantastically simple to edit once you get the hang of it, which makes the creative possibilities endless.

Kahoot is a free and easy-to-use site that's meant for creating interactive quiz games about- well, anything you want, really! Teachers and students can create their own quizzes, and those who take the quiz can enter a nickname once they enter the quiz's specific code to enter, and their scores are logged as the game goes on. Kahoot is an easy way to get some healthy competition going in the classroom with its fast-paced fun, interactive, engaging approach to things, and even better is the fact that students who'd rather not broadcast their score can use a screenname other than their own name to remain anonymous.

Funbrain is a free site that acts as a browser for interactive educational games, books, and videos for students in grades PreK-8. With a large, varied selection of subjects to choose from, there's almost no way for kids to get bored of exploring what's in store. Site features can be used virtually anywhere, on basically any device with internet access, so kids can even play, read, or watch at home if they want, too. There's even a junior version of the site made just for younger students!

Photomath is a free app, made for- well, exactly what it says! Once a math problem is written or typed out, you and/or your students can scan it with the app after attempting it to check the answers, and it will show you whether you're right or wrong, and how you can get the right answer in the case that it's incorrect! Gone are the days of struggling for indefinite amounts of time over problems you just can't understand, because with this app, you can have it all. The biggest plus has to be that it actually takes you through a detailed, step-by-step work process to illustrate why the correct answer is the correct answer, instead of just spitting out numbers that could possibly leave you even more confused than you were in the first place. The app could be used in the classroom, but will probably have a better chance of meeting its potential if used as a homework help tool, since it's not always a given that a student's parents can help them with their math homework, whereas teacher help can easily be given in the classroom.

BrainPOP is a website with a wide variety of lesson topics and subject material, stocked with educational games, animated videos, and other activities that are perfect for really pulling students into a lesson. From arts and music to math and science, there's a huge amount of content for each subject, so there's almost endless possibilities to how you can use the site. When watching videos, teachers have the option to pause and ask comprehensive questions that go along with the video, or can choose to give their class a quiz on the video once its over instead. Each animation is incredibly eye-catching, making it easy to stay focused, and the wide range of material means that the site can be used for just about any grade level.