Apps for Teachers

Apps/Technology Tools

1. Class Messenger

2. Class Dojo

3. DropBox

1. Class Messenger

Class Messenger is a way for teachers to keep parents privately aware of what is going on in their child’s classroom. Teachers can send messages individual parents or those of the entire class, reminding them of upcoming school trips, prompting them to volunteer, or surveying them regarding certain material. Messages and push notifications also sync across both mobile and desktop platforms, ensuring up-to-date content. This app would come in great handy if you forgot to make slips to send home or forgot to pass out. It would also keep the parents up to date 24/7. 

2. Class Dojo
ClassDojo isn’t your typical classroom-management platform. Whereas others concern themselves with gold stars and charts, this app lets teachers emphasize positive feedback, allowing you to elaborate on the behavior of your students with comments such as “working hard” or “participating.” You can even send parents public and private messages regarding their child’s progress, and if they desire to do so, they can view their child’s feedback in real-time. The best part of this program will restrict the student from foreging signatures, not showing the parents their behavior charts and simply provide the parents with detailed explanations as to why their student was on a specific color. A con would be parents not having tech savy phones so you still have to send home paper reports.

3. DropBox 

The service and accompanying application are terrific when it comes time to upload and store presentation photos, assignments, videos, and anything else you might need to access while at home or in the classroom. The dedicated app also lets you create and edit Microsoft Office files on your mobile device, and moreover, share file links with your students so you don’t have to clutter their inbox with a cacophony of enormous files. The only con I could see is the file not saving properly.