8 Classroom Management Apps for Tech Savvy Teacher

For teachers, the calling to make a difference in a student’s life is strong. But for many, the workload and burden overwhelms their ability to deliver a strong impact. Fortunately, education technology is here to lend a hand.

In this post we will be looking at 8 apps tech savvy teachers can use to better manage their classrooms. These apps give the teachers a leg up in helping to keep track and be aware of each of their student’s progress, to help them get the students more actively involved in class, to better plan and create their lessons and a whole lot more.

Most (not all) of these apps are available for free, and most (again, not all) are available as mobile apps (for Android, iOS and beyond). If you have used any other classroom management tool, do let us know in the comments.

1. Class DOJO

Class DOJO is a very helpful tool for teachers to gather and generate data on the behavior of students. This information is shared in real time with the administration and parents in order to update them quickly about the progress and status of a student in class.

By using this tool, a teacher has a number of predefined behavior options under the categories of positive and negative behaviors. A teacher can also add new behavior options to the list as well.  Every time a teacher clicks on a positive or negative behavior option of a student, a +1 or -1 is added to the student profile in that class.

The app also provides a secure communication method for teachers to send feedback about a student to their parents, similar to a continuous progress report on how the children are doing. The app is free and also available on Android and iOS.

2. Google Classroom

Google Classroom for anyone with a Google Apps for Education account. It is very easy to setup and to add participants. With Google Classroom, your students don’t have to be in a physical classroom to receive your assignements; all they need their phone. Create paperless assignments for your class to solve, then grade their submissions on the app itself.

Students not only can find all their homework in the same place, but also be more organized when prioritizing their homework. Changes can still be made to the assignments before the given deadline. Graded assignments can also carry comments by the teachers to help students improve.

Because of the nature of the medium, assignments can involve sharing links, recording media, making videos and more. Google Classroom is available for free to schools. There is an Android and an iOS app version available.

3. Socrative

Socrative is an instant response system for students. The teacher can design a quiz and release it to the students, and the students can use their phones to input their answers. Their answers will be displayed to the teacher in real-time, allowing them to have an in-depth understanding of how well all of the students in the class is grasping the concept tested.

Quizzes come in multiple-choice question, True or False, or short answers, the type of quick questions one can easily enter via mobile device. This helps teachers gather feedback on a lecture at then end of a session, aka Exit Tickets. The quizzes can also be shared among the teachers.

This free app is available in two forms, one app for the teacher, and another for the student. Both versions are supported on multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon, Chrome app). In June 2014, Socrative was acquired by Mastery Connect.

4. Plickers

If you teach a class of students who do not have their own mobile devices, then Plickers is a great alternative. It allows teachers to conduct formative assessments using coded cards, the only mobile device needed is the teacher’s own smartphone or tablet.

The app can be used to generate multiple-choice questions before class starts. During class, teachers can ask a question and students are asked to hold up their answer. With a quick scan with the app and the camera on the teacher’s phone, he or she can get an instant tabulation of everyone’s answer in class.

More impressively, the app can tabulate which student gave which answer, so the teacher can know if everyone has understood the topic of the day. Everyone’s answer will then be depicted on the board. It is available for free, on Android or iOS

5. Engrade

Engrade is an online toolset powered by McGrawHill Education. It is designed to help teachers plan, teach, improve and assess their classes.For classroom management, the app helps students keep track of attendance, the gradebook, class calendar, discussions, turn-ins, seating charts and more.

The best and most powerful feature of Engrade with a variety of options is grading students while managing student’s gradebook efficiently. By using Engrade, you can define a grading scale (manual or automatic), define assignment categories such as quizzes, exams, projects and class participation.

You can then define the weightage of each assignment category, the sorting method for assignment, or even the rounding off scheme. There is a free web version, and is available on Android and iOS. There is also a pro version that is a full solution for school-level administration.

6. Moodle

Moodle is an open-source PHP-based web application which is mainly used for producing the Internet-based online courses that can be accessed by teacher or students anywhere. There are different learning modes such as instructor-led, self-paced, a blend of both, or entirely online.

Moodle also allows the embedding of assignments and learning material from other websites as well. Teachers can use advance grading methods to maintain gradebook for exams and can use different markers to assess the assignments. It can be used at university level or in schools.

Moodle now has 66 Moodle partners in 43 countries. It is available as an Android and an iOS app. Try out the Moodle demo here.

7. LearnBoost

LearnBoost is an effective and easy to use tool which can be used to manage a classroom. Apart from regular features in a classroom management tool such as maintaining a gradebook, keeping attendance and generating progress reports of students, LearnBoost allows teachers to create multimedia lesson (text, images and video) plans.

A teacher can also view the attendance of students enrolled in a class either in traditional list view or visual seating chart view. LearnBoost provides the option to enable parent and student accounts with a customizable view. The seamless integration of LearnBoost with Google Apps make it even easier for a teacher to manage a classroom. [Free]

8. Stick Pick

Ever asked a question and not have a single student raise their hand to attempt an answer? Stick Pick helps you pick the student to answer your question. It is akin to the popsicle sticks technique, where a bunch of popsicle sticks, each bearing a student’s name, is picked one at a time at random out of the container. The picked name is "it".

Stick Pick takes the tech level higher with this app. Once the app is installed, the teacher can create a class and add student names inside. Shake or tap your screen to pick a student’s name at random. Each student can be categorized based on their proficiency level.

Stick Pick can match a student to the most suitable question for him or her, and the teacher won’t be forced to call the same student over and over again. Questions can be sorted based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, or ESL mode. This is a paid app for Android (.99), iOS (.99) and Amazon (.99).

Bonus: Kathy Schrock’s Bloomin’ Apps

Kathy Schrock is an educaitonal technologist. She compiled a collection of apps that is organized based on Bloom’s Taxonomy (and the Revised version) to help teachers more appropriately use these apps for different skill enhancement purposes. The apps are categorized for the iPad, Android, Google and Web 2.0

8 Classroom Management Apps for Tech Savvy Teacher

8 Classroom Management Apps for Tech Savvy Teacher

For teachers, the calling to make a difference in a student’s life is strong. But for many, the workload and burden overwhelms their ability to deliver a strong impact. Fortunately, education technology is here to lend a hand.

In this post we will be looking at 8 apps tech savvy teachers can use to better manage their classrooms. These apps give the teachers a leg up in helping to keep track and be aware of each of their student’s progress, to help them get the students more actively involved in class, to better plan and create their lessons and a whole lot more.

Most (not all) of these apps are available for free, and most (again, not all) are available as mobile apps (for Android, iOS and beyond). If you have used any other classroom management tool, do let us know in the comments.

1. Class DOJO

Class DOJO is a very helpful tool for teachers to gather and generate data on the behavior of students. This information is shared in real time with the administration and parents in order to update them quickly about the progress and status of a student in class.

By using this tool, a teacher has a number of predefined behavior options under the categories of positive and negative behaviors. A teacher can also add new behavior options to the list as well.  Every time a teacher clicks on a positive or negative behavior option of a student, a +1 or -1 is added to the student profile in that class.

The app also provides a secure communication method for teachers to send feedback about a student to their parents, similar to a continuous progress report on how the children are doing. The app is free and also available on Android and iOS.

2. Google Classroom

Google Classroom for anyone with a Google Apps for Education account. It is very easy to setup and to add participants. With Google Classroom, your students don’t have to be in a physical classroom to receive your assignements; all they need their phone. Create paperless assignments for your class to solve, then grade their submissions on the app itself.

Students not only can find all their homework in the same place, but also be more organized when prioritizing their homework. Changes can still be made to the assignments before the given deadline. Graded assignments can also carry comments by the teachers to help students improve.

Because of the nature of the medium, assignments can involve sharing links, recording media, making videos and more. Google Classroom is available for free to schools. There is an Android and an iOS app version available.

3. Socrative

Socrative is an instant response system for students. The teacher can design a quiz and release it to the students, and the students can use their phones to input their answers. Their answers will be displayed to the teacher in real-time, allowing them to have an in-depth understanding of how well all of the students in the class is grasping the concept tested.

Quizzes come in multiple-choice question, True or False, or short answers, the type of quick questions one can easily enter via mobile device. This helps teachers gather feedback on a lecture at then end of a session, aka Exit Tickets. The quizzes can also be shared among the teachers.

This free app is available in two forms, one app for the teacher, and another for the student. Both versions are supported on multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon, Chrome app). In June 2014, Socrative was acquired by Mastery Connect.

4. Plickers

If you teach a class of students who do not have their own mobile devices, then Plickers is a great alternative. It allows teachers to conduct formative assessments using coded cards, the only mobile device needed is the teacher’s own smartphone or tablet.

The app can be used to generate multiple-choice questions before class starts. During class, teachers can ask a question and students are asked to hold up their answer. With a quick scan with the app and the camera on the teacher’s phone, he or she can get an instant tabulation of everyone’s answer in class.

More impressively, the app can tabulate which student gave which answer, so the teacher can know if everyone has understood the topic of the day. Everyone’s answer will then be depicted on the board. It is available for free, on Android or iOS

5. Engrade

Engrade is an online toolset powered by McGrawHill Education. It is designed to help teachers plan, teach, improve and assess their classes.For classroom management, the app helps students keep track of attendance, the gradebook, class calendar, discussions, turn-ins, seating charts and more.

The best and most powerful feature of Engrade with a variety of options is grading students while managing student’s gradebook efficiently. By using Engrade, you can define a grading scale (manual or automatic), define assignment categories such as quizzes, exams, projects and class participation.

You can then define the weightage of each assignment category, the sorting method for assignment, or even the rounding off scheme. There is a free web version, and is available on Android and iOS. There is also a pro version that is a full solution for school-level administration.

6. Moodle

Moodle is an open-source PHP-based web application which is mainly used for producing the Internet-based online courses that can be accessed by teacher or students anywhere. There are different learning modes such as instructor-led, self-paced, a blend of both, or entirely online.

Moodle also allows the embedding of assignments and learning material from other websites as well. Teachers can use advance grading methods to maintain gradebook for exams and can use different markers to assess the assignments. It can be used at university level or in schools.

Moodle now has 66 Moodle partners in 43 countries. It is available as an Android and an iOS app. Try out the Moodle demo here.

7. LearnBoost

LearnBoost is an effective and easy to use tool which can be used to manage a classroom. Apart from regular features in a classroom management tool such as maintaining a gradebook, keeping attendance and generating progress reports of students, LearnBoost allows teachers to create multimedia lesson (text, images and video) plans.

A teacher can also view the attendance of students enrolled in a class either in traditional list view or visual seating chart view. LearnBoost provides the option to enable parent and student accounts with a customizable view. The seamless integration of LearnBoost with Google Apps make it even easier for a teacher to manage a classroom. [Free]

8. Stick Pick

Ever asked a question and not have a single student raise their hand to attempt an answer? Stick Pick helps you pick the student to answer your question. It is akin to the popsicle sticks technique, where a bunch of popsicle sticks, each bearing a student’s name, is picked one at a time at random out of the container. The picked name is "it".

Stick Pick takes the tech level higher with this app. Once the app is installed, the teacher can create a class and add student names inside. Shake or tap your screen to pick a student’s name at random. Each student can be categorized based on their proficiency level.

Stick Pick can match a student to the most suitable question for him or her, and the teacher won’t be forced to call the same student over and over again. Questions can be sorted based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, or ESL mode. This is a paid app for Android (.99), iOS (.99) and Amazon (.99).

Bonus: Kathy Schrock’s Bloomin’ Apps

Kathy Schrock is an educaitonal technologist. She compiled a collection of apps that is organized based on Bloom’s Taxonomy (and the Revised version) to help teachers more appropriately use these apps for different skill enhancement purposes. The apps are categorized for the iPad, Android, Google and Web 2.0

8 Classroom Management Apps for Tech Savvy Teacher

Google Polymer – How It’ll Change the Way Web Apps are Built

Along with Google Photos, Google has also rebuilt Polymer from scratch, addressing performance improvement and efficiency. Think of Polymer as an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Web, one which makes web application development so much faster using a new standard called Web Components.

Web Components allow us to create custom elements and tags for our websites. In this post we will look at how the custom elements in Google Polymer can help aid web app development. Plus, we will also look at a few demos on how these custom elements can be put to work.

About Web Components

The best way to understand how Web Components works is by looking at the current standard elements like <audio>. When we add <audio> along with the URL sources of the audio, web browsers will render this element as an audio player with the play and pause button, the time rail as well as the volume slider. Ever wonder how the player controls are built and styled?

The UI control player is hidden beneath as Shadow Roots, also known as Shadow DOM. To view Shadow DOM, launch the Chrome DevTools > click on the Cog icon > select the Show user agent shadow DOM option.

In the following screenshot, you can find a stack of <div> and <input> elements that build the UI player controls in secret.

Today, with Web Components, we can name our own elements as well. We can build an element like, <twitter> to embed a Twitter feed or (maybe) <chart> to embed a chart.

Furthermore, these custom elements may also have a couple of accepted custom attributes. In regard to the <twitter> element, you set an attribute called username which will be used to specify the Twitter username.

<twitter username="hongkiat"></twitter>

Custom Elements in Polymer

Polymer comes with a bunch of elements that account for (almost) every web application need. Google divides these elements into groups: Iron Elements, Paper Elements, Google Web Components, Gold Elements, Neon Elements, Platinum Elements, and Molecules.

1. Iron Elements

Iron Elements is a collection of basic elements. These basic elements are what we normally use to build a web page such as an input, form and image. The difference is Polymer adds some extra powers to these elements.

All elements in this group are iron- prefixed, for example <iron-image>, which is used to display an image. The <iron-image> element has been equipped with some extra attributes that we cannot apply in the regular <img> element. We can, for example, add preload, fade, and placeholder attributes:

<iron-image preload fade placeholder="http://lorempixel.com/600/400" src="http://www.hongkiat.com/img/awesome-image.jpg"></iron-image>

The above example will first show the image placeholder and then fade into the actual image in the src as it is fully loaded, performing a smooth image loading effect.

2. Paper Elements

The Paper Elements is a group of Material Design elements. Material Design is Google design language to makes user interface and experience across Google platforms both the Web and Android apps more visually consistent. Some elements that are unique to Material Design are Paper and Floating Action Button (FAB).

Paper

Paper is Google’s metaphor for the medium that underlies the content. To add a paper with Polymer, we use the <paper-material> element. This element takes 2 attributes:

• elevation to lift the Paper, hence adding a shadow to reinforce the elevation


• animated will apply animation as the Paper elevation change.

Floating Action Button (FAB)

The Floating Action Button (FAB) is a circular button with an icon, floating on the screen, usually with a stand-out color. Google suggests that this button carries a frequently-accessed function. Here’s an example:

The following code snippet adds a Paper Material with an image and an FAB.

<paper-material elevation="1" class="paper">
 <iron-image sizing="cover" src="img/berries.jpg" class="image"></iron-image>
 <paper-fab icon="favorite" title="heart" tabindex="0" class="button"></paper-fab>
</paper-material>

We will have the following result:

We have a photo with a “heart” button floating on top of it. Click it to Like the photo, adn the button gives off a ripple effect to acknowledge the click.

• View the Paper Demo

3. Google Web Components

The Google Web Components are special elements that cope with Google APIs and services such as Google Maps, Youtube, as well as Google Feed, to name a few. Elements in this group make interacting with Google services just a few lines away.

The following is an example to show a Google Map using the <google-map> element.

<google-map latitude="37.422" longitude="-122.084058" zoom="19">
 <google-map-marker latitude="37.422" longitude="-122.084058" draggable="true">This is Googleplex</google-map-marker>
</google-map>

As you can above, the <google-map> element takes the latitude and longitude to specify the location on the map. We can also nest <google-map-marker> to show a map marker of that location along with a text which will appear upon clicking on the marker.

• View the Map Demo

Want to show a Youtube video? you can use the <google-youtube> element.

<google-youtube video-id="VgmyVHYV1mE" height="360px" width="640px"></google-youtube>

Similarly we customize the output through attributes.

• View the Youtube Demo

4. Gold Elements

The Gold Elements are the elements designed specifically for e-commerce apps. Here you will find element to show credit card, email, phone and ZIP input which all have been equipped with format validation to ensure correct data input and security. Here is one example to add Visa credit card input.

<gold-cc-cvc-input card-type="visa"></gold-cc-cvc-input>

5. Other Elements

The remaining elements include Neon elements for animation and special effects, Platinum elements for offline and push notifications and lastly Molecules, wrappers for third-party libraries.

Editor’s Note: At the time of this writing, Neon Elements, Platinum Elements and Molecules are still not available.

Integrating Polymer

Want to use Polymer in your web development? Here’s how to install and integrate it into your web pages. As most Polymer elements rely on one another, the best way to install Polymer is through Bower.

Bower is a project dependencies manager that makes it easier to install scripts or styles required to run the project. Check out our earlier post on how to install, update &remove web libraries easily with Bower.

To integrate Polymer, launch Terminal then navigate to your project directory, assuming you have created one. Then run bower init command to initiate bower.json file into your project that will be used to record the project dependencies. Open bower.json and add the following lines.

"dependencies": 
 "polymer": "Polymer/polymer#^1.0.0",
 "google-web-components": "GoogleWebComponents/google-web-components#^1.0.0",
 "iron-elements": "PolymerElements/iron-elements#^1.0.0",
 "paper-elements": "PolymerElements/paper-elements#^1.0.0",
 "gold-elements": "PolymerElements/gold-elements#^1.0.0"

This setup assumes that we are going to use all the elements from each group. You may remove what you do not need from the dependency list. As the dependencies are set, run the bower install command to install the dependencies on the list.

This process may take a while as it involves grabbing a huge amount of files from the repositories. Once done, you should find them saved in the bower_components folder.

Open the HTML file you want to use the Polymer components in. Within the document head, link the WebComponents.js which is the polyfill for browsers that do not support WebComponents yet, and import the component files using HTML Import.

Here is an example:

<head>
 <script src="bower_components/webcomponentsjs/webcomponents.js"></script>
 <link rel="import" href="bower_components/iron-image/iron-image.html">
 <link rel="import" href="bower_components/paper-fab/paper-fab.html">
 <link rel="import" href="bower_components/google-map/google-map.html">
</head>

This setup will enable us to use the <iron-image>, <paper-fab>, <google-youtube> elements.

Showcases

Here are some of the web apps that are already using Google Polymer.

Google

Google used Google Polymer in the Google IO 2015 web page; Google Fi, the Google wireless service for carriers and vendors in partnership; and Google Music.

Custom Elements

CustomElements is a hub where you can find custom elements built with Web Components. It makes use of the Paper element to contain and build the list. It also provides a convenient route to install these elements through Bower and NPM.

Chrome Dev Editor

A Chrome application for code editing that works surprisingly well. This app uses the FAB button, Paper menu, and Paper dialog elements in the user interface.

Polymer Designer

A tool to build web application with Polymer elements using a drag-and-drop interface.

Daily Stock Forecast

A stock exchange report and forecast built entirely with Polymer elements.

Ele

Ele is a code editor to create and share Polymer and custom elements built with Polymer API.

Polymer Mail

An email client app for Gmail. It looks nice and fluid, although sadly, it is not fully functioning.

Final Thoughts

Polymer has an enormous scope and it might take you a while to get used to all the custom elements as well as its API. Nonetheless, Web Components and Polymer will certainly influence the way we build web applications. Stay ahead of the crowd by reading more about Web Components – references are found below.

• View Demo


• Download Source

Useful References

• The State of Web Components


• A Detailed Introduction To Custom Elements


• Official Blog of Google Polymer

Google Polymer – How It’ll Change the Way Web Apps are Built