Best Tools for Back-to-School

Well-organized SEL program pairs older and younger students for discussion

Bottom Line: The AIM Buddy Project is an enjoyable, effective program for teaching SEL concepts and making elementary students feel more connected with each other.

Low- to no-prep activities for community-building SEL

Bottom Line: Simple SEL integration with conversation starters and team building.

Messaging tool helps classrooms forge and foster meaningful dialogue

Bottom Line: This tool opens up avenues for conversation and relationship building between teachers and students.

Uplifting one-stop shop for social and emotional learning resources

Bottom Line: inspirED delivers exactly what it claims: empowering, easy-to-search content for social and emotional learning.

Sleek lesson planner replaces bulky binders, promotes collaboration

Bottom Line: Flexible and collaborative lesson planning, calendar design, and classroom site creator save teachers precious time.

Set tailored targets with pricey but worth-it kit of tools, strategies

Bottom Line: You pay for quality with Goalbook Toolkit, including access to clear, well-crafted learning goals and strategies that allow for far easier differentiation.

Comprehensive site collects resources on authors and books in one place

Bottom Line: This rich database of literary resources is a must-bookmark for teachers looking to extend learning experiences with books and their authors.

Free, easy access to a wealth of resources

Bottom Line: Impressive resource opens access to quality materials for all educators.

Handy -- and free -- one-stop digital lesson planner saves time

Bottom Line: This platform simplifies lesson planning with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Digital worksheet builder lets students show learning in multiple ways

Bottom Line: Students will appreciate this 21st-century take on worksheets, and teachers will love all the different options for creation and assessment.

Magically easy way to create and publish digital books and multimedia

Bottom Line: This is a top-quality creation tool that lets students of many ages and abilities publish their own digital books.

Assign, assist, and assess with real-time, interactive classroom

Bottom Line: It's a great option for teachers who want to go paperless, provide specific feedback, and encourage collaboration among students in virtual or 1-to-1 classrooms.

Call on everybody at once with flexible, interactive presentation tool

Bottom Line: This tool's dynamic presentations strike a nice balance between information and interaction.

Versatile digital portfolio appeals to teachers, students, and parents

Bottom Line: A powerful multimedia learning and communication tool that demonstrates student progress over time.

Multimedia digital portfolios connect students, teachers, and parents

Bottom Line: It's designed with student learning in mind, and teachers can encourage students to submit quality content and engage in reflective feedback.

Superb real-time assessment tool a fit for 1-to-1, BYOD classrooms

Bottom Line: This smart tool helps teachers gather a variety of student response types and then offer targeted feedback.

Quiz tool has evolved to become interactive lesson platform

Bottom Line: More than a quiz tool: With Quizizz you can create interactive learning experiences, but you'll need a school subscription.

Nifty add-on enables audio and text feedback in Google Docs

Bottom Line: If your classroom relies a lot on Google Docs, this might just be the feedback tool you're looking for.

Slick portfolio tool has cool features, limited feedback options

Bottom Line: A neat tool for publishing online, possibly better suited to teacher content creation than student publishing.

Exceptional, simple communication, collaboration, and document sharing

Bottom Line: Though it doesn't have it all, it's an incredible tool for managing and organizing learning.

Versatile annotation tool helps users critically connect with content

Bottom Line: Kami is an effective way to promote student interaction with texts, authentic documents, and pictures.

Collaborative LMS platform helps manage classes, groups, and projects

Bottom Line: Educators will likely find that the wide variety of features Teams offers is worth the time it takes to learn how to use it.

Flexible note-taking tool empowers learners of all abilities

Bottom Line: An excellent tool that lets students make their notes thorough and useful in the way that best suits their learning styles and abilities.

Social bookmarking encourages discovery, collaboration, and sharing

Bottom Line: With a Diigo educator account, teachers and students have a safe space to organize, customize, and share Web content while learning about a variety of subjects.

Multilingual messaging tool enhances school-to-home communication

Bottom Line: Easy-to-use tool for supporting communication and engagement with families in 150+ languages.

Exemplar bridge between home and school also aids learning

Bottom Line: When used thoughtfully, ClassDojo can help adults support students' growth through goal-setting, reflection, and celebration.

Effective district-wide communication platform for school and home

Bottom Line: This multifunctional platform provides many ways for districts, admins, teachers, families, and students to connect and offers a ton of features—perhaps even too many, for some.

Messaging platform offers tight focus on school-to-home connection

Bottom Line: Well-designed, highly effective messaging tool delivers on its promise to connect home and school.

Video communication site connects users; lacks bells and whistles

Bottom Line: Far-reaching communication tool helps teachers cultivate a connected classroom.

Communication, collaboration, and learning converge with Google Meet

Bottom Line: It runs great, works on all devices, and can be used to enhance interactive learning.

Real-time, moderated online discussions can engage and encourage

Bottom Line: This tools offers a fun, simple, and safe way to hold real-time online discussions that might just increase engagement, interest, and even learning.

Safe-for-classroom videos curated by teachers for teachers

Bottom Line: It's a pressure-free place to start looking for high-quality videos to supplement existing lessons in traditional, one-to-one, or flipped classroom models.

Engage and assess students with media, videos, and interactive slides

Bottom Line: The teacher- or student-paced learning can improve 1-to-1 environments and the learning activities are top notch.

Create and edit sophisticated screencasts without breaking the bank

Bottom Line: This is the most flexible screencasting tool, but it requires patience -- and perhaps a subscription -- to unlock all of its possibilities.

Crop, customize, and remix online video content with interactive tool

Bottom Line: As a tool for the flipped classroom or for student-led creation, a cool tool for teachers to create and share engaging video content.

Interactive slideshows offer a variety of ways to engage and assess

Bottom Line: It’s an appealing platform that can improve formative assessment, particularly for teachers using Google Classroom.

Robust lesson creation and delivery tool aids assessment

Bottom Line: With some creativity, this interactive platform can support instruction and assessment.

Exemplary lessons, strategies, and coaching from master teachers

Bottom Line: Take advantage of the offerings of this professional community to improve the quality of your classroom instruction.

Super PD resource for making media in the classroom

Bottom Line: Stay on top of the trends and take the fear out of media-making in the classroom.

Quality videos challenge educators to grow within a PD environment

Bottom Line: Professional educators can watch, share, and learn in a continually updated environment.

Engaging space for tech-forward instruction and teacher collaboration

Bottom Line: A great resource to share and gather ideas on teaching with technology and media, but there are some bugs that need fixing.

Smart classroom tool if used with care; priceless for PLNs

Bottom Line: Twitter offers something for everyone: information, resources, and an easy way to connect with just about anyone.