Helpful Tools During Remote Learning 2020 Worth Keeping Around

As I reflect to the spring of 2020, which honestly feels like a lifetime ago, I am reminded of some of the helpful tools from that time of remote and asynchronous learning. While my hope is that this year is not disrupted away from in-person learning, there are some tech ideas I’ve picked up along the way as I navigated teaching online that are worth keeping around. 

Google Meet 

I met with my student weekly in the spring of 2020 to catch up and stay connected. We didn’t focus on academics; it was more of an SEL time. We had show-and-tell, directed drawings, scavenger hunts, etc. Google Meet is user-friendly enough that my third graders were able to navigate both logging on. speaking, muting, and using the chat. While it is not necessary to use this with my students, I have continued to use Google Meet for guest speakers if they can’t be in person in our building, and for parent teacher conferences. My district will continue to let us schedule Google Meet conferences, as well as in-person conferences this year. I find that many parents appreciate the flexibility of not having to drive to the school, find childcare, etc. for a 15-minute meeting. 

Google Forms 

Google Forms is an amazing resource for quizzes and assessments. You can set your assignment as a quiz and if multiple choice, it can be self-grading. It has a multitude of question-types, including short answer, paragraph, drop down, check boxes, and grid. You can also assign different point values to questions. Google also offers some analytics, such as noting frequently missed questions. Even though my students are back in the physical school building, we still utilize google forms for some assignments, including almost all our teacher created science and social studies assessments. I love anything that will grade for me! 

Schoology 

Schoology is the LMS (Learning Management System) from my district. We actually adopted Schoology several years before the pandemic, but most elementary school teachers did not utilize it much until 2020. Now I utilize Schoology to “house” many resources for my students. Any link I want them to go to, or document I want them to have access to, can be found in Schoology. Additionally, Schoology has quiz capabilities as well, so sometimes I use that instead of Google Forms.