A Coach's Digital Tools
Return or Share: https://go.mgpd.org/cdt | @mGuhlin
Need some amazing digital tools to support your coaching efforts? Here are a few. Don't be afraid to add some of your own to this crowd-sourced list. Keep these questions in mind:
How would you, your colleagues, students, and/or parents use these free or inexpensive tools...
- ...in support of coaching efforts?
- ...in your classroom?
- ...at home to support learning?
Classroom Helpers
This online teacher's helper has fourteen tools to speed classroom procedures! They can assist in tracking time on tasks and behavior. You can how tools like traffic light, timer, stopwatch, and clock can be in helping students pace themselves during activities.
Make stop motion videos easy with this tool. Use it to "make thinking visible" as students communicate their learning. This tool works on a variety of devices, such as computer, tablet or smartphone.
A quick and easy to use quizzing tool with multiple-choice and short answer options. User account creation is not required, making it easy to get on and use. It includes icebreakers, games and more.
Digitize It!
Need to create a repository of information that features audio, video, and text with hyperlinks? Maybe an easy to digest comic one-pager or book? Look no further than the Chromebook-friendly, or iOS app, available in Book Creator.
An easy to use app that allows you to digitize anything, including student work, paper, whiteboards, and more. Use it for collaborative checklists, as well. Take a picture, then you can grab the text from it or save it to Google Docs.
An easy to use app that allows you to digitize anything, including student work, paper, whiteboards, and more. You take a picture, then you can grab the text from it (Google Keep does the same), but if Office Lens can READ it to you in a variety of languages.
Scan, save to the cloud, and much more. This is a great app for digitizing content. Give it a whirl if Office Lens doesn't do enough for you.
There may be times you need a digital fax machine that you can use to send faxes to an old-fashioned fax machine. Yes, those times are rare, but there's no reason why you shouldn't have one. Give HelloFax a try.
It works great, is free, but you can pay for more features. It's a teacher's best friend, and may be your's, too.
Digital Mail Merge
Learn three easy ways to provide personalized parent communication using Gmail and some great add-ons that will make connections a breeze.
Image Editing Tools
You may know about some popular digital tools featured in the TCEA TechNotes blog. Those tools could include background removal tools (e.g. Remove.bg, Cleanup.pictures), note-taking tools, Bitmoji editing, video editing tools, and more. These are all fantastic tools that I keep close, but there are more than can make your life easier.
An easy, browser-based image editor that supports layers. You won't be confused by its amazing array of features (not that complicated!). Give it a go.
This cross-platform and browser-friendly app makes capturing and annotating images easy. It empowers you to:
Fast screenshot of selected area
Edit screenshots instantly when taking them
Copy images to clipboard or save to computer
Works on Windows, Mac, and Chromebook
Save images to an online account (but you don't have to)
This is a Windows-only program that can:
Open, view, save and convert image and video files, Scan images via a connected flatbed scanner, Create a slideshow of a folder of images (great for meetings), Edit images and adjust color, brightness, contrast, saturation, gamma, resize image, canvas size, crop, add text, paint – adjust brush size, color, shape, type, fill, sample color, replace colors, flip, rotate, mirror vertically or horizontally, straighten, draw lines, arrows, shapes, add borders, frames, convert to grayscale, adjust color depth, invert to negative, show histogram, fix Red-Eye, sharpen, clone Stamp, and lots more!
Meet in Your Virtual Office
Set up exciting face to face coaching with this no-cost to low-cost tool. It supports multiple users for just-in-time connections. Sure, there are other options, but how much more do you need?
Teach or meet online with Zoom.us. Alternatives include tools like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, but Zoom.us offers scalable simplicity. That means, it will work fine for coaching. What's more, you can connect to a 2nd device (like a Hue digital scanner, your smartphone with Zoom app on it) to take learning on the go.
Note It!
An easy to use app that allows you to digitize anything, including student work, paper, whiteboards, and more. Use it for collaborative checklists, as well. Take a picture, then you can grab the text from it or save it to Google Docs.
This simple app makes it easy to scan information to a post-it note. Once in digital format, you can sort, organize, and save as a PDF or image. You can export content in various formats.
Try this Chrome extension when you want to annotate, draw, or paint on a web page. Web Paint provides the following easy to use drawing tools that let you draw shapes, lines, and add text to live web pages and take screenshot (touch screen supported)
Project Management and Content Curation
Keeping track of who's doing what, when, and how can be difficult. Trello makes kanban boards a cinch, and eases your pain. Give it a shot for easy project management. A kanban board helps you visualize work, limit work-in-progress, and maximize efficiency (or flow). Kanban boards use cards, columns. Alternatives include Cryptpad., Taiga, and others.
Wish you had an easy way to create a collection of resources to share with students and staff? Come along as we explore Wakelet as an easy resource.
It's the end of the day, you have a million tabs open in your web browser. You need to keep them all for tomorrow, but how do you save them? How do you organize them in a way that makes sense? OneTab is the answer to your question and helps you maintain your sanity.
Video and Audio Recording
Interactive video tool to facilitate asynchronous video chats and reflections. Get a free teacher account. Lots of incredible uses. Be sure to explore the TCEA TechNotes blog to find more.
UnScreen.com makes it easy to remove video backgrounds, which can be handy in a busy environment (like a classroom). Some features:
With Unscreen you can record your footage anywhere, then simply get rid of the background.
There are tons of great Google templates available online. In this walkthrough, learn how to make a copy of those Google documents for your own use.
Use Google Workspace for Education? Mote can make leaving voice notes easy! You can add a Mote voice note to any comment box, Google Form, and include emojis.
Some alternatives (free to paid) to Mote include:
Browser-based, no extensions/add-ons required
Lets you record webcam, desktop screen, or both at the same time
Up to 30 minute of video recording and editing
Records system audio
Requires an account for saving; use Facebook or Google authentication for account creation
Allows you to have up to EIGHT projects you can work and save
Saves videos as WEBM without editing or MP4 with editing, and includes a full-featured video editor
Loom Pro is a fantastic screen recorder for educators and students since its features are free.
Add-on/extension required
Lets you record webcam, desktop screen, or both at the same time
Unlimited video recording, including system audio
Requires an account for saving; use educator organization account to get free Pro account
Saves videos as WEBM without editing or MP4 with editing
Includes a full-featured video editor
Record audio quickly via your browser, then share the audio as an MP3 file or a link to others. Easy to use for quick, public notes.
Get a free account for yourself and your coachee/mentee via the Voxer web site. This is also available as an Android or iOS app that you can load on your mobile device. Learn more about it via these TCEA TechNotes blog entries.
Kapwing offers browser-based (Chromebook friendly) green screen. You get seven minutes of green screen goodness before having to upgrade. All you need is an image or video captured with a screen that is green behind it. You can get a green background (ie., green plastic tablecloth) for $0.99 from Dollar Tree store, and you’re set to go.
It works great, is free, but you can pay for more features. It's a teacher's best friend, and may be your's, too.
Infographics
Need to create an infographic to show off how much coaching you've been engaged in? There are many tools available, but give Infogram a try. There is a free and paid version of this tool. Also consider Canva and MockoFun as additional tools in this category.
MockoFUN is a virtual platform for innovative, image design. You can create backgrounds, business cards, greeting cards, Facebook posts, and flyers. Each category is replete with templates that you can start with and make your own. Want to design an infographic with a different look? MockoFUN is your creative design buddy.
