What are the best websites for teaching that I couldn’t live without while I was teaching virtually? Because – really – I could NOT have done it without them! Remote teaching was hard! And it wasn’t always fun, but these websites really helped keep me sane, and they kept students focused as well. I want to tell you about them, so that you can check them out too. And not just for remote teaching either, I will definitely keep using all of these even if we stay in the classroom.
The second lockdown from late 2021 was quite a challenge for me. During the first lockdown in early 2020 I was pretty confident teaching online. I’m naturally quite a flexible person and I kind of liked the challenge of going online all of a sudden, so I adapted well to this new situation. However, that was quite a short amount of time we had to do that, and the kids were still excited about the whole thing. They weren’t the second time around, and I was less prepared too. So during Christmas break I made a plan that involved these awesome websites.
What are the best websites for teaching online?
Let me waste no more time and tell you my 7 favorite websites or platforms:
- Padlet
- Jamboard
- Boom cards
- Kahoot Assign
- Google forms for quizzes
- Google Classroom & Meet
And why do I think these are the best websites for teaching?
Padlet
Padlet is a platform that allows you to share useful documents, links, pictures or other information for students on a wall. All you have to do is give students the link to that wall and they will find all that they need. On this wall you can post questions for them, and they can post their own answers right next to it. Or you can share a link to a video that they should watch. You can also share any link to a website that has online exercises that you want students to complete. Watch my Padlet tutorial here!
Jamboard
Jamboard is a feature of Google Meet, which is a videocall platform. Videocallers can type messages on a wall, and that wall is called a Jamboard. You have to share the Jamboard with students within the call and everyone can access it at the same time. What I liked to do during my videocalls was ask a question and students had to type their answers on virtual ‘sticky notes’. I knew most students didn’t want to say their answers out loud I the call, but they were eager to answer this way, in part of course because it was anonymous. Users can also add pictures or make drawings, so I also used it to play Pictionary! Watch my short Jamboard tutorial here!
Boom Cards
Boom learning is a platform of self-checking activities of all varieties. You can make your own deck of cards with questions or use another teacher’s Boom deck of a certain topic and send students the link to play. Students will get different types of questions, such as multiple choice, fill in the gap, and drag and drop questions to practice a concept. Boom cards look super professional and my students loved practicing topics this way.
If you pay for an account, you can also see formative data on your students’ performance, which is an added bonus. I never used that feature though, because in my cards, students cannot advance unless they choose the correct answers anyway, so they are automatically corrected. For more reasons to use Boom cards, check out this article by The Suburban Teacher and her super fun course.
Kahoot!
Another platform for super fun formative assessment is Kahoot. I’ve always loved it, because it works like a charm for student engagement in the classroom. I was even able to play Kahoot via video call a few times. However, if you can’t get this to work, there is the new feature of Assign that lets you – obviously – assign a Kahoot to students and they can complete it at their own pace and when they are ready for it. All you have to do it send students they link. And afterwards you can see the stats of how they did, so you can also gather formative data or even use the Kahoot as a quiz. Try a quick one here, just for fun!
Google Forms
As the lockdown continued, my colleagues and I found ourselves in need of some clearer testing moments for students, especially for reading and listening skills. So what we did was we added a text – for reading – or a video – for listening – to a Google Form, posed some questions and told Google Forms what the possible correct answers were, and shared the link with students. All they had to do was enter their name and class, answer the questions, and submit the form, and we collected our quiz data. Google Forms looks a little more serious, and so I felt students took it serious as well, so it worked well as a testing platform.
Google Classroom
I like using Google Classroom for a few reasons. First, it’s easy to assign work to students since they were all added to the platform automatically by our school. They can all see the calendar of when things are due for different subjects. On our end, we can see who has handed their assignment in and who has not. And last, I can assign a grade once I’ve looked at the work, and I can leave feedback within the document and in the appropriate spots.
Second, I love that I can create a shared document for each student that I want them to work in. That way, I can click on each student’s document and see in real time what they are working on. Google Classroom holds all these documents in one folder for me, where it’s easy to find and access them. Check out this quick reel to see how I do that!
Another part of Google Classroom is actually Google Meet, which is a video call application, and I liked using it. It’s just great that it’s on a secured platform. This means that no one from outside the class can enter, and everyone that needs to be in there, is. There a direct link to the Google Meet call in Google Classroom, so students can find it easily as well. And then there is the added bonus of aforementioned Jamboard.
Best websites for teachers to stay sane during remote teaching
So these are the best websites for teaching, in my opinion. They are very general websites that can be used for all subjects and all topics. Whether you teach English like me, or Maths or Science, I’m sure you can use these websites to your advantage. I’m telling you, they kept me sane, and I’m sure they will continue to do so during the next lockdown.
But I will also keep using them while in the classroom! It’s just a great thing to have a platform like Google Classroom to assign and collect students’ work. And it’s great to have quick self-checking ways for formative assessment like Kahoot, Boom and Google Forms. Ad Padlet and Jamboard are just lovely to get students ‘talking’ that don’t want to talk with their voices. Especially for languages, these platforms offer so much that classrooms can’t always.
For some more cool websites that I use for vocabulary training, check out this article.
Do you have trouble connecting with your students while teaching online? Check out this article on the topic.
For another great article on using digital resources for teaching, check out Teachers Creating Curiosity‘s article:
3 Ways for Teachers to Get Organized Digitally
And Spanish teacher Profe Zulita‘s here:
Adventures in Technology: 5 Apps
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