I have tried all of these classroom parent communication and student management Apps personally. I'm sure there are more so when teachers tell me about them I will be sure to add them. In my experience I liked SeeSaw for younger students. I enjoyed getting updates and seeing the portfolio as a parent. The communication piece was "Ok." I really enjoyed Class Dojo, I would say this was my favorite and they constantly are updating and adding new pieces to the software. It is easy for students to use and parents to navigate. Bloomz had information and had some components that Class Dojo previously didn't have, but it really wasn't as intuitive for parents, teachers or students. Click on the videos below to learn more.

I know there are so many different tools to create interactive presentations, but my "Go tos" for creating interactive lessons were Pear Deck and Near Pod. They are very similar but are different as well. I LOVE Pear Deck. The people in charge are so helpful, their twitter feed is amazing as well, but I digress. I love Pear Deck because I can enable it as an add on to make my Google Slides interactive. I have so many lessons already built on Google Slides it is quick to add Pear Deck to them. I also love their flashcard factory! It makes learning and studying vocabulary so interactive. I would say I used Flashcard factory more than the Pear Deck Add-on.

So the reason I love Pear Deck is also why Nearpod is amazing. Let me explain- Pear Deck works with Google Slides, BUT Nearpod allows you to upload a variety of different presentations to make them interactive. Like Pear Deck, Nearpod also has a variety of response types from multiple choice, written responses and visual style answers (however on both some are available on the free version and some are paid.) Another reason I'm liking NearPod as well is because they recently partnered with Flocabulary. I am not sure how the two of them combine since I no longer have a classroom but I used Flocabulary A LOT! Totally worth a subscription- it brought vocabulary acquisition to a whole new level.

The only reason I say I used Pear Deck so much more is that the Google Slide presentations are stored in Google- So essentially unlimited storage! Nearpod I barely made the first couple of months lessons before I would need to upgrade to a paid version.

Where I love Pear Deck and Nearpod for my students I have had Mentimeter used at staff meetings with a group of teachers. Works for quick meetings, gets feedback and makes it so much more engaging. I have also added Plickers to this list. I would fight tooth and nail to check out enough devices for my students at my school, but if you don't have enough devices to make Pear Deck or Nearpod work, try using Plickers to get immediate feedback.

I love to include games in my classroom. My absolute favorite was Prodigy. I did teach 4th grade, but I think it would work all the way up through middle school. I could tie all of my math units to Prodigy and students completed prodigy for homework. Soon students wanted to play during Friday Fun time and then they created tournaments with other classes during recess. Really comprehensive. On a personal note I added my 1st grade son to the class, it created lessons at his level and my son loved it so much he worked his way up to 3rd grade math!

I started to use Class Craft in my classroom when I was looking for something to do what prodigy did with ELA. I loved Class Craft, but I did have to do more teacher work to create the lessons for the game, but there was a behavior component with this as well. I didn't have enough time with my students to dig into this as much as a I wanted to.

Quizizz- My students loved using Quizizz. There are so many different quizzes on the site I usually found a quiz my students could take. All the students take a quiz in real time and compete to get to the top of the leaderboard. The points are calculated by response time and accuracy. Students love to watch the leaderboard. The only problem is that students who are slower may not be up on top, so I like to throw in a lot of quizizz that aren't academic.

Goosechase- Teachers create a scavenger hunt type game, where they use a device to compete against other teams. I used this a few times in my classroom, but you do need to pay once you reach a certain point. The area where GooseChase really shined was on field trips. Parents and student teams would either use a classroom ipad or a parent's phone. The level of parent engagement was always epic!

Breakout EDU- Escape rooms are all the craze. Breakout EDU uses this style of game for the classroom. I loved the kit, but I did buy more locks and I wasn't a fan of the Breakout EDU games they offered for free. They were very simple and didn't fit into my curriculum. That being said I created a Science and Social Studies breakout for each unit. It did take a LOT of time and needed a lot of forward thinking on my part. I really appreciate Escape rooms now! My students are so excited on a breakout EDU day. Also to save on money and to make adjustments quick, I used Ipads with Google Forms "choose your answer" responses and code responses to automate and add technology to the breakout kits.

Kahoot- I have teachers of older students say they love Kahoot. I do prefer Quizizz, but I have used Kahoot when I have collaborated with other teachers. It is also a really great tool to try out.

Flipping classrooms is great! I do teach elementary school so I just love those full group discussions and getting feedback during lessons so it just wasn't "me" for flipping my class all the time, but I did do it occasionally.

Edpuzzle- changed how I created some science lessons. Edpuzzle allows you to add interactive questions to your own videos or to Youtube videos (my favorite). You can also see if students have actually watched the video. I'm very impressed with this tool. I wanted to incoporate it and use it more, but I didn't discover it until I right before I left my classroom.

Screencastify- Use Screencastify to record a screen recording of your lesson for absent students or to flip your classroom. I really like this tool because students can record their own presentations and explanations.

Flipgrid- I adore flipgrid. Students can give video and oral responses. Students and teachers can comment on each other's videos. Flipgrid gives students a voice. You can share grids across different spaces. It is a good way to collaborate and give everyone a chance to participate.

Glogster- I used Glogster a few years back, so I'm not sure how it has changed. Previously it was free and it was a way for students to create a digital and interactive poster. Students loved to create these and I was able to post them on my website.

Live Binders- I will admit I haven't used Live Binders personally with my students, but teachers have shared with me student Live Binders and they were spectacular. They were basically digital binders.

Prezi- Prezi is a digital presentation tool. The slides are built on a canvas where a camera zooms in and out or spins on the canvas. Students enjoyed creating them for research projects and since they were cloud based the could work on them at home and at school.

I used GoNoodle for brain breaks and mindfulness activities in my classroom. I had a scheduled time for brain breaks throughout the day. I also would let students have the job of "brain breaker," whose job was to pick a GoNoodle video for the class to follow. There are a variety of interactive videos. Once you complete different videos you can energy to upgrade one of the characters. I was also inspired by my church youth group that turned me on to the Youtube "Youth Ministry Great Games" which work for my students to have a quick break. Students always ask to play Ships and Sailors. There is a link below an you can look up other YMGG videos.

As a disclaimer I created all of my classroom newsletters on my website as a Blog style. I do know a lot of teachers who create very cute paper newsletters using publisher or pages, but there are a coupe of programs I have heard about to create a digital version of a newsletter that has an infographic layout.