Technology in the Classroom: 21 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for Educators

“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.”

                -Winston Churchill

What’s the best way for educators to handle the always-changing, tech-saturated world of today? Embrace it! Whether you’re looking to spice up your current lessons, catch students’ waning attention before the next break, or start planning ahead for tactics to try next year, we want to help you put all of the strategies, resources, and inspiration circulating in the education community to full use! Use these 21 tips, tricks, and ideas as a starting point to experiment in your classroom:

Personalized Learning

1. Personalized learning has been one of the biggest education buzzwords over the past year—and with good reason! This infographic can help you get started by defining just what a personalized approach will look like in your classroom.

2. Learning today is all about student choice and flexibility. Check out these 4 Key Components of 21st Century Classroom Design and give your space a makeover to support those goals!

Professional Development

3. Students aren’t the only ones who can benefit from personalized learning! Check out these 5 Best Practices for Personalized Professional Development and make your next staff development day a more effective (and appealing) experience for everyone involved.

4. Check out an education-focused podcast for great tips and professional development ideas! Not sure where to start looking? We put together this list of Six Podcasts Every Teacher Should Check Out.

5. Research how other educators, schools, and districts are finding success in their classrooms. Check out how Vincennes Community School Corporation is tailoring instruction to meet all of its students’ needs! 

Home-to-School Connection

6. Curate a class Pinterest account to organize ideas, offer students additional learning resources, and keep parents in the loop. Connect with Edmentum for lots of free content and classroom inspiration!

7. Go beyond traditional parent-teacher conferences—introduce and implement Academic Parent-Teacher Teams in your classroom!

Formative Assessment

8. Take full advantage of formative assessment strategies to put your student data to good use! Check out these 5 Unique Ways to Formatively Assess Your Class.

9. Get a better pulse on just how fully students are absorbing your lessons. Try one of these 5 Creative Strategies for Engaging Exit Tickets!

Classroom Community

10. Classroom environment has a big impact on student learning. Encourage collaboration and communication among your students with online tools like Study Island’s Group Sessions or check out these 7 Tips to Build Classroom Community.

11. Encourage your students to embrace a growth mindset by celebrating both successes and learning experiences.

12. Sometimes, we all get burned out! Re-energize your student by giving brain breaks a try!

13. Create a classroom blog, and engage your students with a “question of the week” post. Need some blogging inspiration? Subscribe to Edmentum’s blog!

EdTech Trends

14. Are your students prepared for success beyond the classroom? Diversify your curriculum, and help your students gain critical skills for success in the workforce with Career and Technical Education courses! Check out Edmentum’s complete CTE library, including courses across all 16 National Career Clusters®!

15. Give virtual reality a try in your classroom! Get started with these 5 ways to go beyond the hype!

16. Introduce your students (and maybe yourself!) to coding! Don’t worry—it’s not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. The cross-curricular applications are endless, and there are lots of tools to help. Visit Code.org to get started or check out these strategies for Engaging High School Students in Computer Science Learning!

17. Getting tired of watching students walking around with earbuds always in? If you can’t beat them, join them! Take a look at these 5 Tips to Engage Students Through Music.

Teaching Inspiration

18. Refresh the wall art in your classroom. Anchor charts are an outstanding visual tool to anchor learning—we’ve even got tips to help you avoid a #PinterestFail!

19. Stay focused on literacy! Understand the impacts that reading by the third grade can have on your students’ academic careers.

20. We all need a little boost in motivation from time to time—share these 5 TED Talks with your students to reinvigorate their appetite for learning!

21. Short on funds to make your next great classroom idea a reality? Try applying for a grant! Plenty of dollars are there for the taking, and we have 4 tips to take the stress out of the application process.

Interested in finding out more about Edmentum’s online resources to support teaching and learning, including our core and elective courses, tools for classroom practice and assessment, and our brand new Exact Path product for K-8 individualized learning? Check out all of our solutions to support student success here!