Other Resources and Tools

Mostly for lessons online, you as a teacher want to keep it as simple as possible for when it comes to the student. Sticking to just the program that you are using to teach can be an absolutely fine way to teach, but there are also some great resources online that you can use in online classes to supplement your lessons. You want to try to keep things simple because opening a lot of different apps and links during classes can throw the lesson off track. 

You can also use management systems in the classroom where you can give your students homework, grades, quizzes and communicate with your students and their parents. These would be resources like Google Classroom, Canvas and Blackboard Learn. These types of resources are great in classes where you need to give reports and set assignments for your students as it can be difficult to do it directly through the learning program that you choose to use for teaching.

There are also direct messaging apps depending on the country (Line in Japan, KakaoTalk in Korea, WeChat in China, WhatsApp, etc.) that you can use to directly communicate to your students one on one. However, if you have a bigger class and a lot of students it is highly recommended that you use a management system over a direct chatting application, as messaging each student individually about everything can be very taxing and inefficient. 

When you are picking to use resources and tools that are not your main teaching program, it is best to ask yourself these questions:

• Will it help you directly during the lessons?

• Will it help make an aspect of your job easier?

• Will it help with learning in and outside of your classes?

• Is it easy for you and your students to use?

• Is this the best one available or is there a better alternative?

• Is it free and if not is it worth it to pay and use it in your classes?