My Top Three Teaching Apps - Bilingually Yours

As a teacher, anything that makes your life easier is a win.

A quick search for teaching apps is overwhelming, and oftentimes, a bust. With so many apps in the market finding one that is easy to use, free, and useful can be frustrating. So I’ve been thrilled to come across the following apps that have made all the difference in my classroom.

My Top 3 Teaching Apps — The top 3 teaching apps that have made my life so. much. easier.

Epic!

Epic is an online library that offers books sorted by reading level, topic, age, and language.

Teachers can use Epic to their advantage by uploading their class lists and keeping an eye on what their students are reading. The interface is so easy to use that even the youngest readers will have no problem navigating the app and, more importantly, find a great book to read.

My favorite thing about Epic? The quantity of Spanish books.

This has been a huge help for my bilingual readers when other resources we’ve used skimped on the selection of Spanish books. Thankfully that’s not the case here.

An account with Epic is free for teachers who have a school email address.

Unfortunately, it is no longer free for families to use at home. This is the one disappointing feature, especially for low-income families or families that don’t have time to go to the library. I love how Epic offers an alternative that gives families access to great books outside of school hours from the comfort of their home.

Go Noodle

Go Noodle is every teacher’s best friend.

Though not technically an app, Go Noodle is a website with a plethora of videos to keep kids moving, dancing, and singing (yet still learning!) during their downtime.

There are different groups who release content so your students will get used to and request certain songs over and over again.

All content is well-made, modern, and fun. It’s obvious Go Noodle’s content creators genuinely took teachers and students in mind. There are videos aimed at teaching certain learning standards, others for yoga, and other compilations of varying lengths that teachers can put on for indoor recess (aptly titled, “Indoor Recess”).

We all know that kids need to move, and Go Noodle comes through every time.

Class Dojo

Lastly, Class Dojo is my go-to classroom management app. It’s what transforms my classroom into an organized chaos.

Every student is assigned an avatar and they earn or lose points throughout the day based on their behavior. When points are earned the class hears a specific noise and when points are lost they hear a different noise. So students know, based on the sound, that someone has either earned or lost a point.

If that’s all that Class Dojo did, I would be happy enough, but they’ve slowly added more functionality to the app over the past several years.

You can send behavior reports to parents, specify the reason students are receiving or losing points, change point values for positive or negative behaviors, and customize those behaviors for your classroom.

You don’t want students to know who lost a point? Class Dojo’s got you covered. Have more than one teacher associated with a particular class? Multiple teachers can access the same account.

Don’t want to use Class Dojo for behavior? That’s fine too. There’s a countdown timer, music, and even a name generator that sorts your students into groups or chooses one student at random.

Essentially, Class Dojo is the only tool you need in the classroom (if we’re talking specifically about managing behavior).

The downside? Some school districts have prohibited its use because of confidential student data policies. In which case, I don’t see why assigning a number or nickname for each student, instead of their actual name wouldn’t work.