Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest Post by Caitlin Frank, Carroll Senior High Economics Teacher

After attending TCEA in Austin this month, I went through my materials and want to share a few of my favorite discoveries. One of the classes I attended and enjoyed was the Apps class where a group of teachers shared their favorite apps that they could use for various teacher activities. Several of the most useful apps included Quizlet, Landtech Esign, Post-it-Plus, Evernote, and Scannable. All of these apps were focused on making the educational experience more digital for students and teachers.

Quizlet is an online quiz system that takes topics from every subject and turns them into notecards that students can study on their phone. My students started using this app years ago for economic vocabulary and they swear by the accessibility of a phone with the benefits of studying notecards. Quizlet is available for iOS and Android devices.

Landtech Esign is a very convenient app for teachers who need to submit an electronic signature. By inputting your signature one time it can save and duplicate it onto any document you need a signature for.

Post-It-Plus is a way for students and teachers to take their important post it notes and scan them into their computer or tablet. It actually scans them in as a post it note and can be used/organized just like an electronic post it note. Post-It Plus is only available for iOS devices.

Evernote Scannable is an app that is a scanner without having to buy an actual scanner. It can scan any document directly onto your phone and enables you to save/share these scanned documents easily. Evernote Scannable is only available for iOS devices.

All of these apps take what teachers are doing everyday but makes the process more accessible and simple. Plus they are all free, which can save teachers time and money when trying to organize their materials. However, the way the teachers organized the class was what made it my favorite class. They used a “Top Chef” theme and incorporated their favorite food/drink apps just to keep the audience involved and entertained. Also they showed each of these apps on their own devices to the class to illustrate how each one looked/worked. This interactive teaching style would also be a beneficial tool for teachers who are trying to share their technology discoveries to their fellow educators.