Amy Traggianese | October 2017

5 Time Saving Tech Tips for Teachers

True confession: some of my friends call me “Hashtag.”

Funny, but it fits!

It’s a known fact that I’m a visual arts teacher and a techie, and here are five of my top teacher tech tips!

When you hear the crickets, it is time to clean up!

  • Set and use the alarm on your mobile device to indicate the beginning of clean up time for each class. I set these alarms on my school iPad for every class, every day I teach. Now I can really spend time with my students while they are creating and I don’t have to watch the clock!If the class needs more time to clean up, I can adjust their alarm right after class. It also works the other way around. Fast cleaner-uppers can earn more time to create!
    • If you use a tablet at school (iPad or Android), Reflector is a wireless mirroring and streaming app that works great with an iPad or Android tablet. You can mirror your content to a your computer and project to a screen without wires! Reflector needs to be installed on your computer. I have found that it works best and is less expensive than other solutions.

      • Set up an area in your classroom for students to take photos of their work. These images can be used for assessments and/or portfolios. Some art teachers use Artsonia to create a school gallery of  images of student work year-to-year. I am thinking about using it this year.
        • Use Planbook.com or another web-based planner for your lessons. I use it and it is so convenient to be able to see your plans on any device at any time! For $12 a year, it is definitely worth it for me to be so organized. 

          • Yes, I’m part-time :)

          • Use tinyurl.com or another URL shortener to create custom URLs for many classroom and professional uses. Create a custom URL for:

            • students to use: tinyurl.com/SSESorigami   I created this one for my students so they could find this origami playlist on YouTube on their own.
            • substitute teachers to find content/lessons/images for lessons.
            • colleagues to use after PD tinyurl.com/digitalspin2017 I created this one so participants could have access to my presentation.

          It is SO much easier to type in a URL with real words that actually make sense!

          About the Author

          Amy Traggianese has been an elementary visual arts educator in CT since 1995. A former kindergarten and first grade teacher, she has over 30 years of arts integration experience. Amy specializes in integrating language arts, math, science and technology into the choice art studio. She is an arts integration coach for The Institute for ARts Integration and STEAM. Amy is an active educator voice on Facebook and Twitter and loves a good Twitter chat. Connect with her on social media or at amy@artsintegration.com.