5 Important Instruments for My Educating Tech Stack This Yr

I don”t find out about you, however that is the time of 12 months once I begin doing that factor — you realize the factor — the place you open each drawer, take a look at each cable, and ask your self: Did I really use this? Was it price it? Would I purchase it once more?

It is turn into a ritual for me. Each Could or June, I take inventory of what made it into the every day rotation and what sat on a shelf gathering mud. After 20-plus years in schooling — and extra hours than I would wish to admit testing apps, devices, and workflows — I’ve gotten fairly sincere with myself about what really earns a spot in my bag.

This 12 months felt completely different, although. AI instruments modified the sport. A few of the software program I swore by final 12 months received changed. A few “finances” equipment turned out to be the MVPs. And one buy I virtually talked myself out of grew to become the only greatest funding I made all 12 months.

So I wished to sit down down and write all of it out — not as a sophisticated evaluation, however extra like a journal entry. An actual take a look at every bit of tech I carry, use, and rely upon as a center college Digital Media instructor and content material creator. The stuff that works. The stuff that did not. And what I would inform a colleague to purchase first in the event that they had been ranging from scratch.

After years of testing, tweaking, and trimming, my complete tech stack comes down to 3 classes and 6 instruments:

1. Productiveness — The techniques I take advantage of to plan, manage, and handle the whole lot behind the scenes.
2. Grading & Evaluation — The instruments that deal with the information entry so I haven’t got to.
3. Content material Creation — How I design, report, and produce the whole lot from graphics to podcasts to classroom video.

That is it. Three classes. Six instruments. If it does not match into one in every of these, it does not make the reduce. This is the total breakdown.

🖥️ Productiveness

If my tech stack had been a home, that is the muse. Every little thing else I do — lesson planning, content material creation, communication — runs by these two platforms.

Notion

I will be sincere: Notion has quietly turn into a very powerful instrument in my classroom. It began as a spot to prepare lesson plans, nevertheless it’s became one thing a lot larger. It is the place I construct items, retailer assets, map out mission timelines, and — that is the large one — it is turn into my major AI workspace.

Between Notion AI and the power to construct customized brokers proper inside my workspace, I have been capable of automate issues that used to eat hours of my week. Want a vocabulary quiz generated from a unit? Achieved. Need to draft a dad or mum electronic mail based mostly on a pupil mission rubric? Achieved. It is not changing the educating — it is dealing with the busywork so I can concentrate on the educating.

In case you’re a instructor who’s been interested in AI however does not know the place to start out, Notion is truthfully probably the most approachable entry level I’ve discovered. You needn’t be taught immediate engineering. You simply want to start out organizing your stuff in a single place, and the AI meets you there.

🔗 Need to go deeper? This is extra from TeacherCast on Notion:

Google Workspace

This one’s a given for many educators, however I wish to name out the 2 Google instruments that do the heaviest lifting for me: Google Varieties and Google Websites.

Google Varieties is my go-to for formative evaluation. Fast check-ins, exit tickets, vocabulary quizzes, self-reflections — I take advantage of them consistently. The auto-grading alone saves me extra time than I can calculate at this level. And since the whole lot lives in Google Drive, it is already linked to Classroom with zero friction.

Google Websites has turn into my quiet workhorse for student-facing content material. As a substitute of printing packets or posting a wall of hyperlinks in Google Classroom, I construct easy websites for every unit — a touchdown web page with embedded assets, calendars, and examples. College students bookmark it and all the time know the place to go. It is cleaner than a shared folder and method simpler to take care of than a full web site.

Collectively, Notion handles the behind-the-scenes planning and AI-powered workflows, and Google Workspace handles the student-facing supply. They complement one another completely.

🔗 Extra from TeacherCast on Google for Training:

• Google for Training Suggestions, Tutorials, and Templates — My full assortment of Google Workspace posts, together with deep dives on Varieties, Websites, Gemini AI, and extra.
• Highlights price trying out: Unlocking Google Varieties: 5 AI Options Each Educator Wants, Utilizing Google Websites for Scholar Portfolios, and Finish-of-Yr Google Varieties + Gemini Playbook for Tutorial Coaches.

🎁 Free Sources:

• Google Varieties Useful resource Hub — Free templates and guides to rework the way you gather information and assess studying with AI-powered Google Varieties.
• Google Vids Useful resource Hub — Free assets for AI-powered video creation — no enhancing expertise required.

Productiveness is the spine — nevertheless it solely issues in case you can really transfer pupil work by the system effectively. That brings us to the second pillar.

📊 Grading & Evaluation

Let me be actual about one thing: the precise educating a part of educating? I adore it. The grading? Particularly the half the place I am manually typing scores from one platform into one other for 150+ college students? That is the half that makes you query your life selections on a Sunday night time.

That is why GradeTransferer has turn into probably the most vital instruments in my stack — and truthfully probably the most underrated.

GradeTransferer

GradeTransferer is a Chrome extension that does precisely what the title says: it transfers grades out of your EdTech instruments straight into your gradebook. Robotically. In two clicks. No copying. No pasting. No typos. No Sunday night time spreadsheet marathons.

This is how easy it’s: You open no matter platform your college students submitted work in — Google Varieties, Kahoot, Quizizz, Nearpod, you title it — click on the GradeTransferer extension, and hit the large inexperienced “Seize Information” button. Then you definately open your gradebook, click on the extension once more, and hit “Fill Information.” That is it. 4 clicks and your grades are transferred, sorted, and positioned into the proper pupil fields. Achieved.

I educate Digital Media to a number of sections of center schoolers. Which means once I assign a Google Varieties quiz, I am taking a look at a whole lot of scores that have to make it into the gradebook precisely. Earlier than GradeTransferer, that was an hour-plus of mind-numbing information entry. Now it takes me about 90 seconds. I am not exaggerating.

What makes it price it:

• Works with almost 40 EdTech platforms — Google Varieties, Kahoot, Quizizz, Nearpod, Blooket, Formative, Delta Math, IXL, and dozens extra. Plus it connects to main gradebooks like PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Schoology, and Canvas.
• Eliminates typos utterly — When grades are copied robotically, there’s zero likelihood of an information entry error. No extra dad and mom emailing a couple of rating you by chance fat-fingered.
• Auto-sorts pupil information — Even when college students submitted in a distinct order than your gradebook lists them, GradeTransferer matches the whole lot up robotically.
• Saves as much as 100 hours per 12 months — That is not advertising and marketing fluff. While you’re transferring grades for a number of courses throughout a number of platforms each week, these minutes add up quick.
• FERPA and COPPA compliant — GradeTransferer does not gather pupil information in any respect. That is not a workaround — it is a core design precept. It additionally holds SOPPA, SOPIPA, and state-specific DPA compliance.

If there’s one instrument on this listing that pays for itself within the first week, it is this one. I genuinely do not know the way I graded earlier than it.

With the planning dealt with and the grading on autopilot, there’s one class left — and it is the one which lets me really make issues.

🎨 Content material Creation

Whether or not it is a podcast episode, tutorial video for college kids, or a fast tutorial for a colleague, content material creation has turn into a core a part of how I educate and the way I share what I’ve realized. The hot button is having instruments that do not sluggish you down. For me, that is Riverside for skilled recording and manufacturing, and Google Vids for quick, AI-powered video that anybody could make.

Riverside

I report all of my podcasts utilizing Riverside, and it has utterly modified my workflow. It is not only a recorder — it is a full recording, enhancing, and publishing answer multi function platform. I take advantage of it for long-form podcast episodes, short-form video clips for social media, and even tutorial movies for my college students. The truth that I can do all of that with out bouncing between 5 completely different apps is a game-changer.

This is what makes Riverside stand out, particularly in case you’re occupied with it for a faculty district or as a content material creator:

• Studio-quality recording out of your browser — As much as 4K video and uncompressed audio, recorded domestically so your web connection does not tank your high quality. No additional software program to put in.
• Separate audio and video tracks — Every participant will get their very own observe, which makes enhancing cleaner and offers you far more flexibility in post-production.
• AI-powered enhancing — That is the place it will get wild. Riverside can take away filler phrases, repair eye contact, appropriate speech by enhancing the transcript, and even auto-generate captions and layouts. You edit your video like a Google Doc.
• Magic Clips — The AI robotically pulls the very best moments out of your recording and turns them into short-form clips prepared for social media. No extra scrubbing by an hour of footage to search out the great elements.
• AI translation and dubbing — Translate and dub your content material into 30+ languages. For districts with multilingual communities, that is huge.
• Constructed-in podcast internet hosting — Publish on to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and extra while not having a separate internet hosting platform. It even generates transcriptions, present notes, and episode descriptions.
• Magic Audio — AI noise elimination that makes any microphone sound skilled. Report from a classroom, a closet, wherever — it cleans it up.
• Webinars and stay streaming — Go stay in full HD to LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch concurrently. Nice for district occasions, PD periods, or group city halls.

For educators and districts trying to create skilled content material with out a manufacturing crew, Riverside is truthfully the closest factor to having a full studio crew behind you. I can not advocate it sufficient.

Google Vids

If Riverside is my energy instrument for podcasting and content material creation, Google Vids is the on a regular basis instrument I hand to academics and college students with out a second thought. It is Google’s AI-powered video creator, constructed proper into Google Drive — and it is truthfully the quickest strategy to take away the friction of video manufacturing in a faculty setting.

This is the pitch I give each instructor who tells me they “do not do video”: If you may make a Google Slides presentation, you may make a Google Vids video. It is principally Slides turned 90 levels. You sort an outline of what you need — one thing like “Create a 3-minute video displaying college students tips on how to cite sources in MLA format” — and the AI generates a whole first draft. Script, visuals, transitions, timing. All of it. In below a minute.

For college students, it is even higher. As a substitute of spending a whole class interval determining iMovie or combating with export settings, they’ll concentrate on the content material of their mission. The AI handles the manufacturing polish — inventory footage, text-to-speech voiceover, computerized transitions — and the scholar focuses on the storytelling and the training. That is the entire level.

What makes it work for faculties:

• Zero studying curve — It lives inside Google Drive, makes use of drag-and-drop enhancing, and looks like each different Google instrument your employees already is aware of.
• AI-generated first drafts — Describe what you need and get a whole video draft in seconds. Customise from there.
• Textual content-to-speech voiceover — College students and academics can use natural-sounding AI voices or report their very own. Nice for accessibility and for college kids who’re camera-shy.
• Inventory footage library — 1000’s of royalty-free clips and pictures searchable proper contained in the instrument. No extra looking for Inventive Commons media.
• Templates for frequent use instances — Tutorials, bulletins, onboarding movies, mission shows — there’s a place to begin for the whole lot.

I’ve watched college students who used to dread video initiatives gentle up once they understand they’ll produce one thing professional-looking in 20 minutes. And for academics, it means you may create a fast PD tutorial or a flipped classroom video throughout a planning interval as an alternative of blockading a whole afternoon. That is an actual shift.

🔗 Extra from TeacherCast on Content material Creation:

👉 The Backside Line

That is the stack. Three classes. A handful of instruments in every. Nothing fancy, nothing I do not really use.

If I needed to begin from scratch tomorrow and will solely choose one instrument from every class, this is what I would seize first:

• Productiveness: Notion. It does an excessive amount of too nicely to start out wherever else.
• Grading: GradeTransferer. The ROI on time saved is rapid and apparent.
• Content material Creation: Google Vids. It is free, it is already in your Google Drive, and it removes each barrier to creating video.

The reality is, the very best tech stack is not the most costly one or the one with probably the most instruments. It is the one you really use — day by day, with out occupied with it. These are the instruments that survived my end-of-year audit. Every little thing else received reduce.

In case you’re doing your personal tech stack stock this summer season, I hope this offers you a place to begin. And in case you’re already utilizing any of those instruments, I would love to listen to how — drop a remark or attain out. The very best suggestions I’ve ever gotten have come from different academics who had been sincere about what labored and what did not.

This is to a productive summer season and a fair higher fall. 🍎