The work of a school administrator is not easy. One of the major tasks that they perform regularly is prep work, communicating with teachers, ed techs, and other staff members, and supervising students if and when needed.
In today’s world where modern technology is designed to make things easier, it’s important to know which productivity tools are useful to school administrators. That’s why we’ll be unveiling a list of the 12 tools that they should own in order to make a day at the office a lot less of a headache.
This will allow you to make certain tasks simple (if not automated) so you can focus on the more important tasks at hand (especially those that require your full attention). These tools will help save time and streamline the work so it’s easier done than said.
Let’s dive right into the list:
1. Asana
If there is one kind of tool that you don’t want to skip out on, it’s a project management tool. One suggestion is Asana. This allows school administrators to create multiple assignments and projects all on one app.
Aside from that, it can also keep track of what team members or staff are doing, along with tracking the progress of every individual, but relevant project. These can also include the evaluations that are being done by EdTechs. Everything is easily accessible and Asana is easy to navigate.
It’s truly a win-win for both administrators and lower level staff. Plus, it has a live reporting feature that gives you the relevant data in real-time.
2. Speechify
Speechify is an app and chrome extension designed to support school administrators and principals. With over 20 million users and 150,000 5-star reviews, it is a trusted tool. Students can use Speechify to listen to assignments, proofread essays, study notes, and even listen to emails, improving accessibility and comprehension.
Additionally, it offers the VoiceOver AI Studio, allowing administrators to transform scripts and written content into engaging videos effortlessly. This feature enables the creation of educational resources, announcements, and promotional content. With Speechify’s voice translation and dubbing capabilities in over 35 languages, administrators can easily localize videos for diverse audiences.
By enhancing productivity and facilitating content creation, Speechify is an invaluable tool for school administrators seeking to enhance student learning experiences.
3. Dropbox
One of the most popular file sharing apps on the Internet today. And it can be a game changer for many school districts. Especially when distance learning is becoming more popular. Dropbox can be useful for so many things.
Students can submit assignments to teachers, ed techs and teachers can submit progress reports to administrators, and so on. The sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to file sharing with this app. It’s speedy, safe, and will help trim a lot of the digital fat that is otherwise built up in email inboxes.
4. Evernote
One of the tasks that school administrators find themselves doing almost half of the time is juggling many administrative activities. This includes crunching numbers for accounting purposes, disciplining misbehaving students, and recruiting potential prospects to join their ranks.
For these reasons, it may be easy to forget what needs to be done. That’s where Evernote comes in. This cloud-based note taking app will allow you to write out any reminders or list any tasks that need to get done. You can save everything from notes, website pages, record meetings, and do so many other tasks.
This is compatible across multiple platforms, making the setup process a lot easier. No wonder why they call it the “Remember Everything” app.
5. Calendly
Earlier, we mentioned Google Hangouts as one of the tools you can use via the Google Suite. While Hangouts will work great for staff meetings, it can also work for one-on-one meetings as well. Speaking of which, you can easily schedule them using Calendly.
Calendly will allow you to have openings for individual meetings based on your schedule. From there, the staff members who wish to meet with you will select a time slot that best works for them. Once the meeting is scheduled, you each get an email message confirming the meeting (along with follow-ups for reminders).
6. Class Dojo
This is an app that comes in handy for teachers whenever they want to keep in touch with their student’s parents or guardians. Back in the day, there were face to face meetings between teachers and parents about the student’s progress and behavior. These days, a lot of meetings are obviously going virtual.
Class Dojo will make the whole parent-teacher conference thing a breeze. Plus, files like photos and videos can be shared. This also includes tools that will provide digital portfolios, set classroom groups for projects, and provides parents a look at what’s going on in their child’s class.
If there is one app that shouldn’t be ignored by school administrators, this is it.
7. Flipboard
Another app that can be useful for administrators and teachers is Flipboard. Teachers will especially take advantage of this app for so many reasons. One, they can provide students with the class syllabus, post digital articles that can be part of an assignment, set the framework for student projects, and so much more.
Plus, parents will be allowed to get a look at what their child is doing. This will keep them accountable so their academic performance doesn’t suffer and they turn in their stuff on time.
8. Textbook Tracker
Whether it’s inside a regular classroom or online, textbooks might still need to be used. However, at the end of the school year it’s important to account for every single one of them. Textbook Tracker is an app that will manage textbooks and other school assets.
This will allow administrators to be aware of what’s accounted for and what is potentially missing from the inventory.
9. Permission Clicks
Remember the days when you had to send permission slips home to your parents so they can be signed and returned? Well, things have changed. While the concept pretty much remains the same, students don’t have to literally bring home a piece of paper than needs to be signed.
Instead, Permission Clicks allows teachers to send the permission slips directly to the parents. Not only does this lift the burden of responsibility from the students (and don’t worry, they’ll still learn about responsibilities in other ways), but it cuts out the middleman between students and parents.
The best part is that permission slips don’t need to be downloaded, printed, or need to work with various apps. It’s just click, send, and done.
10. KeepnTrack
Want an app that will keep track and manage who comes and goes from the school facility? KeepnTrack is exactly what that is. School safety has long been a talked about issue.
It’s clear that you want to know who’s coming and who’s going. And schools are adopting security measures that include granting a person entrance into a school building. To better explain it, no random person can enter the school from the outside since the doors will be locked at all times.
Keepntrack allows everything from background checks to sending and receiving alerts regarding potential safety threats. This will give you peace of mind knowing that your school’s students, faculty, and staff are safe at all times.
11. Slack
Slack is an instant-messaging app that is perfect for school administrators to keep in contact with teachers and staff members. It can be used on a PC or on a mobile app (Android and iOS). This will allow you to share files and store them so people within your Slack channel can view them.
12. Remind
Remind is perfect for when you want to automate important announcements and messages to teachers, staff, students, and even parents. You can also directly communicate with parents to let them know of their child’s progress in school. This is one of the many ways to keep in direct contact without dealing with any middleman.
