Teacher productivity extensions from Google can make your teacher job even better! An extension is just a small, but full program that can make Google even more useful. If you decide you want to get some, you’re just going to go to the Chrome Web Store. Once you get there, just bookmark the page so that you can get there easily and quickly.
So before we jump into talking about Teacher Productivity Extensions, let’s talk about extensions a little bit. When you first get to the Chrome Web Store, you can scroll down to see some options that you might choose to use or you can search for an extension.
Once you have found the extension, the process is always going to be the same. You’re going to click it. You can read about it from the overview tab. You can read some reviews and all of the information that you’re going to need to know about the extension.
When you’re ready to install it, there’s always going to be an Add to Chrome button. You’re going to click that button, and then there’s always a double-check where you add the extension. This will only work in Google Chrome, so you have to have the Chrome browser to use these Chrome extensions.
Once it adds, it’s going to come up inside of the toolbar area to the right. You may not have anything there, or it will show up next to what you already have installed. To see them all, you’ll click the puzzle piece to give you different options. The main one I use is the pin, this will pin it to the toolbar for quick access. You’ll also use the puzzle piece to remove any extensions you no longer want.
Most extensions have a free version and many of them have upgraded and paid versions. Everything we are going to discuss, I just use the free versions of the extensions. I’m also going to keep it simple when discussing the extensions
Teacher Productivity Extensions
Extensity
This extension helps you manage all of your other extensions.
Dualless
This is one of the teacher productivity extensions that is perfect if you don’t have two monitors. If I want to have my windows side by side, I’m just going to click the extension and now I have two windows. I can drag the tabs between them. There are also a lot of different layouts to choose from. Maybe you’re doing breakout rooms for Zoom and you want to see all of them at once. This will help you speed things up when you’re trying to work.
Google Docs Quick Create
This is one of the teacher productivity extensions that I have pinned to my toolbar. Whenever I’m ready to make a new Google Doc or Google Slides, I just click that, and then I can get a blank document really fast.
Sir Links-a-Lot
This is one of those teacher productivity extensions that is going to make your work a little bit faster. If you have something that you want to share with your students that is a Google Doc, Sheet, Slide, etc. you are able to quickly choose what type of link you want to send them using this extension.
You can create a force copy link, this will allow them to make their own copy and they won’t be editing your original master copy. You can send a preview so that students can’t edit the document, but they can see it. You can also create it into a PDF. This is a great way to save a little bit of time when you’re trying to share links with your students.
Save to Google Drive
I love this teacher productivity extension because you can use it to save a web page as a Google Doc. You’ll want to start by changing the options to save page as Google Document that way I can edit it a little bit or delete parts that I don’t want and it’s easy to share in Google Classroom or however you plan on sharing.
All I have to do when I’m ready to save the web page is click the icon and you’ll see it saving. When it shows that it’s saved, you are able to go into your Google Drive and find it then delete anything you didn’t want to share with your students.
Add to Google Classroom
This is one of those teacher productivity extensions that will save you so much time! The first time you do it, it is going to ask your permission to sync up to your Google Classroom, but once you’ve done that it’ll be easy. You can create materials or assignments and assign it as normal and click post, then it’ll automatically go to your Google Classroom without having to copy and paste the links.
Small PDF
This is one of my favorite teacher productivity extensions because it allows you to do many different things with a PDF that will allow you to share exactly what you want to with your students. You can split the PDF and only include certain pages.
EquatIO
This extension is perfect for if you’re a math teacher because we know how difficult it can be to get certain symbols or fractions digitally. The part of the toolbar that I like the most is handwriting recognition and speech input. On handwriting recognition, the students will have space to write using their mouse and then it’s going to transform it into math symbols and equations.
The speech input students will be able to speak their answers and it will transform it into math as well. When they are ready to insert their answer, they will click a blue button that says “insert math.” They can resize it as needed and move it to where it goes for the question they were answering.