Toggl Track is a time-tracking app that helps you see exactly where your time is going (toggl.com). I’ve wanted to track time spent on tasks for a while, and Google Calendar’s time tracking just feels too static for a busy, constantly-shifting workflow.  What I like is how simple it is: hit record, type a title, and go. If I have to stop and come back later, it’s smart about suggesting the same title and merging the time, which is really helpful. Syncing with my calendar is the real game changer — it shows what I’m actually doing when my day gets hijacked, and I can even start the timer straight from a calendar event. It also motivates me to stay on task because I don’t want to stop the timer until I’m done.  The main drawback is there’s no true pause for quick interruptions (restroom break, random call, etc.). Still, overall, it’s a keeper.

I used Answer Garden as an interactive tool during an in-person grade level collaborative. It’s basically a quick polling site: I type a question, it generates a QR code, and people respond to create a word cloud (and yes, phrases work too).

My plan was to use it first for something easy ("share what you did for Spring Break") and then pivot to questions tied to our actual topic. The participation piece was the win — lots of people responded, including folks who usually stay quiet, and it gave me some easy follow-up questions ("Who went to Lima?", "Who went to Broken Bow?", etc.).  But the drawbacks were hard to ignore. Ads popped up and blocked the response box, which caused confusion, and when I projected it, the word cloud only filled part of the screen so everything looked tiny and kind of cheap/wonky. I tested it the day before and it seemed fine, but live it felt buggy — and I don’t want to be troubleshooting in front of a room.  Bottom line: great concept for participation, but the platform felt too clunky and unreliable for me.

After writing a district policy for Pre-K retention, I still had to create a decision-tree flowchart—and it had been sitting on my task list for weeks. I tried Canva first, but it was frustrating and didn’t work the way I needed. Whimsical, though, is built for visual thinking and flowcharts, and I was able to jump in almost immediately after a quick tutorial. The tools are intuitive, it “anticipates” your arrows and layout, and I finished the flowchart in under 30 minutes with only a little trial and error. The main downside is it works on a grid, so tiny aesthetic adjustments can be annoying, and the color options are pretty limited (at least on the free version). Still, I ended up with a clean, easy-to-follow flowchart, and the free sharing/download options were better than I expected.

Twice a month I run a Zoom PLC with the whole grade level, so I’m always looking for ways to make the training more interactive. Mentimeter is basically an easy-to-use, interactive slide deck (it feels a lot like PowerPoint/Google Slides) where I can drop in polls, open-ended questions, scales, and rankings, and teachers can jump in with a QR code while the results show up live. I built a six-question set to pair with my Canva presentation, and the engagement was really strong—especially because the feedback can be anonymous. The only downside is the free version is pretty limiting (50 responses per month), so I can really only use it about once a month unless I pay for it.