Which search engine do you use?
Today, 64.92% of the global browser market is owned by Google Chrome, which makes it the most popular browser in the world. As one of the most customizable browsers out there, you can tailor its look and functionality to fit your needs exactly. With so many teachers now taking their classes online, we decided to round up our list of 14 fun and useful Google extensions for teachers!
In this article
Google extensions for teachers – why so important?
The pandemic forced teachers and education institutions to undergo mass digitization. From when you open your laptop in the morning to when you finish your last online Google Meet class, you need to have the most optimal, fun, and engaging browser experience ever.
This is exactly why having a toolset of the best Google Chrome extensions that can provide the overall productivity boost and ease of use browsing! It is easy to see why Google extensions have more than ten million users.
Our list of Google extensions for teachers should make you want to do your happy dance! Let’s get to it!
14 Google extensions for teachers for the win!
Disclaimer: Read the below information mindfully!
While every extension on our list of Google extensions for teachers mentioned here is free, be cautious before you install and download. Make sure to check any extension that you’re downloading. Go through the user testimonials, the name of the publisher and whatever settings it need access to, before adding it to Chrome!
1. Giphy
Are your students obsessed with communicating via GIFs? Well, you can also express your emotions through GIFs, even on your browser!
We all love animated GIFs! They can easily make an email or chat funny and entertaining for you and your students. Giphy is well known for its large database of creative animated GIFs that will surely help you stir your content the right way. With a simple click on Giphy’s extension, you can search millions of GIFs in an instant!
It is also where we got this GIF below – commence happy dance!
2. Reactions for Google Meet
The Reactions for Google Meet extension allows students, and other Google Meet participants to react via emojis! This is especially useful for larger classrooms, enabling students to give feedback without interrupting the lesson. This also helps teachers to bridge the gap between online and offline classes – the latter with a greater level of non-verbal feedback.
Some of our favorite and most useful emoji reactions that your students can use:
✋ – I have a question
✔️ – Completed
👌 – Understand!
⚠️ – Problem
❓ – I’m confused
👍 – I agree/like
❌ – Incomplete
🔇 – We cannot hear you
3. tl;dv
tl;dv is an absolute game-changer for teachers! Since the pandemic, many institutions have been propelled online! If you’re using Google Meet or Zoom for your online classes, you can now record, transcribe, set timestamped highlights, and easily share your classes for free with tl;dv!
Teachers particularly love the timestamped highlights, that enable teachers and students to easily navigate long lectures in a breeze, or instantly refer back to a specific point in the lesson!
4. Momentum Dash
Bored with the default dashboard that Chrome offers? It’s time to switch things up. You can now ditch your default chrome tab for something with a personal touch!
Momentum Dash offers amazing minimalistic designs. You can opt for weather options or simple pretty backgrounds. The cherry on the cake is the addition of a daily to-do list to make your life easy. This extension has helped 3,000,000 active users in reducing distraction and beating their procrastination.
5. Mote
This little extension allows users to leave voice message notes on documents and assignments. The Google extension, that recently hit over 1 million users (congrats, guys!) aims to make feedback more friendly and user-friendly! There are three main benefits of this Google extension for teachers which are:
- Voice notes can more accurately convey meaning via tone.
- Voice notes can help make online education more personalized.
- Leaving a voice message is faster than typing.
6. The Dark Night Mode
Staying up late grading assingments, and writing reports? We see you!
The The Dark Night Mode Google extension gives your eyes a brief sense of relief, when working late at night. However, we see no problem in using dark mode even when it is sunny outside!
7. OneTab
Do you ever feel your computer groan and heat up because of the sheer number of tabs and windows you have open at the same time? Does it take you an extra ten minutes after finishing up your classes just to bookmark and save all your tabs in an organized manner?
With a single click, OneTab will let you collect the links to every tab you have open in one window and consolidate them to a list of links – which you can then name and find later. Start off exactly where you left off the next day by restoring a list of hyperlinks and finding yourself staring at the same set of information you did the previous day.
OneTab lets you save 95% more memory compared!
This one is a win for productivity and internet surfers! Good on you OneTab, you’re on the list of Google extensions for teachers!
8. Google Meet Attendance List
No doubt you’ve heard of various attendance-taking apps and tools. This is one of the better-rated Google extensions for teachers to take attendance on their Google Meet classes! Their rating is over 4.5 stars, and they have over 10,000 users. Certainly, they’re not as big as some other attendance tools, however, we think that quality comes before quantity!
9. DocuSign
Managing your digital signatures can be a daunting task, especially when you aren’t used to this concept. DocuSign can make your life simpler with its easy and convenient extension. One can manage all their digital signatures, add them to their emails in Gmail, PDFs, or documents. It is perfect for students and teachers that need to work with documents, assignments, and reports.
An important inclusion on our list of Google extensions for teachers? ✔️
10. Awesome Screenshot
As the name suggests, this extension can help you take full pages as well as partial-page screenshots. Additionally, this extension can help blur all the sensitive information available or record the screen in form of video. If you are a teacher, Awesome Screenshot can help in annotating images and share screenshots via google drive too. This can be especially useful for giving feedback and providing greater content to information. It is handy and easy to use if you need to capture websites, webcasts, and video chats.
11. Todoist
Are you an organized person?
Todoist is an incredible application to collaborate with your colleagues, track projects with deadlines, delegate tasks, save important sites and videos, and set SMS notifications all from your browser. Guess what? You can also integrate this with your smartphone and a calendar app to stay on track! An invaluable inclusion on this list of Google extensions for teachers, in our opinion!
12. LastPass
Ugh, forgetting passwords is an absolute pain! Fret not; the Last Pass has got you!
This extension is a password manager that simply auto-fills passwords for all the websites or accounts that you save. It will save you tons of time and reduce the hassle of forgetting one. All you need to know is your LastPass password to access all the other ones. And Voila! You can now access any website with your account and not stress about remembering passwords again.
13. Breakout Rooms
Needing ways to bring back that old classroom feeling? One of the biggest challenges of online classrooms is the inability to break out into smaller groups, to facilitate collaboration, student bonding, and idea exchange. This is where breakout rooms come in!
Most breakout room Google extensions don’t have a good rating. This Google extension, however, is probably the most popular, yet the highest rated with 4/5 stars and over 500,000 users. Give it a whirl here!
14. Google Meet Virtual Backgrounds
Most of us are on Google Meet more often than we would like to be, and the initial excitement of teaching from home has begun to die down. If you hate having your students see your messy workspace or family business, add this Google Meet Extension for virtual backgrounds, which gives you beautiful or hilarious backgrounds to your Google Meet calls.
So, hows for a meeting on the moon with your students?
Your favorite Google extension for teachers
Phew! That is a lot of Google extensions for you teachers out there! From customizing one’s Google Meet experience, to simply optimizing your browser.
There is one extension on this list we didn’t include, which is Grid View. We didn’t include it as we’ve got our own tutorial here, on how to install this extension or use Google Meet’s own in-built functionality to get a similar experience.
