6 Useful Sites I can’t live without

As a French teacher and as a TPT seller, there are some sites I can’t live without – and maybe you could find them useful as well! Some of them are ones that I pay to use, while others have a free level that is plenty. Here they are, in no particular order:

Canva

Canva is definitely one of the sites I can’t live without! It’s a graphic design program that is super easy to use. I use it for both teaching and TPT. I make cover images and social media posts on Canva. I also make anchor charts for my classes – it’s so easy to put a fun image as a background, then add the text I need to make the anchor chart.

You can do static graphics or animations, but you can also make landing pages/websites and presentations! I’ve had students use Canva to make graphics for an imaginary trip to Paris, as well as posters about their favorite Francophone celebrities. It’s easy to use and there are many free photos you can use.

Desmos

Desmos is a site I use every single day in my classes. It allows me to make quick and easy bell-work, check for understanding, polls, and exit ticket all in one. I sometimes put an emotional check-in question, or just a friendly “what are you doing this weekend?” sort of question. I put a voting screen for students to vote on the song of the week – did they love it, like it, or hate it? I put our reading passages for bell work so students can get a head start on whatever we’ll be reading and discussing as a class.

There are a few limitations on what you can do with Desmos (you can’t change or add slides on the fly) but for a free service, it’s got a lot of useful features.

Gimkit and Blooket – two sites I can’t live without

My kids LOVE these games. We play for 20 minutes every block day (once a week) and I start a new kit with each new unit, adding new words as we work through the unit. They seem to like Blooket a little more than Gimkit, but both are happily played by students.

I’ve shared the site with a couple of my colleagues in another department, and I dread the day when all of the other teachers at my school discover these fun games – I would hate for my kids to get bored. But there are so many different games and they are so much fun, I don’t worry too much. These are definitely sites I can’t live without!

Airtable

Airtable is an organizational tool. I use it in TPT to keep track of things – project ideas, status of different things, a plan for each week/month/year. But I’ve also used it for teaching – it’s a good place to keep track of resources for different units. I keep track of all of my TPT purchases, I have a cover image and divided them into levels and themes. When something comes up, all I have to do is take a look on my airtable board and see what resources I’ve put away for the theme or topic and I’m good to go!

If you’re a list-maker and an organizer, this can really help. Between teaching and TPT, I need a quick way to keep track of things – that’s why Airtable is one of the sites I can’t live without.

Twitter

I use Twitter in my classroom as a source of authentic reading materials as well as inspiration. We talk a LOT about current events in my classes and following Twitter trending in France lets me know what people are talking about. It’s so much fun when there is a hashtag that appeals to young people and lots of fun tweets to read.

I also find a lot of great infographics on Twitter – these are great for level 1 students who may not be able to read very complex texts yet. There are other social media sites that are also sites I can’t live without – Instagram and Tiktok are also good sources for French authentic content, and Reddit is a great source for French memes.

I hope this list helps you to find some new and useful resources. These are the sites I can’t live without – how about you? What are your go-to sites? Please share in the comments section so we can all learn from your experience!