Teaching Gadgets: Must-Have Tech for Teachers
Teaching is one of the toughest professions in the world, not only bearing the responsibility for shaping young minds but also having to put up with the people to whom those minds belong on a daily basis.
Those who don’t teach will moan about the long holidays that teachers receive, but it’s fair to say that they need the break to wind down after a tough term. Teachers will tell you it’s not a break at all as they use it for lesson planning, but we all know that’s not entirely true.
One thing that can make the life of teachers just a smidgen easier is the use of technology, with some gadgets out there aimed at helping those in the profession get their message across as simply and succinctly as possible.
Laser Pointer
One of the main jobs of a teacher is to get their students to understand what it is that they’re talking about. In order to better do this, teachers can use a laser pointer in order to draw attention to specific things that are written on the board, feature in a picture or are located further away from them than pointing with their hand alone will allow.
This is where a laser pointer comes in, being considered to be an invaluable tool by many teachers not just whilst they’re in the classroom but also if they end up having to work in a lecture hall or other large space located within the school.
@xcatfeine.afton787xThey all bully me♬ original sound – KittenAfton7🦊☕️2
Although simple laser pointers that are just ‘point and shoot’ types exist, there are also much more complex ones that ask you to connect them via the likes of Radio Frequency receivers that allow them to be connected to your laptop. These allow teachers to react to what is happening in real time, keeping lessons more engaging.
Of course, the exact type of device that you will want to use will be a matter of personal preference, but it is certainly the case that some are more advanced than others. This is an area to do some research if you want to make the right choice for your needs.
Stapleless Stapler
For teachers, staplers can become the bane of their lives. Not only will the naughty kids in class make use of them by stapling the likes of other people’s uniforms or putting a selection of staples down on a chair for someone to sit on and injure themselves, they are also constantly getting blocked and become unworkable.
One of the best devices out on the market for those members of the teaching fraternity that find themselves stapling things on a regular basis is the stapleless stapler, which isn’t as mad as it sounds. If you’ve ever had issues with staples, this is the one for you.
Stationery haul 1 of 2.
That’s a stapleless stapler.— Sbooks (@bemorelikeharper.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 12:19
In short, it gets rid of the need for staples altogether, as you might well have guessed from the name. Instead, the device creates its own cut and folds the paper, creating a surprisingly strong way of linking your pieces of paper together.
Obviously, it is not the sort of thing that will do you any good if you tend to use your stapler to put work up on the wall or the like, but if you mainly use it in order to connect one piece of paper to another so as to ensure that they remain together, you might want to take a look. It means no more tiny metal things getting stuck in the stapler or used as weapons, which is ideal.
A Cricut Machine
There are numerous different things that do something similar to what a Cricut machine has to offer, but none of them do it quite as well. This is the thing that you’ll want to be looking at if you’re the kind of teacher that loves to personalise their classroom and put signs and labels on things all the time.
In simple terms, it is a cutting machine that cuts patterns into different coloured paper. If you want a bit more information, they cut things quickly and with more versatility than simple scissors alone are likely to be able to manage, allowing for complex patterns to be used.
It is a way of ensuring that everything in your classroom can have a professional appearance, without needing to spend huge sums of money to do it. The options of what you can make feel endless, whilst there are also different levels of Cricut machines that you can opt for.
Whether you want to look to put some organising labels on things or you want to go one step beyond what is expected of a teacher and create custom t-shirts for your students, the Cricut machine can do it all. All you need to do is buy the relevant material for the machine you own and there’ll be no stopping you.