Transcription
The best free edtech tools for teachers in 2025 is on this list, and it is jam-packed full of 90 free educational tools for teachers that will help you increase engagement, improve academic achievement, and boost your efficiency in workflow. I am so excited to share a little snippet of each of the tools with you from all these different categories, and be sure that you get the free PDF that you see on the screen of all these tools so you have a print out. And make sure to stick around until the end. I know it's going to be a longer one, but there are so many good tools on this list, you've got to see them all and see which ones work best for you.
All right, let's get started. We start this list off with AI assignment tools, and you're going to be hearing AI quite a bit because it is embedded in a lot of these tools that you're going to see. So these are my favorite AI assignment tools specifically that are focusing on assignments, but you will see AI sprinkled in this list all over.
So let's start with Class Companion. Class Companion gives instant feedback, tutoring, and insights to students based on their writing. Students receive suggestions on their work, and they can rewrite drafts multiple times before submitting them to the teacher. So the teacher provides a rubric, then that the AI uses to guide comments, ensuring that it's aligning with the learning goals. And then students can access those assignments, uh, get feedback, rewrite their work, and then when they're done with it, they can submit it to the teacher. So it's just a great way to get extra eyes on student assignments before the teacher actually reads it, but it's all based on that rubric that the teacher provided. So a couple drafts can get done through an AI, and then the teacher can see it. So that's great learning for the students, and also great efficiency for the teacher.
Snorkel is next, and with Snorkel, students record and share their reasoning based on a question that the teacher asked. So they receive instant AI-powered feedback that then drives them to re-answer the question that maybe they got wrong, or maybe they got through a math problem and it wasn't quite right on step two, and Snorkel pointed it out, and they're able to go back through and fix that. So Snorkel is able to be at every student's desk, working with them, working through this problem, and giving them instant feedback. So as Snorkel analyzes the students' explanations, uh, it's analyzing what they're saying verbally, and it's also analyzing what the students are writing as they work out the problems on the screen. So it's taking both of those things into consideration to see if the student understands the problem. Uh, it has pre-designed templates and ideas for projects and essays, uh, but of course, you can always add your own questions in there as well.
The next one is QuestionWell. QuestionWell creates question sets that can easily be integrated into those popular edtech tools like Kahoot, Blooket, Gimkit, Google Forms. This means that you can create a question set for these platforms in seconds based on the piece of text that you provide or it creates. So it's able to help us craft multiple-choice questions, uh, and then load them into these online learning platforms, these engagement platforms, using the templates that each of those platforms needs to quickly get up and running with a question set of your choosing. Uh, so that's really cool with QuestionWell.
All of the links, uh, for all of these different tools that I'm going to mention, are going to be in the description below, so you can grab them all there. And of course, you're going to grab this free PDF that you see on the screen, uh, that is in the description below as well.
Moving on to Formative. Formative is an interactive platform where teachers can upload and create assignments and monitor student responses in real time. That's my favorite part. It supports that live feedback, grading, and analytics to improve that learning outcome. And I just really love Formative because as you use it, when you go through a lesson, I hear from every one of my students. And I also love that Formative has now added the AI feature. It will create an interactive quiz really quickly on any topic, and then I can use that during a live lesson to ensure all of my students are participating and see in real time if everybody understands the material. So it supports that live feedback, has grading, the auto-grading in it, and the analytics for us as teachers to look at to make sure that we're improving those learning outcomes.
Quizzes is the last one in this category. And Quizzes is an interactive quiz platform that allows teachers to create and assign quizzes, lessons, and polls. So students complete these activities on their own, uh, and they can get instant feedback and gamified features to boost that engagement. I can create an interactive assessment, lesson, or interactive video on the starter plan, so that's really cool. They do have a paid plan too, but you do have access to those three things even on the starter plan. And the cool part is that I really like with Quizzes is I can start with things that I already have, so like Google Slides, uh, or a worksheet, and I can make those interactive. Or I can have the AI create them inside of Quizzes. Uh, I can also just create my own from scratch inside of Quizzes as well. Um, but the cool thing is you have a lot of options, and every step of the way, Quizzes AI is helping you enhance the assignment. It's offering differentiation features to meet the needs of all the learners, and students complete the activities at their own pace with instant feedback with the gamified features boosting engagement. So, uh, we love to use Quizzes as an AI assignment tool in the classroom.
Moving on to AI tools that are going to help you as a teacher or help students get organized. So we start off with Magic School. And Magic School was created specifically for teachers. It features different types of tasks that we commonly do, like write lesson plans, uh, for a special education teacher, they're writing IEP goals, or maybe we are writing a science experiment. It uses AI to create those personalized resources tailored to our teaching objectives. So with the free version, you will only be able to chat once with the AI assistant. And if you want to continue that conversation, I would suggest the next tool on this list, and that is ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is an all-purpose AI assistant that can help with a variety of classroom needs. So the difference is going to be, Magic School is going to prompt you, uh, it's going to say, "What do you want to write?" and it's going to give a list of options. Uh, ChatGPT isn't going to give you a list of options, it's just going to say, "What do you want to create?" and the sky is the limit. So teachers can use it to draft lesson plans, brainstorm activity ideas, create classroom materials like worksheets, rubrics, uh, it's just a really handy resource for quickly answering complex questions or finding new ways to explain challenging concepts. With its ability to customize responses, ChatGPT empowers teachers to tailor their content to specific needs. So there are so many different things you can do with ChatGPT. And if you want to check out, uh, a master class that I did, I have a free master class just for teachers on how to use ChatGPT. I will link up the description above and also link it in the description below for a full tutorial of ChatGPT.
Khan Academy's Khanmigo is our next AI tool. Khanmigo is from Khan Academy. It is their AI-powered tutor and teaching assistant. So much like Magic School, Khanmigo has that assistant that can help teachers create resources for their classroom and give them a list of ideas that they can choose from. And instead of just giving the response, uh, as a prompt answer, it actually writes it on a document. So there's no copy and paste needed. So that's kind of cool with this, uh, feature from Khanmigo, because you can go in between editing the document and giving more prompts to Khanmigo and create the document all at one time. You don't need to be copying pasting bits and pieces from it. It will just edit it on a document. So that's a cool differentiator between a Khanmigo option and a Magic School option. Khanmigo is going to write it right on the document.
Goblin Tools is next in this section, and this is an AI tool designed to simplify everyday tasks for educators and students. The Magic To-Do List, this is one of my favorites. It breaks down tasks into microtasks for students. So this is really helpful when students are doing projects or assignments that have a lot of tasks, uh, like writing a persuasive essay. You could put in there, "Write a persuasive essay," that's your task, and then it would break it down into microtasks that you first need to, you know, brainstorm ideas about what you want to talk about, you know, and then all of the different steps that go with that. And so it helps the learner break down this big project into smaller microtasks so they can better attack that project. Uh, it also has tools that will help you with your tone of writing and help you make decisions based on the pros or cons of an idea, or even what's in your fridge if you need to put a recipe together with things that are in your fridge. You can put those things, uh, that are in your fridge or pantry, and it will create a recipe. So that's kind of cool. The other thing with this tool is no account is needed. You can head to the site and get started using the tools right away.
Brisk Teaching is next, and this leverages AI to generate engaging lessons, assessments, and activities in literally minutes. Whether you need a quick worksheet, uh, an interactive quiz, or an outline for a full lesson, Brisk Teaching has got you covered. It's especially useful for aligning those resources with curriculum standards or adapting material for learning levels. So this ensures that no student is left behind. It will also let you rewrite website content at different reading levels. So you can use the same article, you can present the same article in your daily lesson, and all students can get it leveled down to their reading level. So we don't need three different articles, uh, for the same topic. We can use the same article, and it can be differentiated three different ways using Brisk. So that's really nice, uh, that it has that option. You can also use it to help grade writing assignments, and it will give like a "glow" and a "grow" option for the student, uh, to write really quick feedback. So that's an option with Brisk Teaching.
Moving on to lesson support tools, we've got Edpuzzle. And you guys know I love Edpuzzle. It transforms any video into an interactive learning experience by allowing teachers to add questions, notes, and audio commentary directly into the video. This tool helps teachers ensure students are engaged with the material, and it also checks their comprehension at various points by asking those questions inside of the video. So Edpuzzle can be used for any video content, like YouTube videos, or you can upload your own videos. So this makes it versatile for all different subjects. And you will find that there are are a lot of videos that teachers have already Edpuzzle will say, and so you can use those questions that teachers have already added in there, uh, as your own and assign them.
If you love tools like Edpuzzle, uh, we do have the Top Tech Tools for Teachers course. You can check that out in the description. Uh, and teachers love getting that one because it's all about free tools that are on this list. A lot of them are on this list, there are some different ones in there too, um, but you can learn how to use them in the classroom and get tips and tricks. So definitely check that out in the description.
And we'll move on to Nearpod. This is an interactive presentation platform that enhances lessons with quizzes, polls, and virtual field trips, and all in real time. Because teachers can track student participation and understanding as they move through the lesson, they can gain immediate insight into who is grasping that concept and who might need some more help. So they become more dynamic with Nearpod and engaged because you're providing that immersive learning environment. Uh, and there's features like 3D objects and the videos and the interactive whiteboards all embedded into Nearpod. So you can definitely check that one out.
Pear Deck is similar, but Pear Deck is going to seamlessly integrate with specifically Google Slides. So they add the interactive features like embedded questions or polls or activities right on top of your Google Slides presentation. It allows students to assess student understanding, just like we see in Nearpod, uh, throughout the lesson, and then we're able to offer that immediate feedback and insight into that student comprehension.
Flippity is a tool created by a teacher, and this is where we turn Google Sheets into a variety of interactive learning resources. So these are things like flashcards and quizzes and timelines. It's a very simple website, but it's very powerful because it creates these customized materials to review and practice from. It has many different tools that you can create with, and no account is needed on this one either. So if you want to see these Flippity tools in action, you can click the link above. I did a whole video just on Flippity, or you can grab the link below to get to flippity.net.
Quizlet is the last one of this group. It's a versatile tool that allows teachers and students to create digital flashcards, practice for tests, or engage in games for reviewing concepts. It supports a variety of study modes, including matching games, learning path, and also helps reinforce important material. It has a wide range of pre-made content, so this makes it really easy for teachers to find and use resources across those subjects. So if you need digital flashcards, Quizlet is the one you want to use.
We are on to game-based tools that are highly engaging, and I just, I love this list of tools. It starts off with Blooket. Blooket levels the playing field for all learners, being an interactive learning tool that combines quizzes, gamification, and makes review sessions exciting and engaging for students. So teachers can create their own custom quizzes, or they can use ones that are already created on Blooket, and then turn them into various game modes. So this allows students to compete against each other while reinforcing concepts. Blooket is designed to be highly interactive, with students answering questions in a game environment, earning points, and progressing through those levels. So the flexibility of Blooket means that it's ideal for formative assessments, uh, and review, and it also fosters a friendly sense of competition and teamwork in the classroom. Uh, it offers self-paced games or live games, and it can be tailored to fit any lesson or any review session. My favorite part about Blooket is that the score, how they get first, second, or third, is based off their gameplay and not off of their academic level. So some of the games involve luck, so this means anyone can win at any time, and giving everybody an opportunity to be on top. So I love that about the Blooket platform.
Kahoot is one of the most popular quiz platforms, uh, for a while now. It offers a fun and competitive way to review material. Teachers can create custom quizzes, they can host live games, uh, they can use ones that are already loaded into Kahoot, and it just creates that friendly competition. It's pretty versatile because it will have question sets, but it also has slides that you can add in there. I love to use Kahoot for lessons where I'm presenting with slides, uh, so I can give a few slides of information and then ask those Kahoot questions. This keeps everyone focused and engaged while I get the data of each of my students as I present the lesson.
Gimkit is next, and this is a unique learning platform because students will jump into Gimkit, and they will all be playing on a collaborative map. And sometimes we're working together on a goal, sometimes we're playing, uh, team versus team to win. But this just adds a collaborative strategy to the classroom, and the classroom might erupt a little bit when you play it, so just for warning on that. Uh, but students are engaged to answer those questions based on a question set that you selected. So it has customizations that you can change the pacing of the game, make it more adaptable to different grade levels and subject areas. Uh, the paid version on this one is a lot better than the free one for sure, because you get access to the games and you get reports on student data. But my approach with the free version is definitely something I'm not grading. I'm more so using it as a fun review of knowledge, and we enjoy the collaboration of the game. So I'd encourage you to play the game with students or walk around the room and check out how they're doing on the quiz questions, since we don't get that data on the back end with the free version of Gimkit.
Quizalize is a tool that enables teachers to create quizzes with that adaptive learning feature. So the difficulty of the questions is based on that student response. This makes the platform ideal for catering to a wide variety of student abilities, and teachers can quickly assess how well students understand the material and focus on the areas where they need improvement. So it offers that real-time feedback, allows students to see their results immediately after answering any questions, and the platform provides detailed analytics to help teachers identify learning gaps and track student progress over time. It incorporates that game-like atmosphere that we've seen from all of these tools so far. They can compete individually or as teams, and make it fun. And the quizzes are customizable, they get that immediate feedback, powerful analytics, and Quizalize helps create a more personalized and engaging learning experience using that tool.
The last one of this category is Factile. This is a quiz game platform. It's like a Jeopardy show, uh, so this allows teachers to create a custom quiz where students can answer questions in different categories and earn points. It is very much like Jeopardy, and so it's just a great way to continue that type of gameplay in the classroom.
The Adaptive Learning Path set is next. Khan Academy. It is a widely recognized educational platform. It offers free and self-paced lessons across a variety of subjects, including math, science, history, and more. It's really just designed to provide that personalized learning experience, uh, through things that students want to learn more about. It's self-paced, it has a vast variety of instructional videos, practice exercises, and assessments. Khan Academy's approach makes learning flexible for students and allows them to learn at their own pace, making it a valuable resource for both the classroom and an independent study option.
Khan Academy Kids is great for ages 2 to 8. And so this one offers an interactive environment building on foundational skills in reading, math, and social-emotional development. It uses a combination of animated lessons, activities, and games to engage young children and foster that love of learning. There is that adaptive learning system inside of Khan Academy Kids, so they are going to get a personalized experience. Each child will get a different experience depending upon how they are answering the curriculum. Focuses on key developmental milestones, providing age-appropriate content that grows with the child. Teachers can use this in the classroom, parents can use this at home. It's just a great way to be the first start of exposure to an app for young learners. Uh, and my kids loved using Khan Academy at home when they were little.
I love this next one. Boddle is an adaptive math and ELA platform that gamifies the learning process. So it provides students with this interactive, engaging way to practice math and ELA. It has a variety of math and ELA challenges where students get to progress through the game by solving math problems tailored to their skill. As students work through the levels, Boddle adapts to individual learning needs to the student. So it's going, everyone's path is going to be different, providing more difficult problems as they master the easier ones. I just love this because students are challenged appropriately, but yet students can play together in the same online platform when they battle their pets, and everyone's on the same platform, but everybody is getting the exact questions that they need based on what their learning target is at that time. So students will love this one. It also has really great accessibility features. When students are answering the questions, they can watch a video about the type of question, they can write on the screen, they can have the question read to them. There's a lot of great accessibility features already built into Boddle.
Prodigy is a math learning platform that combines curriculum-aligned math practice with fun and an immersive adventure game. So students create characters, they embark on quests where they have to solve math problems to get through the game's world. The platform adapts to each student's skill level, so you see that adaptive learning path happening with Prodigy as well, and it's a wide variety of math topics from basic arithmetic to those complex concepts. So teachers can customize this content to align with specific learning objectives and track that progress. Uh, and it also provides those detailed reports for students. So that's really nice that the teacher gets the data, and it has a great blend of gamification and adaptive learning that keeps students engaged while building that math proficiency.
Zearn is a comprehensive digital math curriculum that supports both that independent and classroom learning. So this platform offers digital lessons and activities that are designed to reinforce math concepts through that adaptive learning. So it will track the students, it will ensure that each student is being challenged appropriately, and just provides that wide variety of topics to make sure that that scaffolding is happening. So teachers can assign lessons based on individual student needs and monitor that progress in real time. Zearn can be used in whole class instruction, or small group, or of course, that individual practice.
Our classroom management section is up next. We started off with TeacherStack. This is a classroom management tool designed to improve efficiency with interactive features that can be displayed on the whiteboard or on a TV in your classroom. So it includes tools like station rotation timers, uh, lunch choice organizers, there's a random student selection, timers, to-do list, a noise meter. Uh, teachers always love the seating chart arranger, and then flashcards. So teachers can use TeacherStack to streamline daily tasks, keep students engaged with that visualization, and maintain an organized classroom, making it an essential tool for everyday use in the classroom.
ClassDojo is all about classroom management and communication that enables teachers to build a positive classroom culture through real-time feedback. Teachers can assign points for positive behaviors like participation or teamwork. We can also deduct points for disruptive behaviors, and this keeps the students kind of just in check. I don't often recommend, you know, doing the negative points, but sometimes if we really have one, uh, then we then we have to, uh, we definitely want to be giving those positive behavior points and pointing out the students that are doing those things. So that's a great platform, uh, to also instant message parents about their child's progress and behavior or upcoming events, so they stay connected. And, uh, ClassDojo has recently added, uh, the Dojo Islands that students are loving. So they're able to go into this online world and build with their classmates. You'll have to check it out, uh, it's pretty cool. They can also create these online digital portfolios that share their work and accomplishments throughout the year. So ClassDojo is a great option, uh, especially for your elementary classrooms, and sometimes I've even used it in junior high, and it works well too.
Classroom Screen is a versatile classroom management tool that provides teachers with customizable widgets for managing their classroom environment. So this has where teachers can display a variety of helpful information, uh, through these different widgets, like timers, traffic lights, uh, random name pickers, customized backgrounds. It just helps display the information visually for students, whether you are in person or whether you are teaching online. You're teaching through say Zoom, right, and you want to keep everybody on task. This just gives a digital display where everybody can stay on task. And if you need to put up a timer, you just throw up a timer, and everybody knows that that is how much time is left, and it just keeps everybody on track. So teachers use Classroom Screen to enhance the classroom flow, keep kids organized, and then provide that visual reminder. You can see Classroom Screen in action with the video above, or you can get the link in the description below where I've explained everything on how to use Classroom Screen in that video.
There's also the Classroom app from Apple. This is just a management app if you have iPads or MacBooks in your environment. Teachers can use this to monitor student devices to see what they're actually working on on their iPads, which is really great. It can also lock the devices if you need to make an announcement, uh, or it can open specific apps and websites. It can send messages to students to provide direction or reminders if you see that they're off task, uh, without making a big announcement in the classroom. So this is just a great management, uh, platform if you're using Apple products like iPads or MacBooks.
The Bouncy Balls website. This is a fun and simple tool designed to manage the noise levels in a classroom. It uses the microphone on your computer, so that definitely comes into play. Whoever is closest to your computer will be picked up more often, but you'll see displays of colorful bouncy balls on the screen, and that indicates the sound volume. So the louder the noise, the higher and faster the balls bounce. This gets kids a little excited, a lot of times, um, so I don't use it very often, but sometimes we just use it as an awareness tool to say, "Hey, this volume is too loud. We need to control it more and have a quiet classroom environment." And so sometimes I'll challenge them to not let the balls move at all, right? And of course, they'll be moving a little bit, just with general noise, um, but this is more so an awareness tool. It's probably not one that I leave on all the time, but it just adds a fun element to classroom management while promoting that self-regulation and helping maintain focus in the classroom.
Our productivity list is up next. We start with Trello. This is a visual project management tool that helps teachers and students organize tasks, assignments, and projects. You use boards, lists, or cards, and users can create and track progress, set deadlines, collaborate on, uh, simple projects. You can use a drag-and-drop interface, which I love to use. And I really like to use Trello for ideas that come to me throughout the day, but I can't quite get to them at the moment. So it could be like my long to-do list, or it could be future projects that I have an idea for, or I found a resource for, but I need somewhere to put it. I can't quite do it right now, and I'll use Trello boards for that.
Wakelet is a content curation tool that allows students and teachers to collect, organize, and share multimedia content. So this is great for a collection of articles, videos, images, and it just creates kind of this feed of information all around one topic. So teachers can create these for students to use, students can add to them if you want, and it's great for tech coaches because we can create resources, you know, lists of resources for specific topics, and it just brings in those variety of different media, articles, videos, images, that sort of thing, inside a Wakelet.
Padlet is great for an interactive digital board that allows teachers and students to collaborate on shared ideas, and we can create content together. It does support those multimedia elements like text, images, videos, links, and so we can have brainstorming sessions. Uh, it also can just keep everybody on the same page as you're going through a lesson and having students put questions on there. It just promotes that interaction when students have devices in front of them and you're also teaching the lesson, making sure that discussion is happening and you're getting those questions answered. So great dynamic collaborative space using Padlet.
Symbaloo is a web-based tool that helps organize and share online resources in a visually appealing way using this easy-to-use grid format. Teachers can create custom web mixes of links to websites, videos, and other online tools that they can access quickly. So this is a curation of your favorite websites, let's say for your classroom, and I love to use Symbaloo as the iPad homepage of teachers' favorite sites on all of the students' iPads. So we can quickly get to those links, uh, and it looks really cool when it comes up as the homepage on the iPad because we can easily just get to those links that we need to get to.
NotebookLM is a new smart notebook from Google. It helps teachers and students organize notes, research, and lesson plans more efficiently. It uses AI to enhance productivity, offering these different search capabilities, automated organization, and the ability to link relevant content across multiple documents. So I like to bring in multiple videos and articles, uh, and even documents that are all about the same topic, and I bring them into NotebookLM, and it creates a synopsis for me, or it grabs the keywords. And the really cool thing that it can do is it can actually create a podcast that sounds very realistic, and it's just a really cool feature of this free tool that we could drop, say, 10 resources into this notebook, and it would summarize it all and then put it in an audio context.
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are talking about something really important to a lot of you out there, I think, um, online tracking and how it all works, especially as a teenager. We got a ton of articles and even some YouTube videos to help us like really break this all down. And honestly, like, it feels like everywhere you go online, someone's always watching. Yeah, and what's kind of crazy is we're not just talking about like those ads that follow you around everywhere you go online. This stuff can actually like impact you later on in life, you know, things like getting into college or even like how much you pay for insurance. So we'll be looking at like what kind of data is even collected, you know, who's doing the collecting, and what they're doing with it all. Okay, so let's just dive in. First up, uh, and you'll have to just go check it out because the podcasts are unreal on how real they sound and how engaging they are. So definitely check out NotebookLM from Google.
We are making connections next, and we're starting with Remind. Remind is a messaging tool that allows teachers to communicate directly with students and parents. You can send texts, voice messages, announcements, uh, things that you learned today to then continue the conversation at home. Great for those reminders, updates, and also answering parent questions. You create the classes, you can send the message to individual groups, uh, it just ensures everyone stays informed and connected. The biggest thing is that nobody has each other's phone numbers. So parents will subscribe to your Remind, they don't have your phone number, and you don't have the parents' phone number. Every message goes through Remind. Uh, you can also set up office hours, so you add that level of awareness for parents that maybe at 7:00 at night, you're not available, you're with your families, right? Um, it's a pretty widely used communication, uh, and families just get involved in the learning process when we implement communication features like Remind.
Mote is a great tool to add a voice note on top of student learning. So it allows you to provide that audio feedback, instruction, or communicate with students via voice messages. So it increases engagement because students can hear your voice, hear that personalized feedback, and they can gather information from your voice to better understand your feedback. It also, teachers have told me that in the classroom, it speeds up their workflow when they're correcting, when they can just talk to their computer instead of having to type out notes for students. So Mote is a great option for voice notes.
Now, if you need to send a video or a screen share of your notes or of a lesson, then you're going to want to use Loom. Loom is a paid program, but it's free for teachers. So you just need to go in and verify that you're a teacher, but it's great for teachers to record those quick videos to explain lessons, you can provide that feedback, or you can share announcements, and it will record your screen, uh, or it will record you, or both. Uh, it's a versatile tool in creating those video tutorials, and it saves time because we're able to provide a visual in the form of a video along with our verbal support. So it's my favorite screen recorder because you don't actually share a video, you share a link. So I don't have to worry about uploading a video file to somewhere, and then the student on the back end has to download it somewhere. I just share a link, and it's hosted on Loom, and that just makes it that much more simple.
Cami is next. This is an interactive PDF and documentation annotation tool. This enables teachers and students to collaborate in real time. The users can annotate, highlight, draw, comment on the documents. Perfect for online learning or reviewing assignments or creating those collaborative activities. Cami supports various file types like PDFs, images, web pages, enhancing that engagement and streamlining feedback and collaboration. So you can check out Cami.
Seesaw is next. This is a digital portfolio and communication tool that allows students to document their learning, share it with teachers and parents. And students can post videos, drawings, reflections, they can get feedback from their teacher, and the teacher can track their progress. And parents also see what the student is posting as they submit their work. So it's a great connection between students, teachers, and families, uh, and really a great option for elementary students to turn in their digital work because it has a lot of tools built in, so students can create inside of Seesaw to better explain their learning.
We move on to our Quick Create section. TinyURL starts it. This is a URL shortening service that basically takes long websites, turns them into manageable URLs that students can quickly get to. So really, really long URLs that you are not going to have your students type, it can create a TinyURL and a short link for students to get there really quickly.
GoQR.com is creating QR codes. This can be links to websites, documents, videos. Teachers can generate these QR codes to make resources accessible quickly and easily just by scanning them. It's especially useful for classroom activities like scavenger hunts, uh, or linking to online assignments or videos that you want them to access quickly.
Text Blaze is so cool because it's a text expansion tool. It allows users to create shortcuts for frequently typed phrases or text. So you can start to streamline your communication by creating shortcuts for those common responses, instructions, or feedbacks that you give. It saves time, it increases productivity, and makes repetitive tasks such as grading or responding to student questions or parent concerns more efficient. If you tend to get the same questions time after time, you can check out the description, uh, below for the link to get started with Text Blaze because they have a special offer for teachers.
Markup Hero is next. This is an annotation tool that lets users markup images, PDFs, and screenshots. And I love to use this as a visualization when I'm teaching because teachers can highlight different areas of a document, they can add notes, provide feedback, uh, they can add shapes over top. And so sometimes I'll use the shape like just to block out information so students can't see it yet, and then I'll reveal it as I go through, uh, that piece of information. And so that's great. You can use Markup Hero for free, but right now they are offering teachers one month for free on their paid plan, uh, and you can get that special link for teachers in the description as well.
Last is our Adobe Express Background Remover. And this is a tool that literally removes the background of any image, leaving only the subject that you want it to. So teachers can use this to create images for presentations, lesson materials, student projects. It's perfect for making visual resources, personalized content, or that digital artwork, saving time from you having to erase the background. It just automatically does it. So you'll definitely want to check out the Adobe Express Background Remover tool.
Our visual creation section is up next, and leading off the list is Canva. This is a graphic design tool that allows users to create visually appealing presentations, posters, infographics, social media posts, if you're doing that, and so much more. So it has this drag-and-drop interface with so many different templates. Teachers and students can use Canva to create these professional-looking visuals really, really quickly. Uh, it's just perfect for teachers and students that want to enhance that creativity and present information in an engaging and visually stunning way. So be sure to also check out their AI features that they've added in to get a little bit more assistance along the way, or you can even create your own image based on a prompt. If you want to learn how to do that, I have created a video just for that. You can get the link in the description, or I will post it at the top.
Bitmojis are just for fun. These are personal emoji creations, and this tool lets users design a custom avatar, uh, to put on messages or presentations or classroom material. And it's just, it's a picture of yourself in a comic-like way, and then they can hold up little signs, or they can be added in throughout your classroom, or they can be pointing, or whatever. It's just a fun way to bring a personal touch to digital interaction and make it more engaging. So I like to add that on visual creations, they are Bitmojis.
Satori is going to be used for creating interactive timelines and multimedia presentations, and teachers can add text, images, video, and audio to build dynamic digital stories. So Satori helps engage students in project-based learning, historical overviews, or that creative storytelling by allowing them to visualize their timeline and then visually organize and present that information in that timeline format.
Toontastic is an animation app that lets students create their own animated stories. They're able to draw characters or choose characters for scenes, and then record the voices, and students can produce short animations to demonstrate their understanding or showcase their creativity. Teachers use Toontastic to promote storytelling skills, digital creativity, and multimedia learning. This is an excellent choice for students, really of all ages. Uh, the only thing is it used to be available on the iPads, and now it is just available in the Google Play Store.
Giphy is another one that is just for fun. It's a search engine and platform for finding different GIFs, which are animated images. Teachers can use these GIFs inside of their lessons to add a little fun engagement, uh, and just a way to complement their lessons and communicate their ideas visually. So it's playful, uh, to add these to classroom presentations, a little visual flair, uh, and they're just for fun. So you can check out that link in the description.
Moving on to math support tools, we start off with The Math Learning Center. This provides a suite of interactive tools and apps designed to help students visualize and understand those mathematical concepts. So with resources like digital manipulatives, there's virtual models, teachers can provide that support to students in developing problem-solving and those critical thinking skills. And the cool thing with this website is you don't need an account to use The Math Learning Center.
Wolfram Alpha is a powerful computational search engine. It doesn't provide a list of websites like a Google search would. It actually curates data from your search from multiple different resources and provides answers to math, science, uh, nutritional, historical, all these different types of questions. It allows students to solve complex equations, it shows them how they would do that step by step, or it may, uh, tell them about George Washington and all the different statistical data about a person. It could compare apples versus oranges and show us the statistical data between, uh, their nutritional values. So it offers those step-by-step solutions and also data on a variety of topics. Wolfram Alpha is pretty cool.
Toy Theater is a collection of free online tools for creating art, animation, and interactive activities. It includes a variety of math games and virtual manipulatives, helping students engage with math concepts in a creative and fun way. So teachers can use Toy Theater to provide those hands-on learning experiences that are visually stimulating and easy to navigate. It's great for teachers to show on the Smartboard or for students to interact with those digital manipulatives and play the games on their own. And with this one, no account is needed. So I love those ones that we can just jump on the site and get going.
Mathigon has interactive visualizations for math and interactive lessons and puzzles. It covers a variety of topics, really from basic math to advanced math, uh, allowing students to explore concepts through games and dynamic visual tools. Teachers use Mathigon to foster that deeper understanding of problem-solving skills with math. So that's a cool one to check out.
And then there is 99Math. This is a fun, competitive math game designed for students to practice their math skills in a fast-paced, engaging format. Teachers can create these live games, they can set challenges, they can track student progress in real time. It's perfect for promoting fluency and reinforcing math concepts while keeping students motivated through competition.
Science tools are next, and we start with The Periodic Table. This is an interactive periodic table that provides that detailed information about all the elements, including their atomic structure, the properties, real-life applications of all of these elements. And teachers can use The Periodic Table to help students explore this periodic table in depth and also visualize how the elements are related. So it's a valuable tool for teaching chemistry and enhancing students' understanding of our material world.
PhET Simulations. They offer interactive simulations in science and math. They provide hands-on experiences for students to explore these complex concepts. And from physics to chemistry to biology, these simulations allow students to experiment and observe what is happening in that virtual setting. So teachers use PhET a lot to bring these abstract concepts to life and foster that inquiry-based learning.
BioDigital. This is a 3D visualization tool for exploring the human body and health. Teachers can use it to showcase detailed and interactive models of the human body. Uh, you can pull back different layers as well, and so that's really cool that you can really dive into specifically what you're trying to look at. It just makes it more tangible for students, allowing them to manipulate and explore the body systems in these engaging ways.
Learn.Genetics provides interactive lessons on genetics, biology, and biotechnology. It has videos, animations, simulations. These all help students understand complex science concepts, and teachers can use Learn.Genetics to enhance their biology curriculum and engage students with cutting-edge science content.
Nova Labs provides interactive online simulations and activities related to science and technology. The topics range from space exploration to engineering and biology. Students are able to engage in hands-on learning, virtual experiments, and teachers use Nova Labs to introduce those real-world science problems and encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills. So all of these are really cool for science. You can check all of them out. Of course, the link is going to be in the description. And if you want to get this PDF that we have been showcasing, you definitely can do that. It is free. You can grab the link in the description below.
In our English section, we start with EnlightenMe. EnlightenMe is an AI-powered tool that helps students improve their writing and reading comprehension. So by analyzing text and providing personalized feedback, it supports students in refining their writing skills and understanding complex literature. Teachers can use this tool to provide individual support for students, helping them develop their language skills, and teachers provide the rubric that the AI uses to give that feedback. So it has the guidance from the teacher to make sure that it's supporting, uh, what the teacher is wanting to have the students learn using those assignments.
TextFix is an online tool for enhancing writing and improving that text quality. It's kind of like a writing tool for teachers or for students. It has a text analysis, readability scores. Uh, it offers suggestions for clear, more effective writing. You can use it to, uh, promote better writing habits and improve your language skills and just brainstorm different ideas to improve your writing. So it's just a fun little tool that doesn't need an account, so that's kind of cool too. You can just use it right away, uh, for writers.
To use to improve their writing and gain different ideas. Grammarly, I use this all the time. It is a great writing assistant that checks grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, and also the voice tone, right? It provides that real-time feedback and suggestions to help students improve their writing. So, you can use Grammarly to support students in developing their stronger writing skills. Enhance grammar and style, you can always use it too on your own documents. I use Grammarly every day. I love the suggestions that it gives me, and no matter the application that I'm in, my Grammarly is always running. So, whether I am writing on a document or inside a website or inside a spreadsheet, it is always running, and it's helping me have better grammar and better spelling all the time. So, I love using Grammarly. You can get the link in the description below for a special promo for teachers from Grammarly.
KD is a friendly search engine that filters out inappropriate content and provides curated resources for students. It's a safe way for students to search for information and conduct research online. So, teachers will use KD to guide students in finding age-appropriate resources. It kind of pairs down search engine results, so it's a little more structured than just Google. Uh, it is trying to tailor those that content for being kid-appropriate and just makes it a little easier for students to use search engines. So, you can learn all about more search engines for kids in the link below in the description, and I'll also post it above.
Book Creator is a digital tool that allows students to create their own interactive books, and students can draw, they can add text, they can add images, audios to design their stories and reports for projects. Teachers use Book Creator to promote that creativity, storytelling, multimedia skills. So, if they've written a book, then they can create it digitally and and just an opportunity to share their work in that digital format. Uh, and it's just a great option to create a book.
We'll start our reading support content next. In Common Lit, this offers free, high-quality reading materials for students in grades 3 through 12. It covers a wide variety of genres, topics, reading levels. It provides teachers with access to lesson plans, comprehensive questions, and assessments, helping students develop strong reading and critical thinking skills. This is ideal for fostering those discussions and helping students engage deeply with different types of text.
Rewardify is a tool that simplifies complex texts by replacing difficult words with simpler synonyms. So, it's perfect for helping our English language learners, uh, or maybe if you have an article that a student needs it to be more challenging or it needs to be easier to read. Teachers can use Rewardify to adjust those reading levels. It also will create little learning activities with the vocab words from the passage.
Epic is a digital library offering thousands of books, audiobooks, and educational videos for children. It's designed to support reading levels at all different levels, from early learners to advanced readers. And teachers can track students' progress, they can assign different books, they can customize a reading list and meet individual needs. This fosters a love of reading and improves those literacy skills.
Vooks, this brings books to life through animated videos, and it's an excellent resource for engaging younger students with stories. It combines the visuals and the narratives to help with word recognition, comprehension, and vocab building. Teachers can use Vooks to promote reading through these interactive videos that show dynamic storytelling.
Wonderopolis is all about the things that you wonder and our students wonder. So, it encourages curiosity by answering interesting questions about the world. It features articles, videos, and activities related to a wide variety of topics. And teachers can use Wonderopolis to spark discussions, explore new concepts, or answer those questions that our students are wondering about. It's just a really cool site for students to use.
Social studies list is next. We start with Parlay, and this is an online platform that helps facilitate student-led discussions and debates. It allows students to engage in thoughtful, structured conversations about important topics. This could be topics, social studies topics, debate topics, whatever it may be. Teachers can use Parlay to encourage collaborative learning, build communication skills, and promote critical thinking through these guided discussions and peer interactions.
iCivics, this is an interactive platform designed to teach students all about Civics and government through fun, game-based learning. So, iCivics helps students understand topics like the Constitution, the branches of government, and voting. Teachers can use iCivics to foster civic engagement and critical thinking about government and democracy through these interactive simulations. It has students make the decisions, and they get to see the results of their decisions in real time. So, that's just a really, really cool one for social studies.
Globe Trotting Kids is great for younger, like elementary learning about social studies. So, this takes them on virtual adventures around the world. They get to explore different cultures, geography, historical landmarks. And teachers can use this tool to enhance social studies lessons by providing that immersive, exploratory experience for students to broaden their understanding of those global topics and communities.
Google Earth is, of course, on this list because it is a digital mapping tool that allows us to explore the world in 3D. You can go to any place in the world, landmarks, you get to see the environment. And teachers can use Google Earth to give students a hands-on approach to studying geography, historical sites, cultural landmarks, and just make lessons more interactive. When you can actually drop in on say, the pyramids in Egypt, and be standing right at the base of them, that is really cool.
The Smithsonian Learning Lab, this is an online platform that offers access to the vast collection of the Smithsonian Institute. So, there's artifacts, documents, videos, and so much more. You can use this to create custom lessons, virtual field trips, those interactive activities to support history, social studies, and science education.
All right, digital citizenship. This list, and we start off with Integrated, and that's me. So, I offer live digital sessions for classrooms learning about digital citizenship and cybersecurity. Students love these highly interactive and meaningful sessions on digital citizenship topics, and teachers love to hear the topic from someone else, and that their students hear the topic from someone else. So, they can reference what they learn from that virtual field trip with me in their classroom when they use technology. So, it's not just them telling them, you know, how we use our devices. Someone else came in and told them, right, and showed them, and it was interactive. Um, so teachers really like that. I'm only able to offer a few free every month, so it's kind of first come, first serve basis. Um, you can buy a pack of lessons for a variety of ages that can be delivered throughout the year. You can grab my email in the description below if you want to book one of those, and we can certainly chat from there.
Common Sense Media, they offer resources and educational materials to help students navigate the digital world responsibly. So, it provides information on internet safety, privacy, digital citizenship. They have already created these videos and lesson plans and, uh, take-home, you know, family handouts. They've already done the work for digital citizenship. Uh, and so you can access those lessons for free. The curriculum is just jam-packed with everything that you could need, and that's very little planning for the teacher. So, Common Sense Media.org is a great one to go to.
If you're doing digital citizenship, if you're looking for more of a hands-on approach where the students are on the computers, you can try TypingClub. It has interactive lessons, students can practice their typing, but they also get that digital literacy lessons and digital citizenship skills, and that builds their essential skills for working on the computer. Uh, it's just a great option for an ongoing learning path covering multiple digital skills and digital citizenship concepts all in one platform.
The Bystander Revolution is really cool. It has this library of videos, and it helps students know how to intervene in situations like bullying and cyberbullying or harassment. It has videos and activities that promote empathy. It encouraged students to stand up for others in a supportive and positive manner, and so it's basically just this library of resources that students can access or teachers can showcase on how we can attack different type of scenarios.
The Internet, uh, this is a program from Google that teaches students how to be respectful, responsible, and great digital citizens. So, this curriculum includes lessons on the internet about safety, privacy, and how to make good decisions online. Teachers can use this program to educate students about the importance of digital citizenship and empower them to be smart, safe internet users. So, great option there for digital citizenship.
Our next section is all about STEM and coding. So, we start off with Scratch. Scratch is a coding platform that's designed to teach kids how to create interactive stories, games, and animations. They use visual block-based coding language, so it makes it really easy for them to try and code inside of the program. It encourages creativity, problem-solving while introducing key programming concepts in an accessible way. So, teachers can use Scratch to inspire students to learn coding and also computational thinking in a fun, hands-on way. For younger learners, like lower elementary, they do offer Scratch Jr. as well, so that's really cool there.
Tinker is the next tool. Tinker is an interactive platform for teaching children coding through games, puzzles, and creative projects. So, it offers those step-by-step lessons that help students develop coding skills while building games, apps, websites, all the things. Teachers can use Tinker to integrate coding into their STEM curriculum and encourage that critical thinking and creativity.
Code.org is the next one on this list. Code.org has free coding lessons and activities for students of all ages. So, this is from kindergarten all the way up to advanced, uh, seniors in high school. It has curriculum that has interactive games, videos, projects. It helps students learn coding concepts using algorithms, loops, and conditionals. Teachers can use Code.org to introduce students to the world of computer science, or they could use it to inspire that interest in STEM fields. I suggest using the foundational courses to start with with the elementary students and then moving into the other interactive activities.
TinkerCAD is an easy 3D design and modeling tool that allows students to create digital models, circuits, and even program microcontrollers. So, it's a great resource for integrating design, engineering, and coding into STEM education. Teachers can use TinkerCAD to engage students in hands-on project-based learning and enhance their understanding of engineering and technology.
The last one for STEM and coding is BSD Education. This offers online coding and digital literacy curriculum for students of all ages. It focuses mostly on real-world applications, including web development, app creation, and digital design. So, teachers can use BSD Education to help students learn essential coding and technology skills while also fostering that creativity and innovation in the classroom. Of course, that's what we're looking for in all of these different STEM tools. Um, so any one of these is a great choice if you're looking to add STEM or coding into your classroom.
Our last section is SEL, so social and emotional learning. These are some tools that you can use to help foster that. The first one is Along. And Along is a digital platform. It's designed to help students and teachers track and improve social and emotional well-being. So, it includes daily check-ins, it has mood tracking, it has goal setting for students to reflect on their emotions and mental health. Teachers can use Along to support their SEL, uh, programs by providing students with tools to express their feelings and improve self-awareness and emotional regulation. So, this is just great because it has that communication aspect where students answer questions verbally, or they write their questions down, and then a teacher can respond to them verbally through a video, or they can type back to them. So, it helps with that relationship building.
Close Gap is a mental health and app that offers students space to talk, reflect, and track their well-being. So, students are able to check in daily with someone that they prefer to talk to. They actually get to select their preferred person that they would like to interact with most often, a teacher or a counselor at the school, uh, if they're needing to talk to someone. So, they can indicate that. It has tools for setting goals, journaling, uh, and just checking in emotionally. So, teachers can use Close Gap to facilitate those discussions and to start those discussions around mental health and create a supportive environment where students can develop emotional intelligence and resilience, as well as having that support in knowing what to do in really any situation, right? So, they have that in-person support, and we're just reaching out, opening up that door for them to invite someone in to help them, you know, talk through what they're going through.
Overcoming Obstacles, this has a comprehensive, uh, curriculum for SEL with lessons and activities designed to help students build life skills such as decision-making, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. Teachers use this program to teach SEL concepts through real-life scenarios, preparing them to navigate through challenges with confidence and, of course, resilience.
Harmony Academy is a program that focuses on teaching students social skills, empathy, and conflict resolution. They use stories, lessons, activities. Students learn how to manage their emotions and build positive relationships with others. Teachers can use Harmony Academy to foster a positive, inclusive classroom culture that promotes kindness, cooperation, and emotional intelligence.
Headspace is the last tool on this list, the last one of this section, and it is about mindfulness and meditation. It helps students manage stress, anxiety, and emotion, and it offers guided meditation, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques tailored to the students' needs. Teachers can use Headspace to incorporate mindfulness throughout the day or in their classroom routines, helping students stay calm, focused, and emotionally balanced.
Wow, well, that was quite a list of free educational tools that you can use in the classroom. If you're still with me, then you deserve a very special offer to work with me one-to-one on figuring out which tools are best for you and how you can actually use them. I can be your tech coach to do just that, and we're offering 30% off our Teacher Tech Center, that includes personalized monthly coaching calls and access to our courses. So, you can grab the link in the description below and check that out. I can't wait to be a personal guide to make your technology happen in your classroom. That is a limited-time special, so you are going to want to check out the description below, uh, and grab that 30% off to our Teacher Tech Center. Be sure to get the PDF of course that goes along with this video, so you have the handout of all these tools. Let me know in the comments which one are your favorites, uh, let me know which ones didn't make the list and they should definitely be on next year's, uh, and just let me know what you're looking for. Also, share this with your teacher friends because we are all looking for the best ways to engage our students, increase academic achievement, and just make things easier with technology. All right, let me know what you're looking for in the comments, let me know what you love, and we will see you in the next video.
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