Free Online Tools For Teachers

Let’s face it. Being a teacher is hard work, especially for those involved in private schools, or institutions that rely heavily on donations from parents and guardians. Consequently, most teachers don’t earn a big salary – at least not enough to sustain the cost of their lifestyle. This means they must find ways to complement their existing income and save more money

Free Tools for Lesson Planning

Lesson planning and preparation is a large part of the workload for teachers. Luckily, there’s a lot of free tools out there that can save you time. Read on to see all the free tools you can take advantage of so your workday is that much easier!

Free Digital Storytelling and Authoring Tools

BookWidgets: Here you can create interactive lessons for tablets, phones and the web! The basic plan costs $9, but comes with a 30-day free trial.

Bubblr: Make your own comic-strips or “photo novels” using Flickr images with this free tool.

MakeBeliefsComix: Create your own comic strips using the tool’s own suite of characters, backgrounds, colors and other designs.

PicLits: Choose a background and select the right words to explain the essence of the setting. It’s free, easy to use and interactive!

Storybird: Storybird is a creative writing platform that inspires students of all ages with visual writing prompts designed from artists around the world. Try it today with its free trial period!

Free Infographic and Visual Design Tools

Adobe Spark: Create web pages, videos and graphics from scratch or choose from their database of free templates.

Animaker: Sign up for a free account for free access to Animaker’s infographic maker and an assortment of other visual design tools.

Canva: Canva allows teachers to create customized graphs and diagrams with easy drag-and-drop functionality. Create a free account to get started!

Easelly: Sign up for a free account that will give you limited access to Easelly’s infographic features.

Infogram: Assemble data into visually appealing charts and infographics to make learning that much easier for your students!

Lucidpress: Lucidpress offers sleek, professional templates that make for impressive data visualizations.

Snappa: Snappa’s free starter plan gives you access to over 5,000 templates, HD photos and graphics and infographic templates designed for shareability on the web.

Sway: Already have an Office365 account? If so, you can use Sway for free! This design tool allows you to easily create newsletters and presentations.

Free PDF Tools

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC: Adobe’s free PDF tool allows you to view, print and comment on PDF documents.

Doro PDF Writer: Only free for Windows users, Doro installs a virtual printer interface so you can convert any document into a PDF.

PDFill: A free PDF tool that gives you an array of editing and customization options.

PDF Buddy: PDF Buddy is a free online tool that allows you to upload documents to its server so you can convert that document to a PDF.

PDF Merge: PDF Merge is a Chrome extension tool that allows you to easily edit PDF files both off and online. This tool is only free for files up to 10MB, but offers a 30-day free trial option for their full premium service.

Free Photo Editing Tools

Cacoo: This app allows you to draw your own charts and diagrams and even collaborate with others while constructing your images. Comes with a free trial or a one time $5 fee.

DoppelMe: DoppelMe allows you to create your own Avatar that can be used almost anywhere on the web — for free!

Gickr: Create your own custom animated GIFs at no cost!

Glogster: This free tool allows students and teachers to compile notes, images and videos into high-level presentations.

PhotoPeach: PhotoPeach allows you to seamlessly upload your own photos into slideshows, which can be uploaded online or saved at no cost!

Pixlr: This online photo editing software is free to use and very user-friendly! Simply upload your own images and adjust as needed.

SketchUp: This free Google tool is a 3D modeling software that allows you to design 3D renderings that can be used on other tools, such as Google Earth.

ToonDoo: Create your own cartoons online for free!

Free Screen Capturing Tools

Clip2Net: Clip2Net gives you even more editing features — for free!

Lightshot: Capture images on your screen, edit them with built-in tools and share them by downloading a short link to the photo.

Skitch: An Evernote tool, Skitch offers the user to use a variety of sketches, shapes and annotations to enhance your screenshots.

Snagit: This screen capturing software offers you advanced editing and recording options and comes with a free trial period or a one time fee of $49.95.

Wisdom Software: Record up to one minute of MPEG-4 video for free, capture full-screen or rectangular images and even create your own custom hotkeys.

Free Stock Photo Tools

FreeFoto: This free stock photo site has over 1 million photos organized into over 3,000 categories!

FreeImages: This stock photo database contains over 18,000 free images and 89 searchable categories.

Pexels: Download free photos from this massive online database. Use its intuitive search engine to fine-tune your results!

Pics4Learning: This free stock photo resource was designed for educators. All photos are safe and educational!

PublicDomainPictures.net: Download or upload your own photos from this massive database for free.

Free Survey, Poll and Quizzing Tools

ClassMarker: Create up to 100 free quizzes a month, register multiple users and assign unlimited questions with this quick and easy online testing tool!

CrowdSignal: With a free account, you can easily and quickly generate unlimited surveys and customize the font, color and add HTML, images or videos.

FlexiQuiz: FlexiQuiz’s free pricing allows you to create unlimited quizzes. What’s more, the software also automatically calculates, scores and grades for you!

Free Online Surveys: Create surveys, quizzes, forms and polls online with various question formats, automated scoring and other features.

Google Forms: Google Forms allows you to create and share your own surveys, polls, and tests.

Mentimeter: Easily create your own polls and present the data anonymously while adding fun design elements to make your visualizations more engaging!

ProProfs: ProProf’s free quiz maker tool allows you to assemble an unlimited amount of quizzes and questions. Plus, you can even sell your quizzes online!

Survs: Sign up for a free account to get up to 200 responses per survey with up to 10 questions!

Vizzual Forms: This free tool allows you to create forms or surveys, which you can then pull the data from to create visually appealing reports.

VocabTest: The free account comes with ads, but allows you to easily create online vocabulary tests for your students.

Free Tools for Teaching in the Classroom

Interacting with your students is a delight when you have the proper tools needed to teach! From online videos to podcasts, there’s plenty of educational resources out there to keep your kids plugged in.

Free Educational Videos

Amazon Inspire: Amazon Inspire is an open-source tool that helps you discover, gather and share digital education content. While you’re at, save on your next purchase with these Amazon promo codes!

BigThink: BigThink offers open access to over 600 interviews and podcasts featuring thought leaders.

CosmoLearning: CosmoLearning is an educational aggregator that compiles free, online documentaries and video lessons.

EZVid: EZVid’s wiki compiles educational videos that discuss topics ranging from creative arts to gardening and more.

Learner.org: Learner.org provides access to a database of professional development videos for teachers and students.

NeoK12: Find a massive collection of videos, games and more with this free educational database!

PBS Video: PBS has a wide collection of videos on a range of educational subjects — all for free!

SchoolTube: This free video-sharing tool features content created by students.

SnagFilms: Snag provides open access to their database of documentary films, ranging from history lessons to videos pertaining to current events.

YouTube Learning: YouTube offers a broad collection of lectures from universities and colleges around the world.

Free Podcasting Tools for Teachers and Students

Audacity: Completely free, Audacity allows you to record and edit your podcasts.

Bubble.us: Bubble.us allows you to create mind maps designed to keep you on topic while podcasting. With a free plan, you can create up to three maps at a time!

Buzzsprout: Buzzsprout allows you to host up to two hours of free recordings a month for up to 90 days per episode.

Freesound: Freesound gives you access to their sound archives so you can add effects to dramatize your podcasts and make them more interesting for your listeners!

HuffDuffer: Create your own podcasts or add links from other podcasts to yours.

Podomatic: Sign up for free, create your own podcasts and keep track of your listeners with built-in analytics tools.

WriterDuet: WriterDuet helps you create scripts for your podcasts. With their free offering, you get three scripts completely free with no word or time limits.

VozMe: Convert your text to an MP3 recording. Although the tool itself is pretty rudimentary, it gets the job done — for free!

Free Social Bookmarking

BibSonomy: Easily organize your scientific publications and research at no cost!

EdShelf: EdShelf allows you to create your own “shelf” comprised of your own web pages, which other educators can view and share.

Historius: Historius allows you to bookmark pages by clicking them, and even has a site search function that lets you locate content by typing in specific keywords.

LiveBinders: This free tool lets you create online binders of lesson materials to make learning more intuitive for your students, along with other organizational features.

Pearltrees: Save your favorite pages on the web and organize them into collections for free!

Symbaloo: The free account is quite limited, but still allows you to organize bookmarked content in one place with Symbaloo’s Learning Paths software.

Free Web Conferencing Tools

BigBlueButton: BigBlueButton is a free, open-source online teaching tool that hosts online lessons along with other features.

Intermedia: Intermedia prides itself on providing secure and reliable video conference calls with great customer support. Try it yourself with their free trial!

Sync.in: Sync.in allows you to edit documents over video chats in real-time at no cost.

Tokbox: Toxbox has an extensive array of features and APIs that allow you to customize your video experience.

Twiddla: Twiddla’s free plan allows up to 10 participants to meet for 20 minutes at a time with multiple sharing options, including email and screen sharing.

Zoho Meeting: Zoho Meeting has a free plan that allows up to three meeting participants with no time restraints.

Zoom: Zoom’s free plan allows you to host meetings with up to 100 people for up to 40 minutes.

Free Tools for Organizing and Scheduling

Organizing your workday and schedule as a teacher can be hectic and time-consuming. Thankfully, everything you need to keep your schedule organized can be found online! Here’s a list of the best free online tools to keep your head in the game.

Free Annotation Tools

Diigo: This free annotation tool allows you to annotate web pages and PDFs as you browse online.

Genius: Genius’s free web annotator allows you to add line-by-line annotations to any web page. By inserting “genius.it/” in front of a URL, you can annotate or read any other Genius annotations for that page.

Hypothesis: This free browser extension tool allows you to select text to annotate, which you can then share with others. In addition, you can annotate in groups, search for other annotations online and even comment on each other’s notes!

PunditAnnotator: This free browser extension allows you to highlight or comment on any web page.

WiredMarker: WiredMarker highlights text on the web, which can then be saved as bookmarks and organized into folders.

Free Bibliography and Citation Tools

CitationGenerator: CitationGenerator is quick, easy and completely free. Literally go the homepage and type in the work you want to cite and let it do its magic!

Citefast: Citefast lets you choose between APA, MLA 8 and Chicago style. It also will keep track of your citations for up to four days!

Easybib: With the free, ad-based account, you get MLA with up to 20 grammar and writing style suggestions.

MyBib: This free citation generator tool allows you to choose between APA, MLA and Chicago styles. Once you’ve created your citations, you can then embed your bibliography to your blog or website!

Oregon School Library Information System: This free citation tool lets you select the source type and then input information, such as author, title, publisher and other details.

Recipes4Success: This free tool will format all of your project references in either APA or MLA — all for free!

Zotero: Collect, organize, cite and share your research for free using this free browser extension tool.

Free Sticky Notes Tools

CintaNotes: The free plan gives you full-text search, text clipping, notes synchronization and configurable hotkeys!

GoogleKeep: Google Keep is completely free and allows you to create virtual to-do lists and sticky notes that you can manually type out or dictate!

HottNotes: This free sticky notes software for Windows allows you to post customized sticky notes to your desktop!

Lino: This free downloadable app gives you a virtual corkboard where you can pin notes and photos. In addition, you can even port it over to your mobile device!

SimpleStickyNotes: This free tool is pretty straightforward: Simply download and start posting!

StickyPad: StickyPad allows you to write sticky notes for your desktop. You can also add reminders and print your to-do lists!

Stormboard: Stormboard gives you a virtual whiteboard for brainstorming and posting notes and ideas. The free personal account works for individuals or teams of five.

Free Text to Speech Tools

Announcify: This free text to speech (TTS) Chrome extension reads website content out loud for you!

Balabolka: Save on-screen text as a WAV, MP3, MP4 or WMA file and have it read back to you. You can also edit content saved to your clipboard!

NaturalReaders: NaturalReader can dictate PDF and MS word documents, emails and other types of documents while allowing you to change the reading rate as well!

Panopreter: Panopreter supports a wide variety of languages and voices and comes with tone and speed adjustment. When it’s finished reading your text, it will also serenade you with music!

Speakonia: Speakonia allows you to change the reading tone, speed and pitch. Simply select the text and let it do the work for you!

WordTalk: This free plugin integrates with Microsoft Word and reads your sentences back to you as it highlights the text.

Free Miscellaneous Tools

Who said all tools have to be purely educational? We’ve highlighted a few tools below that can help you can decompress while handling your hectic day like the rockstar educator you are.

AAE: The Association of American Educators has compiled a classroom appropriate Spotify playlist for teachers! Create a free Spotify account to listen.

EducationWorld: This fun “pump-up” playlist includes songs that will help you power through the toughest parts of your day!

PETA: Download PETA’s free 2019 ‘Rescued!’ calendar for teachers each month. The calendars feature cute animals and are formatted for your desktop, tablet or mobile device!

Wallpaper Access: These teacher-inspired wallpapers for your desktop come free of charge!

White Noise Streaming Video: Need to relax? This “wind in the trees” video streams for 10 hours, making it an excellent choice to play during the breaks in your day.

Free software to run your online classes

Every online teacher will need software that will allow them to connect with their online students easily and quickly.

Software programs for online teachers need to include video, have the option to share screens and use a whiteboard for instruction and in order to chat with their students.

There are lots of software tools out there, but these rise to the top of the list for quality, stability and ease of use.

Zoom

Zoom is probably the most popular online software in the market for holding meetings, classes and online get-togethers, especially since the start of the pandemic. 

Zoom offers the following to their users:

• Chat function to chat with your whole class or individual students
• Breakout rooms to separate students into groups for discussions
• Share screen function to share your screen or allow students to share their screen
• A built-in whiteboard with text and drawing features to share with your students.

The free version allows up to 100 participants, unlimited one-on-one meetings but a limit of only 40 minutes for group meetings. 

Zoom is a great option for teachers who need a platform to teach their students since this app is used worldwide and most people are comfortable and familiar with its functions.

Google Meet

Google Meet for teachers is another popular software application for online tutors, virtual teachers and anyone conducting classes online because of its integration with Google’s suite of other apps like Google Classroom and Google Drive.

Google Meet offers the following free options for its users:

• Share screen to your students
• Adjust your layouts
• Group classes up to 1 hour
• Chat with students in the chatbox
• And other normal features of a virtual video conferencing platform

Anyone with a Google account can create a video meeting or virtual class of up to 100 students (participants) and meet up to 60 minutes for free. 

If you are conducting one-on-one tutoring classes, you can spend up to 24 hours together (but why would you?!).

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting, as stated on their website, puts the “class in online classes.” 

They are an up-and-coming competitor to some of the larger video platforms because of how they gear their functions to suit teachers and students in an online class.

With their free account, you can expect:

• Personal URLs for students to join the class
• Instant messaging, file sharing & screen sharing
• Powerful mobile capabilities for students
• Clean and simple interface with powerful functions

Unfortunately, their free version is quite limiting but it will allow you 40-minute classes/meetings but with only up to 3 participants. 

GoToMeeting free would be perfect for independent tutors who have 1-3 students and classes under 40 minutes.

Free resources to boost engagement in your online lessons

There are tons of free resources online that will help boost the excitement in your online lessons. 

However, the majority of content out there are in the form of PDF worksheets, text-heavy documents and websites built on outdated javascript and HTML.

If you are looking for powerful and interactive resources that let you build lessons that students will love, then look no further than Boom Cards and Nearpod.

Boom Cards

Boom Cards are self-checking interactive activities that give students real-time feedback on their responses.

Here’s how they work:

• You create the Boom Cards in advance or use pre-created decks from other teachers
• You use the fast play option (for free) and get a link to send to students
• Your students are shown one question at a time and given real-time feedback on their answer
• They can correct themselves or simply discard the card
• You can also differentiate instruction with Boom Cards and assign certain cards to certain students

You can only use the fast play option with the free version and you will not be able to track progress but you can upgrade at any time under different price packages. 

I love the idea of Boom Cards for a creative way to assess students where they won’t even realize they are learning!

Nearpod

Nearpod allows teachers to make any lesson interactive. Take those boring worksheets and make them fun and engaging. 

Or, pull in videos and other interactive content into your Nearpod lesson.

Let’s check out how it works:

• Jump over to Nearpod and create a free account.
• Browse Nearpod’s thousands of lessons in the Nearpod Library or create your own.
• Once you create your own lesson you just add slides like you would in any presentation software.
• The difference is that instead of just adding text or images (which you still can), nearpod has lots of other fun options like quizzes, polls, and games to make it fun.
• You give your students a code to enter and then you are ready to go!

The difference between Nearpod’s free and paid version is the amount of storage you get and the number of students that can join at one time.

Free tools to stay organized and productive

If you are a teacher struggling to stay organized with your students and the many tasks that go into teaching then look no further than apps like Asana and Trello. 

Secret: my favorite is Asana!

Asana

Asana is your personal teaching secretary all in one powerful app that gives you control over your tasks, projects and to-do lists.

Essentially, Asana is a productivity management solution for teams, individuals or anyone that needs more control over their tasks.

Teachers will enjoy Asana for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, from a simple angle of gaining control over the multitude of to-do’s and projects that teachers need to manage, this app will do it all.

Some ways that teachers can use Asana in their teaching life can include:

• Creating lesson plan tasks with manageable subtasks that have deadlines
• Managing students’ information, progress and other important details
• Helping with teams of teachers to manage projects that need to be completed
• Create online lesson plans that allow teachers to see what parts of the lesson were and weren’t completed

This app is great for teachers in brick-and-mortar schools as well as online teachers who need to gain control over their schedule by focusing on what matters each day.

Additionally, if you are a teacherpreneur building your own online teaching business, Asana will be your go-to place to make sure that everything in your business is running smoothly.

With the free account, teachers will be able to create projects and tasks through a variety of different layouts.

Trello

Trello is another online productivity app that works similar to Asana but has some differences.

Trello is a collaboration tool that lets you organize your projects into boards.

It can tell you what’s being worked on and where your tasks are in terms of the completion process. 

Of course, it also lets you add to-do lists, tasks and other similar features to Asana. 

Best online assessment tools

Quizlet

Quizlet is a free tool that helps teachers create learning activities for students, like flashcards, study material and interactive quiz games.

The amazing thing about Quizlet is that it can really be used at any grade level and any age! Students love the game-based feature of Quizlet and you are helping them get prepared for assessments without even realizing it.

So, let’s take a look at how it works:

• You, as the teacher, create study sets for your students. 
• These study sets can be used as review activities or it can be a quiz game to help students review for a test.
• The student can log in and choose the appropriate study set, either created by the teacher or by others.

That’s it! It’s that easy.

In my opinion, Quizlet is great for students because it allows the teacher to:

• Differentiate instruction with the activities that you create
• Teach collaborative skills because students are working together
• Help prepare students for assessments and tests

Quizlet, while is a great free tool for teachers, does have limitations and should be used as one resource in your classroom among the many others that you have access to.

 

Kahoot

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that makes it really simple for teachers to create and share learning games or quizzes in a matter of minutes with their students. 

Once you create a Kahoot quiz or game, you share a simple access code that lets students log on and join the game. 

Teachers can create their own assessment games or use premade lessons from other teachers in the Kahoot library. 

Here are the steps to making the magic happen in your virtual or online classroom:

• Create – you can design your own kahoot with images and diagrams to make your questions more engaging and to support all learners who are playing
• Play – Once the kahoot is created, teachers share the unique PIN with their students who can join on their own device wherever they are located. It is best played live in a group setting either in a classroom or a virtual classroom. However, teachers can also send challenges that players complete at their own pace (ie: homework or remote learning)
• Share – Kahoots can be shared with the broader Kahoot community which lets others access your Kahoots

Best apps for designing and creating content

As teachers, we are always needing to create things for our students and it can be difficult to find free tools that let us create quality content to use in our classrooms.  

Look no further than Canva and Google Slides to make great resources for our classrooms.

Canva

Canva is amazing! It is a free tool, although there are premium features you can pay for that lets you create just about anything for your classroom.

You can create and design all types of content within Canva using their free account that looks professional and can be used with your students in your virtual classroom, or brick-and-mortar classroom.

Think of Canva as your easy-to-use plug-and-play design assistant. 

Do you need a presentation? Do you need a cover slide for something? 

Let’s look at how teachers can use Canva as a free tool to create lessons for their students.

Canva lets teachers create:

• Worksheets
• Lesson plans
• Presentations
• Posters
• Virtual backgrounds (for Zoom, etc.)
• Documents
• Teaching resume
• Infographics 

…and so much more!

Look no further than Canva for your go-to tool to design just about anything you need.

Google Slides

Google Slides, while more limiting than Canva, is another easy-to-use, free tool for teachers to use to make lessons, presentations and content for their classroom.

Part of the Google Suite of apps, Google Slides acts as your web-based presentation tool similar to applications like PowerPoint or Keynote.

With a free Google account, you have access to Google Slides and can create unlimited presentations to use in your classroom.

Simply go to Google Drive and make a new Google Slide presentation. You can choose from their pre-made templates or make your own.

Once you have made your presentation template you can add:

• Images
• Text
• Audio
• Video
• Shapes
• Tables
• Charts
• Diagrams 

You can customize color, font and all the normal features of a presentation program. 

Since it is part of the suite of Google Apps, you can have students create their own presentations collaboratively or individually. 

Google slides can also be shared with others with ease of use or you can download them as PDF files.

Conclusion

Teaching to me is not about teaching the syllabus, but instead, making learning a habit. I believe teachers don’t make students learn-they only make them ready to learn. This is our job. Moreover, there are different ways of becoming educated but interestingly, most of us do not know that despite different ways of getting an education the primary function remains the same – to seek knowledge.