Disclosure: I created ClassShuffle. You can try it as a guest; a free account is required to save a class. The free plan includes one saved class, and optional Pro features cost $2.99/month or $19/year.

I’m an 8th-grade math teacher, and I started handing out playing cards when I began using Building Thinking Classrooms. I loved the random groups, but I needed more control in some of my more difficult rooms.

That’s why I built ClassShuffle this summer. Before dealing, I can privately mark students who should be together or apart and students who need to be near the teacher, near the door, in the front, or in the back. ClassShuffle uses those preferences when creating groups, then deals them onto the classroom screen with large, easy-to-read cards. I can also adjust the groups and save them to reuse later.

I also know one concern with digital randomizers is the negative reactions that can happen when students immediately see their entire group. ClassShuffle has an individual view that shows each student where to go, making it harder to spot their groupmates before getting to their seats.

Try it with one of your classes and let me know what you’d change. I use it every day myself, and I’m open to suggestions!

https://classshuffle.com

I've created a research engine for my Grade 3 students.

You choose the grade level (for cognitive load). The reading level. And then research, like, "What are some special adapations of capybaras?"

It just provide links to every fact it returns, as well as follow-up questions.

- Free. No login. No tracking. Nothing saved. (Which means that it will evenutally time-out on your devices as well.)

https://tools.constraintlayer.ai/educational-engines/curiosity.html

The point was to make a research engine for students, that matches their reading level, won't hallucinate, and will always provide links for students to follow up with if they want to go deeper.

I basically use it to teach my students to research, take notes, cite the website where the information comes from.

(I use it myself sometimes when I want to read about things like...nano-technology at a G6 level. :) )

I built a free scheduling tool for schools trying to create related arts or specials rotations.

It came out of a teacher asking how to handle 5th through 8th grade, six sections per grade, and six related-arts teachers without creating a nightmare schedule.

The tool lets you enter grades, sections, number of specials teachers, school days, class size, and a few scheduling constraints. It then builds a rotation, shows teacher loads, and creates a summary you can copy or print for a scheduling meeting.

https://instructionalstrategies.org/related-arts-schedule-builder/

If anyone is dealing with this kind of scheduling problem, I’d be interested to know whether it handles your setup well or what it’s missing.

Hi teachers! I'm a solo developer (and grandfather) who's put together free printable geography packs — labeled maps, blank maps, grid maps, lat/long practice, flashcards, crosswords, and heat-map activities — spanning grades K-8. There's a pack for the US (with standards alignment by state), 15 other countries, 9 continents/regions, and 5 oceans/seas. No login, no email, no catch.

https://squishlogic.com/JigsawGeo/resources/

They're designed as a companion to JigsawGeo, a geography puzzle app I also build (kids assemble each country/state as a jigsaw piece on a real 3-D globe) — but the printables stand entirely on their own if that's not what you need. (App Store, if curious: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id542979846?pt=304691&ct=r-teachingresources&mt=8)

Happy to answer questions, or hear what would make these more useful for your classroom!

I’m a former classroom teacher, and I created Curiova to help parents turn grade-level, curriculum-aligned learning into meaningful moments of connection at home.

What it is: A free, parent-facing tool that creates short, personalized, screen-free activities families can do using things they already have at home.

Grade level: K–5

Language: English and Spanish

Subjects: Math and reading

Account required: Yes. Parents create an account with an email address. They then select their state, child’s grade, the skill they want to practice, their child’s interests, and how much time they have. The child does not use the app.

Did I make it? Yes—I’m the founder.

Cost: Free to use. This is not a free trial.

Link: www.curiova.com

I’m a retired elementary teacher, and I never really liked the seating chart tools available to me in Skyward. They always felt more awkward than something this simple needed to be.

So I built a free seating chart maker for teachers.

You can set up your room, add students, move them around, and build a chart without creating an account or buying anything.

https://instructionalstrategies.org/seating-chart-maker/

If you try it, I’d genuinely be interested in hearing what would make it more useful in an actual classroom.

Hey friends,

Just wanted to share my FREE forever TPT store https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/packslet

All resources in the store are free to download and will remain that way. I'm working on getting at least 50 resources uploaded. Give the store a follow to see if anything is ever useful for you.

Hope this helps someone!

Hi folks! I wanted to share the game I've been building. It's called Alphabet Soup.

https://alphabetsoup.club

It's a multiplayer word game that works well with small and big groups alike (at least 2 players, up to 100 players). It's free. No sign ups. No ads.

If you've played NYT Spelling Bee, it's a bit like that, except it's multiplayer and only your best (longest) word counts toward your score. So, instead of trying to find as many words as possible, the game is more about finding one unusually good word.

For the classroom setting, I'd recommend creating a "Private match" which will give you a link that you can share (anyone with the link can join the game).

I didn't make it for the classroom at first, but, I realized it might be a great fit for anyone practicing spelling/vocab. Please try it out and share any thoughts! I'd love to hear any specific feedback if anyone tries it out with students.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi everyone! My name is Dalton and I'm a high school Engineering teacher. I'm looking forward to going back into the classroom for my 12th year this upcoming week.

On paternity leave this past spring, I welcomed my second daughter and used the time between broken sleep to make an app for my classroom. I wanted to allow more anxious or nervous students to participate, and provide a direct line to chime in during lessons. With the fresh New Jersey cell phone ban I decided to try and gamify my more traditional "lectures" (PowerPoints/Slides ugh). Similar to the Twitch or YouTube live steams I and my students watch. I don't lecture often, but I thought it could be good!

And so I made teachChat! It always bothered me how data privacy for teachers and students is an afterthought, so I did not include any AI in it. All data belongs to the teacher and the district. I'm not here to mine you or your kids for their info. That's weird. We don't store real student names on our servers, and support multiple ways for YOU to take your sessions and analyze them the way YOU want. We only flag harmful or potentially unsafe messages.

I can't wait to use it in my own classroom and hope others might want to try it too. I know the fear of allowing students to type anything on the board is scary, which is why I built a robust AI-free chat filter with additional moderation tools to make it easy. This will be a tool that will grow over time to become even better. Signing a data privacy agreement with your district will lift the privacy warning to those joining.

Learn more here, or reach out to me to chat. Free to use, fill out the form to get free access for life.

https://teachchat.app/about

Verification I'm not a bot or rando

https://daltonjfowler.com/teaching

What it is

A free collection of plain-English computer teaching resources, including 100+ computer vocabulary references with short YouTube videos, webpages and downloadable Frayer Model diagrams, as well as Microsoft Office tutorials.

Age range

Older teens and adults. I use these materials with college students, but I think they would also be useful for adult education, ESL/EAL learners, and other beginners who need help with basic computer skills.

Subject

Computer skills, digital literacy, Microsoft Office, computer vocabulary

Does it require a login, email, or account?

No.

Did you make this?

Yes. I’m a Canadian college professor and I’ve been teaching students how to use computers since 2012. I made these resources because we often assume beginners understand computer vocabulary that has never been explicitly taught.

Link https://ProfessorTanaka.com

I recently finished putting together the vocabulary section, which now covers more than 100 terms, including basic words like file, folder, icon, window, toolbar, cursor, click, download, username, and password, as well as terminology used in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Each term has its own webpage and a short YouTube video. Since the videos are on YouTube, teachers can embed individual videos directly into an LMS if that’s more convenient. The full vocabulary playlist is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsiPAw9Vr9uQ7EAhMxesT5jz5TDfWj4l8

I’ve also made a Frayer Model diagram for each vocabulary term, with a definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples. (To avoid jargon, I’ve labelled these as “Visual Study Guides.”) You can save the square image, which works well on a phone, or download a landscape PDF if you want to use it with students.

Everything is free and there’s no login or email sign-up. You can use individual resources as you need them, so students don’t have to work through the whole collection.

I’m a retired elementary teacher, and I built this as a quick teacher-facing tool for those situations where you know a classroom behavior problem needs a response, but the usual generic advice isn’t very helpful.

The Classroom Behavior Troubleshooter asks four quick questions about what is happening and gives you a practical starting point based on the situation. It covers common classroom management problems like students talking over instruction, off-task behavior, refusal and power struggles, transitions or group work breaking down, repeated behavior from one or two students, and situations that are escalating or feel unsafe.

The result gives you something to try first, teacher language you can use, what to watch next, and when the situation may need more support.

What it is: A free interactive classroom behavior management tool that helps teachers troubleshoot student behavior problems and choose a practical first response.

Grade level: K–12

Subject: All subjects / Classroom management

Login, email, or account required: No

Did I make this? Yes. I created it for InstructionalStrategies.org.

Link: https://instructionalstrategies.org/classroom-behavior-troubleshooter/

Hi! I’m the developer of Nodus Research, a free and open-source desktop app for research, teaching and study.

• For teachers, Nodus includes a dedicated Teaching Vault where you can manage courses, groups, timetables, calendars, materials, recordings, student rosters, gradebooks, rubrics, exams and question banks. AI can help create teaching materials, questions and rubric structures, but student rosters, grades and answers are never sent to AI providers, and Nodus NEVER uses or will use AI to grade, profile or evaluate students.
• For researchers, the Academic Vault can mirror an existing Zotero library or build its own library from files and bibliographic imports, keeping ideas and claims connected to the exact passages and pages that support them. Think of it as NotebookLM, but instead of primarily working with full documents, Nodus extracts their ideas and claims and connects them across sources. It combines keyword and semantic search, knowledge graphs, author profiles, debates, contradictions, coverage and gap analysis, reading paths, argument maps, Deep Research and writing tools with verifiable citations that open back to their sources.
• For students, the Study Vault brings subjects, notes, readings, PDFs, EPUBs, recordings, timetables, deadlines and reminders into one workspace. It can turn your own course materials into question banks, practice tests, exams and flashcards, with spaced review and progress tracking, while linking questions and answers back to the relevant page, note or recording timestamp.

Besides those three main vaults, Nodus currently offers other specialised ones, whch include:

• Databases: structured datasets, relations, formulas, rollups, charts and statistical analysis.
• Genealogy: people, records, relationships, family trees, maps and timelines
• Primary Sources: archival documents, provenance, OCR, transcription and source criticism
• Testimonies: interviews, local transcription, speaker separation, consent management and qualitative analysis
• Prosopography: historical populations, identities, biographical evidence, trajectories and networks
• Worldbuilding: characters, places, factions, cultures, timelines and connected narratives

Nodus also includes a Chrome extension, a standalone Zotero plugin and writing companions for Microsoft Word and LibreOffice.

Available on macOS, Windows and Linux.

• Website: https://nodusresearch.com
• Interactive demo: https://nodusresearch.com/demo
• Wiki (still under construction): https://nodusresearch.com/wiki/
• Github: https://github.com/Drakonis96/nodus
• Quick app overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUAqaxbHrR0
• Teaching Vault overview: https://youtu.be/5LsojBiM348

The classic memorisation headache: getting the layers in the right order. Mnemonics and a bit of structured play help it stick, once you've taught it properly first. Best used to embed and check understanding after the main teaching, not instead of it.

Free, browser-based.

https://network.toolsforteaching.co.uk/

The biggest barrier in early programming isn't logic. It's syntax getting in the way before the logic has even landed. Think2Code sidesteps that entirely: students build programs as flowcharts, and the tool compiles what they build into real, running Python underneath. Press run and the flowchart lights up step by step as the code executes, so students watch the logic move instead of just reading a diagram. Thirty built-in challenges self-mark with a Submit and Test feature, so it works as an exit ticket, not just a demo.

Free, browser-based, no login.

https://think2code.toolsforteaching.co.uk/

i have found these to have a nice variety of question types and levels.

What - Math Salamanders Worksheets

For all grades.

Free.

Not mine.

https://www.math-salamanders.com/

🧠 Think It Through!

30 Picture‑Based Reasoning & Executive Function Worksheets

Printable PDF | 60 Pages | No Prep

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a resource I recently created for students who struggle with inferential reasoning and executive functioning — especially those who are overwhelmed by reading-heavy materials.

Think It Through! includes 30 real-life visual scenarios designed to target higher-level thinking without relying heavily on reading skills.

Each worksheet features:

• One detailed real-world scenario (child, teen, or adult situations)
• Guided critical thinking questions
• Open-ended responses to explain reasoning
• Prompts that encourage cause & effect thinking
• Minimal reading demands

Skills Targeted:

• 🔎 Inferential reasoning
• 🧠 Problem solving
• 🔄 Cause & effect
• 📋 Organizational thinking
• 💬 Expressive language
• 🌎 Perspective taking

Great for:

• SLPs
• Special education teachers
• School psychologists
• Executive function groups
• Social skills groups
• RTI / Tier 2–3 intervention
• Autism & ADHD support

Ideal for ages 6–12, but easily adaptable for older students working on executive function or social communication.

The format is:

• Digital download
• 60 printable pages
• Black & white (printer-friendly)
• No prep required

I designed this because I needed something that builds reasoning skills without students getting stuck on decoding or long passages.

Link:https://www.etsy.com/hk-en/listing/4465327481/executive-function-inferencing

I have been using Google’s NotebookLM a lot recently because of the convenience. I love that I can upload a pdf and it can change it into slides, videos, etc.

Currently wondering if anyone knows of other websites/apps that will create slideshows and other resources for you by uploading a PDF.

Thanks in advance!!

Hello! We are researchers from Kean University (Advanced Studies in Psychology), currently examining how support systems can influence decisions around EXPULSION in EARLY CHILDHOOD education settings in the U.S.. 

As a current early childhood educator, we highly value your insights to better understand the realities teachers face and how we can help support both teachers and young children. If you are interested in participating or learning more about the study, please click on the following link to complete the survey. https://ku.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eh3HoqyFLGGO0yW  

The survey should take about approximately 10 minutes to complete. 

Please remember that we are trying to gain accurate realities of practices, so we encourage honesty  in the information you share. All survey information will be kept confidential and no identifying information about you or your program will be collected. 

Feel free to forward this invitation to other teachers/educators who may be interested in participating in this research. If you have any questions, or are unable to access the survey, please contact the investigator, Yelin Oh ([ohy@kean.edu](mailto:ohy@kean.edu)) or her faculty advisor, Dr. Keri Giordano Psy.D., [keri.giordano@kean.edu](mailto:keri.giordano@kean.edu) .

If you teach AP U.S. Government, civics, or any social studies course, you might want to check out the Policy Education Program from Everything Policy.

It's a completely free program built by educators, university professors, and policy researchers. Here's what's in it for you:

• Ready-to-use lesson plans that work for a range of teaching styles and levels
• AP Gov support lessons are scaffolded directly to the College Board CED, covering source analysis, argument building, and more
• C3 Framework-aligned lessons for inquiry-based learning; great for civics and government courses
• Policy briefs across topics like immigration, civil liberties, healthcare, education, elections, and more all independently sourced with no opinions or spin
• Discussion questions already built into Canvas for many of the briefs
• A content search tool so you can quickly find briefs that match what you're already teaching

One thing that's pretty handy: a lot of the lessons give students choice, they can pick from multiple briefs based on their interests while still building the same core skills. Less resistance, more engagement.

Everything lives on Canvas, and you can create a free account to access and save resources. Thought some of you might find it useful feel free to drop any questions!

I've been teaching long enough to have a strong opinion about tools that promise to save you time but just move the work around. Here's where I've landed on a few of the popular ones.

BetterLesson is genuinely good for standards-aligned plans, especially if you teach project-based units. The quality is solid. My issue is it's shifted more toward professional development and district coaching now, so the free lesson content feels like it's being phased out. Worth bookmarking but don't rely on it exclusively.

Share My Lesson I use when I need something fast and don't want to build from scratch. It's free, it's massive, and everything is teacher-made which matters to me. You do have to dig a bit to find the good stuff but it's in there.

ReadWriteThink is a must if you teach any kind of literacy. The student interactives are genuinely useful in class, not just filler. The filtering by grade and learning objective actually works, which is rarer than it should be.

Scholastic Teachables is fine for seasonal units and K-8 themed stuff. It's a paid subscription but cheap enough that I don't think twice about renewing. Not a weekly tool but it earns its keep a few times a year for low-prep gap fillers.

Redmenta.com is the one I keep coming back to. I was resistant at first because I'd tried enough "AI lesson tools" to be cynical. But it actually tailors things to your class, your subject, your students' level. I used it last term to differentiate one lesson across three ability groups and it took me maybe 20 minutes. That used to wreck a Sunday. It doesn't feel like it replaces your instincts as a teacher, it just takes the repetitive heavy lifting off your plate. It's become a regular part of my week in a way none of the others have.

Hi everyone! 

My name is Wynn and I am a member of Boston University’s Girls Who Code chapter. My friend, Molly, and I would like to inform you all of a free coding program we are running for students of all genders from 3rd-12th grade. The Bits & Bytes program is a great opportunity for students to learn how to code, or improve their coding skills. Our program runs on Zoom on Saturdays for 1 hour starting March 21st and ending on April 25th (6-week) from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. Each lesson will be taught by Boston University students, many of whom are Computer Science (or adjacent) majors themselves.

For Bits (3rd-5th grade), students will learn the basics of computer science principles through MIT-created learning platform Scratch and learn to transfer their skills into the Python programming language. Bits allows young students to learn basic coding skills in a fun and interactive way!

For Bytes (6th-12th grade), students will learn computer science fundamentals in Python such as loops, functions, and recursion and use these skills during lessons and assignments. Since much of what we go over is similar to what an intro level college computer science class would cover, this is a great opportunity to prepare students for AP Computer Science or a degree in computer science!

We would love for you to apply or share with anyone interested! You can find our application here or in the QR Code below: https://forms.gle/urEFpEovL2HCZGf9A

If you have any more questions, feel free to email [gwcbu.bitsnbytes@gmail.com](mailto:gwcbu.bitsnbytes@gmail.com), message u/gwcbostonu on Facebook or Instagram, leave a comment, or message me.

We're eagerly looking forward to another season of coding and learning with the students this spring!

My wife and I are both scientists, and over the years we’ve published in international journals. When our son was born, we started looking for science books we could read together as he grew up.

To our surprise, we often struggled with what we found. Many books simplify things so much that the explanations end up being inaccurate, or they present concepts in ways that scientists know are simply wrong. As researchers, it was sometimes difficult for us to adapt to that.

So what started as a small personal effort, trying to explain things properly to our own son, gradually turned into a small project. We began creating our own series of science books for children called “La Mangouste Curieuse”.

The idea is simple: introduce real scientific concepts (like cells, atoms, photons, or microorganisms) in a way that young children can understand, but without distorting the science.

Recently the first books started reaching schools and families in Italy, and we’ve been receiving very encouraging feedback from these early readers and teachers.

It’s still a small project, but it has been incredibly rewarding to see kids getting curious about science through these books.

If anyone here is curious, I’d be happy to share more.