Parents and home teachers do not need to be tech-savvy to create quality lessons for students at home. In addition to the educational apps available, you can create professional-quality lesson materials, video tutorials, assignments, quizzes, and interactive learning materials at home using a range of free and paid tools.
Whether you’re setting up creative assignments for K-12 students, or looking to create more complex lesson plans or study guides for college subjects, the list of resources below will add to your lesson development arsenal.
1. Socratif for K-12
Socrative is an app designed for effective and fun ways to engage K-12 students and track their learning.
Create engaging learning content such as games, quizzes, contests, and student activities. Teachers and parents can:
- see the responses of each student in real time;
- Test student understanding at the individual and class level
- Use instant results to determine next steps in the instruction.
- Save reports to Socrative account for quick upload, transfer or email.
- Create virtual classrooms to start classes
- Share tests with students using a unique code
The free Socrative version includes:
- 50 students per room
- One public classroom
- Running one assignment at a time
- Instant Poll
- Space Race Assessment
The professional version costs $ 59.99 per year. It includes everything from the free version, plus:
- Up to 20 public or private rooms
- The ability to run up to 20 actions simultaneously.
- Countdown timer for space race.
- Import Excel or CSV list.
Learning is fun when students are busy with fun activities. Socrative allows teachers or parents to identify where students need extra help.
Use Socrative on all major platforms and devices. Students can access learning materials from their computers, tablets, laptops and smartphones.
There is also a Scorative version available for higher education and corporations for $ 99 per year.
2. DesignCap Presentation Templates
Instead of creating an instructional presentation from scratch, use one of the professionally designed DesignCap templates.
Create your tutorials in three easy steps:
- Select a template from the gallery to start creating your presentation.
- Customize and edit it for your lesson from thousands of fonts and resources
- Export your finished presentation or share it online with your students.
Create unique presentations to create educational resources to help your students learn. Try it for free.
3. Crossword puzzle maker
Crosswords improve verbal skills and help students think better. They also help students understand problems and learn how to solve them.
With Education.com’s crossword generator, you can choose a topic and learning level from preschool to grade 5.
Enter one word and its definitions in pairs per input line, as in the screenshot above. Write your answer first, then put a comma, and then write the word.
When done, click “Create” to see a preview of your puzzle on the right side. Click Scramble to see a different layout.
Sign up for a free account and access Education.com resources. Create your account by logging in with Facebook, Google or using your email and password. Education.com also includes many home learning resources grouped by grade, subject, topic, and standard.
You can download your puzzle and answer key as a PDF file, or save it as part of a complete curriculum on a storage platform for educational institutions and teachers such as OnlyOffice
4. Blendspace
Use Blendspace to create interactive projects, presentations, and other digital lessons with Tes Teach’s tools for Preschool through 12 th students. Sign up for a free account with Google, Facebook or your email and password.
Create lessons quickly using a mix of online resources and your own content. Start by entering your subject in the search bar.
Tes Teach will find videos, images, and other related content from a list of sources including YouTube, Google, and other teachers from Tes.
Your search will reveal free and paid learning resources created by others. Drag the search results into the lesson. Or upload files directly from your computer.
You can also use the Add Text button to enter text directly in the lesson. The text editor has advanced formatting options. When you’re done collecting materials, give the lesson a title and label each tile. To reposition a tile, drag it wherever you want.
Click Add Test to include it in your lesson.
Add a question and give multiple answers. Tes Teach will track student responses, comments, likes, and more so that teachers can measure student engagement and progress.
5. FlexClip Strong>
FlexClip is a free tool that allows teachers to create their own instructional videos or presentations for teaching materials. It is currently only available on Google Chrome.
Share your ideas and opinions with students using the FlexClip Video Lesson Creator. Prepare a step-by-step tutorial or instructional video.
Use the online editor to add images, videos, text and transitions. Start from scratch or customize one of the many video templates. For example, create a video about tigers to teach kids fun facts. Watching a video is more interesting than reading text.
FlexClip is easy to use and versatile in functionality. You can:
- add music;
- crop video;
- add text
- merge video;
- change aspect ratio.
- Video scaling and splitting.
- Select video resources from the media library.
The free version includes:
- One standard video per project.
- SD downloads.
- Maximum 12 projects.
- Video up to one minute
Basic and Plus options offer additional features such as HD downloads, longer videos, and custom watermarks.
6. Education
Teachers can use the Education Center’s creative tools to share ideas, learn new things and collaborate with students.
Engage students by recording your voice and screen to create video tutorials Other features include:
- Import images and documents from your computer, Google Drive or Dropbox.
- Insert any web page.
- Display custom map
- Embed video on your website.
- Automatically save videos to your account.
- Sharing videos with others
Learning materials created with Educreation tools are designed for the digital classroom. Students can also create their own videos to show what they have learned.
The basic version is free and includes the following features:
- Record and share lessons.
- Create classes and attach to them.
- Use basic whiteboard tools
- Save one draft at a time.
- Access 50 MB of disk space.
- Get email support.
Two upgrade options are available (Pro Classroom and Pro School
- Export video
- Import maps, documents and other files
- Save unlimited drafts
- Increased or unlimited storage
Educational programs are intuitive, easy to use, and an indispensable tool for teaching and learning at home.
7. Explain everything
Explain Everything is a complete online mobile whiteboard app (iPad, Chromebook, and Android) for teachers to present, create videos, and sketch notes.
Explaining concepts and teaching are more effective when presented in a fun and interactive way. Following are some of the ways to use Explain All to create lessons for students at home.
- Create introductory videos for each lesson.
- Wrap up the lesson by highlighting the most important features, use different media formats, and add your voice as narration.
- Assign video instructions for homework.
Teachers can inspire students to learn through study guides, interactive sessions, and group sessions. The free version is for teachers and students just getting started and includes:
- Up to three projects
- Collaborate with voice chat.
- Use on any device
- Share links to web videos
Explain Everything has two upgrade options with additional features.
Studying doesn’t have to be boring. Try using some of the tools above to create engaging, interactive, and fun lessons for your students at home.
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