TeachersFirst's Tools - No Student Registration Required
Save time during instruction with these resources that require no student registration. Some of these tools require teacher registration. Students may need a code to join, given by the teacher, or no additional information at all before using the site. This list includes resources for all grades.

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Edit Photo - PQINA
Grades
K to 12tag(s): editing (93), images (264), photography (131)
In the Classroom
Because this resource is so easy to use and works right within your browser, it makes it a perfect choice for many different classroom uses. For example, use the simple meme generator with a historical figure to introduce a new social studies unit with humor. Edit images to include on your classroom website to add text and stickers and crop out unwanted portions. Use this tool anytime photos need to be edited for class blogs, wikis, or presentation tools. In primary grades, this tool could be helpful for teachers to use to edit pictures from field trips, science experiments, and more. Share the editing process with younger students using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Edit together! Encourage older students to use this tool on images for projects or presentations. Use this tool in photography or art classes. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of paintings when doing historical reports or to set a mood. Use text options for the photos themselves to tell the stories. Have students annotate or label Creative Commons online images of cells, structures of an animal, and much more.Rumie - Byte Learning - The Rumie Initiative
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): Online Learning (36), tutorials (52)
In the Classroom
Share Rumie with students as a resource for learning about topics and content not offered as part of your school's curriculum or as a supplement to current lessons. For example, Rumie offers many bytes discussing basic computer skills, such as how to save a JPEG file as a PDF and choose the right font for a project. In addition, create collections of helpful bytes to share with students on topics such as how to explore career options and problem-solving strategies or learn to code for free.Straw.Page - Osman Ahmed
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), digital storytelling (156), portfolios (24), writing (324)
In the Classroom
Add Straw.Page to your list of website creation tools to offer for students to use for many different projects. For example, ask students to share poems, lab reports, or quick journal entries and add an image or links to additional information. If students are creating pages, check with your district's policy on publishing student work. Create pages to share information with parents about upcoming events and important dates or a list of links for resources to use at home.Photo Joiner Collage Maker - Photo Joiner
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): collages (17), editing (93), images (264), photography (131)
In the Classroom
Use this tool to create class memories pages for the end of the year and easily create yearbook type effects. Extend technology use in your classroom and use your collages by including them on class pages created using a site like Carrd, reviewed here, or transform classroom technology use with a multimedia presentation created using Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. When learning about the features of states or countries, create a collage, then use Odyssey, reviewed here, to create a virtual field trip with your pictures.Collabify - collabify.app
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): chat (41), collaboration (93), parent conferences (21), parents (57)
In the Classroom
Use Collabify to set up virtual parent/teacher conferences with participants located anywhere in the world. Collabify is especially useful when multiple teachers are involved or when parents may not reside in the same location. Share your screen as needed to provide information on assessments and student work.Have your students set up collaborative groups for projects, lab data, and more. Anything students can do on a single computer; they can do collaboratively on this tool, accessing their work from any online computer. Be sure to test out this tool before using with your class. It may be a good idea to set up the groups with the teacher as a "member" but have students work from home for group projects. Make sure you are protecting the safety of student work and identity and are within your school's Acceptable Use Policy.
ytCropper - 10 Best Design
Grades
K to 12tag(s): conversions (37), movies (54), video (266)
In the Classroom
Use ytCropper to highlight specific information from YouTube videos for student use. After creating a shortened clip, encourage students to predict what comes next or use the segment before showing the entire video. Flip your classroom and ask students to use ytCropper to share important information from videos or highlight portions that need further clarification. Using shorter video segments offers many opportunities to use video clips within other online tools. For example, have students enhance their learning by uploading an image related to their science research and add annotations. Use Google Drawings, reviewed here, to include shortened video clips, images, and text to describe the stages of plant growth, introduce a political figure, or provide background for a novel. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. Google Drawings presents a variety of levels for technology use depending on teacher requirements for the project, or even student ability; it allows for adding narration, videos, text and links to help explain what certain parts of the topic are about. Ask students to include shorter clips within multimedia projects created using a tool like Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, to redefine classroom technology use and their learning and understanding.Draw.io - Gaudenz Alder and David Benson (JGraph Ltd)
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): brainstorming (18), charts and graphs (172), graphic organizers (49), mind map (28)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the "ease" of this fabulous site! Have your class create organizers together, such as in a brainstorming session on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Assign students to "map" out a chapter or story. Assign groups to create study guides using this tool. Use this site for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics. Use this site to create family trees or food pyramids in family and consumer science. Have students collaborate (online) to create group mind maps or review charts before tests on a given subject. Have students organize any concepts you study. They can color code concepts to show what they understand, wonder, and question. Have students map out a story, plot line, or plan for the future. Students can also map out a step-by-step process (such as a life cycle or how to solve an equation).NoteBookCast - notebookcast.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): collaboration (93), drawing (62), iwb (31)
In the Classroom
Most subject area teachers and their students will benefit from the use of this tool. Allow students to create collaborative drawings as responses to literature. They can map out the plot or themes, add labels, create character studies, and more. Share the finished products on an interactive whiteboard, projector, or your class website. Have a group of students create a drawing, so another group can use it as a writing prompt. Use a NoteBookCast board as a brainstorming or sketching space as groups (or the class) share ideas for a major project or for solving a real world problem. Use this tool with students in a computer lab (or on laptops) to create a drawing of the setting in a story during a read-aloud. As an assessment idea, have students draw out a simple cartoon with stick figures to explain a more complex process such as how democracy works. If you are lucky enough to teach in a BYOD setting, use this site to demonstrate and illustrate any concept while students use the chat and drawing tools to interact in real time. If you are studying weather, have students diagram the layers of the atmosphere and what happens during a thunderstorm, for example. Introduce this tool to students who are working on group projects. Alternatively, have students use this to work as partners or as a small team to complete complex math problems or equations.QR Code Generator - Visualead
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): qr codes (19)
In the Classroom
Create a QR code that directs to your class site or blog and include it on handouts for Back to School night. Create a QR code scavenger hunt for students, making a webquest more engaging. Add QR codes to documents for students to check their answers to questions. Expand knowledge of a topic by adding a QR code to a site that expands upon what is in the textbook. Create a data chart accessible via a QR code. Students access the data and manipulate the information. Have students create a book trailer or review and affix a QR code to the outside of the book. Students may be more apt to read a book that has been reviewed by another student. Make a display completely interactive with a QR code that describes the assignment, the process, the research, student's reactions and more! Add extra help information to any assignment that asks students to solve problems. Create an online help tutorial accessible via a QR code, and place the code beside a similar problem. Link directly to a Google Map. Place QR code contact information for you and your school on contact cards to give to parents. Attach QR codes to physical objects around the room to provide information about the object. Place the links in a newsletter using QR codes instead of a series of words that need to be typed.Zeemaps - Zee Source
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): directions (11), map skills (63), maps (220)
In the Classroom
If you teach geography, this one is a must. It is also helpful for showing students WHERE a story or news event takes place. Teach map skills by letting students explore and annotate their own community. This site is great on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Create multiple markers for various points within your community. Annotate the markers with specific information that students research. Remember to create an admin password (and save it somewhere safe!) for others to collaborate on the map. Research various places around the world, and create markers of must-see places, historical finds, and other locations of interest. Create a map of news hot spots around the world. In Biology, find places where environmental or biodiversity concerns are occurring. Collaborate on a map to include annotated information of student research about these problems. Create a map to introduce various cultures around the world. Enter video, audio, information, and links that students can use to "uncover" the content to be learned.QwikSlides - Russel Tarr
Grades
K to 12tag(s): images (264), qr codes (19), slides (43), video (266)
In the Classroom
Use Qwikslides to create quick slideshows for any classroom use. Easily share slides with information or (online) images on your website or blog to remind students about a project or assignment. Have students create presentations to "introduce" themselves to the class during the first week of school. Create a slide show to introduce any unit and have students guess what they will be learning. Create a Qwikslides easily "on the fly" as a review resource to embed on your class website or blog. Use the QR Code feature to add information to textbooks, on student of the week displays, or to Science fair projects! Students can easily create mini-advertisements for books by entering their text here and sharing via a QR code pasted on the book jacket. This site is perfect for your BYOD (bring your own device) classroom, since it is viewable on any device. Make quick "cue cards" for students to read their lines off a projector or interactive whiteboard for a video or school news broadcast! Paste your school or class announcements into slides and embed them on the class or school website. Have your world language or ENL students write messages in their new language for a classroom "activity tour" and convert them into QR codes to post around the room. Their classmates can "tour" the room and follow the directions for each activity using their smartphones to read the codes. Activities could include speaking, following directions such as "touch your nose" or question/answer about an image.Even the youngest gifted students can create simple presentations to go beyond regular curriculum in your class. Be sure to show young ones how to copy/paste the url for their finished work to send it to you or mark it in Favorites on the classroom computer or iPad. Have them make slide shows telling a story, explaining about a famous person, and more. During a unit on plants, have them create a guide to plant care or a show about the world's strangest plants. Have them write and illustrate slides as book reviews for independent reading they have done. This tool is simple enough for any student who can read.
Online Voice Recorder - 123apps
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blended learning (37), communication (129), fluency (26), preK (271), speech (69), spelling (97)
In the Classroom
Have students practice spelling words orally, record speeches, practice reading fluency, and much more using Online Voice Recorder. After recording, allow students to listen to the playback and reflect upon the quality of their work. Do before and after recordings of students to share with parents during conferences to demonstrate reading progress. Have students record weekly summaries for what has happened in your class to share on your class website or blog (you will have to upload the files). Record weekly or daily homework assignments and share as a voice recording on your website. Save file space by replacing old files with new ones. Online Voice Recorder would be an excellent resource for recording and sharing more complicated directions for projects and assignments (adding you voice intonation and cues!). Your weaker readers and ENL/ESL students may do better with a combination of written AND auditory directions. Provide the link on your class website for students to use at home for additional practice in spelling, reading, practicing reports, and more. Share this site with parents at Back to School Night. Have students write and record audio book reviews others can play on iPads in the school library. If you have gifted students in your classroom, this tool is simple enough for even the youngest to be able to record audio mini-dramas portraying a historic figure, poetry readings, and more. Be sure to show them how to NAME and download the files to the local computer! Anything they can say out loud can become a creative project recording. Don't forget about recording musical performances or practices.PDFescape - Red Software
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): Teacher Utilities (200)
In the Classroom
Use to alter documents that may have been saved as a PDF in the past. Save this site in your professional resources. If you work with students who request college recommendations or need to fill out forms for scholarships or jobs, be sure to share this tool with them!Chartle - Zygomatic
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (172), data (151)
In the Classroom
You will want to play with this tool before using it in class. Use it anywhere numerical data is collected and is best shown in a chart. Collect data in a science, survey, or math class and display it using different graphs to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using each graph type. Use for quick creation and sharing of created graphs. Create charts together easily on an interactive whiteboard when introducing the different types. Have students operate the board while others offer instructions on what to do next. Use graphs to portray different sets of data about a topic in a new and unique way. Use this tool to create graphs and charts for presentations and reports. Make quick charts students can share with others such as "How I spend my time" and "Places I have visited." During political campaign seasons, create charts to visualize better what the pollsters are saying.Word Hippo - Wordhippo.com
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): antonyms (12), dictionaries (48), spelling (97), synonyms (15), vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (93), word study (59)
In the Classroom
Use this site for vocabulary development and word study assignments, such as writing sentences, paragraphs, or essays using new words. Since the site permits translation, this would be a valuable tool in world language classes, ENL/ELL classes, and more. Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard and elicit examples to show the class how quickly it works. Have students create their own word walls with synonyms, antonyms, sentences, and more for their latest vocabulary words. Try a tool such as Padlet, reviewed here, for each student to create an online "wall" with words aligned to color coded stickies for synonyms. antonyms, etc. Alternatively, have students create class challenges for their peers with color coded matching activities for the interactive whiteboard matching words to synonyms, antonyms, and an appropriate fill in the blank sentence. Share this as a favorite on your teacher public page for handy reference any time students encounter an unknown word. Even subject area teachers such as science and social studies will find this tool handy for students with weaker vocabulary levels.Just Paste It - JustPaste.it
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), images (264), note taking (36)
In the Classroom
Copy and paste important information found on websites while viewing as a class into Just Paste It, then save as a PDF for students to have a hard copy or share a link to the information through your classroom website or LMS. Use this tool to create a simple blog. Challenge students to create their own "Paste It" to use to take research notes, write study notes for vocabulary, or many other uses. Have students create individual pages (blog posts) as part of classroom projects then share them using a tool such as Padlet, reviewed here, to create an online bulletin board to use to display information learned. Why would a teacher share text or images this way? Teachers can offer an assignment, a writing prompt, a vocab list, a story starter, a handout, or even a permission slip for parents to download, print, and sign.Popplet - Notion, Inc.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): concept mapping (15), mind map (28), myplate (18)
In the Classroom
Users must be able to navigate the simple controls in this online tool. Videos and other information are found on the site and in your account page for a quick overview of learning the tool. If having difficulty saving the Popplet, be sure to remember to save a screenshot using the Print screen function on a PC or the Ctrl/shift/4 on a Mac.Use this tool for brainstorming or creative planning. Create a concept map of facts or concepts in any subject area. Plan an experiment in Science. Determine the sequence of events in History. Create study materials that are easily edited and shared by others. The class can create organizers together, such as in a brainstorming session on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Or you can assign students to "map" out a chapter or story or assign groups to create study guides using this tool. Use this site for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics. Use this site to create family trees or My Plate food group portions in family and consumer science. Have students collaborate together (online) to create group mind maps or review charts before tests on a given subject. Have students organize any concepts you study; color-code concepts to show what they understand, wonder, and question; map out a story, plotline, or plan for the future; map out a step-by-step process (life cycle).
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
lino - Infoteria Corporation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (15), collaboration (93), collages (17), creative fluency (5), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (147), gamification (83), note taking (36)
In the Classroom
Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Students can use this when researching alone or in groups, sharing files, videos, and pictures quickly from one computer to another. Have students write tasks for each member of the group on a sticky so that everyone has a responsibility. Show them how to copy/paste URLs for sources onto notes, too. Use lino as your virtual word wall for vocabulary development. Use a lino for students to submit and share questions or comments about assignments and tasks they are working on. Use it as a virtual graffiti wall for students to make connections between their world and curriculum content, such as "I wonder what the hall monitor would say finding Lady Macbeth washing her hands in the school restroom... and what Lady M would say back." (Of course, you will want to have a PG-13 policy for student comments!) Encourage students to maintain an idea collection lino for ideas and creative inspirations they may not have used yet but do not want to "lose." They can color code and organize ideas later or send the stickies to a new project board later. In writing or art classes, use lino as a virtual writer's journal or design a notebook to collect ideas, images, and even video clips. In science classes, encourage students to keep a lino board with (classroom appropriate) questions and "aside" thoughts about science concepts being studied and to use these ideas in later projects so their creative ideas are not 'lost" before project time. A lino board can also serve as a final online "display" for students to "show what they know" as the culmination of a research project. Add videos, images, and notes in a carefully arranged display not unlike an electronic bulletin board. This is also a great tool to help you stay "personally" organized. Use this site as a resource to share information with other teachers, parents, or students.Poll Everywhere - Poll everywhere
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): polls and surveys (49), quiz (67), quizzes (91)
In the Classroom
Users must be able to determine the question and possible responses to generate the poll online. Practice creating your first poll even before creating a login. Enter the suggested question and possible responses to see how the codes are generated and displayed. Respondents text the code word to a specific number displayed on the screen. Be sure to check out the easy to use controls along the side of the screen.Ask a question. Voters choose from the responses and use the SMS code with their mobile phone to send their vote. Cast a vote also using X (formerly Twitter) or on the Internet. Click the gear icon next to the poll to change the size and color of various aspects of the poll. Use the panel along the side to view either a static or live chart, summary table, or response history. Be sure to click on the tab "Ways People Can Respond" to check not only SMS but other methods as well: Web Voting, X (formerly Twitter), and Smartphone. X (formerly Twitter) uses @poll followed by a keyword to tabulate responses. Use the "Download as Slide" tab to choose the type of slide you would like to create. "Share and Publish" using Posterous, X (formerly Twitter), or Blog/web page.
This tool does not show the individual votes of students. Though this tool can be used by students, it may be best used by a teacher.
Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study by asking questions about the material. Discuss in groups why those in class would choose a particular answer to uncover misconceptions. Use for Daily quiz questions to gain knowledge of student understanding and a means of formative assessment.
Safe Share TV - SafeShare.TV
Grades
K to 12tag(s): safety (68)