Discover hundreds of free resources related to Thinking Routines and designed to help teachers scaffold student thinking across subjects. These include graphic organizers, posters, and routines such as See, Think, Wonder, 3-2-1 Bridge, Circle of Viewpoints, and others. Many of the resources are adaptable to multiple grade levels and subjects, supporting inquiry, reflection, and deeper discussion in the classroom.
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tag(s): brainstorming (19), graphic organizers (51), teaching strategies (52), thinking skills (33)

View this resource from the Thinking Museum, which presents six inquiry-based routines that educators can use to deepen students' thinking and engagement, particularly around art, objects, or complex ideas. The routines, such as See, Think, Wonder, Looking Ten Times Two, Step Inside, Headlines, Creative Questions, and ESP+I (Experience / Struggles / Puzzles / Insights), offer structured ways to move learners from observation to interpretation, perspective taking, summarizing, curiosity, and reflection. Each routine is explained with its purpose, suggested questions, and tips for adaptation. The activities emphasize flexibility and encourage teachers to build these routines into their "thinking toolkit" for richer classroom discussions.

tag(s): brain (58), inquiry (28), perspective (24), podcasts (137), puzzles (148), summarizing (23), teaching strategies (52), thinking skills (33)

We Will Write offers a free basic plan designed to help students improve their writing through daily practice and personalized feedback. With the basic plan, teachers can access a limited selection of prompts and track student progress, making it a useful tool for encouraging consistent writing habits in the classroom. The site also offers paid plans that unlock additional features, including a wider variety of prompts, enhanced feedback tools, and more in-depth analytics to support differentiated instruction.

tag(s): creative writing (126), descriptive writing (41), paragraph writing (16), writers workshop (32)

Discover resources to create a digital escape room. Resources include encryption tools, fake generators, simulators, digital imaging and mapping tools, puzzle creators, timers, tutorials, and premade escape rooms. Some encryption tools featured include a QR code creator, Morse code, an Alphabet Generator, and an Anagrams Generator. Examples for fake generators are Receipt Maker, Eye Chart Maker, Facebook Post, Newspaper Clippings, and more.

tag(s): digital escapes (25), mysteries (26)

Genially's Escape Room Game Templates provide educators with interactive and customizable digital escape room experiences. These templates allow teachers to create engaging, gamified learning activities where students solve puzzles, answer questions, and unlock clues to progress. The platform supports multimedia elements such as images, animations, and clickable objects, making lessons more immersive. Teachers can use these escape rooms for review sessions, team-building exercises, or subject-specific challenges across various grade levels.

tag(s): digital escapes (25), game based learning (215), gamification (75), puzzles (148)

The Nearpod blog post "How to Make a Digital Escape Room for the Classroom" provides educators with a step-by-step guide to creating engaging and interactive digital escape rooms. Learn how these activities can enhance critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills while making learning more immersive. The guide walks teachers through backward design planning, setting learning objectives, crafting clues and puzzles, and using digital tools like Google Forms, reviewed here and Nearpod, reviewed here to create an interactive experience. By following these strategies, teachers can design customized digital escape rooms that align with their curriculum and keep students actively engaged.

tag(s): collaboration (80), digital escapes (25), game based learning (215), problem solving (243), puzzles (148)

The Canva storyboard templates page offers many different designs to help you plan stories or projects. You can change these templates however you like by adding pictures, text, and more to bring your ideas to life. It's a helpful one-stop shop for storyboard templates.

tag(s): digital storytelling (149), graphic design (50), graphic organizers (51), stories and storytelling (65)

Improve and build students' critical thinking skills, debate skills, and media literacy using Thinkalong. Present students with provocative questions such as "Are Self-Driving Cars Safe? Should performance-enhancing drugs be allowed in professional sports? Should schools provide a laptop and internet for every student? Should social media companies be allowed to sell your data?" to name a few of the many topics. Topics focus on science, social studies, and current events. After clicking a topic, find three main categories: Teachers (a teacher's guide), Investigate (usually a graphic organizer), and Contemplate (question the authorship, format, audience purpose, etc.). However, that's not all! Under those categories, you'll find even move resources listed as Watch, Listen, Think Deep, and Contemplate (deeper thinking questions about the message); after all this, students have the opportunity to test their opinions through a structured debate in class or online with another class. Although the resource states it's for middle school students, these lessons could easily be adapted for high school.

tag(s): critical thinking (140), debate (40), inquiry (28), media literacy (105), news (223), persuasive writing (53), Research (78)

Kialo offers a platform for focused online discussions, this version is dedicated to educational users. Use Kialo to create and map out debates onto an interactive tree featuring arguments both pro and con. Create your own forum or participate in the questions posed by other site members. Choose to make your question private or public then invite others to contribute. Throughout the debate use the site's tools to rate the impact of arguments and switch perspectives to view opinions from the other side. Be sure to watch Kialo's introductory video for an overview of all of the site's features and check out the sample classroom activities and assignments.

tag(s): collaboration (80), debate (40), perspective (24), point of view (7), Teacher Utilities (194)

Create beautiful multimedia digital books with Book Creator. Scroll down the landing page to the bottom menu, and click the "Help" or "Getting Started" title. Note: This points out how you need to change to the "teacher sign in" (if the default is for students). This is a wonderful tool with many features. Reading the short Getting Started Overview first and watching the beginning videos would be best. Then, you can go to the Resources tab from the top menu (on the right), where each grade level has a video, and you'll find example books created by students. Under Resources, you can also search by subject to find suggested ideas and books designed for a specific subject. Next, click Resources from the top menu to find the "Teach your first lesson toolkit" with lesson plans, remixable student templates for different age ranges, and a teacher guide. You can also choose Remixable Books to get you and your class started. When finished, publish and share your book using the site's web-based reader for access on any device. Once you have mastered the basics, click on Features to see the magic of using the pen and discover all the features of the graphic organizers, comics, and more. By clicking the "more" you will can embed documents on your page(s). These documents can be narrated and interactive! The free plan offers one library with up to 40 books storage. Book Creator 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, using your webcam, and adding links to help explain the artwork. When creating your book, click on the big + in the upper right corner to add text, audio, images, your camera, and the pen; you will also see The lowercase "i" (for inspector), which offers colors, comics, paper type, and more. There are other apps, but you must have a premium account. You can use Book Creator on iPads, Macs, Android devices, PCs, and on these browsers: Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Chrome. Teachers need to provide an email to create an account. However, students do not need emails to make their books. Once ready, follow the site's prompts to add video, text, images, audio, and more to your book.
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tag(s): collaboration (80), DAT device agnostic tool (124), digital storytelling (149), ebooks (46), literacy (121), preK (287), reading comprehension (143), writing (307)

Taskade is an easy to use to-do list creator and manager. Just start typing to create a list, no registration required. As soon as you start the list, a link appears for sharing and collaborating. To save, create a free account with a username, email, and password to find and manage previous items. Taskade is not just an easy list creator; it is a very powerful tool with video conferencing, an activity feed, and recent projects. Taskade is the answer for remote teams to work together. Change the theme when you click to share a list on Facebook (but you don't have to share; just open one of them and go back to your list to change the theme). You can even add Taskade to your Chrome browser for easy access or when you open a new tab your current list will appear as the opening page!

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (124), note taking (32), organizational skills (83)

Create an online bulletin board (much like Padlet, reviewed here, or Lino, reviewed here) for brainstorming and VOTING on any topic. The voting is what makes this tool different. Create an account. There is no waiting for email approval. Add a board, title, select how many votes the participants will have (up to 10), and start adding posts with text, images, and video. Add images and video via URL or upload from your computer. When participants join, they give their name. Participants can add posts. Names of participants using the board appear below the chat box. Participants name's appear when they make a comment in the chat. However, comments on posts don't have the participant name. Once the board is complete, the creator can finalize the board so no new ideas can be posted, but the voting feature is still open. At the time of this review, a free account allows you to have one fully featured board. If you wish to create another board, you will need to delete your existing board.

tag(s): bulletin boards (14), gamification (75), images (258)

Seesaw is a digital portfolio that is totally free for all devices and on the web. Students can showcase their work, videos, text, drawings, and images, and get feedback from teachers and parents. Create a class blog in your Seesaw for students to write blog posts. Teachers create an account with email and then start creating as many classes as needed. There is no limit on the number of students a class can have. Once students have parental permission, give students a "join" code for their class, and they sign up from there, choosing to access their account through a Seesaw generated QR code or their email. Teachers can enable or disable student likes, comments, and editing. Blog posts and comments must have teacher approval before becoming public. Students will be able to reflect on their work with a voice recording or text, and can share artifacts from their portfolio by clicking the red button at the bottom of the screen and then either print or get the item QR code. Once you have an account, click Help & Teacher Resources to find Getting Started Tips, Tutorial Videos, FAQs, and Activity Ideas grouped by grade level. If your district blocks YouTube, the tutorials may not be viewable. Please be aware that Seesaw falls under the FERPA laws for "directory information" and "educational records." Any school getting funds from the Department of Education (public schools) is required to disclose to parents and get written consent to use Seesaw with their child.

tag(s): blogs (71), communication (113), DAT device agnostic tool (124), digital storytelling (149), Learning Management Systems (18), portfolios (21), Teacher Utilities (194)

Use Google Keep to save notes directly to your Google Drive account. This tool requires that you have a Google account. Unlike some similar services, such as Evernote, reviewed here, notes kept in Google Keep are saved to your Google Drive account. Use Google Keep for notes, voice notes, lists, and photos. Access these on any web enabled mobile device. Keep works best with Chrome browsers (there is an extension for Chrome, also) and Android phones, but our editors had no issues using other browsers as well. Google Keep can also be also used with any school's Google Apps account. Keep is colorful, which is part of the design. Be sure to use the colors as an organizational tool. Keep has a low learning curve and is very simple to use. The quick note feature is invaluable: just type your notes in the text box without logging in or switching screens. To leave a voice note, tap the microphone icon and speak. Archive items easily when you are done. Though Keep is a more generic, basic tool, its value is in its simplicity and ease of use.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (124), note taking (32), organizational skills (83)