Classroom teachers around the country have worked to understand the ins-and-outs of distance learning and have been on the hunt for free online resources.
The good news is help is available! Many companies offer teachers free or discounted access to their online learning platforms. We have put together a list of free online resources for schools, educators, and administrators to help them navigate the formation of this new education landscape.
A new education landscape is forming and dozens of free online resources for schools are available for educators and administrators.
Whenever you are looking at utilizing a new online learning platform, it’s a good idea to check with your school and/or district to make sure it meets security and confidentiality guidelines. Zoombombing, where uninvited participants interrupt meetings, is prompting many schools and districts to take a closer look at how to protect students’ information. Northwestern University has shared guidelines for their staff to protect their meetings and respond to disturbances that you can apply to your own meetings. Knoji also released this list of tips for Teachers and Parents. If the resources on our list meet confidentiality requirements (FERPA, COPPA, etc.) we have listed that information in the description!
We will continue to monitor and update the resources listed here as new ones become available. Know of a resource we missed? Reach out to us at info@schoolchoiceweek.com to let us know.
For even more great content, check out our list of offline learning activities!
Fiveable
Fiveable is a social learning platform for AP students to learn collaboratively. They can learn through live reviews, live trivia games, and study guides. There is a team of teachers, exam readers, and rockstar students who produce interactive content every week. Free Services Offered: All of the content is free!
How to Use: Visit the website to set up your teacher dashboard.
Freckle
Freckle empowers teachers to differentiate instruction across Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science. Students automatically work on the Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science lessons that are perfect for them. Freckle offers content for the following subjects and grade levels: Math K-9, ELA K-12, Social Studies K-12, and Science K-8. Free Services Offered: Always Free for teachers.
Gamilab
Gamilab is an online platform where you can find and create easy, fun, and educational games. You can create fun quizzes or full curriculum learning games by using over 40 different interactive content types, 30,000 questions from the question bank, adding your own questions, or importing your Quizlet sets. Free Services Offered: Free for schools and individuals.
How to Use: Visit the website to register for your account today!
GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home
GoNoodle is a company focused on engaging kids with movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts. As an educator, you have free access to 100s of movement and mindfulness videos for the classroom! For the summer, GoNoodle has released a free online resource called “Good Energy for Grownups.” Free Services Offered: Free Educator account
inquirED – Together When Apart
Together When Apart is a free inquiry-based distance learning curriculum. The curriculum includes weekly interdisciplinary inquires that explore the question: how can we stay together when we’re apart? The work that goes with each day should take about 20 minutes, and the mini-inquiry builds over the week. The Learner Inquiries are broken into K-2 and 3-5. Free Services Offered: One weekly inquiry for free each week.
How to Use: Visit the website, choose your grade level, and start learning!
Izzit
Izzit offers free, high-quality educational materials to educators. All of the videos come with additional resources – Teachers Guides, activities, quizzes, and more! There are also two Current Event lessons each school day with vocabulary words and discussion questions. Free Services Offered: Always free!
How to Use: Register for your free account on their website.
Kahoot!
Self-paced challenge mode is a free feature that’s already available for all educators. Students can complete self-paced games by themselves at home, on a mobile device, or computer. Teachers can use advanced reports to facilitate formative assessment and adjust instruction based on student performance. Free Services Offered: Free account
KET’s PBS Learning Media
PBS Learning Media has curated a special collection of resources organized by grade and subject area. Find videos, lesson plans, and activities that support learning at home. Teachers can create a free account to save and organize the content. Free Services Offered: Free Resources sorted by grade and subject.
How to Use: Visit the website to access these resources and create your free account.
Legends of Learning
Legends of Learning is an online, game-based learning platform for middle school and elementary classrooms with over 2000 math and science games and simulations for grades 1-8. The free teacher account gives you unlimited access to games, randomized assessments, ability to share assignments with colleagues, student-level data, and Google integration! Legends of Learning is COPPA and FERPA compliant. Free Services Offered: Free account for you and your students.
How to Use: Visit the website and register for your teacher account today!
National Indian Education Association Digital Learning Activities
The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) has partnered with IllumiNative to create and disseminate digital education tools, lesson plans, and resources. Resources are available for free and downloadable, segmented into goups by grade level: PK-2, -5, and 6-12. These lessons combine learning the history of Native Americans with subjects such as math, reading, science, physical ed, music, and art. Free Services offered: Free digital lessons & tasks
How to Use: Visit niea.org/ and click on Digital Learning Resources under the Resources tab!
Rock Hall EDU
Rock Hall EDU is a free digital learning platform that is full of resources and activities that use the power of rock and roll to engage students of all ages. Within the platform you’ll find professionally developed lesson plans, activities, videos, playlists, and more. Free Services Offered: Free account with access to all learning materials.
How to Use: Visit Rock Hall EDU’s portal today and click “Sign Up”!
SplashLearn
SplashLearn is a premium game-based learning program that intelligently adapts to each child’s skill level and helps them master appropriate skills for Math and Reading at their own pace. SplashLearn is Common Core curriculum-aligned and covers PreK through Grade 5. SplashLearn is FERPA and COPPA compliant. Free Services Offered: Free for teachers and schools.
Varsity Tutors – Virtual School Day
Varsity Tutors offers free large group classes taught by subject-matter experts from a huge range of topics such as ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Technology & Coding, and Test Prep. They also offer Self Study options. Free Services offered: Free large group classes, lists of skills by grade level, content assessments, and Learning Lab accounts.
How to Use: Visit the website and register for your free account.
Wide Open School
Wide Open School brings together big names across education, technology, and media to create a free, one-stop shop site for education resources for K-12 students, teachers, and parents. The site has an interactive daily schedule customized to your student’s age range, a list of live virtual events, and links to materials for every subject. Free Services Offered: Free resources, materials, daily schedules, and lists of live virtual events.
How to Use: Visit the website, select I’m an educator, choose your grade range, and get started!
AVID Open Access
AVID Open Access provides practical, bite-size tips and grab-and-go lesson plans and teaching resources. The platform offers easy-to-use STEM activities for various grade levels as well as subject-specific and grade-level appropriate examples. Free Services Offered: Free access to collaboration tools, videos, and class activities.
CMU CS Academy
CMU CS Academy is a curriculum to introduce your students to Python programming. The curriculum is a free online, interactive high school computer science curriculum. Daily webinars are provided for educators interested in learning more. Free Services Offered: Always Free
How to Use: Visit the website and sign up for a teacher account.
Full Steam Ahead
MIT has created Full STEAM Ahead, a website to help educators teach online with K-12 Learning Packages to inform, inspire, and activate the minds of learners from elementary through high school. Each package has activities broken down into K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Free Services Offered: 10 Weeks of STEAM packages
Numerade
Numerade hosts the largest STEM video library in the world – over 200,000 step-by-step solutions to the top STEM textbooks across secondary and postsecondary education. Free Services Offered: Free step-by-step solutions to popular textbook questions, full length courses, and a free “remote classroom setting” where you can post videos of lessons for students to access.
PCS Edventures – Blocksmith
PCS Edventures instills a passion in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics in students in grades K-12. Blocksmith 3D Coding & Design is a tool for students in grades 4-12 to explore 3D modeling, animation, programming, and video game design. Free Resources Offered: Blocksmith 3D Coding & Design Trial (through June 15, 2020) and downloadable STEM/STEAM activities!
Penjee
Penjee is a place where you can learn how to code with the python language. Start right away with the tutorial. Each task is guided with hints, directions, and solutions if you get stuck! Free Resources Offered: Free access for the remainder of the school year in 2020 (through at least July).
STEM from the START
STEM from the START is a curriculum resource for teaching STEM content to PreK-2 students. Blending animated adventures with guided activities, these free lessons are engaging, effective, easy to prepare and aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Free Services Offered: Always Free!
How to Use: Visit the website and register for your account!
Vidcode
Vidcode is a computer science curriculum and coding platform. The courses teach computer science, object-oriented programming, web programming, design, & JavaScript. Webinars are available to help you get started. Free Services Offered: Full platform and Curriculum for free until May 2020.
ASL eBooks and Resources
This is an ongoing compilation of free resources available online, and this document will be continually updated with new links. Here are the categories of resources: Temporary Free Resources, ASL Storybook Readings by age, ASL Storytelling, Basic ASL & Vocabulary, Deaf Culture, Preschool – Grade 8 Breakdowns, and more. Free Services Offered: Ongoing free list of resources.
AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom
AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom offers a range of resources designed for AAC implementation. The materials provided can be used to teach and model core words throughout the day. There is also a section of the website dedicated to using core words at home. Free Services Offered: Always free
How to Use: Visit the website to create your free account today.
Boardmaker
To help educators, parents, and learners during this time of need, the Tobii Dynavox team has created materials for Communicating about Coronavirus: topic pages for Snap Core First, activities and resources, videos to get started, and Hospital Intensive Care Unit Communication Resources. Free Services Offered: Communication Materials, Activities to go, and a free trial to Boardmaker.
Capti
Capti is a text to speech anywhere platform. You can sign up for a free account that has the following features: text to speech for reading; speech tracking word by word; fonts, colors, masking, etc.; cross-device sync; screen-reader accessibility; advanced text navigation; and offline use. Free Services Offered: Free Account
How to Use: Visit the website and sign up for a personal use account today.
Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities
The Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities conducts research to make online learning more accessible, engaging, and effective for students with disabilities. The Center assumes a leadership role in conducting research and building a network of research collaborators. Free Services Offered: Publications and Resources.
Control Alt Achieve
This website offers a list of Chrome extensions for students with special needs. The blog lists over 30 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories: text to speech, readability, reading comprehension, focus, and navigation. Free Services Offered: Free list of Chrome Extensions
Autism Little Learners – Coronavirus Social Narrative
Simple social story to help children understand the changes in their routines, as well as understand the stress and anxiety by the adults around them. This social story is available in English, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. Free Services Offered: Free Social Story
Double Time Docs
Double Time Docs is an online software that helps you write your Pediatric Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy evaluation reports very quickly. Free Services Offered: Free use of the online platform; unlimited credits for schools; 3 free credits for individuals (more available upon request).
