TOP PICKS | 31 TOOLS

Lesson-Planning Apps and Websites

Looking to ditch your paper planners and go digital? With these apps and websites, you can bring lesson planning -- and design -- into the 21st century. Create custom calendars for each class, track standards across the curriculum, develop differentiated lesson templates, share schedules with parents, and find the best online resources with these top-notch tools.

Top Picks

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Digital Planners

Common Curriculum

Sleek lesson planner replaces bulky binders, promotes collaboration

Bottom line: Ditch pen-and-paper planning; embrace the flexibility of collaborative lesson planning and calendar design.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free, Free to try, Paid Free for the Basic plan. $4.89-$6.99 per month for Pro plan. $7.50 per teacher per month (for 20 teachers - price per teacher goes down with more teachers) for Schools plan. $1,500 when purchasing for 3 or more schools for Site License. Free 30-day trial also available.

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Planboard

Handy one-stop digital lesson planner saves time

Bottom line: Simplifies lesson planning with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Free for individual teachers; lesson sharing is available with a Chalk.com Collaborate subscription for $60 per year.

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Standards Planner

A step up from standard calendars but has room to grow

Bottom line: With proper maintanenance, good curation of relevant resources, and up-to-date classroom lessons, Standards Planner can give teachers and students a learning advantage.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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Versal

Slick course creator is full-featured, but lessons remain traditional

Bottom line: A great option for putting your course materials online in a clean, attractive way, but don't rely on it for all your instruction.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid $5 per month or $50 per year for Pro features (progress tracking, private courses), or $7 per student annually for institutional features.

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Ogment

Get beyond binders with digital, remixable lesson-planning tool

Bottom line: If you invest some serious time in preloading your content, this is an exceptional tool for building and using your lesson plans.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free to try, Paid Licensed at the school or district level.

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PlanbookEdu

Pretty basic online planner with a few teacher-friendly bonus features

Bottom line: Create and organize all your classes and then some on this glorified day planner, but it's not a whole lot better than the paper version.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free, Paid

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Teachers.io

Organizational tool helps teachers plan, communicate with students

Bottom line: Scheduling solution for teachers is at its best when used alongside student homework app.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free

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Creation Tools

Nearpod

Interactive slideshow tool engages students, promotes collaboration

Bottom line: This effective tool leverages the capabilities of 1-to-1 environments and offers both teacher- and student-paced learning.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid The Silver edition is free for up to 30 students, the Gold edition is $120 per teacher per year for up to 50 students, and the Platinum edition is $349 per year for up to 75 students. In-app purchases are available for additional content, and schools and districts can receive volume discounts.

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Wizer

Digital worksheet builder lets students show learning in multiple ways

Bottom line: Students will appreciate this 21st-century take on worksheets, and teachers will love all the different options for creation and assessment.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Wizer Lite is free for up to two classes. The premium version is $69 per year and includes additional features, such as unlimited classrooms, differentiation options, student insights, and Google Classroom integration.

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Spiral

Provide instant feedback with collaborative, multimedia assessment tool

Bottom line: Engaging, easy-to-use tool that supports both formative and summative assessment while allowing for student collaboration.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid Spiral Teacher is free and covers up to five classrooms. The Pro Teacher subscription is $39 per teacher per year and offers unlimited classrooms, student accounts for home use, and progress reports. The Pro School subscription is estimated at $3 per student and offers Pro Teacher features plus additional ones, including full integration with the school's LMS.

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Edpuzzle

Crop, customize, and remix online video content with interactive tool

Bottom line: As a flipped classroom or student creation tool, there are lots of opportunities for use, but teachers will need to be creative if they want students to engage.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid The basic version is free. The Pro Teacher plan is in development but is slated to cost $6.50 per month. The Pro School plan starts at $55 per month (call for quote).

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LessonUp

Flexible interactive presentation tool engages kids at school and home

Bottom line: LessonUp is for teachers who like designing unique lessons to reach every learner.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Free to try, Paid Free basic subscription and a free 30-day trial of the teacher license; contact for the annual subscription cost.

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TES Teach with Blendspace

Create multimedia lessons with engaging but not-so-interactive style

Bottom line: Allows you to incorporate lots of multimedia resources, but be discerning with content and assessments to avoid lazy teaching or learning.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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ClassFlow

Robust lesson-creation, presentation tool offers built-in assessment

Bottom line: This powerful tool supports connected and blended learning from instruction to assessment, though it's best used to enhance already great instruction.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free

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Online Resources

BetterLesson

Exemplary lessons, strategies, and coaching from master teachers

Bottom line: Take advantage of the offerings of this professional community to improve the quality of your classroom instruction.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free, Paid The site and its resources are free. Contact the developer for pricing for consultations with one of the more than 60 instructional coaches who provide individual, school, or district support.

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PowerMyLearning Connect

Create playlists and differentiate with quality third-party content

Bottom line: A curation of some of the best educational content on the web made easily accessible, both for students and teachers.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free, Paid A basic edition for individual educators is free; annual prices for a school edition range from $2,900 to $4,900 per school, depending on enrollment.

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ReadWriteThink

Excellent free resource for all things reading and writing

Bottom line: A language arts teacher's dream; lesson plans, professional development, and all-around quality support.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free

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Tailor-ED

Create differentiated math lessons and assessments in minutes

Bottom line: Easy differentiation and unique insights that can improve math instruction.

Grades: K–8 Price: Free, Paid The free Teacher Basic plan limits teachers to four units while the $9 per month Teacher Premium plan allows for unlimited student grouping and unlimited units. The School Premium plan (contact for pricing) includes school-wide insights as well as PD workshops.

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ACT Academy

Personalize and differentiate with expansive multimedia resource library

Bottom line: Whether it's skill-building, test prep, interactive lessons, or games you're after, this extensive site has it all in an easy-to-use platform.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Free to try, Paid The site and most resources are free. A premium subscription ($9.95 per month) gives students access to widely used testing program questions and high-quality assessments.

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LearnZillion

Quality Common Core-aligned lessons with great modeling for teachers

Bottom line: An innovative way to enhance lessons and tailor learning for individual needs.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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OER Commons

Free, easy access to a wealth of resources

Bottom line: Impressive resource opens access to quality materials for all educators.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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ReadWorks Digital

Research-based site makes it easy to assign, differentiate readings

Bottom line: An effective digital reinvention of the trusted ReadWorks platform that makes it simple to distribute and track high-quality reading assignments.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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Gooru

Personalized tool fosters exploration, teacher-led meaningful learning

Bottom line: A great portal for supplementing classroom instruction; supports independent and personalized learning.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free

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Standards and Goals

Goalbook Toolkit

Set tailored targets with pricey but worth-it kit of tools, strategies

Bottom line: You pay for quality with Goalbook Toolkit, including access to clear, well-crafted learning goals and strategies that allow for far easier differentiation.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free to try, Paid 30-day free trial. There are three paid plans: $995 per year including district/administrator support, $395 per teacher per year with district/administrator support, or $795 per teacher per year with online PD and 1:1 coaching for teachers. The latter two plans require a minimum purchase of 10+ licenses.

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Common Core Standards

Complete Common Core State Standards in convenient, searchable, free resource

Bottom line: Love 'em or hate 'em, this resource puts them at your fingertips.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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Next Generation Science Standards

Free resource puts Next Generation Science Standards at your fingertips

Bottom line: Super-handy resource makes science standards easy to access anytime, anywhere.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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Learning Management Systems

Kiddom

LMS offers tangible options to differentiate learning

Bottom line: An excellent option for monitoring individual progress toward goals, but teachers will need to be deliberate when selecting and assigning content.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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Otus

Free LMS feels rich in offering data-driven differentiated instruction

Bottom line: This teacher-created site solves more problems than it causes, but it will take some up-front professional development to take full advantage.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Otus is free for teachers and students and includes data management and progress monitoring features. The district plan ranges from $3 to $12 per student up to a certain number and then decreases with increased enrollment.

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Google Classroom

Simplify communication, collaboration, and document sharing

Bottom line: Google Classroom is a great way to manage and organize learning, though teachers who need more features may need to look elsewhere.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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Schoology

Top-tier LMS for digital classrooms

Bottom line: To make the most of Schoology, you'll need some ramp-up time and great tasks and assessments, but it can offer rich learning and collaboration experiences.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free The Basic version is free to instructors. There's a paid Enterprise version that adds administration features attractive to districts. Call for pricing.

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PowerSchool

Full-featured LMS great for instructional design

Bottom line: With planning for content and design, and some restraint, teachers can create and manage relevant pages ideal for extending and transferring learning.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid Teachers can obtain a free account with limited cloud-based storage. Upgraded paid accounts start at $4.95 per month and add more classes, storage, and users.

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