Teaching is no longer old-school. It is now a completely technology-driven profession as teachers around the world use various apps and tools to manage classrooms, create lesson plans, interact with students, grade them, and more. These tools come in handy not only regularly but especially when online learning mode is adopted. There are tons of free and paid applications that teachers/educators can use to make learning effective and reduce their workload.
The article lists the 28 best must-have apps for teachers for iPhone as well as Android users.
1. Google Classroom
Google Classroom app is a part of the G Suite for Education (which was earlier known as Google Apps for Education). This app helps the teachers organize class materials on Google Drive and distribute and grade assignments as well. Teachers can reach out to their students more easily whether it is in the case of making announcements or engaging them in discussions. Student Selector allows to boost engagement as it randomly selects students from the roster which helps motivate more classroom participation.
Google Classroom app is available on Android as well as iOS. It is one of the best teaching apps at the moment and it is free.
2. ClassDojo
ClassDojo is a simple communication app useful for students, teachers, and parents. This app helps recreate a classroom and children can get more activities in their digital portfolios. Teachers encourage parents’ engagement through announcements and videos. Parents can also track their child’s progress and talk with teachers whenever they wish to. Group Maker and Noise Maker tools can be accessed from a single place. It is a free app without any ads and has an easy and intuitive UI.
ClassDojo app is available on Android as well as iOS.
3. Kahoot
Kahoot is a good application for creating free quizzes and surveys. It is an easy-to-use app for not only creating but also sharing interactive quizzes, surveys, and discussion questions with students. It provides a good platform for discussion. Students remain engaged in the learning process by making it fun. It is free to use but there are in-app purchases if you want them. Teachers can search among millions of ready-to-play kahoots on any topic. They can create or edit their kahoots in minutes and can combine question types to increase engagement. They can assign student-paced challenges for content review and assess learning outcomes with reports. Premium-paid features include an image library with millions of images and advanced question types.
Kahoot is available on Android as well as iOS.
4. Seesaw
Seesaw is one of the ideal teacher apps for students and educators alike. It is a collaborative education management app designed for teachers, students, and parents to remain in touch. The app comes with creative note-taking and collab tools for visual learning. Seesaw offers assessment and communication tools as well. The app comes with features like family messaging, activity creation, saving and sharing, scheduled activity sharing, multi-page posts, and more. The Core seesaw app is free for teachers, students, and parents while the Plus plan starts at 120 USD/year and the seesaw for schools is quote-based.
Seesaw is available on Android as well as iOS.
5. Slack
Slack is one of the best and easiest apps available for seamless collaboration. Teamwork becomes easy when seamless collaboration is available and Slack does the job perfectly. If teachers want students to have teamwork, they should not miss out on Slack. Using Slack, one can enhance communication with their students, as it allows them to send secure messages and call any person or group. You can share documents with multiple people and edit them in sync with real-time updates. The messages can also be edited after you have sent them. There are dedicated channels that keep everything segregated and organized. You can set your status to let everyone know about your availability. Integrating it with Google Drive and Dropbox helps keep assignments and projects safe and easily accessible.
Not only for students and teachers, Slack works perfectly for working professionals as well. Slack is available on Android as well as iOS.
6. Dropbox
Dropbox allows you to store photos, presentations, videos, assignments, and other files. Teachers can access these files anywhere and can also create, edit, and save Microsoft Office documents on their mobiles. Teachers can share file links with their students without the need for cluttering their phones with enormous copies. The content can be customized by changing the link settings relating to passwords, viewers, downloads, and expiration. You can also choose whether to upload your full camera roll or only the latest photos. Dropbox allows enabling auto-upload to the cloud and converting important documents to PDF by scanning.
Dropbox is available on Android as well as iOS.
7. Quizlet
Quizlet is a quiz tool that focuses on terms and definitions. As a teacher, one can add a class and make a quiz. Students can download the app and search for a quiz made by their teacher to attempt it. Students can make their own study sets by opening their teacher’s study set and choosing what game they want to play. Students can take a test, opt for learn mode, learn by flashcards, or match terms with definitions. Quizlet Live allows students to work as a team to find the right word or definition for the description. But the catch is that you can’t see what descriptions your teammates have. If someone makes a mistake, you have to start over again.
Quizlet is available on Android and iOS.
8. Evernote-Notes Organizer
Evernote is a handy notetaking app beneficial for teachers and students. Teachers now don’t have to rely on those lengthy printed notes as notes are now available in audio, video, PDF, and more formats. Students can use the app to create separate notebooks for organizing each subject. Parents can view their child’s activities. Transparency is one of the most useful aspects of this app. Students can use it as an organizer to keep track of exams, lecture notes, and assignments. Notes can be synced on multiple devices, track of exams, assignments, and deadlines can be kept, and the app is easy to use. Subscription plans are available with premium features and the app has over 100,000,000+ downloads on PlayStore.
Evernote is available on Android and iOS.
9. Trello
Trello lets students stay organized, providing tools to keep them on task. This becomes useful when there is a group project and everyone is working on a different schedule. The app allows students to create checklists, upload images, and assign tasks to other users, among other actions, while conveniently syncing content across devices via the cloud. The content can be seen within a card-prepared interface wherein you can move tasks around easily. Elements like photos and links can be added to Trello for better organization. The app honors your last card so that when returning to the app, you will get back to the last board or card you were viewing. Calendar view can be used to assign and track due dates and everything is free to use, so your entire class can be added to the same board for better management.
Trello is available on Android and iOS.
10. Khan Academy
Khan Academy can be a good app for teachers if they want to learn to get mobile. The app has a huge library of videos, interactive exercises, and articles about several topics including algebra, differential equations, economics, finance, humanities, and more. This makes the app worthy for teachers as well as learners. The app lets you practice quizzes, exercises, and tests at your own pace. There is instant feedback and step-by-step hints so the learners don’t get stuck. Exercise topics and even videos can be downloaded so that learning doesn’t stop even if there’s no internet connection.
Khan Academy is available on Android and iOS.
11. Additio App for Teachers
Additio is your go-to classroom management app that lets teachers take attendance, calculate grades, take notes about student performance, and even schedule their lectures and assignments. It is a gradebook and lesson planner for teachers that is easy to use and free with some in-app purchases. There is the Additio Starter plan, Additio for Teachers plan, and Additio for Schools plan.
Additio app is available on Android and iOS.
12. Quizizz
Quizizz is one of the most popular apps for learning at home and in classrooms. Quizzes make studies interesting and the app has millions of teacher-created quizzes for children to compete with their friends online. Teachers can make the whole class play together and assign individual homework. Quizizz is used by over 20 million people per month across the globe for classroom, home, and office purposes. You can easily set up a free account, customize games, track and get timely progress reports, and integrate with learning management systems. Participants can also join games from any device without the app at joinmyquiz.com
Quizizz app is available on Android and iOS.
13. TED
TED app features inspiring talks by remarkable people, accessible to anyone. There are more than 3000 TED Talks from achievers, by topic and mood, from teaching and science to the surprises of your psychology. As a teacher, these intriguing ideas can help feed the curiosity of your learners. The app can help bolster your knowledge and discover game-changing ways to get the most out of learners. Depending on interests, TED offers personalized suggestions so you won’t have to spend time browsing what to watch. Highly-rated videos have a separate collection and TED also allows you to download videos to stream conveniently offline. The “Surprise Me” feature offers out-of-the-box videos that one might like. TED is a free-to-use app but TED Supporter costs 11.99 USD.
TED is available on Android and iOS.
14. Teacher Kit Classroom Manager
Teacher Kit is an app for classroom management that helps teachers stay organized and achieve their goals. It is a versatile classroom assistant that lets them carry out important tasks like logging students’ attendance, adding behavior notes, and keeping parents informed about their ward’s performance. Teachers can use this app to create and print a seating chart for students so that there is no mess in the classroom. Teacher Kit has a premium version as well that costs 3.99 USD/month. The premium version offers in-depth reporting and other features.
Teacher Kit is available on Android and iOS.
15. Groovy Grader
Groovy Grader lets you update your technique for calculating the all-important bottom line for students, parents, and you. It replaces your paper grading calculator to provide more flexibility in figuring out the most accurate and fair grade you can bestow. The app can be used to configure for 100s of questions and display grades as whole numbers or with an added decimal place. You can view grades for number correct, number wrong, and half points with convenient color coding. More than 50 grades can be viewed on the screen at once. The app is free to use.
Groovy Grader is available only on iOS.
16. Epic: Kids’ Books & Reading
Epic app is equipped with 40,000 audiobooks, learning videos, and ebooks. The app has a variety of interesting content to fascinate young learners and allows up to 4 individual child profiles per account to let multiple kids use it in a fully personalized way. Epic provides coveted rewards and badges. Teachers can assign books and keep an eye on the reading progress to ensure learners remain on track to achieve the goal.
Epic Kids’ app is available on Android and iOS.
17. Zoom
Zoom app proved to be a game-changer in times when virtual learning became the need of the hour. It is loved by teachers and educators alike. Zoom app helps students and teachers collaborate in a virtual digital space. There are options like screen sharing, cross-platform instant messaging, good audio and video quality, and more. The Zoom meeting app lets teachers invite and add up to 100 people to join the video class. Students can take digital notes for later reference and teachers can easily collect responses during feedback or discussion through polls. Noise-free background can be enabled using Noise Cancellation.
The Zoom app is available on Android and iOS.
18. Duolingo: Language Lessons
Duolingo app helps learn English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and more languages for free. It is a free app for learning 40+ languages through quick, bite-sized lessons. One can practice speaking reading, listening, and writing to build your vocabulary and grammar skills. Whether you are learning a language for travel, school, career, family, or friends this app can come in handy. As a language teacher this app at your beck and call can make the task of language learning a fun experience. The app allows you to keep track of your progress and offers rewards and achievements to keep you motivated.
Duolingo is available on Android and iOS.
19. Prezi Viewer
Prezi Viewer is an intuitive presentation app that helps view and present pro-grade presentations. With the help of this app, one can access your presentations and share them through multiple mediums like email, message, and social media. Prezi Viewer features smooth touch gestures so that you can pinch to present your ideas. AirPlay Support helps you to view your presentations on a big screen. It allows comments on the collaborative presentations so everyone can express their thoughts. The app supports many languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and Hungarian, allowing flexibility to present your ideas in your favorite language.
Prezi Viewer is available on Android and iOS.
20. Oxford Dictionary
Oxford Dictionary is an app that is beneficial for educators as well as students. The app has a database of more than 350,000 words and phrases, the app has you covered as a language reference. Moreover, it provides over 75,000 audio pronunciations to help you pronounce correctly. The word of the day enables you to learn a unique word each day. It allows the creation of custom folders with special words that appeal to teachers and students. There are colorful themes, an intuitive interface, and more. The premium version of the Oxford Dictionary allows features like audio pronunciations and offline mode.
Oxford Dictionary is available on Android and iOS.
21. Nearpod
Nearpod is an ideal app for livening up lessons. It is made for teachers and allows them to present multimedia lessons that students can upload to their mobile devices. The Nearpod app is free to use and offers different layouts, which make it suitable for various teaching activities. It is an essential 21st-century tool that provides a unique, engaging way for teachers to connect with their students.
Nearpod is available on Android and iOS.
22. Explain Everything Whiteboard
Explain Everything Whiteboard helps create and digitize engaging materials for blended learning and teaching. It is an interactive whiteboard for hybrid learning, in-class teaching, recording video presentations and explainer videos, sketching, taking notes, live casting, and conducting a virtual classroom. Teachers can digitize, create, store, and share teaching materials using this app.
Explain Everything Whiteboard is available on Android and iOS.
23. Schoology
Schoology is a web-based learning management system offering instructional tools, a calendar, an online grade book, and attendance tracking. Teachers can create tasks, assignments, assessments, and discussions. There is an enterprise version as well that includes additional features for schools and districts. It allows course management, communication, collaboration, and more. The app is free to use.
Schoology is available on Android and iOS.
24. Photomath
Photomath is a student-friendly app that can handhold students complete their algebra projects and homework. It can be tagged as a math knowledge partner and students can solve algebraic equations and understand the logic behind problems. All you have to do is key in or snap a photo of your problem, and the app dons the hat of a math tutor by breaking down the complicated question into smaller chunks. The app offers a step-wise approach to arrive at the perfect answer and also lets students understand the solution. It is also called a camera calculator as using the camera of your phone, you can point to a math problem for which you need an answer and it will give you that in an instant.
Photomath is available on Android and iOS.
25. Prodigy Math: Kids Game
Prodigy Math app is a gamified way of learning Mathematics. Teachers can create intuitive and adaptive quizzes using this platform based on how students perform during a quiz. The quizzes in Prodigy can be designed like a quest that students can complete and meanwhile learn Mathematics. Prodigy also has a variety of features that can be used for instructions. These include a feature that gives educators an insight into student progress, a question bank with over 50,000 math questions, and a built-in assignment manager.
Prodigy Math is available on Android and iOS.
26. edX
EDx is a platform for online courses and learning. The app offers free and paid courses from universities like Harvard and MIT. Teachers, Educators, and Students can enroll in courses to expand their knowledge in a wide array of subject matters from engineering to Shakespeare. The price varies from course to course.
EDx is available on Android and iOS.
27. Google Drive
Google Drive is the perfect place to create and stash all your documents. The program can store your existing files or Google’s programs can be used to create all-new documents. Google Drive files are stored in the cloud, so you can access them anywhere you want to on your phone/computer. This makes it possible for teachers and students to carry notes, assignments, lesson plans, and more with them without any hassles. The app is free to use.
Google Drive is available on Android and iOS.
28. Remind
Remind app makes it easy for teachers to communicate with students and their parents in real-time outside the classroom. Teachers can make class announcements, initiate group chats, or contact people privately through the Remind app. Your messages can be translated into more than 90 languages making it possible to communicate with parents who are non-native English speakers. It is a free-to-use app.
Remind is available on Android and iOS.
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