By Mawuena Dabla
As teachers, we’re always looking for ways to save time and bring fresh energy into our classrooms. Between lesson planning, grading, parent communication, and classroom management—it’s easy to feel stretched thin. The good news? There are tools out there that do more than just help—they transform how we teach.
Here are my absolute favorite teaching tools of the year. These are practical, powerful, and yes—free or affordable.
Curipod is a dream when you’re short on time or inspiration. Just type your topic and grade level, and it generates interactive lessons with polls, open-ended questions, and visuals. Perfect for morning work, exit tickets, or full-class discussions.
MagicSchool is like having a co-teacher who writes rubrics, emails, IEP reports, and parent updates for you. I use it every week to save time and create differentiated materials that actually sound like me. There are dozens of templates organized by subject and grade.
Diffit is what I use when I want one article… at three different reading levels. It instantly simplifies or adapts any text, and even adds comprehension questions and vocabulary support. It’s ideal for small group instruction and student choice reading.
BookWidgets lets you turn your regular worksheet into a self-grading digital activity. Matching games, crossword puzzles, timelines, interactive quizzes—it’s all here. Your students can complete it on any device, and you can track their progress live.
Canva for Education has truly changed how I present content. From newsletters to vocabulary games and visual anchor charts, Canva gives you gorgeous, customizable templates—all free for educators. You don’t need to be a designer. Just drag, drop, and share.
We don’t need to work harder. We just need smarter tools that support what we do best—connecting with our students.
Bonus Template
Use this Canva post template to quickly share your own favorite classroom tool of the week:
Click here to customize this Canva template
These tools helped me fall back in love with teaching. I hope they do the same for you.
Mawuena Dabla
Educator. Advocate. Forever learning.