5 Free Educational Resources For Teachers and Students

In response to the Coronavirus global pandemic, the government has asked parents to keep their children at home where possible, and schools are now only open for the children of key workers and those who absolutely need to attend. This means that for the first time, many teachers are teaching from their own homes, running online lessons and assigning their students tasks — something none of us ever expected to happen.

Switching to online learning can be hard; trawling through the internet to find the right tools and resources for your key stage is time-consuming at the best of times, and the sheer volume of choice is often overwhelming. Not to mention that there are plenty of organisations that charge for using their resources.

As teachers, it’s more important than ever to find fresh and exciting resources to inspire classes and motivate kids — particularly when those kids are working from home by themselves or with guidance from mum and dad. With that in mind, here are five great and free educational resources for teachers and students at home:

Helpful articles & infographics on Kent-Teach

The Resources section of the Kent-Teach website is full of insightful articles and links to some great resources. Kent-Teach resources cover everything from seasonal classroom activities and crafts, to more niche topics such as how to support digital technologies in the classroom or how to encourage positive behaviour in the classroom.

It’s a great resource hub for teachers looking for inspiration and motivation — and tips can be found on the forum and social media channels as well as the Kent-Teach website and blog.

Links to useful resources and free e-learning tools are provided, saving you time ploughing through the internet and making your life a little bit easier.

Digital Literacy on BBC Teach

BBC Teach is a fantastic resource hub for primary and secondary teachers alike, where you can find all of the Beeb’s teaching resources: Class Clips, School Radio, and year-round projects like Super Movers and Bring the Noise. In addition, BBC Teach is also great for topical subjects and major events like Black History Month or Women’s History Month. 

You can find thousands of useful curriculum-linked BBC clips, tools, articles and more, as well as links to external learning-related websites and resources. There are even inactive lessons that you can use in the classroom with your kids. It’s easy to navigate around the site as well, as resources are arranged by subject and age group.

One such resource is Digital Literacy — a series of short films for secondary schools that explores key issues around digital literacy and online safety. Navigating the online world as a young adult is particularly hard, which is why it’s so important that digital literacy and safety are taught carefully and openly. This series is a really valuable resource for teachers looking to educate their students about cyber-bullying, online gaming, and ‘fake news’.

Gathering information on Everipedia

Wikipedia is probably the most commonly-used online encyclopedia. And while it’s a useful source for a wide range of general information, it’s somewhat selective about the topics it covers and it’s got a bit of a bad reputation for being unreliable and limited in its content.

If you’re looking for a new online encyclopedia site to use as an educational resource, then check out Everipedia.org. The site started as a fork of Wikipedia but has since become its own independent project as an ‘encyclopedia of everything for everyone’.

This means that the site contains articles on all topics, written by an open community. It’s one of the largest encyclopedias in the world, making it a great resource for teachers and students.  

Making videos on TED-Ed

The maker of the now infamous TED Talks has created an educational resource called TED-Ed that is well worth checking out as a teacher.

TED-Ed’s mission is to support teachers and spark the curiosity of learners all over the world by providing fascinating educational videos on ‘lessons worth sharing’. 

Head to the ‘Discover’ section to view videos organised by theme or subject, or build a lesson around a particular video. Topics range from literature and language to mathematics, science & technology, history and the arts. It’s a broad range that is incredibly useful for teachers and students. 

In fact, students can also access and create their own interactive video talks and lessons — giving them the opportunity to get creative, develop and share their ideas. An awesome idea for more hands-on and inspiring classroom learning.

Self-portraits on Google Arts & Culture

Formerly known as Google Arts Project, Google Arts & Culture is a collaboration between the search-engine powerhouse and partnering museums and art institutions. 

It’s a fantastic resource for those teaching art; the online platform features content from over 1,200 leading museums and archives that the public can access for free, including high-resolution images of world-famous artworks. 

It’s a great way to get your class excited about art and make the most of modern-day technology— using Google’s Street View technology, they can virtually tour collections at museums all over the world, from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to the MoMA and Met in New York. They can even check out street art in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil!

If you’re teaching your class about self-portraits, then the ‘10 Self-Portraits By Women Artists’ page is a great resource to show kids 10 masterpieces in a range of different styles and mediums — the original selfie. Then you could ask your class to pick their favourite portrait and emulate it in their very own self-portrait.

These are just five free educational resources that are great for teachers and students. Check them out to get inspired with your lesson plans and motivate your kids with some of the amazing stuff that’s available online.

Find more online learning resources for your children with these Online Resources to Use at Home.