Free Tools – Amplify Student Choice and Voice
Monday, February 2, 2026 ⬥ 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM
Presented by Melissa Henning
Session Description:
Empower learners to drive their own education. Discover cutting-edge strategies to foster student choice, spark creativity, and cultivate critical thinking. Learn to craft compelling projects that connect curricula to real-world challenges. Join us to learn about tools to help unleash the full potential of student-led learning.
Download a PDF copy of the slides here.
Resource Materials:
In this Resource Materials section, you will find reference materials, tutorials, and how-to information that will help you review or extend your knowledge from the presentation.
Collections from TeachersFirst
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- Podcast Creators (Special Topic Collection)
- Tools to Create Media (Special Topic Collection)
- Comic and Cartoon Creators (Special Topic Collection)
- Tools to Create Audio Projects (Edge Topic)
- Tools to Create Blogs (Edge Topic)
- Tools for Digital Designs (Edge Topic)
- Tools to Create Timelines (Edge Topic)
- Tools to Create Digital Stories (Edge Topic)
- Tools to Create Presentations (Edge Topic)
- Tools to Create Videos (Edge Topic)
Resources to Create Media (Session 1 Exploration)
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- Telegra.ph (TeachersFirst Review) – Blog creating tool
- Just Paste It (TeachersFirst Review) – Blog creating tool
- Write Reader (TeachersFirst Review) – Tools for digital writing and storytelling
- Adobe Podcast (TeachersFirst Review)
- Adobe Express Free Video Maker (TeachersFirst Review)
- Padlet (TeachersFirst Review) – Respond with video, image, audio, screen recording, and more
Resource Shared in Strategy Suggestions (Session 2 Exploration)
- Magic School (TeachersFirst Review) – Create a choice board
- Genially (TeachersFirst Review) – Create games and escape rooms during Passion Project Fridays
- Kialo Edu (TeachersFirst Review) – Try the real-world problem-based learning activities
Additional Resources to Consider (Mentioned in the session – but not shared)
- Project Management Tools
- Trello (TeachersFirst Review) – Organizing projects and ideas
- Todoist (TeachersFirst Review) – Organizing projects and ideas
- Google Workspace (or your own school’s LMS) – Collaboration (if this is not a possibility, collaborate on Padlet)
- ScreenPal (TeachersFirst Review) – Video reflections
- Creation Tools
- Canva for Education (TeachersFirst Review) – Visual designs, templates for timelines, comic strips, and much more
- ClassTools (TeachersFirst Review) – Visual designs, headlines, hot spot images, Venn diagrams, and more
- Scratch (TeachersFirst Review) – Coding
- Adobe Express for Education (TeachersFirst Review) – Visual designs, animation, templates, and videos
- Research and Presentation
- Wakelet (TeachersFirst Review) – Curation resource
- NearPod (TeachersFirst Review) – Interactive Presentations
- Mentimeter (TeachersFirst Review) – Real-time feedback
- Vevox (TeachersFirst Review) – Another poll option for real-time feedback