Last updated on 7 September 2026
The first week has passed. Two students arrived on Thursday, another moved, and the class plan you carefully printed at the end of August no longer resembles your room. The schedule has also changed.
This is the time of year when you don't have a minute to test anything, and yet you would need a helping hand. In short, rather than offering you a list of tools to discover in July, I reopened the blog posts that really serve now. Ten digital tools for this new school year, to keep open in a tab.
Table of Contents
Class plan and timetable, to be redrafted a second time
No one had warned you that you would do your class plan twice. However, that is the rule. The final lists are never done before the end of September, and the table tinkered in a word processor quickly becomes painful to modify.
This is exactly why online generators are worth visiting: we move a student, we add a table, we reprint. I have put together the main points in this article on free tools to generate a class plan. Some keep your lists on top of each other, which changes everything when you have five different classes.
Same logic on the organization side. The Online tools to create a school schedule produce a clean, printable grid that can be displayed in class or sent to families. A piece of advice in passing: if you are planning one, provide a readable version of the back of the room. The pastel colors that make good on screen become unreadable to the projector.
Form groups and interrogate without always being the same
In September, you don't know your students yet. This is precisely the time when habits take hold, including bad ones: the same three hands that rise, the same affinities that re-emerge with each group work.
To break this, two resources. First, the tools for building groups in the classroom, with Keamk in the lead, which makes it possible to import a list from a spreadsheet and balance teams according to a level criterion. Practice in EPS as in project. Be careful though, Keamk asks for an account to be created: only include first names, no full names or information about your students.
Then Ohmyluck, a free, non-registration draw site. Wheel of luck, dice, pile or face, letter generator. The data stays in your browser, nothing leaves on a server. What served me the most was not the wheel itself, but the fact that the class sees the wheel spinning. Chance always passes better than the professor's decision.
Manage time and noise from the first sessions
The rituals you ask now will last until June. The ones you try to install in February never hold.
The timers for class are part of these stupid and dreadfully effective tools. A countdown to the table, and the ten-minute exercise really takes ten minutes. Classroomscreen and company often add other widgets, but frankly, the timer alone is more than enough.
For the sound volume, I grouped three noise meters, including Bouncy Balls and its balls that stir when the class goes into gear. An honest reservation: It works very well in primary, much less beyond. After the sixth grade, some classes mostly see a challenge and apply themselves to blowing up the gauge. You've been warned.
Prepare your media faster: scanner, images, videos
September is also the season for stacks of paper. The sheet lent by a colleague, the exercise of the old manual, the poster to be retrieved. The applications for scanning paper documents from a phone give a clean PDF in a few seconds, straightened and readable, without going through the photocopier of the teacher's room.
To illustrate a support, the free image sites for the class avoid drawing randomly in Google Images. The issue of licences is not a detail when the document leaves on the ENT or in a notebook.
Finally, if you are projecting a video, SafeShare avoid the embarrassing moment when the advertisement appears in front of thirty students, followed by recommendations that you would have done well. You paste the address of the video, the service gives you its own link.
Dys students, it is now that it is played out
This is the part of the school year that is most easily postponed. The PAPs are coming, the facilities are coming too, and we think we will see that after All Saints’ Day. Except that a student who starts reading in September is already two months late when we start reading.
Lexibar is a reading and writing aid for dys students. Unlike the rest of this list, it is not a small online service that is opened in ten seconds: it is installed, and details of the conditions are given in the article. But if you have one or two students involved in a class, it is the kind of tool that is worth the time spent on it.
A free book for primary school neo-titulars
Small personal parenthesis. This summer, I wrote a book for teachers in starting schools: 20 AI Tools Tested in Classroom for Beginner School Teacher, edition 2026. Twenty tools selected from hundreds, each with the only relevant question: Does it save time without creating new problems?
It is sold 3.99 euros in ebook on Amazon. You can also receive it for free in PDF by subscribing to the blog's weekly letter. The detail is in the article.
Back-to-school tools to be used again in February
Reading this selection again, I notice one thing. None of these tools are impressive. No promise, no spectacular interface. They just have in common to open up quickly and not ask for anything to be relearned.
This is probably the only criterion that counts in September. The question is not which one you will adopt this week, but which one will still be in your favourites when the February holidays return.
Frequently asked questions
Do students need to create an account to use these tools?
It depends on the tools. Ohmyluck, timers and noise meters work without registration, making them the easiest to use in front of a class. Keamk asks for a teacher account, but students do not need it: you enter the list, and first names are sufficient.
Does it work on tablet and TNI?
Most of these services are websites, so yes, they open in the browser of a tablet or TNI. Timers and draw tools are even designed to be projected. For Lexibar, on the other hand, it is a piece of software to be installed, which presupposes passing through the person who manages the institution’s computer park.
What if my class is poorly equipped?
No tool on this list requires one post per pupil. A computer connected to a projector is enough for the timer, the draw wheel or the video. The class plan and schedule are prepared at home and printed. This is what makes them usable everywhere.
Are my students' data protected?
The simplest reflex is to enter only first names, never full names or personal information. Some services, like Ohmyluck, keep everything in the browser without sending anything to a server, which is the most comfortable case. For others, check the privacy policy before creating an account, especially if the tool is hosted outside the European Union.
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