From Zero To Hero: Cool (Free) Resources To Make Your Online Lessons Amazing

Let’s face it, if your students are bored in your lessons, you’re bored too. Luckily, there are tons of resources available on the internet which can help you make your lessons amazing – and your job that much more enjoyable. Let’s look at resources to make your online lessons amazing.

We’ve spoken before of the resources we often use in our online (and face-to-face) lessons, but here are a few more which you can use to give your lessons a little bit more oomph.

Online resources for lesson plans:

Delta Publishing

Delta publishing publishes some really useful books for teachers (and students) but they also have made available digital slides for you to use in the classroom. Register and you can download slides on certain language points for you to use in your online classroom. Lesson plan sorted!

Linguahouse

Linguahouse has an awesome range of lesson plans. They are on a range of topics and for different ages and levels of learner, and they include videos, audios and worksheets – everything you need for your lessons. They have paid subscription plans but they also have a bunch of free lessons.

Online resources for classroom tools:

Educreations

This is a platform which allows you to create videos to share online. For the online classroom, you can record videos – with audio, images and video – and send them to your students for homework to create a flipped classroom, or you can record yourself giving feedback on an assignment. The best thing is, once you’ve created a video, you’ll have it forever. This is a subscription service but there is a free option.

Online resources for activities:

News in Levels

A news site with a difference, this site gives you short news articles in three different levels, so you can use them no matter what level your student. If your student finds the article too easy, they can read the more advanced version. The articles are current and topical, which is great for keeping your lessons relevant and interesting.

Make Beliefs Comix

This site allows you to create your own comic or download ready-made comics for use in the classroom. You can even ask your students to create their own. There are handy lesson plan ideas for how to use the comics you make.

Online resources for games:

British Council Learn English Kids

You might be familiar with the British Council sites for their CPD articles, reference articles and lesson plans, but the Kids site also has a range of games, songs, videos and activities for Young Learners. Great to use for a two-minute brain break or as an introduction to a lesson.

Kahoot

Kahoot is a quiz games site. You can create your own quiz or you can choose a ready-made quiz. Students see the quiz questions on your shared screen and input the answers on their own devices through the app or website. It can also be used to add a gaming element to homework revision. 

Online resources for homework:

EngVid

A great site full of videos made my other teachers. While we’re sure you’re a great teacher, it is a good idea for your learners to be exposed to other teachers. Plus, if you assign your students a video for homework, this will save time in the lesson for the student to practise the language with you – and it’ll save you presenting the language!

All EFL lessons need lesson plans but sometimes we can all use a little help to make our lessons a bit better. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, so instead you can make use of these rad resources to make your life a little easier.