20 Free Microsoft Tools for Teachers plus Student Discounts

Written By: Robyn Shulman

Microsoft provides a wide range of free and low-cost digital tools that are highly useful for teachers and students. These tools support classroom instruction, creative activities, assessment, and collaboration. Educators can use them to build interactive lessons, generate printable worksheets, create multimedia projects, and introduce students to coding and scientific exploration. Many of the resources work across grade levels and subjects, and Microsoft frequently offers student discounts and educator licensing to make advanced tools accessible to schools.

Below is an organized list of notable Microsoft tools and add-ins that teachers can explore. Each item includes a brief, practical description to help you decide which resources might fit your classroom needs. These tools are designed to enhance engagement, streamline lesson planning, and support digital literacy in safe and teacher-friendly ways.

Useful Microsoft Tools for Teachers and Classrooms

1. Kodu Game Lab — A visual programming environment that lets students design and build simple games. Kodu is well-suited to teaching logic, sequencing, and computational thinking without requiring prior coding experience.
2. Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 — A basic photo organizer and editor for cropping, tagging, and preparing images for presentations and projects. Useful for creating student portfolios and visual assignments.
3. Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 — A tool for solving math problems, plotting graphs, and visualizing equations. It can support instruction in algebra, geometry, and basic trigonometry by providing step-by-step solutions and interactive graphs.
4. Microsoft Math Worksheet Generator — A practical resource for creating printable math worksheets tailored to different skill levels. Teachers can generate practice problems for homework, remediation, or in-class exercises.
5. Office Add-Ins for Moodle — Integrations that make it easier to use Office files with learning management systems like Moodle. These add-ins help streamline assignment submission, grading, and resource sharing between Office apps and the LMS.
6. Flashcards — Digital flashcard tools enable rote practice and review for vocabulary, facts, and concepts. These simple tools support spaced repetition and quick formative checks.
7. Songsmith — An application that generates musical accompaniment to a sung melody. Songsmith can inspire music lessons, creative projects, and cross-curricular activities that combine language arts and music.
8. Microsoft Interactive Classroom — Classroom management and whiteboard-style tools that facilitate lesson delivery, student interaction, and formative assessment in live lessons. These tools help teachers share content and gather responses in real time.
9. Microsoft Mouse Mischief — An add-in that allows multiple mice to interact with a single computer, enabling group participation during presentations or interactive quizzes. Great for collaborative classroom activities and game-based learning.
10. Microsoft Math Add-In — Add-ins for Office applications that assist with creating and solving math problems directly within Word or OneNote, making it easier to integrate math content into documents and lesson materials.
11. Chemistry Add-In for Word — Tools that help insert chemical structures, equations, and notation into Word documents. Useful for science teachers who need clear formatting for chemistry assignments and lab reports.
12. Windows Live Movie Maker — A straightforward video-editing program for assembling clips, adding transitions, and creating classroom videos or student projects. It supports digital storytelling and media literacy activities.
13. Research Auto Collage — A tool for automatically assembling images into a collage, which can be used for group projects, visual summaries, and thematic displays that synthesize student work.
14. Photosynth — A tool for creating immersive, navigable photo experiences and panoramas that let students explore places and perspectives visually, supporting geography and history projects.
15. Photo Story — An application for building narrated slideshows that combine images, text, and voice recordings—ideal for student presentations and multimedia reports.
16. Bing Maps — A mapping tool that teachers can use for geography lessons, route-planning activities, and spatial analysis exercises that connect classroom topics to real-world locations.
17. Bing Translator — A translation and language support service that is particularly helpful in ESL and bilingual classrooms or for introducing foreign language vocabulary and phrases.
18. Worldwide Telescope — A virtual telescope that enables exploration of the sky and astronomical datasets, making it an engaging tool for teaching astronomy and space science with realistic visualizations.
19. Live SkyDrive (cloud storage) — Cloud-based file storage and sharing for lesson materials, student submissions, and collaborative projects. SkyDrive provides a central place to store and access documents across devices.
20. Research Bing Search — Advanced search features and research tools within Bing that help students find reliable sources, filter results, and gather information for projects and assignments.

Many of these tools can be combined to create rich, interdisciplinary lessons that engage learners and build digital skills. Whether you are guiding students through a coding activity, producing a class movie, generating math practice, or exploring the universe, these Microsoft resources offer flexible options for classroom use. Explore a few that match your curriculum goals and experiment with integrating them into weekly units to enhance learning and student participation.