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About the site

Built by a teacher still in the classroom

Free Classroom Tools is created by Daniel Etienne, a secondary Modern Foreign Languages teacher. The tools exist because classroom software so often asks for accounts, student logins or long setup before a two-minute activity can begin.

Who builds it

Daniel Etienne

Secondary MFL teacher and education tool maker

Daniel Etienne is a secondary Modern Foreign Languages teacher and the founder of Free Classroom Tools, LanguageGems, SecondaryMFL and TeachWhizz. He still teaches full-time and builds classroom tools for the gaps he hits in real lessons: late cover, unsettled form time, retrieval without student logins, and activities that work on a whiteboard in under a minute.

What the site covers

134+ classroom tools across 14 categories

  • Launch a full-screen timer or stopwatch on the board in seconds
  • Run whiteboard-friendly quizzes, retrieval routines and starters
  • Use no-login tools without student accounts or setup friction
  • Read practical teaching articles that explain when a format works

Why Free Classroom Tools exists

Most days in school do not need another platform. They need something you can open while Year 9 are still finding seats: a countdown, a random name picker that feels fair, a retrieval game that works without phones, or an emergency cover outline when someone emails off at 6am.

That is the design brief. Every tool should do one classroom job well, stay readable from the back of the room, and avoid collecting pupil data wherever possible. If a feature sounds impressive but would slow a live lesson down, it does not belong here.

Related education projects

Free Classroom Tools sits alongside other teacher resources built by Dan through Etienne Education Ltd:

  • LanguageGemsFree MFL vocabulary games for French, Spanish and German, built for KS3 and GCSE classrooms.
  • SecondaryMFLExam-aligned French, Spanish and German teaching resources for secondary departments.

How tools and articles are created

Tools are shaped by classroom constraints: projector readability, keyboard-friendly controls, full-screen modes, and behaviour that makes sense mid-lesson. The blog currently includes 29 practical articles written as teaching guidance — how to run a routine, when a format works, what to avoid, and which free tools support the idea.

AI-assisted features on the site are treated as drafts. Teachers remain responsible for reviewing anything used with students, parents or colleagues.

Editorial standards

  • Prefer classroom-ready advice over generic education theory
  • Keep tools free to open for ordinary classroom use, with no mandatory login
  • Avoid collecting pupil personal data wherever possible
  • Describe tools honestly — no features that do not exist
  • Link related tools, categories and articles so teachers can move quickly
  • Fix bugs and unclear instructions when teachers tell us something does not work in class

Advertising and keeping the site free

Free Classroom Tools is free for teachers to use. To support hosting and ongoing development, pages may show advertising, including Google AdSense. Ads are secondary to the classroom tools and articles. Cookie and advertising preferences can be managed from the footer, and our Privacy Policy explains what is and is not collected.

If the tools save you time, you can also leave a one-off contribution via Support the site. Every tool stays free — no subscriptions, no paywalls.