As soon as the bell rings, your students are zooming out of the classroom. As a teacher, it may be hard to grab their attention as they leave. Edmodo, an app that works best for the iPad and Android (News - Alert) tablets, allows the teacher to connect with her students virtually outside the classroom. This safe and free app lets teachers share content learned in the classroom so that any of those class snoozers won’t have to feel like they missed out too much. This app is a great way for students to submit assignments and receive grades quickly and efficiently.

The features on this app are perfect for a busy teacher. You can post assignments and even give your students access to digital libraries for that report they need to complete. Post an important message in case there’s an assignment due soon or if you need to take an emergency sick day. You can even create a poll or quiz for students to vote on something as a classroom. Instead of taking hours to format and print enough copies of that syllabus and class schedule, use Edmodo as an alternative.

As a teacher, you’ve probably met your fair share of hands-on learners. This app is all about creating step-by-step tutorials for those who are big on interactive learning. Use your iPad screen to sketch out and explain an idea. As you sketch, you can explain what you’re doing one step at a time and even share the video with your students by sending them a URL. You can even choose any background you’d like by uploading an image.

Think of it as YouTube (News - Alert) for the classroom. This app provides a doodling board with markers and sharing tools that can help you share during your instruction. Your students will be amazed by how simple and easy learning is. This app is ideal for teachers who want to help students with their homework. Even students can use this app to work on their projects together. If you want to show your students your creative genius, just download this app and get started. While there is currently no Android version for ScreenChomp, it is available free for iOS.

Looking to start a heated debate in the classroom? Sometimes that’s all you really need to get all of your students involved and talking. For those unfamiliar with the term, TED Talks are a recorded set of global conferences owned by a non-profit company that promotes the slogan “ideas worth spreading.” Finding a topic that will get everyone in your classroom engaged is tough. That’s why this app offers fascinating lectures from industry and subject matter experts on a variety of topics.

With more than 1,400 TED talks in both video and audio form, you’ll have no problem finding something that will interest your students. These videos come with subtitles in over 90 languages on your mobile device. You can even use the AirPlay (News - Alert) feature to watch videos on your home entertainment system as you prepare to show your students the next day in the classroom. One of the best things about this app is that you can download full videos and watch them even when you’re offline. You can simplify your search by tags, themes and language. The TED talk playlist is endless.

Wouldn’t teaching be simpler if teachers could have all of their lessons for the day on a single platform? Well now there is- with Zite, a free, downloadable app that acts as a personalized magazine for collecting all of your topics for the day. All you need to do is search for a specific topic and it will bring you relevant information from blog posts, news articles, videos and more. As this app becomes familiar with your interests, it will begin to pull content for you over time to help you stay on top of news to share with your students. You’ll no longer need to spend hours on the Web looking for relevant and even appropriate content for your classroom.

The way this app works is by analyzing millions articles daily and bringing users content that they normally wouldn’t find anywhere else. Prepare to amaze your students with breaking news or events. You’ll have more than 40,000 topics to choose from. Use this digital magazine to create your lesson plan of the day. Zite is ideal for any subject matter so you’ll have no problem finding topics in your field.

Blackboard Learn is a popular educational software suite used by many institutions in the U.S. This software provides students and their teachers with a productive and efficient learning system with various tools that make managing your classes simpler. Now, the company behind this software has created a free app for Android and iOS to increase the ease of managing classes for teachers, educators and students. This app is all about sharing information and creating discussion topics. No matter where you are, you can access information to your classes right from your tablet or smartphone.

Use Blackboard Mobile to access relevant documents. You can choose to receive push notifications of any student course activity, check grades, post to discussions, read and view announcements. Use the digital drop box to upload or attach any files you want your students to access. They’ll have access to read any of your PDF or documents, which you can upload with a push of a button. One important feature this app offers is mobile-friendly tests. Your students will be able to take a quiz or test right from their smartphone or tablet without having any problems. All you need to get started with this app is your institution’s name and existing Blackboard login.

So there you have it, teachers and educators! The thought of school being right around the corner shouldn’t sound so depressing anymore. With these five apps, you could create a fun and thrilling classroom for your students. No longer will learning feel like a boring process. These apps will provide you with an interactive, creative and easy learning environment.