The Best Teacher Movies and TV Shows on Free Services

What it's about: A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi & Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.00 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & CBS All Access) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: Chen Zhen returns to the international compound of China only to learn of his beloved teacher's death. This is compounded by the continual racist harassment by the Japanese population in the area. Unlike his friends, he confronts it head on with his mastery of martial arts while investigating his teacher's murder.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Cinemax), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Cinemax) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle, PopcornFlix, Tubi & 2 others), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney, but as one night stretches into several he plunges headlong into his own destruction.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, ConTV & Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Microsoft).

What it's about: Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: In the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and the greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of fame, fortune and popularity, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a subscription service (Sundance Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An intimate portrait of Matthew Shepard, the gay young man murdered in one of the most notorious hate crimes in U.S. history. Framed through a personal lens, it's the story of loss, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Andy is a new teacher at a inner city high school that is like nothing he has ever seen before. There is metal detectors at the front door and everything is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and Stegman become enemies and Stegman will stop at nothing to protect his turf and drug dealing business.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shout Factory TV, Cinefest & 2 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Based on a controversial French novel, Lila Says tells the story of a quiet young poet named Chimo who develops a crush on the pretty, blond Lila, a girl who recently moved into his Arab ghetto with her aunt. When the leader of a rival gang also falls for Lila, the ensuing love triangle initiates a journey of sexual discovery -- and sets off a chain of devastating events.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: When Harvard philosophy scholar Jack Griffin finds himself teaching high school in Toledo, Ohio, he tosses the syllabus and recruits his students to help enact revenge on his rival.

Where to Watch: 18 episodes (69%) are available to watch free online (NBC). 8 episodes (31%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (NBC). 26 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: It’s 1990-something, and since Lainey still hasn’t achieved rock ‘n’ roll greatness, she returns to William Penn Academy as the new music teacher.

Where to Watch: 5 episodes (14%) are available to watch free online (ABC). 21 episodes (58%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu). 16 episodes (44%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (ABC). 36 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: A French teacher in a small Algerian village during the Algerian War forms an unexpected bond with a dissident who is ordered to be turned in to the authorities.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A 16-year-old girl visits her gay half-brother and ends up seducing his boyfriend, thus wreaking havoc on all of their lives.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Prime Video), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & YouTube).

What it's about: The story of Katherine Ann Watson, a feminist teacher who studied at UCLA graduate school and in 1953 left her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles, California to teach at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, United States.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The inhabitants of an institution in a remote country rebel against their keepers. Their acts of rebellion are by turns humorous, boring and alarming. An allegory on the problematic nature of fully liberating the human spirit, as both commendable and disturbing elements of our nature come forward. The film shows how justifiable revolt may be empowering, but may also turn to chaos and depravity. The allegory is developed in part by the fact that the film is cast entirely with dwarfs

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Shout Factory TV & Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Fandor) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Microsoft).

What it's about: At an international school in Jakarta, a philosophy teacher challenges his class of twenty graduating seniors to choose which ten of them would take shelter underground and reboot the human race in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Three people driving into Los Angeles for a Dodgers game have car trouble and pull off into an old wrecking yard where they are held at bay by a bloodthirsty psycho and his crazy girlfriend.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.00 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Junjou Romantica: Pure Romance, stylized as Junjou Romantica ~Pure Romance~, is a yaoi series by Shungiku Nakamura. It focuses on three storylines; the main couple, which comprises the bulk of the books, and two other male couples that provide ongoing side stories. It has expanded into several cd-dramas, a manga series running in Asuka Ciel, a light novel series titled "Junai Romantica" running in The Ruby magazine and a 24-episode anime series. Shungiku Nakamura has written a spin-off to Junjou Romantica, titled Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi focusing on a shōjo manga editor and his first love, which was also animated by Studio Deen in 2011.

Where to Watch: 24 episodes (67%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll). 36 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a subscription service (Funimation). 36 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & YouTube).

What it's about: Rachel, a rookie cop, is about to begin her first night shift in a neglected police station in a Scottish, backwater town. The kind of place where the tide has gone out and stranded a motley bunch of the aimless, the forgotten, the bitter-and-twisted who all think that, really, they deserve to be somewhere else. They all think they're there by accident and that, with a little luck, life is going to get better. Wrong, on both counts. Six is about to arrive - and All Hell Will Break Loose!

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV), stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: As an awkward idealistic high school teacher begins her first job in the city, things turn out to be much tougher than she had imagined.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: The Whole Wide World tells the story of Novalyne Price, an attractive feisty West Texas schoolteacher and her bittersweet, romantic and turbulent relationship with Robert E. Howard, the great pulp fiction writer of the 1930s.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: The time is in the future and the youth gang violence is so high that the areas around some schools have become "free-fire zones", into which not even the police will venture. When Miles Langford, the head of Kennedy High School, decides to take his school back from the gangs, robotics specialist Dr. Robert Forrest provides "tactical education units". These are amazingly human-like androids that have been programmed to teach and are supplied with devastatingly effective solutions to discipline problems. So when he violent, out-of-control students of Kennedy High report for class tomorrow, they're going to get a real education... in staying alive!

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Eccentric aliens give a man the power to do anything he wants to determine if Earth is worth saving.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: In 1921 in the poor part of an Austrian town called Melchiorgasse there are only two wealthy people: the butcher Josef Geiringer and his wife. Mrs. Greifer runs a fashion boutique and a nightclub patronized by wealthy Viennese. Annexed to the nightclub is Merkl Hotel, a brothel to which the women of the nightclub bring their clients. The film follows the lives of two women from the same poor neighborhood as they try to better themselves during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation. They are Marie, who becomes a prostitute, and Grete who does not.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $7.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: This film is set in 1943 when the whole of Europe was embroiled in WWII. It deals with attraction of a 15 year old boy Stig to his teacher Viola. The whole movie revolves around the sexual encounters between Stig and Viola and how he eventually grows out of it.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi).

What it's about: A passionate and innovative teacher leaves his small hometown to teach in one of Harlem's toughest schools. But to break through to this students, Ron Clark must use unconventional methods, including his ground-breaking classroom rules, to drive them toward their potential.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & IMDb TV), stream on a subscription service (Hallmark Movies Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the head of security try to clean up the school and stop the narcotics trade, they run up against a teenage mafia. A violent confrontation on the campus leads to a deadly showdown with the drug dealer's gang, and one last chance for Latimer to save his career... and his life.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Steve Clark is a newcomer in the town of Cradle Bay, and he quickly realizes that there's something odd about his high school classmates. The clique known as the "Blue Ribbons" are the eerie embodiment of academic excellence and clean living. But, like the rest of the town, they're a little too perfect. When Steve's rebellious friend Gavin mysteriously joins their ranks, Steve searches for the truth with fellow misfit Rachel.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Set in the frozen steppes of Mongolia, a young nomad confronted with his destiny after animals fall victim to a plague which threatens to eradicate nomadism.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Fandor) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: A college professor wakes up to find his wife has not returned home, then struggles to understand her disappearance.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi).

What it's about: Good Morning, Miss Bliss is an American teen sitcom that aired on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989, starring Hayley Mills as a teacher at John F. Kennedy Junior High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. The show was originally a pilot for NBC, which was inspired by NBC president Brandon Tartikoff's idea for a show about an "inspiring" teacher. NBC decided not to pick up the pilot, but Disney Channel did, premiering the show on November 30, 1988, and airing it for one season. The show was later retooled as Saved by the Bell, with much of the same cast but without Mills, and with a different setting. The latter show focused on the students rather than the teacher, and had a much more successful run.

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (77%) are available to watch free online (NBC). 13 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu). 3 episodes (23%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (NBC). 13 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: The Alzano Imperial Magic Academy is located in the southern part of the Alzano Empire and is among most prominent magic schools in the world, where students can learn the highest forms of magic. All those who strive to learn magic dream of studying at this academy, and its students as well as its teachers are proud to be a part of its 400-year history. Glenn Radars is a new instructor who has suddenly been appointed to teach part-time at this highly respected academy. The previously unheard-of lessons of this man known as a good-for-nothing bastard are about to begin.

Where to Watch: 12 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll). 12 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a subscription service (Crunchyroll & Funimation). 12 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a subscription service (Tribeca Short List) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Written by and starring acclaimed comedy troupe The Katydids, Teachers shows their hilariously warped perspective as six elementary school teachers trying to mold young minds, even though their own lives aren’t really together.

Where to Watch: 1 episodes (2%) are available to watch free online (TVLand). 28 episodes (56%) are available to stream on a subscription service (Comedy Central Now). 29 episodes (58%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (TVLand). 48 episodes (96%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Teacher Linda Sinclair balances her staid home life with an incredible passion for her subject, but her routine is forever altered when a former star pupil and his unsupportive father reenter her life.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Sundance Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a râmen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & IMDb TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The chaotic lives, loves and drinking sessions of a group of hapless teachers. They might be qualified to teach, but they've still got a lot to learn...

Where to Watch: 40 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Tubi).

What it's about: As the debate over the state of America's public school system rages on, one thing everyone agrees on is the need for great teachers. Yet, while research proves that teachers are the most important school factor in a child's future success, America's teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost a third must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of four teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today's educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers, and why so many of our best teachers feel forced to leave the profession altogether. But this wake-up call to our system's failings also looks at possibilities for reform. Can we re-value teaching in the United States and turn it into a prestigious, financially attractive and competitive profession? With almost half of American teachers leaving the field in the next five years, now is the time to find out.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Daring Docs) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Mike has felt alienated and alone for as long as he can remember, until a new boy arrives at his school - awakening feelings and a world of possibilities he'd never before dared to dream of.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Realeyz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Part psychological thriller and part provocative character study, A TEACHER explores the unraveling of a young high school teacher, Diana (Lindsay Burdge), after she begins an affair with one of her teenage students, Eric (Will Brittain). What starts as a seemingly innocent fling becomes increasingly complex and dangerous as the beautiful and confident Diana gets fully consumed by her emotions, crossing boundaries and acting out in progressively startling ways. Lindsay Burdge delivers a deeply compelling and seamlessly naturalistic performance that brings us into the mind of an adult driven to taboo against her better judgment.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu, Sundance Now & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Miss Meadows is a school teacher with impeccable manners and grace. However, underneath the candy-sweet exterior hides a ruthless gun-toting vigilante who takes it upon herself to right the wrongs in the world by whatever means necessary. For Miss Meadows, bad behavior is simply unforgivable.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: An always inappropriate, fearless and unapologetic former trophy wife masquerades as a teacher in order to find a new man after her wealthy husband leaves her penniless.

Where to Watch: 13 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Sony Crackle). 13 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Animated version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about when the King of Siam meets a head strong English school mistress.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 2 others).