You are going to need the following tools.
Git
For versioning of your code. You should regularly commit your code to a source code repository. At least each time you switch task or when you finish your work for the day.
Regular commits ensure that you do not loose anything if your harddrive crashes! It also helps us to appreciate the amount of work done. https://github.com/
Some git commands: https://www.sonassi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/simple_git_daily_workflow.pdf
Local web server
You are going to need a local web server for working on assignment 2 and 4 as well as the project. A local server ensures that you can implement and test without disturbing the users of your public server.
Two examples of local web servers with PHP support. http://www.easyphp.org/download.php http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html
Public web server
Assignment 2 and 4 as well as the project should be releases as a web-applications on a public webserver. We do this to give you experience on what kind of problems you can expect.
There are a few free hosting of PHP projects like the http://www.000webhost.com/. You could also host it yourself if you have a server. I would recomend a commercial solution since it probably gives less headace.
IDE
There are a lot of good IDE's for PHP. I'm going to use Sublime for the lectures, it is quite minimalistic.
https://netbeans.org/features/php/ http://www.sublimetext.com/ http://www.aptana.com/