Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Learn about the fascinating world of bees with this beautiful and comprehensive site. Begin your exploration as you choose from different categories such as What is a Bee?, Pollination, Life in a Hive, or The Beekeper. The entire site is also available in French. Explore each topic as you view images and descriptions of the life of bees. Find the Glossary link near the top of each page to view a selection of vocabulary words and definitions. Be sure to view the Activities page including recipes, crafts, printable activities, and an image gallery.

tag(s): insects (69)

Everything Preschool offers a large assortment of preschool and early elementary resources. Discover 30,000 activities sorted into 100 themes. Explore categories to find activities and lessons requiring basic supplies. Choose from topics such as themes, lesson plans, alphabet ideas, and crafts. Discover top lesson plans and popular themes located on the right hand side of the page or search the site for any term using the Google search bar.
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tag(s): alphabet (51), holidays (163), preK (255)

Visme helps you create presentations and documents, charts and infographics, videos and animations (GIFs), documents, and social posts. There's more! Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page, find the Create column, and click More to Create. Find templates for all the projects listed, there are 5,000 audio files to select from, and Visme includes the capability of audio voice-over; you can also make your objects into interactive hotspots! At the bottom of the page, under Resources, you'll find the Templates and Video Tutorials for just about anything you want to do. Fortunately, there is a menu on the left for all the video tutorial categories.

To start, choose your type of creation and then a specific template theme. The Navigation area is along the left side. Customize the various tools by clicking on My Files, and upload your Google Drive, Dropbox, and/or OneDrive. The work area is to the right of the Navigation, and where the template you selected appears, various new tools, grids, and texts appear to the left. Drag and drop items into the work area and even include vector images. Click My Files to upload images, audio, and video from your computer. Once placed in the work area, style images the way you want, including animation! Invite collaborators or team members through email. Products created by this tool play on any browser or device or can be embedded in a web page or blog. Free accounts allow 100 MB of storage.
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tag(s): animation (62), charts and graphs (169), images (262), infographics (56), multimedia (43), presentations (17), video (257)

Download the Jumpshare tool for sharing and viewing files easily. Create an account with your name, email, and password to begin. Drag and drop files to share. Use the link to browse and find files on your computer. Jumpshare supports 200 file types including images, videos, and documents. Once uploaded, use links to share documents via email or social networking options. In addition to the file sharing you can now create screenshot capture and screen recordings (making your screenshot into a video. Free accounts include storage of up to 2 GB and a limit of 100 MB on individual files.

tag(s): collaboration (87)

The Historical Marker Database is an illustrated and searchable website for finding and viewing historical road markers. Information includes photographs, marker locations, and more. Search and browse the site in several ways. Find markers near your location, enter a keyword in the search bar, or choose from category options. Most entries include a short description, map location of the marker, the transcription, and links to other nearby markers. This site is rather text-heavy. It is full of great information. There is also a link to a free Google Field Trip app that uses these markers.
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tag(s): 20th century (59), american revolution (82), anthropology (9), california (16), civil rights (194), civil war (134), disasters (36), explorers (64), heroes (22), hispanic (28), immigration (64), labor day (5), mexico (29), native americans (91), natural disasters (16), natural resources (37), texas (7), vietnam (35), war of 1812 (14), world war 1 (72), world war 2 (149)

A-Z Animals is an online animal encyclopedia and much more! Browse through the large list of animals in several different ways. Sort by alphabetical listing, Scientific names, group, location, endangered animals, pictures, or favorites. Each selection contains beautiful images and extensive information including basic facts, habitat, and behavior. Click the "listen" icon near the top of the page to listen to all text on each page (read by a synthesized voice). Print each page in PDF format using the Print link also located on a tab near the top of the page. In addition to the animal encyclopedia, explore the large selection of reference articles including many topics such as habitat, life cycle, and evolution. Other great features of this site include online quizzes and games. This site is one you will want to explorer and save! The site was created in the UK, so some of the pronunciations and spellings may differ from those in American English.
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tag(s): animal homes (56), animals (281), biodiversity (30), evolution (85), habitats (87)

Take a Ride with Kalani, the weather balloon, to learn all about weather. Learn about the sun, seasons, and clouds. Start by clicking the weather vane to scroll through the site. You can stop at each feature and Choose from many different activities and games to supplement and enhance information in the weather story. Teacher Resources include suggested activities, links to worksheets and coloring pages, and correlation to Illinois State Standards. Choose from several language options to view and hear the site in English, Spanish, Chinese, or Korean.

tag(s): seasons (36), sun (69), temperature (35), weather (164)

Send simple invitations or surveys with Yarp. Choose the type, name it, add more information, and choose responses such as Yes/No or other clever possibilities. Click "Let me see it" to view the survey. Send the link to your Yarplet to others. No membership is required to create Yarplets or to vote! Click "Save my Yarplets" for instructions to keep track of your polls and invitations when moving from one device to another. This tool will work on any mobile browser.

tag(s): assessment (146), data (147), Formative Assessment (70), polls and surveys (46), Teacher Utilities (146)

Learn more about the study of light with activities and experiments at Optics for Kids. Choose from the Adult or Kid links. The adult portal includes articles, experiments, and videos exploring the science of light. Activities within the kids portion include an exploration of optical illusions, explanations of terms used when discussing optics, and several activities to explore the physics of light. In the adult section, explore activities from those for young children up to most sophisticated options for those over age 15.

tag(s): light (52), optical illusions (10), optics (12), psychology (67), vision (45)

Discover blog ideas galore from the "friendly writers" at Wordpress, especially these ideas for connecting your blog with other bloggers via special events, such as "blog hops." A blog hop is simply a response to the same prompt during a fixed time frame, with links to the other bloggers' responses so you can "hop" to read the many takes on the topic from the original post or prompt. Share writing around a common theme, image, quote, or topic by checking out the offerings compiled here. Note that this collection is intended for the general blogging public (not schools), so some topics may not be school-appropriate. On the other hand, making contact with "real world" people blogging about how they write, do photography, stay fit, and more. Click on the link to the updated list of blogging events to find inspiration and connection, sorted by general areas of interest. Don't miss the detailed information about how to Start and/or Participate in a Blog Hop.

tag(s): blogs (66), writing prompts (58)

This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research curation tool, knowledge-sharing community, website annotation tool, and social information network all rolled into one "cloud" package. To get started, check out the About link. You will find information and videos on the uses of Diigo. Set up an account, being sure to click the FREE education edition upgrade. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly. At this time Diigo is experiencing issues with the "Top 10 Tags" from the menu on the left.

This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
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tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (87), curation (35), DAT device agnostic tool (143), forum (2), organizational skills (90), social networking (67)

Webnode is a free and easy website or blog builder. Create an account. Choose from hundreds of template design options, including personal blogs (scroll to the bottom menu and select "Make your own website or blog." Add many site features: photo galleries, polls, forums, social features, and much more. Webnode saves changes as you make them, so information is stored in real time. Possible uses are only limited by your imagination!
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tag(s): blogs (66), communication (136), social networking (67)

Discover classroom-tested techniques for building autonomy in the classroom with tips learned by a National Board Certified teacher of engineering and algebra. Each piece of advice offers specific information on why and how specific components contribute toward building student success. Within the article, find references that also offer suggestions on how to build student autonomy within the classroom. Click the X to get to the article and away from the many advertisements.
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tag(s): professional development (394)

Put math (and related science) fears behind you with podcasts with text transcripts from The Math Dude. The Math Dude makes complex math problems easy to decipher with his easy to follow explanations and tips. Listen to podcasts while viewing text explaining common math questions from basic algebra through SAT prep questions. Be sure to check out the "The Math Dude's Most Popular Tips" and "The Math Dude's Archives." Download podcasts as MP3 files and play through iTunes, QuickTime Player, and RealPlayer installed on a local computer. You can also simply play them from the site. Just be sure you click on the podcast play button and not one of the annoying videos or other ads! This site is loaded with advertisements. However, there is some great material underneath them all. NOTE: This site includes tools for blog users to interact with others. Any visitor can comment on the posts and podcasts or participate in Forums. There are also links to other tip blogs on the web page. Check your school policies on students posting comments, etc. to the web and whether they are permitted to do so anonymously and/or with name or initials.
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tag(s): measurement (126), operations (72), podcasts (74), problem solving (226)

Listen to nature, literally, through this enormous library of animal and bird sounds. There are 400 sound recordings to explore on these pages. Search by habitat, animal group, location, or bird language. Use the location tab to click on an interactive map and find 150,000 animal sounds throughout the world. Learn how and why birds communicate by checking out The Language of Birds tab. This site requires Windows Media Player or a Mac compatible player for .wma (Windows Media) files. Flip Player for Mac works fine.

tag(s): animal homes (56), animals (281), birds (44), habitats (87), sounds (43)

Screencastify is a screen capture/screencast software created for use ONLY with Chrome browsers. It even runs on Chromebooks. Choose the "Free" link to add the extension to your Chrome browser. Screencastify captures video and audio within tabs. Find the application icon on your browser toolbar and click Record to easily record presentations, tutorials, and more. Be sure to ALLOW Screencastify access to your microphone to enable voice recordings. Choose from recording tabs, your entire desktop, youe webcam, or embed your webcam only. Once your recording is complete, return to the Screencastify icon on your browser to name the recording, download to your computer, save to Google Drive, or upload to YouTube.

tag(s): tutorials (51), video (257)

Here is Today offers a visual look at time. Click Okay+ to the next step in time - from today to this month. Click again to go to the year, and keep moving through eras of geologic time until the creation of the universe millions of years ago. Each step includes an arrow pointing to this day in relation to the rest of the timeline.

tag(s): 20th century (59), calendars (40), cells (80), earth (185), geologic time (10), timelines (50)

The DAP (Developing and Assessing Products) Tool is a set of rubrics developed to assess student products at varying levels of expertise. The intent of the DAP Tool is to differentiate while taking the ceiling off higher level and creative thinking skills (perfect for gifted learners). There are four components for all products: content, presentation, creativity, and reflection. The tool offers rubrics at three performance levels. Especially appropriate for removing a "ceiling" for gifted students is the inclusion of an expert or "professional" performance level rating. This rating acknowledges work that one would expect from a professional in the content area. The criteria for each level increase in sophisticated. Level 1 would be for younger students or those with less expertise. Level 3 might be for high school and/or your most gifted students-- at any grade level. There are fourteen different product rubrics and a blank rubric at each level. The blank rubric suggests descriptions for all but the presentation component. Some of the products are PowerPoint, poster, pamphlet, diorama, service learning, monologue, model, and more. Download the rubrics in PDF format.

tag(s): critical thinking (112), differentiation (84), essays (20), interviews (14), posters (45), rubrics (33), service projects (17), speech (66), writing (315)