Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Jumpshare is a 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. Free accounts include storage of up to 2 GB and a limit of 100 MB on individual files.

Doodle is an online tool to simplify scheduling meetings with several participants. Follow the three easy steps to find the best meeting time: set up a poll, invite participants, and confirm the date and time. Set up your poll including proposed dates and times including as many time slots each day as you wish. Refine using options such as only the administrator may view responses or limit the number of participants in each time frame. When ready, send invitations using your email service with the Doodle link or connect your address book for invitations to come directly from Doodle. Two links will arrive in your email: one to administer your poll and the other to share.
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tag(s): calendars (46), classroom management (150), organizational skills (128)

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): data (152), polls and surveys (54)

Throw away the traditional story starters and inspire writing (and art) with Easy Street Prompts. The prompts include videos, random words, and picture prompts that will truly inspire you and make you think. There are over a thousand prompts in the archives, even though the site does not seem to be adding new ones anymore.
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tag(s): creative writing (171), descriptive writing (44), journals (22), writing prompts (95)

Create a debate or ask specific questions of a group or the entire web using ProConit as a social evaluation tool. Questions can be pro/con, either-or choices, or open-ended evaluations of a specific topic. Get creative and write your questions to make them even more engaging. You can embed the ProConit topic in multiple web locations, such as websites or blogs, using ProConit's free widget. Get started simply by registering with your email or other social network log-in. The pubic can vote and add their own comments to the ProConits left open to the public. You can also make them private.
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tag(s): critical thinking (112), debate (44), persuasive writing (56), polls and surveys (54)

Media Smarts is a comprehensive Canadian site devoted to media literacy and critical thinking skills for children and youth. Browse through several topics such as digital and media literacy to explore articles related to television, Internet, and gender issues. An extensive teacher resource section offers many lessons and resources searchable by grade, subject, and media type. Download lessons in PDF format using links in the lesson description.

tag(s): media literacy (62)

Looking for quick web pages that even students can author? Then "wiki-wiki" this way! (Wiki means quick in Hawaiian.) This is the one tried and true wiki to use. Create your own Wikispaces site by creating a site name. Educators get a free upgrade to a non-ad site, so remember to confirm it is for educational use. Enter your students manually (or upload a list). Students can also create an account and "join" your wiki. Use Settings to manage privacy settings for viewing and editing. Be sure to check out many of the settings that make Wikispaces versatile including the ability to lock pages so others do not edit them. Individual students can have their own page and/or belong to a group page. Check the participation of individual students in the group by checking the history of the page to "see" what each student edited at specific times. Choose traditional Wikispaces which looks like traditional sets of pages on a site. Also choose from the new Wikispaces Classroom (this can be done at any time and can be converted back to a traditional wiki as needed). In Wikispaces Classroom, members of your wiki can be assigned to various project groups the teacher creates. Set the privacy settings for each individual group or for all of them. If private, only members of that group can see their information. Create announcements, calendar events, discussions, and more for individuals, single groups, or all groups. Wikispaces Classroom takes interaction and management of student projects to a new level. As they work on an assigned project, the teacher can view the activity of each student including pages editing and viewing. Follow help videos or simply play to learn the simple wiki editing toolbar and settings. Creating a site has never been so easy. If you have not tried a wiki yet, visit the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through for a step-by-step explanation, starter help, and practical management and safety tips. Be sure to check your district's Acceptable Use Policy. We recommend having parents and students sign a Wiki Warranty (downloadable here ), spelling out wiki behavior and consequences.

tag(s): wikis (21)

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 (90), writing prompts (95)

This grass roots effort by a Tennessee science teacher spawned a monthly Twitter chat between high school science students in MANY locations and practicing scientists in the "real world." The site looks plain vanilla, but the topic is dynamite! Find information, preparation, and topics for upcoming chats, basic information about the chat formats, chat archives, past pre-chat prep resources, and Twitter handles for the scientists and teachers who participate in the chats. Don't forget to follow @2footgiraffe, the instigating teacher, and click through to his blog for some of the back story on how he was able to convince school administration to unblock Twitter (and other tales of tech challenges). The TeachersFirst editors met Mr. Taylor at the ISTE conference and knew this was a resource our users would want to know about.

tag(s): social networking (112), twitter (44)

This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research 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.

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. Aditional 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 (64), DAT device agnostic tool (170), forum (8), social networking (112)

TeachIt Timer is an online alternative to the traditional countdown or stopwatch timer. This free online timer displays a countdown timer and a count-up timer at one time. The most incredible feature is that it allows you to schedule a series of up to eight timed alarms. There are also eight choices of sounds from whistles to bells to barking. Launch the timer right from your screen or download it to your computer to have easy access.

tag(s): classroom management (150), organizational skills (128)

Use Scattervox to conduct a poll visually! For each of the possible items, poll responders click their answer on a graph. The result is an interactive poll that looks like an Infographic! To vote: Click on one of the possible items on the right and then click the spot on the graph to correspond to your answer. Once plotted, replace your choices by clicking on the item again and your new answer on the graph. Click "Vote" to record your choices. To "Create Poll": Enter a title, tags, and a description. Label the axes of the graph with two different variables to value the items such as expensive and inexpensive. (There are two different sets of axes to use for rating.) Enter the chart items that will be rated with your set values. Embed your Scattervox or share using email, Facebook, Google Plus, or Twitter. Browse the gallery to get an idea of how the tool works. Membership is required to create a poll, but not to vote.
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tag(s): critical thinking (112), polls and surveys (54)

Draw It Live is a LIVE online whiteboard collaboration and sharing tool. There is no membership required. Simply click on the screenshot of the words "Collaborative Whiteboard" to create your whiteboard and add a username. Copy the link provided for the whiteboard or enter emails of those you wish to invite. Use the chat area on the left of the screen to discuss your whiteboard with other users as you all draw in real time. Tools provided include text boxes, shapes, colors, and more. Use the Clear the Drawing option to start over without having to go to a new whiteboard link. (Remember to SAVE your whiteboard link as a Favorite or email it to yourself so you don't lose it! You can return later to add more!) Note: this tool works great on tablets using the web browser! No special app needed.

tag(s): colors (80), DAT device agnostic tool (170), drawing (81), iwb (30), painting (65)

Webnode is a free and easy website builder. Create an account. Choose from hundreds of template design options, including personal blogs. 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 (90), social networking (112)

This tool makes it easy to share a LONG URL with less characters. Copy the address for the site from the address bar. Paste it into the field of this tool and click "shorten URL." Share this new address with others to easily share the web address. Sign in to your Google account to see how many times the URL is visited.

tag(s): blogs (90), wikis (21)

Use WeFollow to search for Twitter users by interest and sort them by their "Prominence Score," an "objective measure" that WeFollow uses to designate "how established someone is in the interests they care about." The Prominence score analyzes Twitter patterns to see who "listens" to each person and is useful in finding, following, and learning from prominent people around the world. You can locate experts in any field by entering a search term like "biologist" or "Shakespeare." Find an explanation of this score in the About section. Enter your own expertise information to be part of the ongoing database of Twitter users and their interests! New to Twitter? Learn more at TeachersFirst'sTwitter for Teachers page. Note: As with any tool that involves interaction with the public, searches may bring up unintended results not appropriate for young people. Use this tool under supervision or recommend specific search terms.
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tag(s): social networking (112), twitter (44)

This blog post suggests a few places for publishing the writing of your gifted and talented students. Each suggestion offers sites that cater to "real" audiences for young students, often audiences of their own peers. Explore resources that offer feedback and contests as well as more independent sites that accept submissions from student authors. Although quite short, this post is a great starting point for finding publishing resources for your students.

tag(s): process writing (46)

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 (156)