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January 3, 2016
Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers®
A new year brings new goals. What are your new goals for 2016? At TeachersFirst, our goals are to bring you fresh technology tools and professional development opportunities. Why not make one of your goals to attend one of our OK2Ask free online workshops or explore a new area of our free resources.
People In Your Community
The January theme from our sister site, TogetheRead, is Communities and People. TogetheRead offers a list of books each month for all ages centered around a shared “theme” and accompanied by free or low cost activities for families to do together. The booklists include questions and discussion topics that will help parents build children’s comprehension skills as they read together—or separately. Share TogetheRead with parents of students of ALL ages. TogetheRead is another free offering from our non-profit parent company, The Source for Learning, Inc.
Calendar Happenings
The TeachersFirst Classroom Planning Calendar offers resources related to events and observations on the calendar all throughout the year. Take a look at these resources:
Snow Day 101
Ready or not, snow days may be in your near future. Why not build in ways for students to avoid “slipping” even if they cannot safely get to school. Check out the TeachersFirst special collection of Snow Day resources. You will find a combination of online learning tools, snow-related challenges, basic practice sites, and more. Mark it on your class web page now so that students will maintain learning traction despite any delays or cancellations.
OK2Ask is Starting Soon—Sign up NOW
Make one of your New Year’s goals to earn some FREE PD. Registration is now OPEN for all winter sessions. The first online workshop of 2016 will be on Tuesday, January 19th. Read our FAQ for general information about certificates, etc. Please be sure to read the detailed descriptions and suggested technology comfort levels BEFORE you register for the best match for your learning needs.
Make Today Count
Start the New Year with today in history and the question of - why does it matter? Dates that Matter offers a new prompt every day. It asks questions to help students connect an important historic event to what they know. Instead of tossing out a factoid, Dates that Matter builds understanding through context. Make 2016 the year that you share Dates That Matter, even if you can’t include it in class every day.
A New Tech Tool For You?
This week’s Teacher Poll asks: How do you learn a new tech tool? Place your vote on the teacher poll on the TeachersFirst home page.
Featured Sites
This week in our Featured Sites you'll find:
- Ocenaudio
- Sharelike
- Histography—Timeline of History
- Perfect Pitch
- Science Fair Project World
- The Human Eye
- OmniLibros
- And more
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are reading this January 10, or later, the link above will take you to the Featured Sites for the current week. Find the archived January 3rd Features here, and don’t miss our many other recent additions from the link at the bottom of the Featured Sites page.
TeachersFirst wishes everyone a year filled with teaching and learning opportunities galore.
The TeachersFirst Team