Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Create, teach, and manage online learning with Eduflow's learning management system. Create a course from scratch or begin with one of the provided templates. Use the links within each activity to personalize the course offering and upload files. Adjust the submission settings and rules to define course deadlines, options for editing after submission, and to add prerequisites necessary before allowing access to individual activities. Invite students to join the course using their email address. Once added, your teacher dashboard will show student progress within each course. Free accounts offer one instructor the ability to provide three active courses with 50 students in each course and limit student uploads to 10mb/file.

tag(s): Learning Management Systems (24), Teacher Utilities (100)

This collection of math activities from PBS Learning includes five lesson plans, and five videos focused on practicing and learning math facts. Lessons also integrate physical education into learning activities. Select an activity for an overview of learning objectives and the activity then click on the "view" icon to open a PDF document containing the lesson. Use the links found in each lesson to assign to Google Classroom or share via social media options.

tag(s): addition (217), counting (104), multiplication (203), subtraction (180)

Create interactive video experiences with Timelinely. Just paste your YouTube video URL to get started and bring up your video to annotate. Select any portion of the video timeline and add images, maps, links, and more to the annotation box. Edit and add as many highlights as you like, then publish when complete. You need to create a free account to publish your work. Share using social media links or the Timelinely URL provided after publication.

tag(s): digital storytelling (134), video (259)

Add questions and quizzes to videos using Vizia to embed and share on any platform. After registering on Vizia, enter a link to your video hosted on YouTube or Wistia. Once your video uploads, choose any point on the timeline to add a poll or question using the provided prompts. Vizia autosaves your work as you add information. Share videos using provided links or the embed code. Download completed responses through links to Google Sheets or CSV file format. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): note taking (37), polls and surveys (45), quizzes (81), video (259)

Awesome ScreenShot makes screen capture and annotation effortless! Click the camera icon, and Awesome Screenshot takes a snap of the whole page on your screen or any portion. You can also upload an image from your computer, drag and drop, or paste from your clipboard to your account. Annotate the picture with lines, text, and shapes. Crop or blur out sensitive information before saving or uploading the image. Save to your account or get the URL to share via email, on your web page, etc. You can download video as WebM files and upload videos to your YouTube or Google Drive account. This tool supports images in PNG or JPG format. Awesome ScreenShot is available on the web. It works with Windows, Linux, and iOS 10.9 or later. It is also available as an extension for Mozilla FireFox and Chrome. The free account includes one project, 30 images, and 30 screen recordings.

tag(s): drawing (73), editing (77), images (270), tutorials (46)

Read Theory offers over 1,000 interactive reading comprehension exercises. Learn to think critically, draw inferences, understand scope and global concepts, find or recall details, and infer meanings of vocabulary words. Get detailed reports to track and analyze progress using percentages, bar graphs, and tables. Sign up with an email and be sure to know your reading level. Then it is simple: Read the passage, take a quiz, and see answers and explanations for answers after finished with the quiz. If you are unsure of the appropriate reading level, visit a reading assessment site. Try Literably, reviewed here, to assess oral reading comprehension or News in Levels (use Test Your Level of English), reviewed here.

tag(s): guided reading (39), reading comprehension (122)

This tool is a great way to take sections of videos and add your own voice or add questions within the video. YouTube videos are viewable in edpuzzle even if your school filters block them! Search for educational videos from sites such as Khan Academy and Learn Zillion. Use the sliders to choose the section of the video, then insert your own voice or comment on the video. Create a series of questions to go along with your chosen video and insert them into the correct part of the video. There is no need for students to watch the whole video to access the questions at the end. Follow the on screen directions for chopping the video for the section you need, adding your own voice, and choosing where to add text based questions. Create a class and then add students into the class either in the dashboard or after creating the video. Use student codes to access the video. There is a 13 page guide available by clicking on FAQ and the last item which is "How can I help?" Next click on "Workshop." There is also a short demo video hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, simply find the video you want to use and embed it in edpuzzle. It will be viewable when used through edpuzzle!

tag(s): assessment (120), DAT device agnostic tool (169), questioning (35), video (259)

Blendspace has been incorporated into Tes! Create an interactive online lesson or collection with this free tool. Type in your lesson topic and select from suggested resources. Your resources will appear in a grid on their screen. Upload Office files, PDFs, images, embed codes for videos, YouTube, and Internet links. This tool also can connect with your Google Drive or Dropbox account. Simply share the link for your finished space with anyone to view. Search for items to add right within the application. There is no need to use another browser window/tab to find the resources. Also, find lessons created by other teachers for you to use. Some of these are free, but not all. Watch the available minute-and-a-half video to get started. The introduction video is housed on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable; be sure to look at alternatives for sharing the videos on classroom computers.

tag(s): book reports (31), classroom management (143), creativity (104), professional development (228), social networking (87), Teacher Utilities (100)

Have fun while improving your writing and grammar. At the time of this review, noredink's grammatical categories include apostrophes, subject-verb agreement, comma issues, sentence fragments, run-on sentences commonly confused words, phrases and clauses, and a lot more! The program provides differentiated instruction based on the questions you answer right or wrong. There are tutorials to help you correct mistakes. Sign up with your name, username, email address, gender, school name, and a password.

So, what's fun about learning this type of grammar? noredink asks you to pick your interests from Sports, TV shows, Musicians, and Miscellaneous. You will also be asked if you want them to use your friends from Facebook. When you are practicing or are taking quizzes, the program will use your interests and friends, and generate the questions around your interests and friends. The hope is that the content will be more interesting by including sentences with favorite celebrities, hobbies, TV shows, or even personal friends. Be sure to watch the introductory video which is the only item on the site that requires Flash. The program works on iPads as well as your regular computer. There is a 90 second intro video at the bottom of the landing page.
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tag(s): assessment (120), capitalization (14), classroom management (143), differentiation (52), grammar (171), homonyms (9), homophones (13), punctuation (33), quiz (67), quizzes (81), sentences (38), Teacher Utilities (100), verbs (33)