TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Aug 8, 2021
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Comic Strips Templates - Canva
Grades
K to 12tag(s): graphic design (81), comics and cartoons (113),
In the Classroom
Engage students by using the templates to display the day's vocabulary word, the math puzzle of the week, a concept your students are learning in social studies or science as an example. Have students create comic strips for dialog-writing lessons, summarizing, predicting, and retelling stories. Use comic strips for literature responses. For pre-reading students, create a comic of pictures and tell the story based on the pictures/scenes. It's a good idea to require students to create a rough draft of their comic using Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here. Make a class book of the comics created throughout the year. That book is likely to become a class favorite! Use comics to show sequencing of events. When studying characterization, create a dialog to show (not tell) about a character. World language and ENL/ESL teachers can assign students to create dialog strips as an alternate to a traditional assessment. Have students share all of their comics on your interactive whiteboard or projector.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Microsoft PowerPoint Online - Microsoft Office
Grades
K to 12tag(s): Microsoft (137), slides (103), multimedia (101),
In the Classroom
Take advantage of this free PowerPoint option to incorporate into many different classroom uses. Share this option with students who don't have access to a free Office account. Use PowerPoint to create interactive lessons that include video, images, and links to additional resources. Create and share PowerPoint presentations on your class website with notes and demonstrations from classroom activities. Ask students to create presentations to share learning with peers. Consider creating a class account for students to use when collaborating on projects. Extend learning further by embedding a PowerPoint within a Sway, reviewed here, presentation as part of any multimedia project.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tools to Create Media - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): posters (71), digital storytelling (300), podcasts (130), video (456), Creating Media (6),
In the Classroom
Find new tools to try in your classroom to create some cool media! Each review includes classroom use ideas. Read the details of each tool and find the ones that will make your tasks easier to manage and engage your students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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boomy - Boomy Corporation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): artificial intelligence (139), music theory (68), rhythm (37), sounds (84),
In the Classroom
Offer students the option to explore their creative side with boomy. Ask students to make soothing music to play during study and quiet times, have them create audio to accompany their class presentations, or challenge students to make music that sets the mood for dramatic moments in literature. This site is an excellent way to appeal to your musically inclined students. Enhance student learning by asking them to share ideas on how to create different types of music by recording their screen using Free Screen Recorder Online, reviewed here. Have students share tips and advice on how to create different moods by adjusting settings within music created with boomy.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Whimsical Mind Maps - Whimsical
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (296), mind map (56),
In the Classroom
Assign students to "map" out a chapter or story. Assign groups to create study guides using this tool. Use this tool for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics. Use this to create family trees or food pyramids in family and consumer science. Have students collaborate (online) to create group mind maps or review charts before tests on a given subject. Have students organize any concepts you study. They can color-code concepts to show what they understand, wonder, and question. Have students map out a story, plotline, or plan for the future. Students can also map out a step-by-step process (such as a life cycle or how to solve an equation). Use the wireframe option to create interesting images mimicking screen displays found on computers, phones, and mobile devices. Enhance and extend student learning by asking students to include their "map" as part of a final presentation created using a multimedia presentation tool like Wakelet, reviewed here, or as part of a digital book created using Book Creator, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Image Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): images (487), creative commons (43), copyright (85),
In the Classroom
Use these tools to help students to understand digital citizenship, copyright, Creative Commons, and more. Find tools for students to use to locate "safe" images to use for projects and even within your own lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Adobe Express for Education - Adobe
Grades
K to 12tag(s): posters (71), communication (166), multimedia (101), creative writing (243),
In the Classroom
Use Adobe Express for Education to create posters, flyers, or instagrams stories for student presentations for any subject. Enhance student learning by asking students to create infographics explaining facts and information about states, countries, planets, and more. Have students create interactive posters, book report covers, invitations, and flyers to promote school events. Express for Education offers many possibilities for graphics, redefining student technoolgy use, and extending student learning by having students create multimedia presentations in all classrooms.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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2 and 3 Circle Interactive Venn Diagrams - Class Tools/Russell Tarr
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (296), venn diagrams (29),
In the Classroom
Share a link to this site on classroom computers and your class website to use anytime when working with Venn Diagrams. Ask students to practice using Venn Diagrams using the interactive activities. Enhance learning by having students create their own prompts for classmates to complete a diagram. Have students use a video explainer tool like Moocnote, reviewed here, to demonstrate how to create and use Venn Diagrams.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Digital Storytelling Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): writing (569), digital storytelling (300),
In the Classroom
Find an abundance of digital writing tools to use in your classroom. Share sites on your interactive whiteboard. Challenge students to create their own projects using tools on this list. Rather than a unit test, have students create a book demonstrating their understanding of concepts. Bring out creativity with these engaging tools!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Book Creator - Red Jumper Limited
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (247), collaboration (121), preK (423), reading comprehension (223), digital storytelling (300), ebooks (73), writing (569), literacy (184),
In the Classroom
Create books together, as a class, as you move through a unit or topic. Enhance student learning by adding images and ideas your students suggest. Use in a flipped classroom to deliver course information. Assign several student groups a different topic and redefine their learning by having each group create their own multimedia versions as they learn more about the topic. Students can combine their books later as a class book. Make a digital bookshelf of all the versions for all to use. Challenge gifted students to modify the "standard" class text with the additional material they discover, by going deeper and learning about related topics. In lower grades, create teacher-made e-books for your young readers, perhaps adding audio - your own voice reading the text. Find much more information and ideas for using Book Creator in any classroom by exploring the Book Creator Toolkit for Schools and Districts available here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spotify for Podcasters - Michael Mignano and Nir Zicherman
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (247), digital storytelling (300), communication (166), podcasts (130),
In the Classroom
Create regular or special podcasts to share on your class web page or wiki. Looking for even more ideas? Record class assignments or directions. Record story time or a reading excerpt for younger ones to listen to at a computer center AND from home, adding a touch of blended learning to your classroom! Have readers (perhaps older buddies) enhance their learning and build fluency by recording selected passages for your non-readers. Launch a service project for your fifth or sixth graders to record stories for the kindergarten to use in their reading and listening center. Challenge students to create "you are there" recordings as "eyewitnesses" to historical or current events. Make a weekly class podcast, with students taking turns writing and sharing the "Class News," encourage and extend learning and have students create radio advertisements for concepts studied in class (Buy Dynamic DNA!). Invite students to write and record their own stories or poetry in dramatic readings. Language students or beginning readers could record their fluency by reading passages. Allow parents to hear their child's progress reading aloud, etc. Compare world language, speech articulation, or reading fluency at two points during the year. Challenge your Shakespeare students to record a soliloquy. Write and record a poem for Father's or Mother's Day (or other special events) and send the URL as a gift to that special person. If you have gifted students who lean toward the dramatic, this tool is simple enough for them to create dramatic mini-casts without needing any additional tools.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timeline JS - Northwestern University Knight Lab
Grades
K to 12tag(s): timelines (112), digital storytelling (300),
In the Classroom
Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share timelines about historical events, research literature, learn about different decades and events throughout the world, and more. Transform student technology use by having them create timelines for research projects. Use a whole class Google account or individual Google apps accounts if you have them. Use this tool to make a timeline of your school year. Create author biographies, animal life cycles, or timelines of events and causes of wars. Challenge students to create a timeline of the plot of a novel, interspersed with the ways themes appear throughout the novel. If you teach chemistry, have students create illustrated sequences explaining oxidation or reduction (or both). Have elementary students interview grandparents and create a class timeline about their grandparents for Grandparents' Day. Why not create a timeline highlighting students' family events for a special gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, or other holidays? You may need to assign students to do some investigative work first (years of births, marriages, vacations, etc.). In world language classes, have students create a timeline of their family in the language to master with vocabulary about relatives, jobs, and more (and verb tenses!). Students learn about photo selection, detail writing, chronological order, and photo digitization while creating the timelines of their choice. Making a timeline is also a good way to review the history and cultural developments.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Smore - Shlomi Atar and Gilad Avidan
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): design (159), infographics (85), multimedia (101), posters (71),
In the Classroom
Show students how to embed media into a Smore newsletter to create their own "infographics" transforming and displaying what they have learned from a unit of study. Use your interactive whiteboard and projector to allow student groups to present a flyer about a book they've read, news article, etc. Have them create campaign posters for fictitious candidates as you study about the election process. Smore allows you to preview as you work or return later to complete and publish your flyers. Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer or on the web. Offer Smore as one of the project options for your gifted students doing projects beyond the regular curriculum, especially those who are visual/artistic. Since this tool requires membership, you may want to use a teacher account for younger gifted students and be sure to get written parent permission!Allow students to create flyers for upcoming events such as Earth Day, Grandparents Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, birthdays and anniversaries. Make holiday greetings to share.
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