TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Nov 26, 2023
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 go to the Featured Sites Archive
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Resources related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): climate (78), energy (130), recycling (46), sustainability (43), water (101)
In the Classroom
Help to deepen your students' understanding (and your own) of the Sustainable Development Goals. Share these resources with your colleagues and students by emailing the page or sharing the link from your school web page and in your school newsletter. Find resources to incorporate into your lessons.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Reading Treks: Currents - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 7tag(s): 1800s (68), civil rights (187), immigration (62), novels (27)
In the Classroom
Use the suggested activities as a guide to teaching Currents as part of your reading instruction curriculum, or integrate the book into Social Studies content when teaching about immigration. Use a timeline creation tool such as the ones found at Canva's Timeline Infographic Templates, reviewed here, to help students visually represent the events and interactions of the three main characters within the story. Use the model shared in this Reading Trek using Google My Maps, reviewed here, and ask students to create a virtual field trip of other novels or events studied. In addition to adding pinned locations, ask students to add photos and videos to enhance their storytelling through maps.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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How Do Human Rights Work? - Equality and Human Rights Commission
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): civil rights (187), holocaust (40), identity (26), religions (74), social and emotional learning (72), world war 2 (142)
In the Classroom
Include this lesson as part of lessons teaching about the Holocaust and human rights. Engage students by replacing the quiz on the included slide with an interactive quiz response tool such as Quizizz, reviewed here. Use the PowerPoint slide presentation as a starting point to make an interactive learning experience using Google Slides, reviewed here, or Microsoft PowerPoint, reviewed here. Add links to additional resources, videos, and images to enhance student learning. Extend learning by asking students to create a human rights campaign using Canva for Education, reviewed here. Canva for Education provides options for creating media such as infographics, presentations, and videos.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Equality and Human Rights Lesson Plan Ideas - Equality and Human Rights Commission
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): civil rights (187), empathy (26), identity (26), social and emotional learning (72)
In the Classroom
Include these lessons among your resources when teaching Citizenship, as part of English lessons, or within your Personal Social Health and Economic Education (PHSEE) Standards. Many lessons provide excellent resources for use by school counselors to provide support in social and emotional learning. If time is limited, divide students into groups that participate in different lessons then share their learning with peers. If dividing up lessons, consider having all students complete the final two lessons that focus on personal attitudes and discussions of equality within local communities. Engage students by beginning lessons with a simple group response tool such as Answer Garden, reviewed here. Provide a prompt in Answer Garden and ask students to respond; Answer Garden creates a word cloud based on the answers. Enhance student learning using edpuzzle, reviewed here, when watching videos. Add comments, questions, and additional information within the videos to guide students toward a deeper understanding of the content. As a final extension activity, ask students to prepare a plan for their community that focuses on improving human rights locally. Use Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, to prepare a video or website to share with local officials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Global Citizenship Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): collaboration (84), cross cultural understanding (151)
In the Classroom
Help your students to become global citizens using these engaging resources. Find ways to connect with other schools around the country or even around the world. Share these resources with your colleagues and school parents by emailing the page or sharing the link from your school web page and in your school newsletter.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Identity and Characteristics Lesson - Equality and Human Rights Commission
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): bias (21), character education (74), identity (26)
In the Classroom
Use this lesson, and others found on this site to teach students about identity characteristics and assist in understanding bias. Incorporate the use of Google Slides, reviewed here, to enhance instruction by creating cohesive activities within the slides. Within your slide presentation, create slides for each group to use for the different activities. For example, the starter activity asks students to compare images of babies and adults. Use a table for students to add their thoughts under each of the categories. Add links within your slide presentation to the worksheets shared on the site and to WordItOut, reviewed here, to create a class word cloud.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist and Human Rights Activist - PBS Learning Media
Grades
3 to 7tag(s): black history (114), civil rights (187), civil war (127), women (116)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of this free lesson to introduce students to Sojourner Truth, Civil Rights, or Women's Rights. Share the lesson into your Google Classroom account using the provided link. Extend this lesson using technology to motivate and engage students as they learn more about each topic. Create an entire unit that includes this lesson within Actively Learn, reviewed here. Include links to additional online resources, have students take notes, and include assessments all within the Actively Learn framework. Use the many resources found at ReadWriteThink, reviewed here, to help students organize and share information. For example, use the Bio Cube with students to organize biographical information on Sojourner Truth or have students use the Comic Creator to tell the story of Sojourner Truth. For a complete multimedia presentation, ask students to use Book Creator, reviewed here, to share their information about Women's Rights. Book Creator offers a variety of options to include in the digital books such as video, images, audio, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What has the United Nations ever done for you? - The Guardian
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): cross cultural understanding (151), cultures (128), united nations (6)
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to explore on their own. Social studies teachers will want to bookmark this interactive for use throughout the year as students learn about different countries and cultures. Instead of paper notecards enhance student learning by having them use Simplenote, reviewed here, to take digital notes; tell students to be sure to save the URL to share their notes and questions with you and their peers. updates across all devices Then, modify technology use by challenging students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, to explain what they learned from this site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Created Equal - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): bill of rights (26), black history (114), civil rights (187), civil war (127), cultures (128), emancipation proclamation (9), segregation (16)
In the Classroom
The documentaries, or the excerpts presented, are all available to stream from the site. While they may be too lengthy to show in their entirety during one class period, they have also been divided into clips according to themes. For example, Equality is part of the full video about Law and the Strategy of Nonviolence. This makes them more adaptable for classroom use. Share the videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector, or flip your class using EdPuzzle, reviewed here, and have students watch clips at home and come back to class ready to discuss. EdPuzzle is a great way to take sections of videos and add your own voice or add questions within the video. Alternatively, you could use VideoAnt, reviewed here, to enhance student learning with students asking questions about the parts where they need clarification. The issues raised by these Created Equal documentaries may be easily incorporated into lessons related to the Civil Rights Movement, modern U.S. history, Black History Month, or civics and government. Use these videos as conversation starters in the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Voices of Youth - UNICEF
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): disabilities (29), environment (233), hiv/aids (16), inequalities (22), mental health (31), school violence (10), sustainability (43)
In the Classroom
This site is an excellent resource to bookmark and use throughout the year when discussing current events, specific countries or geographic areas, or for non-fiction reading. Find informational texts that matter to your students. Spark informational writing, as well. Allow students to browse the site to find interesting articles. Have students enhance their learning by creating magazine covers of information found on this site using Magazine Cover Maker, reviewed here. Elevate learning by challenging students to create a newspaper article using articles found on this site as a model by using the Newspaper Clipping Generator, reviewed here. World language teachers will find this useful when viewing articles in French or Spanish to practice translation skills. If you have a blended learning classroom or are teaching remotely you may want to try adding the reading to Fiskkit, reviewed here, to annotate and analyze text and measure reading activity through sharing and commenting on texts. For the videos you could use VideoAnt, reviewed here, to ask questions and have students respond directly on the video.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Anne Frank Trust UK-Her Story, Today's World * - The Anne Frank Trust UK
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): anne frank (8), holocaust (40), jews (23), nazis (8), remembrance day (5), women (116), world war 2 (142)
In the Classroom
Use the powerful messages drawn from the story of Anne Frank to help foster an understanding among today's teenagers of positive citizenship, human rights, democracy and respect for the individual. Log on to this site and click on the Education and Home Learning tabs to find resources for your classroom and students. These sections provide critical, relevant information about how to teach Anne Frank's story, the history of the Holocaust, and contemporary issues related to these subjects. Use the About tab and slide down to The Diary of Anne Frank, and project on your whiteboard the features on this page. There is an in-depth look at the difference made by Anne's father, Otto Frank, 50 years after the doors of the Anne Frank House opened to the public. Your class can then create a pledge to stand up against bullying, prejudice, and hatred and defend those who cannot defend themselves. Have students or student groups create an online, interactive poster of the pledge to sign. Display it on your class wiki or webpage to share with families. Use Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Underground Railroad Freedom Center - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): genealogy (8), slavery (69), underground railroad (9)
In the Classroom
Use the lesson plans (found under Learn and Educator Resources) in your own preparation, and make this site available to students who are doing research on the Underground Railroad. If your class is doing any family tree research as a part of a discussion on immigration, this site may be useful to students who have ancestors who were enslaved. Have students create a family tree using an online tool such as Family Tree Creator, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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UN Water - United Nations Development Programme
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): climate change (84), conservation (80), earth (178), earth day (59), pollution (49), resources (84), sustainability (43), water (101)
In the Classroom
Identify similarities and differences in water issues around the globe. Have cooperative learning groups create online Venn Diagrams comparing two distinct areas and their water issues. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here.Students can choose an area or topic of interest either individually or as a group. Look at water issues that many students may not be aware of including water quality and distribution. Create a campaign to increase water awareness that may or may not coincide with world water week (or day.) Have students create a video or podcast sharing their campaigns. For podcasts, use a site such as podOmatic, reviewed here. If creating videos, use a tool like FlexClip, reviewed here, where you can add music and the computer microphone to make comments, explain, etc. Share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here.
Use these resources to determine how to help other countries in their need for clean water and how everyone can conserve.
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The First Amendment: What's Fair in a Free Country? - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): bill of rights (26), freedom of speech (13), speech (67)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of this free lesson plan about the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights! To help ELL students, consider using a guided reading activity and vocabulary tools found at Read Ahead, reviewed here, share the vocabulary with them beforehand, OR make and print out easy to understand definitions of words that these students may have trouble with. Be sure to save this site as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval later on.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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