Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Choose from almost 300 courses to take for free at Saylor. Topics range from general education to computer science and professional development. There is a K-12 area that includes Common Core information (for teachers or parents), test prep, and English lessons. Explore a specific area of study to find courses or choose the course list to view all offerings. Some courses include a full textbook and/or a full set of video lectures and are listed on the content matrix. Each course lists learning outcomes, course requirements, and a course overview. Create your own eportfolio to enroll in courses, track progress, download transcripts, and engage with the online community. Pass the final exam of each course to receive a certificate of completion.

tag(s): professional development (231)

MailChimp lets you create email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. MailChimp handles all of this with lists. You can subscribe, edit, and remove yourself from lists as you please. Send your newsletter immediately or schedule delivery for the future. Test the email using the popup window to send to your own email address. Create your own template or choose from one of the many pre-designed templates available on the site. Content is rendered for easy use on mobile devices for viewing and through the app for creating and sending content. The site offers a long list of free features for use if you have under 2,000 subscribers and you can send up to 12,000 emails a month - at no charge! Free features include templates, auto translate into other languages, group creation, Facebook and social media integration, and much more. Import recipient information from your online address book or an Excel spreadsheet. Choose to send your emails to your entire list, or a specific segment of your list. Your newsletters can include images and text, and can be personalized by merging "subscriber" information into the body of your message.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): communities (35), DAT device agnostic tool (167), journalism (67), newspapers (93), writing (294)

Pathbrite creates online portfolios. Follow the ten part template to create a portfolio that includes text, transcripts, videos, work samples, and more. Import items directly from many social networks such as YouTube, Vimeo, Khan Academy, and others. Share completed portfolios via url or through social networking links.

tag(s): careers (138), college (46), portfolios (20)

Solve science puzzles, do scientific investigations, or learn more about what scientists do on the job with this lively and entertaining site. Based on the PBS science series of the same name, the goal of this site is to get children, especially girls and minorities, excited about science. Choose from different components of the site such as the Science Files. Here you will find adventures include engineering enigmas, great pumpkins, and several other topics. Topics include a short explanation, video, and several activities including worksheets with investigation logs. Scibug Investigators offers several activities to complete in your backyard. View videos and read about scientists connected with the series. Be sure to check out the Reading Bug link with an extensive list of books listed by topic. There is a teacher's guide for the site but it is a little hard to find. Go to the About Us section. Scroll down to Parents and Teachers. Here you will find links to the teacher's guide with a complete list of activities included on the site along with a short description, topics taught, and topics activities can supplement.

tag(s): animals (299), birds (48), data (144), engineering (110), environment (274), plants (160), solar energy (37), trees (25), water (129)

Interested in learning more about the vast nano-sized world? Easy to understand, basic information coupled with current advances give you a taste of what is possible with nanotechnology. Be sure to navigate near the bottom right side of the page where there is a tab labeled DIY Nano. Here are some sensational activities to assist in visualizing and experimenting with nano-scale! Thoughts will charge as you think, learn, and wonder about nano-science! The site includes activity and classroom ideas for grades K-12.

tag(s): atoms (51), engineering (110), gravity (50), matter (59), measurement (157)

Join the movement of educators and students who are focusing on making instead of consuming. Students identify an interest and work on a project of their creation to present at a Maker Faire. Unlike Science Fairs which focus mostly on competition, Maker Faires showcase student work and innovation. With focus now on STEM and doing science, Maker Faires are a great way to increase excitement in the STEM areas and careers. The Maker Playbook is an easy way to become familiar with the movement.

tag(s): inquiry (30), science fairs (24), STEM (206)

What is STEM? With so much emphasis on pursuing STEM, find great resources here about careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Find articles, surveys, and other information about STEM careers. Find information geared towards students, teachers, counselors, and parents about pursuing STEM careers. Search through STEM disciplines, degree profiles, or other information.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): careers (138), college (46), STEM (206)

This excellent site consists of ideas for projects to use in Math fairs; however, there are many other uses for the ideas presented on this site. Titles and subjects such as Juice Box Geometry, Play-Doh Math, and more, are intriguing and sure to capture students' interest. Topics include geometry, estimation, measurement, and probability. Each project contains detailed directions including background knowledge required, materials, and variations to try. General grade level suggestions are also provided (for grades 1-10.) One activity includes a video to help understand the directions. Perhaps most interesting is the section at the end of each project that is composed of links to careers in mathematics that tie-in to the activities.

tag(s): estimation (42), experiments (62), probability (123)

This site is another entry into the college search market. Designed to provide resources to prospective students, their parents, and their teachers or guidance counselors, the site offers the usual links to financial aid information, advice on writing college essays and career guidance. Many of the links lead directly to resources developed by the US Department of Education or the US Department of Labor; reliable sources, but nothing new or innovative here. The fresh content here is a series of 13 short self-discovery quizzes that purport to help students sort out their feelings about college, and determine their relative readiness to attend. In keeping with the "grazing" theme (complete with cow logos and illustrations), these quizzes are called "munchings." It's kind of hokey, but it may be catchy enough to be effective. Once the student has completed all 13 "munchings," the site will generate a personalized report summarizing student responses. What is produced might generate interesting discussion among students or within families.

Using the site requires a log in (be sure to enable "cookies"). Log-in requires some personal information (first name, surname, email address, and description - if you are a student, parent, or teacher). Check with your administrator about allowing the students to register for this site using their own names. You may wish to set up a class registration instead of entering true data into the registration site. Another option is to create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.

There is no charge for using the site, and advertising is very minimal and fairly unobtrusive. Parts of this website require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): college (46), financial aid (16)

Open the microscopic world of science to your students with NASA's virtual microscope. The free software (Win, OSX, Linux) comes with access to over 90 multi-dimensional, high-resolution image datasets, training animations, and videos that teach the basics of microscopy. Students can explore and annotate pre-prepared images as if they were using real instruments in real-time. This resource-rich site is one of NASA's career outreach programs and offers loads of information for students and teachers. Subscribe to the RSS feed to be alerted as new data is added every week. This website requires Java and Quick-Time. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

tag(s): careers (138), data (144), images (265)

This website provides an online connection to students from various areas of the world. There are links provided for students, families, and teachers. The website is available in various languages - English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese. Students can share stories, artwork, and more. The educational content includes life planning skills (careers), social studies (geography, government, history, etc.), writing, and many other academic areas. Free registration is required for each student and teacher. All content is monitored by volunteer moderators. What a fabulous resource to use in geography or language arts class. This website doesn't just teach students about countries throughout the world, but also allows students to interact with students of various cultures as they write and respond to each other in this safe environment.

tag(s): careers (138), cultures (106)

This MUST SEE interactive science website features eight specific areas. The "News" section includes weekly news updates and features. "Wired" has challenging interactive games for grades 4-12. "Sci-Teach" provides countless resources for teachers of all grades. "Out There" takes you to the "back garden of science delights," including inventors, sound, vampires, and the flu. "Parents" has useful ideas - even science experiments for children's parties. "Under 11s" is geared for younger students, an excellent collection!. The activities teach traditional science topics using new multimedia. The "Next Steps" link challenges students to think about their future careers (both science and non-science). There are printable pages and interactive activities for elementary, middle, and high school students. The "Library" link features countless online science resources.

Nearly every one of the activities requires FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

tag(s): inventors and inventions (76), planets (127), sports (86), water (129)

This comprehensive guide provides ideas and positive support for all aspects of your fledgling teaching career: from parents to college loan debt. College faculty may also want to share it with prospective teachers and student teachers.

While there's a wealth of "common knowledge" about what it takes to succeed in higher education, specific discussions of the factors and preparation that let students succeed is harder to find. Developed by a consortium of leading universities, this online PDF reference is the sort of reading that counselors, parents, and students should have available when they begin to plan their high school careers.

tag(s): college (46)