Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Follow Claudia Kincaid and her brother Jaimie when they decide to run away from home and end up hiding out in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 4-8. Content correlates to Common Core Standards. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1960s (26), new york (24), virtual field trips (128)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book, A Long Way from Chicago. During the time of the Great Depression and the beginning of WWII, Joey and Mary Alice, city children from Chicago, spend a week each August with their eccentric Grandma Dowdel in her rural home town. Over the eight years the story takes place, they learn to appreciate their Grandma's spunkiness and get to experience many situations that their parents would never allow them to encounter. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 4-8. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, National Core Art Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1900s (72), 1920s (6), 1930s (20), 1940s (14), family (51)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Learn through two different timelines (the 1940s and 1980s) the story about the friendship of a Chinese American 12-year-old boy and a Japanese American girl. It is set in the city of Seattle and its cultural, musical, political, and social conflicts at the height of the WWII. The plot focuses on the painful separation of friends during the confining of Japanese Americans to internment camps. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 9-12. Content correlates to Common Core Standards and ISTE Student Standards. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1940s (14), 1980s (7), cross cultural understanding (173), virtual field trips (128), world war 2 (161)

This collection shares a few simple tools and tips to get you started with remote teaching social studies for students in grades 6-8. The tips provide specific ideas for maintaining a calendar and sharing due dates with students. The instructional tool shared, Mission US, reviewed here, includes five simulations that engage students while learning about US History. Other ideas found in this collection provide links and resources for assessment and additional interactive challenges for your remote teaching needs.

tag(s): civil rights (209), game based learning (205), immigration (68), native americans (108), professional development (385)

Remote teaching involves a different mindset than in-classroom lessons. This collection shares tips, resources, and assessment tools to get remote learning off to a successful start. Follow the advice to encourage continued interactions with students through the use of digital tools. Use the instructional tools to provide interactive learning activities. Follow up learning activities using the assessment suggestions offered in the collection. Extend learning with continued use of the shared resources following your return to your regular classroom routines.

tag(s): branches of government (65), capitals (16), maps (220), professional development (385)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book, The 57 Bus. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 7-12. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): courts (20), emotions (49), racism (79), social and emotional learning (102)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book Buffalo Dance The Journey of York. Get to know York, the only enslaved man on the Lewis and Clark expedition, through these poems that provide insight into how and what York may have felt and thought. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 10-12. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1800s (75), commoncore (73), explorers (64), lewis and clark (14), poetry (193), westward expansion (39)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book The Journey of York The Unsung Hero of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. York, the only enslaved man on the journey, did not choose to go. Slaves did not have choices. However, his contributions to the expedition were valuable, and this is his story. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 2-6. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1800s (75), commoncore (73), explorers (64), lewis and clark (14), native americans (108)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book, American Born Chinese. American Born Chinese recounts the tale of three characters: Jin Wang, who moves to another area with his family to find that he's the only Chinese-American at his new school; the Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest Chinese tales; and Chin-Kee, who is typical of the negative Chinese stereotype and is destroying his cousin Danny's life. Their lives and stories meet up with an unforeseen turn in this current tale. Discover their journey to their identity and purpose in life while struggling with others' prejudices, especially how it applies to racism. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 7-12. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, National Core Arts Standards for Visual Arts, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): cross cultural understanding (173), identity (29), racism (79), virtual field trips (128)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks creates a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book, Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades K-4. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, National Core Arts Standards for Visual Arts, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1900s (72), 20th century (62), elections (82), virtual field trips (128), womens suffrage (52)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using Bud, Not Buddy with students in grades 3-7. Take advantage of the robust teaching guide. This historical fiction novel takes place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during the time of the Great Depression. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): civil rights (209), cultures (180), great depression (30), michigan (5), racism (79)

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional learning session is from February 2020. You can register and immediately view the archive of the session.

Explore, compare, and contrast three different online tools designed to engage students in grades 5 - 12 in meaningful civics and historical learning. Participants will learn about the features of these three free tools and then explore ways to use them in upper elementary through high school classrooms. Pairing these tools with pedagogically sound instructional strategies will provide a foundation on which to build critical thinking skills. Participants will: 1. Understand how the use of simulations and primary sources can convey difficult material in a way that's interesting and accessible; 2. Explore three free educational tools to support social studies instruction in grades 5-12; and 3. Plan for the use of one of the three tools in the educational setting. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

tag(s): professional development (385)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the trade book, A Year Down Yonder. Use this historical fiction book to help students to learn about the Great Depression in a small town in Illinois. Use our robust Instructional Guide with students in grades 4-8. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): 1900s (72), commoncore (73), great depression (30)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for sharing the autobiography of Congressman John Lewis who as a student met Martin Luther King, was instrumental in the birth of the Nashville Student Movement and their "lunch counter sit-ins." View the robust instructional guide for suggestions to use with students in grades 7-12. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): black history (133), civil rights (209), congress (40)

TeachersFirst Reading Treks create a virtual field trip of resources about a piece of literature or text using the My Maps feature of Google Maps. This Reading Trek provides inspiration and suggestions for using the story of Matthew Hensen and his work as an assistant to Admiral Peary and their journey to the North Pole. The Instructional Guide offers robust activities for use with students in grades K-6. Content correlates to Common Core Standards, ISTE Student Standards, and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Find the entire selection of Reading Treks here.

tag(s): arctic (40), black history (133), civil rights (209), explorers (64)