Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This website includes information about Benjamin Franklin, lesson ideas for the classroom, field trip ideas for visiting the Franklin Institute and information about the many unique and educational exhibits at the museum. Ben Franklin is one of America's most colorful patriots. His accomplishments as legislator, diplomat, and scientist were recognized as extraordinary even in his own day. Philadelphia's Franklin Institute has a memorial to Franklin. You can include it in your Philadelphia visit, or learn more about it here.

tag(s): colonial america (95), franklin (12), philadelphia (10)

Learn about each Egyptian pyramid by following explorers through the excavations, and learn about the exciting history of pyramid discovery and uncovering! View detailed inside views of each site. Learn how to decipher hieroglyphics as you make your way through this fascinating site. Read about current digs and restoration efforts. Though the virtual exploration portions of the site require Quicktime (Flash), most of the site does not. There is plenty to learn here!

tag(s): archeology (28), egypt (56), pyramids (21)

Walk through the streets of Colonial Williamsburg and learn about the many inhabitants and buildings along the way. This amazing virtual tour through the streets makes it seem like you are there. This site is actually part of the Williamsburg Interactive page, but its value to historical understanding warranted its own TeachersFirst review. Click your cursor on buildings and you'll be taken to just that area. Then, you will be given information about that area and its inhabitants. Follow the links to additional web pages for more information.

tag(s): colonial america (95), virtual field trips (128), williamsburg (7)

Indeed, history appears to be 'fun' when you see the extensive historical action at this official Jamestown and Yorktown website. This site promotes learning about America's early history in the Jamestown area through a variety of venues. Watch quick videos, use the interactives with students, plan your Jamestown field trip or vacation, or take advantage of the abundant curriculum materials available to educators, including PDF documents: timelines, comprehensive lesson plans, and resource materials. On the top menu bar click Learn to see all they offer for educationn

tag(s): colonial america (95), colonization (21), india (32), jamestown (6)

This site profiles a wide variety of achievers from the arts, science, sports, and business. Each achiever profile features a short biography, a discussion of his or her significance, a photo gallery and an interview. Most of the interviews feature audio and video clips of the achiever as well. The achievers are grouped by area and in an alphabetical drop down list. One great feature is that the achievers are also grouped by character attribute (referred to as their "key to success"):passion, courage, perseverance, integrity, and a neat category called "The American Dream."

tag(s): character education (79), heroes (24), pioneers (9), social skills (22)

This is a New York Times lesson plan focused on a recent article about the personal lives of Presidential candidates. The lesson plan asks students to look at the extent to which candidates and their personal pasts will influence voters' willingness to support them, and focuses on the fact that several candidates have had messy divorces.

The lesson plan starts with the familiar "read the story and discuss" format, but there are a number of good essential questions and extension activities provided that could be tailored into a strong classroom plan. The lesson plans have cross-curricular suggestions, and are tied to standards.

tag(s): elections (82), presidents (135)

The story of the first settlement at Jamestown usually features the brave Indian princess Pocahontas. This site provides a retelling of the Pocahantas story by the people of the Powhatan tribe-- a rewriting that questions whether Pocahontas actually saved John Smith at all. The site takes particular exception to the recent Disney movie, Pocahontas. The discussion outlined here would make a very good "counterpoint" lesson on the generally accepted story of the Jamestown settlement.

tag(s): debate (42), jamestown (6)

This amazing library, part of Michigan State's library system, offers information about speeches, recordings, and news broadcasts featuring over 100,000 famous and not so famous personages. Not all items are digitized, but many are available in MP3 format. Those that can be played on your computer will have the word "Listen" as a link to play the file. The serach tools are a bit cumbersome, but there are terrific primary sources here.

Requires Quick time. Videos require RealPlayer. Get these plug-ins from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

tag(s): authors (107), news (228), poetry (193), speech (69), speeches (23)

This website provides five lesson plans (ranging in grade levels K-12). A brief history of the holiday is provided, followed by five unique lesson plans. How about incorporating math with your Mother's Day lessons (see "Motherhood Math: Mothers in the Workforce"). Lesson plans are aligned with national standards and include language arts, math, technology, visual arts, social studies, and more. These lessons are ready to go and easy to use.

tag(s): mothers day (12), sociology (23), statistics (121)

This site provides a list and a basic description of over 30 lesson plans. There are lessons and activities for students in elementary, middle and high school. Math, language arts, history, science and more are included.

tag(s): easter (10), holidays (187)

This privately done digitized library focuses on books published before 1923, primarily those with magnificent illustrations. Books digitized are in the public domain and are also available to the large digitization projects going on now with the Google Books project. This site's charm is its ease of use. Users can search by author's last name or by using a list of subject categories. Because the project is fairly small, it's fun to browse through the offerings before deciding on a specific choice. The quality of the digitization is very good and appears to offer complete works. Some books have been reformatted, presumably to allow viewing consistency.

tag(s): air (101)

NPR is amassing a collection of oral histories by traveling across the country and talking to average people. On this website, users can read or listen to the stories told by a wide variety of Americans. Click "Tell your story" to find Locations & Reservations for traveling Mobile Booths or directions to record on your own. The Do It Yourself guide includes tips on interview questions and an interview check list. Started in 2003, the site has many stories in its archives and frequently adds updates.

tag(s): digital storytelling (154), podcasts (108)

This site is designed to be a resource for teachers and students on the atom bomb. There is an interactive time line, excellent graphics on the physics of the atom bomb, biographies of major characters in the story and good teacher resources including lesson plans. This site might be useful to both science and social studies teachers. The graphics on the physics of the atom bomb are great, but the historical context setting and discussion is also excellent. There are links to WebQuests, and information about California state standards met by the lesson plans.

tag(s): atomic bomb (8), cold war (30)

ERIC was a government-sponsored clearinghouse for educational resources that has recently lost funding. This site maintains some of the files from the ERIC database, and in this case, focuses on resources relative to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It includes some very helpful suggestions for explaining this process to students and placing it in a larger context of civil rights, immigration, and the study of World War II.

tag(s): civil rights (209), japan (56), japanese (47), racism (79), world war 2 (161)

A photo essay slide show covering the Vietnam War. There are also timelines, maps, and a brief discussion of the war in general.The focus of this site is its outstanding images, most which have accompanying text, explaining and setting the context.

tag(s): vietnam (38)

As the title implies, this site is a searchable archive of PDF images of old magazine articles. The majority is from the 20th century, although there are also entries from the 19th century. Because the articles are from magazines, they often include fantastic pictures that can illustrate fashion, culture and opinions of the time period. It's an eclectic mix of topics, with some emphasis on the early 20th century. Recent additions include articles from WWI and WWII eras, as well as flappers and fashion of the 1920s.

tag(s): 20th century (62)

This site is part of the state of Pennsylvania's Capitol Preservation Committee site and provides a searchable index of information about the state's extensive collection of Civil War flags. Each entry includes a description of the flag, information about how and when it was used, and an image of the flag. Sadly, there is no "zoom" option for the images so you cannot get a full screen image of the flag without the descriptions, nor can you focus on details. A few projectors have this zoom feature. You are lucky if you have it!

tag(s): civil war (139), flags (18), pennsylvania (6)

This site would make a nice accompaniment for students reading "The Diary of Ann Frank." This site includes exerpts from Anne's diary, lesson plans and downloadable readers' guides for teachers. Go directly to "Ann Frank: Life and Times" to access the excerpts from her diary and the scrapbook. This include pictures and artifacts along with a biography of Anne Frank suitable for middle school students.

tag(s): anne frank (10), world war 2 (161)

This is an amazing site for kids who ask, "But what did they WEAR?" In today's fashion-conscious society, looking at the past is often quite amusing, eye-opening, and insightful. A worthwhile site for teachers of theater, history, English, and even family and consumer science -- since the site even includes some patterns. Clicking on any of the options in the opening menu will take you to specific areas of that subject through history. The "Costume History sorted by Period" is truly fascinating as it offers drawings, patterns, and rationale for clothing of different time periods, including materials used and practical reasons for everything from codpieces to headdresses.

tag(s): costumes (3)

The mission of National Council for the Social Studies is to provide leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators.