Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site is an engaging way to send greetings to friends via Google Maps. The creator became interested in seeing how many buildings looked like letters of the alphabet when viewed in Google Maps so he decided to put them together as a way to send messages to friends. Just type in your message and it will be created using various buildings from around the world, your message can then be emailed to your friends. Each letter also includes a pop-up showing the name of the building and its location. Click here for an example of a message that can be created.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): architecture (84), maps (224)

This site, created in the United Kingdom, offers many timelines with a simple click to launch an amazing 3-dimensional page. Timelines are organized by subject matter and include samplings from literature, sociology, history, everyday life, science, technology, explorers, medicine, and more. With another click, you can zoom from one century to another. Start in the 1210s and work your way through the years. View the context of history using visual artifacts from DaVinci's contemporaries to shopping in the 1890s. Connect historical events or technological accomplishments by seeing them alongside simultaneous events, precursors, or results. An additional option allows you to save favorite timelines and/or events. Although the main timeline requires flash which is no longer supported, the century timelines remain viewable and provide valuable information.

tag(s): europe (84), literature (221), politics (118)

Use Flickriver as a new way to view photos from Flickr. Click the "Explore" tab to view recent pictures uploaded to flickr. Create your own flickriver stream and view all photos from other flickriver streams by registering and creating a flickr login. Use the search bar at the top to customize search by users, groups, tags, or places.

tag(s): images (263), photography (131)

Color coordination has never been easier. color hunter generates a complete color palette directly from a photograph. Upload your own digital image or access color schemes from previously loaded Flick'r API photo thumbnails. Search for color schemes with a tag, "hex" color code, or an image's URL. Locate and click on a desirable color swatch and new color ranges and photographs appear. Each color comes with a useful color code. You can also use color hunter to separate out colors from a photo to "see" what colors might be used to create a painting of the same subject matter. Users do not need to open an account to access the tools in color hunter. Having an account does provide a "favorites" file to store previous photos and palettes. There are ads along the right side of the screen and links to other sites across the bottom of the page. They are not obtrusive but remember to advise students to avoid them.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): design (79), resources (83)

Learning Games has a large selection of games divided into easy to find categories. Topics include typing, music, history, science, health and more. For example, in the Social Studies category there are games to learn U.S. presidents and women in history. Each game includes an explanation of game rules. There is even a category with education songs and videos that includes Science songs!

tag(s): keyboarding (28), women (152)

Turn photographs into oil paintings, stencils, line drawings and much more with Befunky. You can doctor photos with bad lighting, fuzzy image, or poor exposure. The humorous elements on the "goodies" screen will allow you to add glasses, facial hair, picture frames, doodles, or speech bubbles. The text feature contains 11 different kinds of fonts. Befunky can directly post photos onto social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flicker, Bebo, PhotoBucket, and Picasa. Befunky will automatically store all original and manipulated photos into a private personal library. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly. Photo effects come with a free account and pop up ads. Other subscriptions and site capabilities cost money. There are drawbacks: "Befunky.com" is in the bottom right corner of the final product, they continually ask about upgrades, and the photo file is the size of a thumbnail.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (146), design (79), impressionism (6)

This site contains links to many different sources for rubrics. You can search by grade level, subject, or type making it easier to find an appropriate rubric.

tag(s): assessment (146)

This site has an amazing collection of unattractive animals, their photographs, and some interesting information about each. Some are indeed uglier than any artist could have imagined! Included is information about their habitats, rarity, behavior, and other odd facts that add to their ability to arouse interest in readers of the site.

tag(s): animals (293), evolution (88)

Use digital photographs or online images to quickly and easily create a collage that you can download and print. You can search for photos for a particular theme or browse your own collections. Then, select a layout, colors for the background and border, how many images you want to include, and start choosing your photos or entering the URL of the image you want to use. Next, simply scroll to the bottom of the page to click Create. It's that simple!
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): back to school (55), book reports (28), collages (17)

This site is dated but has good ideas to commemorate and teach about 9/11. Are you looking for ways to inspire meaningful discussions of September 11th and to help make sense of this tragedy? The Tribute World Trade Center Visitor Center of New York City presents awards to honor teachers who have created exemplary educational projects for students to express and sustain the memory of September 11th. Using the menu bar on the far right, this site shares their projects from the globe and involving all aspects of the arts and humanities, including history, language arts, visual, media and performing arts. Although this site is mainly designed for grades 5-12, there are some activities for younger elementary students found in the "Resources for Your Classroom" section of the site.

tag(s): sept11 (18), terrorism (41), terrorist (12)

Abduzeedo is a blog to inspire designers on a daily basis. It is a perfect resource for artists to share their work and receive quick web tutorials for applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Pixelmaker, and Fireworks. Some tips will also work with free online photo editor tools such as Pixlr, reviewed here. The site originates in Brazil but now draws artists from all across the world. Illustration, logo design, photography, architecture, and typography are the primary areas of interest. Artists can submit work for possible inclusion in their daily gallery posting. There are also interviews with top designers that contain examples of their work.

General Tips and Reminders: There are ads along the top center that may interfere with the sites content. Be sure to thoroughly review the site before using it with students.

tag(s): design (79)

Wikimedia Commons is a huge database of free media files (images, sound, and video clips) available in a wide range of languages. You can both access or contribute files. Using the same technology as Wikipedia, you can edit, upload, and embed media file projects into any Wikimedia project. Every media file comes with a description, name of the author and complete licensing details. Search for videos, images, or sound media by keyword, content categories, nature, science, or society. This is an amazing resource to use when searching for any multimedia content.

tag(s): creative commons (28)

Create an online portfolio created from your flickr set of specific photos. Choose your photos by choosing a set or a specific tag. Pictures are displayed in an elegant and beautiful format. Since Pullfolio is not flash based, the ipod/iphone app is another plus. Pullfolio instantly updates as you update your flickr set or continue to use the tag. Use the free version or go pro to use your own domain and access additional features.

tag(s): flickr (2), images (263), photography (131)

This site is quick, easy, requires no registration, and FREE. Upload your image to this site in order to create a smaller file size for use on other sites and applications as well as adding effects such as corner rounding, rotating, tinting, changing contrast/brightness, or adding borders/edges. Upload an image up to 5 MB to alter easily with this site. Web resizer automatically reduces the file size to create an optimized image. Be sure to click "apply changes" once you have finished making selections. Click "start over" to remove previous changes. Download the image easily in a JPEG format.

tag(s): images (263)

Create your own piece of art using a style and technique similar to Jackson Pollack. Click on the screen to create art on the blank canvas. Just click your mouse and watch the painting begin. Using your mouse, drag and click to disperse paint. Left-click to change the color of the paint. Right-click to save the image to your device.

tag(s): painting (54)

This site takes students through the history of the Abacus across various cultures and time periods in addition to showing how to use an abacus for calculating math problems. Students can follow directions to make their own abacus. Click to practice using an abacus to solve problems in addition, subtraction, square roots, cube roots, and more. Explore some of the artistic renditions of the abacus as inspiration for a visual-artistic math project.

The beautiful, award-winning site explores the art of the engraving from the Renaissance and Baroque eras (1480-1650). Navigate through artworks, zooming in interactively as you read about the works, the artists, and the iconography of each work. An interactive map shows the location of the work, and a special "analyze lines" tool allows you to turn off and on each level of engraved line to see the work in layers of its complexity. There is also a video showing how the engraving process works. Many of the drawings of this time involve classical figure drawings (and some nudity).

tag(s): renaissance (38)

Color Sudoku will engage even the youngest of Sudoku players by using colors rather than the traditional numbers. This option is helpful for students who may not be completely comfortable with number recognition but enjoy playing games of logic. Color Sudoku is a great training tool for beginners entering the world of Sudoku. Players can click on "Give Me A Hint" if they need a little help. Be aware: this site does include some advertisements. Shrink your window to cut off the right side and avoid the distraction! This site works best with Microsoft's Edge browser.

tag(s): colors (63), logic (161), puzzles (149), sudoku (10)

Find easy to use tools to create sketches and drawings. Easily share your creation. No need to register. Easy to use tools make this drawing program fun. Completed drawings can be shared instantaneously by URL or through various social sites, such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and more. The instant sharing feature makes this tool especially useful.

tag(s): drawing (62)

Are school budget cuts cramping your style? Then look at this award winning, FREE drawing application! Tux Paint is an "open source" drawing software for young students (preK - grade 6) and is available to the public at no cost. If you are familiar with Kid Pix, you will feel right at home with Tux Paint. The design is straightforward, and easy to navigate. The center of the screen serves as a large canvas with drawing tools on either side. Beneath the screen is a color palette. A cute penguin cartoon character directs students through the program and provides helpful tips. Some of the features include a large, kid friendly mouse pointer, brushes, stamps, sounds, erasers, letters, numbers, "magic effects," and an undo/redo option. Save artwork directly onto a slide finder page without having to create a file name. The installation is quick and easy even for older computers. First, download the application itself, and then the stamp collection. The number of stamps and the variety of images is amazing! Feel free to install Tux Paint on as many computers as you wish. Tux Paint will work on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows, OS X 10.3, and Linux. The "Tux Paint Configuration" tool is a separate file found on the "Tux Paint" download page. Having the controls in a different location makes it difficult for students to adjust the settings. Simply open the Tux Paint Configuration file and a main control panel will come up. From here, the supervising adult can control the screen size, sound, mouse, print settings, and save functions. Adjust the settings and simplify the program for younger children. Choose from approximately 80 different languages to run Tux Paint.

tag(s): creativity (87), drawing (62), painting (54), preK (286)