Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Flake Pad is a very simple little website that lets you create geometric snowflakes using basic shapes and a grid. To make the flake, choose a shape and click a spot on the grid. You can add as many or as few shapes as you like to your flake. View the completed flake off the grid for a screen shot then include it in other projects or print using the print button on the site.

tag(s): creativity (86), geometric shapes (134), snow (17), symmetry (26)

Create gif animations easily from uploaded images using this site. Images can be uploaded from computer files, pulled from Flickr, or pulled from YouTube videos. Choose up to four images, select size and speed, then select the continue button in the right-hand corner of the screen. Images can take up to a few minutes to process before seeing the resulting gif. When the animated gif is created, share using links on the page to many popular social sharing sites or download to your computer.
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tag(s): animation (64), images (264)

Blog your way into the latest social technology using edublogs. Use the free service to set up a blog as a student, teacher, or campus. This education friendly tool avoids some of the "public interaction" that can offer inappropriate content. Upgrade to more advanced features, to include more options. The additional information on blogging makes this site very valuable even if you already have a blogging platform. Find a plethora of advice, tutorials, PDFs, and lesson plans for blogging. This site is a great reference site for all who are beginning to use blogs, or even look for more varied and effective ways to blog with students, or even other classes. Compare this tool to other free blogging tools mentioned in TeachersFirst's Blog Basics for the Classroom . 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.
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tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), writing (324)

Wondermind is a set of four mini-activities with accompanying videos, illustrating the fascinating ways our brains work. Experience the activities/illustrations to help prepare for the interactive video that explains an aspect of the brain, such as how we learn language, how the brain develops from childhood to adulthood, how memory works, how we sense our own location, and how we learn self-control. Wondermind, set to the theme of Alice in Wonderland, will delight you with the quirky, clever, or just plain weird art inspired by Alice in Wonderland and used as part of the designs. The activities can be skipped if you prefer to just view the videos.

tag(s): body systems (40), brain (56), human body (93), logic (161), psychology (65)

Find an incredible number of activities that will challenge, amuse, entertain and engage young artists for hours on end. Tools include a collage machine, 3-D twirler, still life, paintbox, and much more. Scroll down the home page to find links to activities with a short description of the activity along with directions on use. Some activities require Shockwave plugins, and some include a link to print finished products or save as an image file on computers. Adobe Shockwave for Windows will download automatically with your permission. Mac users are advised to download the desktop version. There is now a free iPad app with nine new activities.

tag(s): collages (17), drawing (62), painting (54)

Here you will find a "kid-appropriate" search tool featuring countless general topics: Facts & Reference, Computers/The Internet, The Arts, Strange & Mysterious, Hot Topics, The World, Science & Math, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Nature, and several others. Within each of the main topics are subtopics. For example, in the Classroom section you will find English, Foreign Langauges, Math, History, Reference Tools, Shapes, Woodwork, Colors, Art, Religion, Philosophy, Social Studies, and Homework Help. There is a ton here to explore! The information includes articles and images/photos.

tag(s): alphabet (53), animals (294), animation (64), clip art (11), colors (63), comics and cartoons (55), cooking (32), crafts (70), creative writing (124), cross cultural understanding (173), cultures (181), dance (31), dinosaurs (43), disabilities (32), diseases (66), drawing (62), fitness (39), flags (18), folktales (34), geometric shapes (134), grammar (137), homework (29), insects (68), journalism (74), measurement (122), museums (53), mysteries (23), numbers (120), nutrition (140), oceans (149), operations (72), origami (14), painting (54), photography (131), poetry (194), psychology (65), rainforests (18), religions (95), search engines (48), seasons (37), sign language (10), social networking (61), spelling (97), sports (82), trivia (19), vocabulary (238), weather (160)

Create drawings and simple gif animations. Four canvas sizes are available for drawing and two sizes are included for creating gif animations. Select a drawing tool to draw free hand or select pre-defined shapes to use in your images. Click the save button to download your drawing or animation to your computer.

tag(s): drawing (62), graphic design (49)

Save the planet, one load of laundry at a time with Project Laundry List. This website is dedicated to encouraging people to use clotheslines and other sensible alternatives to wasteful energy consumption. Don't miss the Cost Calculator: a spreadsheet that you download to your computer, enter the amount and type of laundry you do, and automatically calculate energy and water costs of clothes care. It even shows your washer's carbon dioxide emissions! The calculator suggests easy ways to reduce costs, which, in turn reduces your impact on the environment. In the Programs Education section, find "The Clothesline Plan." It provides strategies about how to get involved with the clothesline, cold water washing movement. Featured here, among other good laundry history resources, is also "National Hanging Out Day" which is used to educate and create awareness about energy savings through the use of clotheslines.
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tag(s): earth day (60), ecology (103), environment (252), holidays (189)

YouTube Teachers and the related YouTube EDU form an education-oriented area of YouTube that categorizes videos into subjects for easy retrieval. YouTube is a vast online video library. You upload, view, share, and comment on content found on the site. Videos found on the full YouTube range from commercial to educational content. YouTube often has questionable content so is blocked in many schools. Some schools block YouTube simply because streaming video "hogs" network resources. If inappropriate content is your administration's main concern, YouTube offers a way your tech department can configure a limited access channel. See the explanation video and related information to share with the tech department here.

YouTube is very valuable to educators looking for great educational content. There are videos for early elementary concepts like safety up through college-level courses. YouTube has the ability to stream content into channels based upon your viewing preferences, and videos are easily marked as "favorites" to find in your history. It offers suggested channels based on your watching history including trending and popular videos. Parents can filter out objectionable content and comments using Safety Mode -- which is often disabled.

Create a YouTube channel to collect videos for easy access by students. Upload teacher-created videos for your class to your channel. Do you know a great video not featured on YouTube EDU? Suggest it for the EDU collection.

tag(s): video (266)

Springo is a portal designed for preschool and elementary students to surf for age appropriate websites and information. Click if you are under 8 or over 8, and a list of links appears. Choose if you are a boy or girl to find activities geared more towards gender stereotypes (car activities for boys, princess games for girls, etc.). Note that the actual content is NOT part of Springo. All links on this site are approved by Springo staff; however. Picture icons help you find information like homework help, sports websites, online research resources, art activities, educational interactives, and (of course) games. Sample topics in the Under 8 section include: Educational Games, Coloring Pages, Learning, Characters, Sports, Hobbies, Games for Girls, and many more. If you are over 8, some of the sample activities include: Reference, Science, Math, Learning, Making Friends (warning: some of these sites involve social networking), Hobbies, and more!
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tag(s): bookmarks (43), preK (271)

Poster My Wall is a simple online tool to create posters and videos. Make and download simple posters for free and without registration. Note that free downloads are not high-quality print resolution, so they may appear "fuzzy" if printed in large formats. The simple tools look and feel like a computer program. Choose or upload photos, backgrounds, Flickr photos, and clip-art. You can move and re-size using the floating symbols and add multimedia. Register to be able to email products to friends. (Registration requires email, but there is no waiting for a confirmation.) Obtain the poster or video URL by emailing to yourself. (In the email, click "view larger" to get the link). Check out the reviewer. Enjoy the free teacher accounts where students don't need to register.

tag(s): collages (17), posters (43), video (266)

SoundCloud is a sound sharing site. Upload your favorite sounds and share using your SoundCloud free account. Share via a link or a choice of embed widgets to add into a website, blog, podcast, Wordpress, email, instant message, or social network. You can choose to use previously recorded sounds or record your own sounds using this site. Share the sounds on the web, with your group, or privately between users. Use your drop box to receive recorded material from others. This is the perfect place to create your mixtapes!
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tag(s): creative writing (124), descriptive writing (42), expository writing (31), songs (46), sound (72), sounds (43)

Draw A Stickman is a delightful, entertaining site that encourages creativity and fun! This is a mini interactive story that has students reading and following directions, solving mysteries, thinking creatively, and solving problems. Start by selecting an episode, then begin the adventure, you draw a simple stick figure and then bring him or her to life. Your figure is faced with several challenges; you must follow directions and draw several props for your stick figure to use. You will love the hero of the story (the character you created) and the villain (a dragon). Finished stories can be replayed or shared on Facebook or email. There is also an online gallery for students to explore and view others' creations.

tag(s): creative writing (124), digital storytelling (156), directions (11), drawing (62), interactive stories (22)

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. Browse the site without registration. Type Edu or education in the search bar, and find two different Education results. Clicking a picture gives a description and the option to Follow or Comment. To create/add to your pinboards, register for free. If you have an account, you can Repin the picture to a pinboard you have titled and created within your account. Click on the image again to visit the original site of the image. Often this is just what you are looking for to learn specific details. You can also search Pinterest for specific items such as Guided Reading, File Folder Activities, or other classroom needs. Pinterest members can "follow" other users and see their new items as they add them to their pinboards. Use Pinterest on any device or computer, and there is a related Facebook app.

tag(s): architecture (76), cooking (32), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (147), fashion (12), guided reading (33), nutrition (140), organizational skills (88), professional development (385), social media (48), social networking (61)

Investigate the world of art history accompanied by two professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory started as a a blog featuring free audio guides, podcasts, and videos. Later it became an interactive exploration of eras, styles, and artists. Smarthistory has recently merged with KahnAcademy utilizing the same concept: that high quality education should be free and available to all. You can watch Smarthistory videos on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable in class.

tag(s): art history (102), medieval (32), renaissance (38)

Public Domain Pictures is a database of pictures allowed to be used in any way that you see fit. You can also upload pictures to share. The only time to worry about a model or property release is if you choose to use an image for commercial use. Most images are free. Enjoy some time browsing pictures. Please note that a log-in (with an email address) is required to upload your own pictures. You do not need an account to download a picture for free. Be sure not to click on the "Premium Download" button, as this download is for a fee (even with the "free" photos). Scroll down a bit and click on "download picture" to download for free.
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tag(s): graphic design (49), images (264), photography (131)

Even though the site says the "challenge is coming soon" just click the video and it will come up in YouTube. The Download works perfectly. Use a marshmallow challenge to motivate your students! The concept of this project is to have teams of people work together to create a free standing structure that supports a marshmallow. Sounds overly simple? Well, not always. The given materials for each team are simple, inexpensive, and require creative thinking and problem solving skills to use! All in all this adds up to a fun, interesting, and entertaining activity for young to older students, business people, and any group that needs to learn how to work and think together. Spaghetti, string, marshmallows and masking tape are all the supplies that you will need. Have fun with this, your students are sure to do so! The site recommends giving your class one hour to complete the project and activities. They also mention this project would work for smaller groups (4 students) up to larger groups (800), divided into groups of 2 or 4 and working together. There is a typo in the opening paragraph of the site. However the activity content was worth looking over the typo.

tag(s): creativity (86), design (79), engineering (129), problem solving (233), structures (18)

Space.com is your one stop extraterrestrial resource! Featuring current information and articles about all things out of this world, Space.com is a resource full of images, videos, and interactives. Images here are brilliant and beautiful. Articles are professional and meaningful.
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tag(s): moon (73), nasa (28), space (220), stars (70), sun (70)

This short animated YouTube clip shares specific copyright issues, focusing on reusing previously developed materials available on the Internet by uploading and presenting them on YouTube. It begins with a written quiz on the right side of the page to assess prior knowledge and also to get viewers thinking about copyright issues. It presents the message that uploading copyrighted material onto YouTube can have serious consequences. It also explores the fact that, in addition to written and broadcast media, performances and other public presentations may also be copyrighted. It explains the concept of Fair Use in easy-to-understand terms and examples. It also points out that you may watch for people who misuse material and report any such items so they will be removed from YouTube. The video is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then it may not be viewable.
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tag(s): copyright (44), multimedia (53), plagiarism (34)