Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

PBS Learning Media's Banking and Finance collection features various resources, including videos, audio, documents, lesson plans, webpages, and collections for kindergarten through grade 12. There are thousands of resources available to search. Video topics include loan officers, federal reserve banks, financial literacy, and goods and services. Lesson plans on financial literacy, homesteading supplies, manufacturing, and more. Lesson plans include a summary, time allotted, learning objectives, preparation, procedure, and standards. Filters are available to sort by grade level, subject, resource type, length of video/audio, language, accessibility, and additional features. You can share everything in the collection via Google Classroom, a link to students, and social sharing.

tag(s): banks (8), careers (156), financial literacy (93)

Explore this valuable tool for educators; it offers curated collections of primary sources, historical documents, and research materials across a wide range of subjects. These guides help teachers incorporate authentic historical artifacts, government records, and literary works into their lessons, enhancing students' critical thinking and research skills. With ready-to-use teaching resources, topic guides, and bibliographies, this site supports interdisciplinary learning and provides rich content for inquiry-based projects in history, literature, civics, and more.

tag(s): african american (115), architecture (75), black history (133), branches of government (65), civil rights (209), civil war (139), conservation (102), energy (133), engineering (129), environment (252), foreign policy (13), hispanic (36), industrialization (12), jews (33), latin (23), literature (222), middle east (50), native americans (109), nutrition (140), photography (130), politics (118), population (51), religions (95), Research (87), sports (82), statistics (121), Teacher Utilities (198), women (150), womenchangemaker (36), womens suffrage (52)

The Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard shares the latest information concerning the severity of the food crisis, emergent risks, and measures to support and strengthen agri-food systems globally. The interactive map includes searchable data by country, current alerts, actions, and emerging risks. Explore the country profiles to find additional in-depth details of individual nations' food security profiles. Further information available includes resources detailing food security indicators, research, financing, and more.

tag(s): cross cultural understanding (173), inequalities (25), maps (220), nutrition (140), STEM (297), sustainability (50)

The American Museum of Natural History's "Traveling the Silk Road: Educator Resources" provides a wealth of materials for teaching about the history, culture, and significance of the Silk Road. This site includes lesson plans, activities, and multimedia resources that explore trade, technology, and cultural exchange along this historic route. Engaging visuals and clear explanations help students connect the past to the present while fostering curiosity about global history. These resources are ideal for middle and high school classrooms to learn about history, geography, and economics all together.

tag(s): asia (116), china (81), cultures (180), museums (52)

PBS's Economics in Ancient India highlights economics from the Ancient Indus civilization in the Indus River Valley. It also contains a worksheet that allows students to summarize information on the characteristics, unknowns, and trade of the Indus Valley Civilization. The worksheet also has an essay prompt for students to describe the trading patterns.

tag(s): asia (116), india (32), middle east (50)

The Mini Economic Business Portfolio is a project-based learning, free website that teaches what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur by engaging students in discussions and creating a classroom business. The website allows students of all grade levels (kindergarten through twelve) to share a scope and sequence, lesson ideas, summative assessments, and rubrics. Remote Learning Lessons (ideal for flipped and blended learning) are located under each of the following subtopics: grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12. Remote Learning Lessons include saving or spending, what our business should produce, what price we should charge, why different countries produce different things, and more. Lessons come with videos, additional resources, and alignment with the National Financial Literacy and Common Core Standards. They can be uploaded to SmartBoard Notebook and Google Classroom.

tag(s): business (52), financial literacy (93), money (113), stock market (11)

This page of The History Channel features Take a Veteran to School Day. Here, you can register for this special day and get How to Guides, Curriculum and Planning Guides, Student Participation Forms, Additional Resources, and a few others in PDF format. The History Channel's Teacher Resources section provides a wealth of materials to support educators in teaching about veterans across various grade levels. It offers lesson plans, video clips, interactive activities, and primary source documents that bring historical events to life. The site also features multimedia content such as documentaries and curated video series, making it a dynamic and engaging tool for enhancing history lessons in the classroom. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.
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tag(s): terrorism (41), veterans (27), vietnam (38), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (161)

Gigafact's fact briefs offer rich opportunities for classroom engagement and digital citizenship development. Students can analyze the structured format of the fact briefs, including the question-and-answer breakdown and linked social media posts, to understand how information is presented and verified. Topics include Democracy and Elections, Economy, Justice, Education, Immigration, and more. These briefs can serve as case studies in media literacy lessons, prompting discussions on critical thinking, source evaluation, and responsible sharing online. Classroom debates and collaborative discussions based on fact briefs encourage students to engage in respectful discourse while honing their fact-checking skills. By integrating Gigafact's resources, educators can empower students to become informed digital citizens who critically evaluate information, engage in civil online conversations, and promote responsible sharing practices.

tag(s): media literacy (109)

The Crash Course has over 45 videos on topics ranging from Anatomy to Zoology, Artificial Intelligence to Outbreak Science. There are the more common topics one might want to learn about, like Ecology, Films, Geography, and much more. All videos are free to watch. Each video also includes a short description (some with lesson stem ideas). Crash Course videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district/school blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable. The good news for teachers whose schools block YouTube is that you can download the video if you fill out a form. Go to the Download tab from the top menu, select Students & Teachers, scroll down the page, and follow the directions.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), black history (133), branches of government (65), business (52), climate (84), computers (109), copyright (44), ecology (103), energy (133), engineering (129), human body (93), literature (222), media literacy (109), myths and legends (37), plants (146), politics (118), space (222), statistics (121), video (266), zoology (18)

Gauth uses AI to provide homework help in math and science topics, including chemistry, physics, calculus, and more. Under the menu topic - Subjects, you will also find help with Literature, Writing, Social Science, and others. To begin, upload a question or an image. Gauth then provides a step-by-step response with a detailed explanation of the answer. Find additional explanations by selecting Copilot, which is built into Gauth's platform, or by choosing from suggestions for related questions. You don't need to register, but doing so will allow access to your search history.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), equations (119), literature (222), statistics (121), STEM (297), tutorials (52), writing (325)

This site is part of a thirteen-part series of lessons demonstrating how to use Google search to find historical digital publications and scanned newspapers. The short step-by-step instructions include pictures showing how to search the archives for news articles from 1995 and search terms for finding scanned newspaper articles before 1995. This lesson is available online or as a PDF document.

tag(s): journalism (74), primary sources (117), search engines (48), timelines (56)

Plix (Play, Learn, Interact, and eXplore) shares over 1,000 interactives, providing practice and exploring math and science concepts. Math topics range from adding whole numbers to calculus concepts; science content includes biology, physics, earth, and life science, among others. Follow the directions found in each interactive to move the slider to show changes in each story problem or question. Plix integrates with several learning management systems, including Google Classroom, Schoology, and Canvas. Share Plix activities by creating a new class on the Plix site or assigning it to your learning management system.

tag(s): angles (52), area (53), atoms (44), charts and graphs (171), data (151), decimals (85), earth (184), earthquakes (46), equations (119), fractions (160), geometric shapes (135), integers (21), latitude (10), magnetism (36), molecules (44), oceans (149), planets (113), plate tectonics (22), prime numbers (26), probability (99), rock cycle (12), rocks (35), scientific method (48), seasons (37), simulations (19), solar system (110), statistics (121), STEM (297), Teacher Utilities (198), volume (34), water (102)

Utilizing the census to teach statistics using real-world information and data is the focus of the conversation in this article shared by EdSurge. Applying real-world data, such as census data, in the lessons helps students develop critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of their communities. In addition, this article shares various tools and resources to access and analyze census data, including online databases and mapping software.

tag(s): census (13), data (151), statistics (121)

C-Span Classroom offers free, video-based classroom materials for teachers. Browse the links on the site to find Bell Ringers, Lesson Plans, and additional teaching resources. Under Topics (on the far right top menu) are other tools including a Constitutional Clips video series, Classroom Deliberations based upon current issues, and On This Day in History featuring significant historical events using video clips.

tag(s): branches of government (65), civil rights (209), constitution (96), declaration of independence (16), elections (82), electoral college (22), environment (252), journalism (74), nasa (30), STEM (297), supreme court (27), video (266)

This mathematics page includes math activities for students of all ages and abilities based on problem-solving activities and riddles integrated into many different topics. Each lesson typically consists of a video that explains the concept or problem-solving strategy, as well as interactive quizzes and other resources to help reinforce the learning. Many tasks also come with additional resources such as lesson plans, discussion questions, and further reading. Use the filters to narrow down options by grade level, type of content, video length, and subtitles options. In addition, each activity includes categories such as Science and Technology or The Arts; use these links to find related activities. Registration isn't required; however, it allows you to save your favorite activities and customize lessons.

tag(s): critical thinking (127), engineering (129), financial literacy (93), numbers (120), probability (99), problem solving (233), riddles (16), STEM (297)

Felt is a free map creator that makes it easy for anyone to create and work with maps. Under the Use Cases tab on the top right, you'll find Education with ideas for teaching with Felt. Easily share your maps with others by sharing a link or embedding them in another tool. Felt's simple toolbar makes it easy to map data or routes and add notes, links, or images. Pinning locations, adding notes, coloring specific areas, clipping out any location to emphasize, and adding layers to your maps allows you to map just about anything you could imagine! You must be at least thirteen years old to create a free account to create maps. This site is currently in a public beta version.

tag(s): map skills (63), maps (220)

Georgia Virtual Learning is the online education headquarters for the Georgia Department of Education and offers over 100 virtual courses for middle and high school students. Choose from studies in all core content areas and the fine arts and world languages. An additional option features courses in CTAE/Electives. These offerings include classes in finance, computer science, fitness, and more. After selecting a course to view, use the module to proceed through the contents. Each module includes an introduction featuring essential questions and interactive content and concludes with final assessments and a module test.

tag(s): art history (103), body systems (40), business (52), chinese (45), drawing (61), environment (252), financial literacy (93), french (75), geology (62), japanese (47), latin (23), literature (222), music theory (46), myths and legends (37), narrative (16), novels (34), nutrition (140), oceans (149), OER (43), photography (130), plagiarism (34), poetry (193), psychology (65), robotics (24), romeo & juliet (7), short stories (18), sociology (23), space (222), spanish (109), STEM (297), writers workshop (31)

Teach fundamental civic skills and concepts using the videos and lessons provided by United4SC. Using the top menu bar, click Categories and select from the many different topics, including economics, history, democracy, and more, to find materials that engage students in enhanced thinking activities. Each lesson includes a video along with downloadable lesson plans and student worksheets. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

tag(s): branches of government (65), civil rights (209), constitution (96), democracy (24), diseases (67), elections (82), environment (252), ethics (21), media literacy (109), pilgrims (12), psychology (65), racism (79), slavery (79), supreme court (27)

Take a look at the earth through several different lenses with this series of interactive earth globes. Choose from fifteen globes representing the earth through the population, energy consumption, population density, and more. Each globe includes a color key and viewing options that allow viewers to have automatic rotation and earth tilt. Use your mouse to move the globe as desired.

tag(s): climate (84), earth (184), energy (133), population (51), temperature (35)

BouncyMaps provides maps from a different perspective than physical size, showing how large the map would be based on other criteria. Choose from the provided topics to see maps change size proportionally to population, economy, religion, and more. Use the button to toggle back and forth between the regular and bouncy maps. Scroll down past each map to view a list of countries and data used to create the map.

tag(s): agriculture (49), maps (220), minerals (13), population (51), religions (95), visualizations (11)