Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Provide the best literacy program for your students by implementing ideas and assessments from Reading and Writing Resources Project. Find high quality, research-based reading and writing resources developed by a Teachers College, Columbia University and Lucy Caulkins. Assessment information includes running records, the concept of print, letter/sound information, high-frequency words, and independent reading benchmarks. Additional Assessments include Independent Reading Books, Comprehension Proficiency, and Monitor Reading Volume and Stamina with book logs and daily reading examples. Under Book Lists find units of study for teen readers with titles and authors categorized by genre with quality literature suggestions. Many videos depict classes in action discovering Narrative, Informative/Explanatory, and Opinion/Argument writing. One video series shows Danielson's Framework for Teaching evaluations, with classroom teachers being observed using reading/writing workshop. This includes PDF's with the notes and scoring. Find a baseline of excellent student writing sorted by grade level using Readers' Notebook and student writing samples. Nonfiction text sets give examples or resources for you to use in the classroom. Find text examples to use with your students featuring health and consumer science topics.
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tag(s): assessment (147), book lists (167), reading comprehension (149), reading lists (77), science of reading (34), writers workshop (31), writing (325)

Common Core Conversations is your place to find Common Core resources. The Standards, Resources from state education departments, free resources in all subject areas, using tech tools for learning the standards, and a section for parent information provides a great basis for your Common Core needs. Resources include: ENL/ELL, library, careers, family and consumer sciences. Join the online community to join in the conversations.

tag(s): commoncore (73)

The Common Core Standards in every grade level has a standard using text features. Each grade level builds upon the knowledge from the previous grade. Lerner publishers has created a PDF source (chart) for teaching text features to meet Common Core Standards. Each grade level provides features found in social studies and science content area texts. Lerner Sources (charts) are organized by features that help understand the organization of the text, text features for visual aids, and text features that point out important information. An example of each text feature along with the purpose follows. Each is given in a downloadable, color PDF chart.

tag(s): charts and graphs (171), commoncore (73), reading comprehension (149), reading strategies (96)

Use Sway to create interactive presentations across all devices. Drag and drop content from your device, social networks, and the web directly onto your Sway canvas. Log in using your Microsoft account to begin or create a new account using your email and a password. Add content to your storyline using links to add text, images, and media. Change the look of your Sway using the Design tool to change the color palette, layout, and fonts. When finished, click the Share button for options to share to Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, URL, or copy the embed code. Sway will work on any device with a modern Internet browser and an Internet connection. They also have an iOS app. The introduction video and tutorials are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. Note: "New video and audio uploads will be discontinued June 10, 2024. We recommend that you embed video and audio files." There is a link to instructions after that statement.

tag(s): communication (129), digital storytelling (154), Microsoft (80), multimedia (53), slides (43), visualizations (11)

Create an interactive timeline; scroll down the page to browse through the Gallery to find lesson plans, templates, and Sutori's library of ready-made timelines. The Sutori timelines in the library are the creation of Sutori's team of historians and teachers and are Common Core Standards aligned. When creating a free timeline, it can include images, text, and collaboration. Sign up with your email and get a link to start with a walk-through tutorial to help set up classes, students, and timelines. Students will need the class code. There is a part of the site that has timelines and lessons bundled for a fee. This review is for the free part of this tool. Sutori will work on any device with a modern web browser and an Internet connection.
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tag(s): american revolution (82), civil war (139), immigration (68), photosynthesis (21), timelines (56), womens suffrage (52), world war 1 (77)

Everyone loves a good joke or riddle, and you do not need any bells and whistles to get one across. At this site find ten categories and over 300 jokes and riddles all free to use. Enjoy the jokes sequentially, choose a category, or take your chances with a random pick. All jokes and riddles are suitable for all age groups.

tag(s): humor (15), multilingual (77), riddles (15)

Instantly grammar check any piece of writing using GrammarCheck's editor. Simply copy/paste your text into this website, and receive instant feedback. Click on the color coded information and find style suggestions, spelling errors, and grammar suggestions. There is a premium option with more features.
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tag(s): editing (93), proofreading (21), writing (325)

Visual Writing Prompts provides a considerable choice of creative writing prompts using Flickr images. Each prompt has an unusual image along with basic information such as the Creative Commons Credit and appropriate age groups. In addition, the Prompt Explanation gives added discussion questions. Scroll through the prompts using arrows or by genre, grade, or subject. Each image has an icon to download your favorite prompts. There is really no need to download the prompts unless you want to save them for quick access in the future.

tag(s): creative writing (124), descriptive writing (42), expository writing (31), letter writing (19), persuasive writing (58), poetry (193), writing (325)

Still wrestling with Common Core? Let Shmoop help with math and language arts Common Core resources. Search for any standard or browse through standards links to begin. Links to each standard offer a tab explaining the standard and another tab with aligned resources. Resources may include videos, teaching guides, sample assignments, and more. Not all standards include resources, but most do.
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tag(s): commoncore (73)

Discover a large collection of free to use images for presentations, slide shows, reports, and more at Free Tiiu Pix. The creator of this site designed all images available. Go to the image gallery to browse images sorted by categories. The categories range from Architecture, Food, Animals, Insects, Plants and more. Right click to save images or choose optional links for different resolution sizes. In addition to the image gallery, be sure to check out the slide presentation gallery including visually appealing PowerPoint presentations on many topics. From the Clip Art Gallery (with free clip art to use) there is also a link to Learn How to Draw Your Own Clip Art. These are FREE to use. However, be sure to read and understand the Terms of Use! Note: you must be 18 to use this site. So while this is an excellent site for teachers to find resources, this shouldn't be shared with students to use independently.
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tag(s): images (263), photography (130), slides (43)

edX offers access to many of the best courses offered at top learning institutions - for FREE! Institutions include MIT, Harvard, and Berkley. Classes are available to complete for a Certificate of Achievement or as an audit. Choose from courses with topics in many areas including computers, literature, and humanities. Each course listing offers a short description of the course, details about the university offering the course, estimated time involved, course staff, and available options for taking the course. Start any course at any time. Take the edX Demo course to get a good idea of how courses work and find out about the online learning experience.

tag(s): aeronautics (11), architecture (75), artificial intelligence (177), china (81), circuits (20), civil rights (209), computers (109), electricity (61), engineering (129), environment (252), evolution (89), folktales (34), greeks (46), magnetism (36), medicine (57), nutrition (140), poetry (193), psychology (65), religions (95), shakespeare (99), solar energy (34), speech (69), statistics (121), terrorism (41)

Read classic children's literature passed on through generations at Childhood Reading. Browse through titles sorted by author or illustrator or use the keyword search to find favorite titles. Although this site hasn't been updated for quite a while, the contents remain timeless and useful in many settings.
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tag(s): folktales (34), stories and storytelling (58)

This PDF explains the teaching strategies of Cubing and Think Dots. Cubing is an instructional strategy that asks students to consider a concept from different perspectives. Use ideas from the site to understand how to use cubes to differentiate teaching for various groups of students. Similar to cubes, Think Dots incorporates the idea of students constructing the meaning of concepts through the use of activity cards correlated to the roll of a dice. The PDF starts with an overview of Bloom's Taxonomy and its revision.

tag(s): blooms taxonomy (7), differentiation (84), learning styles (18), professional development (385)

Technology Tailgate is a collaborative blog network for teachers to collaborate, share ideas and show ways to incorporate technology into primary classrooms. Specifically designed to meet Common Core Standards through technology, entries offer viewers ideas for infusing technology in everyday lessons. Use the keyword search bar to find specific information, scroll through daily posts, or click on tags for subject-specific posts. Search through archives dating back to 2012 for earlier posts.

tag(s): blogs (65)

WikiWand is a browser add-on to enhance the look and use of Wikipedia. Follow links to add the extension to Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Once installed, WikiWand adds an easy to use table of contents to the side of the screen, easier to read typography and a handy preview-on-hover feature. Personalize your screen by changing fonts and size of fonts.

tag(s): media literacy (109), writing (325)

Classmill allows you to create your own online classes by uploading videos, links, files, and images. Create your account to start your own class or explore classes already online. When creating a class choose from privacy options such as invite only for attendees. Add content within modules for each class using tabs to upload or embed information. Once your content is complete, use the "Ready" toggle switch to make it accessible to participants. Use the "Invite" button to invite users using their email address.

tag(s): classroom management (120)

Do you need to choose items in a truly random way? If so, this site is for you! Random.org offers many different categories for receiving randomized information. Choose from the links for random lists, coin flippers, dates, passwords, dice rolls, and much more. Follow directions on each page to set the form and receive results. There is also an app for both Android and iOs devices.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), gamification (83), probability (99), resources (84)

Here is an excellent site for finding images for non-commercial use that will have the proper citation downloaded with it. Find a photo you want to use. Click the download link under the picture. The downloaded image will have the appropriate attribution information with it. Note: right clicking on the photo will not produce the attribution information. Our editors found all photos to be "class appropriate." However, it is always best to use caution with image searching. Provide students with clear guidelines and expectations.

tag(s): images (263), photography (130), search engines (48)

This impressive infographic shows information about Viking or Nordic Mythology. Find short explanations for Yggdrasil, Asgard, Vallaha, Odin, Thor, Freyr, Frigg, Loki, Midgard, Valkyries, and Hel. Click on the infographic to make it smaller or larger.

tag(s): myths and legends (37), vikings (10)