Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Find answers to the most curious questions that students ask on this great site. Search the site for your topic of interest, such as how cars work, what makes a refrigerator cold, or how construction has changed and the materials that are used. Articles provide diagrams, text, videos, images, and a range of other resources to show a curious student what makes something tick. The site's explanations are a great resource for "kitchen science" projects, getting budding inventors started, or providing added explanations of how things work the way they do. Click the top menu topics for the various subjects such as Adventure, Animals, and Autos through Money, Science, and Tech. Can't find your answer? Ask in the search, and it may become the question of the week. Sign up for the monthly newsletter. Search the other areas of the site such as "Games," "Quizzes," and "Pics and Puzzles." Find great podcasts and blogs. Scroll to the bottom to find fun facts, trivia, and even a poll of the day! Ignore the advertising; the site content is worth it.

tag(s): independent reading (82), questioning (36), trivia (19)

This free, fast loading, online calculator can be viewed full screen and operated by your mouse or keyboard. Various types are available from the most basic one to the scientific or BMI calculator. There is also a stopwatch tool available. If you speak a language other than English, simply click to change to the language of your choice - it's that easy.

Be aware: this site does include advertisements.
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tag(s): latin (23)

MindMeister is a free mind mapping program. It is easy to use online, on your mobile, or offline. Only the BASIC plan is free, allowing you up to 3 free collaborative mind maps. 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. There are many highly interactive features: printing, sharing (emailing), and collaborating with others in "real time."

tag(s): brainstorming (18), DAT device agnostic tool (146), graphic organizers (49), mind map (28)

Here the writing teacher will find writing prompts galore and even more! Scrolling down the "Home" page you will find links to all sorts of helpful information and resources. Check it out! "The Daily Ten" (as in 10 minutes a day) are prompts posted weekly, plus, you can see past "Daily Ten" prompts or preview prompts a week in advance. The "Mega Prompt" area gives a more complete scenario for students to write about, and encourages student publishing. Be sure to investigate "Writing Around the World" for topics of the week and publishing student work.

tag(s): essays (21), writing (325)

At The National Writing Project (NWP) you will find all sorts of ideas, advice, and resources to help you help your students to become better writers. This is a jewel of a website that is dedicated to promoting writing and teachers who are working to help students become successful writers and learners. This reviewer read an article about teachers using photos as prompts for writing. Within the article were several resources and ideas that can be used immediately. This is a massive site with lots of information. Take your time and go through it. You do not have to join the site to read or search for articles and resources. However, if you do join, you'll have the option to sign up for events, participate in discussion forums, receive E-Voice, the NWP's bi-monthly email newsletter that provides news updates, links to articles of interest to writing teachers, and other information about the NWP community.

tag(s): essays (21), writing (325)

Use this online tool to check which famous writer you write like. Simply type or copy and paste any text: a journal entry, poem, comment, essay, or a work in progress. For reliable results, include at least a few paragraphs before clicking the analyze button. It's as easy as that. Your word choice and writing style will be compared with those of famous authors. The program doesn't store or use your input for any other purposes. A pop-up may appear asking students to register. You can simply click on the X to close the window. No registration is necessary to use the site.
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tag(s): authors (108), creative writing (125), writing (325)

This humorous interactive challenges students to place punctuation correctly into sentences. Semicolons have been abused for years and now they are fighting back! Head over to Punctuation Island to help semicolons fight the abuse they have suffered from periods, commas and colons. Students will be able to practice all forms of punctuation. Place punctuation correctly into sentences to win this game.

tag(s): punctuation (25)

English Online is a premier resource for all elementary and secondary teachers of English. It includes what students need to know, what teachers need to know, and even a section on how our teaching impacts learning. This site was created and is based and maintained by the New Zealand Ministry of Education; however its uses are internationally sound and practical. Whether you are searching for language and literature resources, teacher exchange of ideas, assessment tools and processes, strategies, or sequential units and models, you will find all of the offerings to be plentiful. The website is also available in various language dialects of New Zealand.

tag(s): figurative language (19), professional development (392), vocabulary development (95), writing (325)

Although this is intended as an ESL/ELL site, the focused activities, exercises, and games apply to teaching grammar in any classroom. The straightforward approach is a rich resource for those hard-to-grasp grammatical rules and structures. Complete with a quick reference section and explanations, Grammar and Words provides a number of options for practicing grammar and usage. This could also be very useful in an elementary class just being introduced to these concepts of grammar.

tag(s): grammar (138), speech (69)

Click on 10 Easy Steps to find out how to implement this tried and true technique for cooperative learning in a classroom studying any subject. Basically, teachers divide classrooms into groups of 5 or 6 students and appoint one as the leader to direct and report on the group's activities. Teachers divide the day's learning into as many groups as there are in their classrooms. Students read their parts. Groups may exchange expert learners to report on what is going on in other groups. Back in the original groups, each group reports on its part and students have some type of evaluative activity, like a quiz or other summary activity.
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Use this exceedingly simple idea to manage your time handling email or to generate writing prompts that are meaningful in today's world. The site itself simply explains the rationale for limiting all email responses to five sentences, saving you time digging through the mailbox and increasing the likelihood that others will actually read your response.

tag(s): writing (325)

Anne Frank in the World 1929-1945 is an online critical thinking unit designed to use the story of a young girl as a catalyst to understand the themes of discrimination, diversity, peace, and justice. It includes several worksheets, readings, images, lessons and objectives delineated for various grade levels, and exposes students to vocabulary and concepts related to the cruel realities that Anne and other victims of the Holocaust endured. What distinguishes this site from many of the others is the sensitivity to Anne's story from her viewpoint, which is invaluable because she was a teenager during the Nazi period and had many similar interests and concerns as today's teenagers.

tag(s): anne frank (10), holocaust (43), jews (50), nazis (8), remembrance day (5), women (152), world war 2 (162)

Create polls that can be answered online or through the use of text messaging. Voters submit answers by sending SMS messages to a short number. Poll everywhere tallies the responses which can then be accessed and viewed. Use the free plan for unlimited question and unlimited voters. Make it visual by creating a word cloud of the responses. Use the apps for PowerPoint or Keynote slides of the poll results and create charts that can be embedded into a web page. There are several other apps such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and ohers. Simple and easy to use!

tag(s): polls and surveys (49), quiz (66), quizzes (90)

This is a site created in partnership with Google as a project to help generations share and talk more through social networking. The concept is that young people ask older people to share their photos; these photos are then uploaded through Google maps to show the world as it once was. The older pictures can be compared to today's images through Google street view. In addition to uploading photos, stories can also be shared about the time period and the pictures.

tag(s): cultures (211), maps (224)

Lego Education Activities are designed to be rich, fun-filled, creative learning experiences. They offer educators a means to use LEGO sets as essential tools that engage students while challenging their creativity and enhancing their knowledge and comprehension. As a thinking teacher, you only need to look on the Teachersfirst Editor's Blog here to realize what a hot topic teaching creativity is and how it fits into the classroom. From role-playing and meeting the needs of early childhood development to theme-based sets for older students, LEGO Activities offer a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching. There are also specific sets designed to cover specific subject areas, including technology curriculum. As you browse the activities, you will find obvious connections to curriculum in simple machines and other science topics, as well. Stay current and find a lot more stimulating ideas by checking out the LEGO Education and LEGO Smart Blogs available from theLego Education Activities page.

tag(s): creativity (87), critical thinking (136), logic (161), problem solving (234)

Discover a collection of free classics in the public domain downloadable for mp3 and m4b audio book format for computers and mobile devices. Of special interest at this site is the recently added section where readers may find books that are not available at other free book download sites. Also distinguishing this site is that some books offer "human narration" and some have "text to speech" technology doing the reading.
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tag(s): literature (221)

This resource allows you to create slide shows, greeting cards, scrapbooks, invitations, collages, and more. There is a free basic program, but there are paid upgrades available if desired. For educational purposes, the upgrades are not needed. Photos, videos, and music can all be added to your creations. A Smilebox template must be used to make your creations. Products made with this program can be shared to web pages and blogs, social networking sites, or emailed for free. Several themes in each category are free. You no longer have to download this program.

tag(s): blogs (67), images (263), movies (55), photography (131), slides (43)

Here you will find the English teachers dream come true! Read.gov is from the Library of Congress and is a new website for readers of all ages. The site offers pages specifically designed for kids and teens, as well as adults, educators, and parents. There is so much here: Contests, books online, book lists, and more. The webcast section is truly extensive. There are Webcasts from famous authors such as R.L. Stine, Jon Scieszka, Jan Brett, David Baldacci, John Grisham, Neil Gaiman, and many more. These webcasts also include interesting topics like "Mystery Writers Discuss Their Craft" and "The Nuts and Bolts of Historical Fiction" among others.

A special feature of the site is an exclusive story, called "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure." The Exquisite Corpse was a game in which someone would start a story, fold over their part, and the next person would add to the story and on it would go until the last person ended the story. For this Exquisite Corpse, Jon Scieszka started the story and passed it on to Katherine Patterson, who passed it on . . . and so it goes for 18 episodes. The entire story took a year to write to the finish.

tag(s): authors (108), digital storytelling (155), writing (325)

Jungle photos is more than what is inferred by the title. At this site you will find not only photos, but articles about the people, animals, plants, insects, reptiles, etc. of the jungle. The site focuses on Africa, the Amazon, and Galapagos. Here you will find some truly beautiful photography.

tag(s): africa (170), amazon (11), jungles (5)

Though Windows to the Universe is basically a science site, it has many links that will connect science with language arts, history, and math. Find an abundance of information and activities for your classroom. There are numerous science categories, and within each category you can choose "Beginner," "Intermediate," or "Advanced." You can also see the site in Spanish. This site has excellent visuals and numerous topics, and several educational interactives (under "Games"). Don't miss it! The audio has been updated to MP3, however, the Interactives and Videos require Flash or QuickTime, regardless, there is so much more to do and learn at this site that it is worth a visit.

tag(s): climate (85), geology (62), planets (113), pollution (53), solar system (107), sun (69)