Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Need to be in the know -- now? AOL 5min Life Videopedia gives you five-minute stories about current news in a range of areas including arts, business, health, video games and much more! The how-to videos are great too! The main page features current news highlights. You can join this site, but it is not necessary to view the videos. Please be advised that not all topics are class or school appropriate. The "Knowledge" section has many school-related topics, but there are also useful How-to's in other areas. Preview and select what to share. Videos include short ads at the start. Once the ad is over, you can click the small link icon to find a direct link or embed code for that video.
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tag(s): business (52), dance (31), fashion (12), fitness (39), news (228), nutrition (140), origami (14), photography (130), video (266)

This site lets you keep study notes with you anywhere you go! Create flashcards and study even on your mobile phone. Share notes, flashcards, study guides, and quizzes with others for excellent collaboration. Study Blue also provides hints to help students study. Create a folder in "My Backpack." Make flashcards to get started or search flashcards already created by others.

tag(s): flash cards (44)

ABCya.com, created by a web developer turned computer teacher, provides educational games, videos, and activities for elementary students. Nearly every subject is included. Simply click on your grade level (K-5) and find what is available under language arts, math, and other subjects. Specific topics range from basic typing activities to creating word clouds to grammar games (at all levels) and so much more. The interactives are teacher approved and offer colorful and attention grabbing ways for learning. Opportunities for sharing on Facebook, tweeting, and sharing on social bookmarking sites are incorporated. This is a MUST SEE site for elementary teachers looking for some great practice sites for basic skills!

tag(s): alphabet (53), decimals (85), drawing (61), fractions (160), game based learning (205), geometric shapes (134), keyboarding (28), latitude (10), literacy (122), longitude (9), number sense (69), numbers (120), operations (72), preK (270)

Join YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum in recognizing a biennial review of the best online videos from around the world. As a form of modern and contemporary art, celebrate free access every day for your virtual field trip from a Webby award-winning nominee site for 2011. A panel of 20-25 experts chooses from a selection of over 23,000 videos submitted. Explore art, music, movement, poetry, and prose on this creative video site. The option of subscribing to recent uploads is available at no charge. Click "continue" to see thumbnails of all available winners. If your district blocks YouTube, then this site may not be viewable. Not all comments posted are appropriate and videos should be previewed before viewing in the classroom setting.

tag(s): computers (109), video (266)

Use this engaging mashup of Google Street View and Google Maps to hop around the globe by randomly teleporting into a continent. Use as a spontaneous way to learn about other areas and review how to determine longitude and latitude of a location. Choose a continent to visit and click "Teleport." View the street view in the large screen and the Google Map location in the smaller one. This site gives a "taste" of the area, not a wide variety of photos.
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tag(s): continents (33), countries (73), map skills (63), maps (220)

Find one minute listening exercises on such common activities as babysitting, chickens, and exercise. The listening selections are alphabetized with several selections for each letter of the alphabet. Each listening selection has a multitude of activities you can download (along with the reading text) in Word and pdf formats. Find Cloze paragraphs, fill in the blanks, words to unscramble, and much more. Many activities can also be viewed online. Each selection has two interactive quizzes. Though targeted for the ESL/ELL student, listening is one of the language arts standards, and this is a good way for any classroom teacher to address listening skills.
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tag(s): dance (31), listening (93), reading comprehension (149), vocabulary (238)

Learn all about the Commonwealth of Massachusetts including it's historic beginnings, fun facts, and the state government at this website just for kids. The site is divided into eight categories including State House trivia through Reconstruct MA Artifacts. One especially interesting area is The Ladybug Story, the true story of how a second grade class helped to make a new law. Also, be sure to take the Massachusetts history quiz to learn about the early setters of the commonwealth. If you are looking for state facts, there is a section just for this with almost anything you would want to know from symbols all the way through to famous sons and daughters of the state. This information is also available to download as a pdf.

tag(s): american revolution (82), massachusetts (8), states (124)

This site, created by the Kennedy Center, offers a wealth of interactive lesson plans for grades K-12 dealing with a variety of topics, all with an "arts" spin. Search by subject, keyword, or grade level (K-4, 5-8, or 9-12). Some examples of topics include Native Americans, Civil War, Shakespeare, myths, melodrama, adjectives, monsters, baseball, and countless others! Be sure to check out the category "Our Best Resources Organized by Subject." After that click on the the top menu for Education and get even more resources. There are many interactive lessons: some with video, audio, or slideshows. The lessons provide an estimate of time required and complete, step-by-step instructions. There are printables included with some of the lessons.
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tag(s): african american (115), baseball (32), civil war (139), comics and cartoons (55), dance (31), folktales (34), greece (47), habitats (92), immigration (68), literature (221), mexico (37), musical instruments (52), myths and legends (37), native americans (108), painting (54), surrealism (2)

Bring the forest into your classroom with these educational interactives. Match animal tracks, learn how to use a compass, and create leaf rubbings. Download and print the "Book of Stuff To Do" outside. Find Educator Resources (including lesson plans) under Get Involved on the top menu. Sound can be turned on or off along the bottom of the site.

tag(s): animals (294), climate change (99), environment (252), forests (30), natural resources (37), wetlands (7)

The State of Connecticut offers this informative site just for kids loaded with information and facts in an easy to use format. Follow links on the home page to learn about Connecticut history, state symbols, and the state government. Follow the Connecticut government link to take a pictorial tour of the state capitol filled with facts and history of the building. Other links lead to puzzles and games such as picture puzzles of Connecticut symbols such as the state flower and bird, word searches with state words, and coloring pages with everything from aquariums to zoos. The puzzles and games still use Flash, but the information on the rest of the site is worth your student's time.

tag(s): branches of government (65), connecticut (4), states (124)

Stixie and Globie help kids learn about maps and statistics with fun interactives on this site. Each character defines basic terms and concepts about maps and statistics, then provides a short review quiz. Activities included are Paint the Map (mean and median), Farmland (working with data sets), The Network Challenge (plotting a path on a map), Market Manager (creating equal data sets), and Data to Graphics (working with bar charts, tables, and maps). The link to Resources for Parents and Teachers provides an external link to standards for Geography and Math found in the site.

tag(s): charts and graphs (171), data (151), maps (220), mean (19), median (16)

This site has collected data about and pictures of hundreds of U.S. cities. To search, you simply enter city, county, zip code, or search by state. Lists of statistics, various graphs, and easy to read maps make the data easy to find. Other available data includes information about selected schools, and details about property taxes, businesses, restaurants, and local issues (tourism, crime, employment, etc.) At the present time, the only other country with some data available is Canada.

tag(s): cities (17), statistics (121)

This site highlights the beautiful tropical oceans in the world. The focus is on coral reefs, ocean animals, and additional ocean links. Learn about the location of coral reefs, threats to coral reefs, and more. Take your students on an underwater adventure with this simple, yet informative website.

tag(s): coral (11), oceans (149)

This eclectic site has something for everyone about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. For younger students, be sure to meet the mascots of the site, view the interactives, and more. Students of all ages can use this site to learn about the schedule, view photos and videos, learn about each sport in the winter 2010 Olympics, trace the torch relay, view a spectator guide, meet the athletes, view the interactive map, and more.

tag(s): olympics (45), sports (82)

This site, a collaborative effort among the National Archives, National History Day, and USA Freedom Corps, highlights the most important documents in US history. Each of these "milestone" documents is detailed and photographed on a separate page; the photo can be enlarged for presentation on an interactive whiteboard. Use this site with DocsTeach, with tools for educators. This site was clearly designed with teachers in mind! Click the items from the menu on the right.

tag(s): history day (39), primary sources (117)

Think you know the flags of other countries? Test your skill at this site. Once given a flag, you have four choices of countries. After one chance at a correct answer, the answer is displayed along with a placemark on a map with statistics about the country. The country domain name is also displayed. The site also provides the name of the capital, population, Internet users, unemployment rate, and more. Advise students to ignore the ads that are along the sides of the site. Use this site as a cultural bridge to understand the rich history and viewpoints of other nations.

tag(s): countries (73), flags (18)

Find facts, play games, and learn about Michigan at this kid-friendly site. At first glance there doesn't appear to be much to the site, however; there is a great deal of information found by exploring the links on the left-hand side of the home page. Games and internet safety information are available through the links on the main portion of the home page. The history link on the left includes many interesting and unique resources such as Tweets from "A Boy at Fort Mackinac: Diary of Harold Dunbar Corbusier 1883-1884" recounts adventures of a 10-year-old boy on Mackinac Island. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) to learn what it was like to grow up on the island in the late 1800's. State symbols and facts are also available through a link on the left portion of the home page. Some information, such as the Getting to Know Michigan booklet, is available for easy printing in pdf format.

tag(s): michigan (5), states (124)

If you are looking for facts and figures about the state of Illinois, then this is the site for you! Each set of links from this page takes the user to specific categories of information such as agriculture, history, and economy. Most useful for teachers and students will be the History & Culture and State Symbols links. The History & Culture page includes a historical timeline of the state beginning in 1673 with the arrival of Louis Jolliet and Father Marquette in the state all the way through to the 2005 World Series win of the Chicago White Sox. Learn about state symbols such as the official state snack food and state amphibian while exploring the State Symbols portion of the site.

tag(s): chicago (4), illinois (6)

This activity simulates some of the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd World countries. You get to manage an African farm and are soon confronted with the difficult choices that poverty and conflict can cause. Unlike typical interactives where it's always possible to prosper by playing cleverly and making the right choices, it is not always like that in 3rd World Farmer. Just as real people die from starvation in desperate situations that they are not responsible for, all it takes for things to go wrong in this activity is one bad harvest, an unfortunate encounter with corrupt officials, a raid by guerrillas, a civil war, a sudden fluctuation in market prices, or another random event that might never happen in industrialized countries. Begin by buying crops, place them in your fields, then continue on to the next steps. A short commercial plays when you enter the site and before access to the activity.
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tag(s): africa (148), agriculture (49)

Learn about the state of Maryland and its' laws, history, symbols, and more at this site presented by the Secretary of State of Maryland. The site is divided into sections with sub-categories included on the home page. The history portion includes a great deal of information including a timeline of Maryland, women's history, Native American history, and African-American history, plus famous Marylanders. The government portion of site includes a very nice graphic demonstrating the bill-creation process. Learn all the state symbols such as the state song, bird, and even the state dog in the state symbols portion of the site. Be sure to visit the geography links and choose fun stuff to find lots of fun facts and state trivia.

tag(s): biographies (94), maryland (7), states (124)