Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Find great Infographics about a variety of topics. Use the beautiful arrangement of data to uncover relationships between various pieces of information. Easily share or embed the chart where needed. Click on References and Data Table to look at the raw data and origins of the information. Choose from major topics in the tabs above such as Country Information, Environment, Food and Agriculture, and more. Search your own topics with the search bar.
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tag(s): business (52), charts and graphs (171), data (151), infographics (56), maps (220)

Digg is a social news network similar in some qualities to Facebook and other such social media. You can post stories you find interesting and browse "Top Stories" which are more or less the most popular stories shared by others on the Internet. It is meant to share a snapshot of the most interesting, relevant, quirky, and fun content on the web! Once you sign up, you can start to Digg your own favorites. This site also features "Digg Dialogg" where members submit questions to notable leaders and community members decide on which questions will be asked, and interviews are shared on the site. Be sure to preview items that you wish to share. Noted were a few "violent" warnings at the time of this review, but the other 99% of the shared items were excellent for use in the classroom.

tag(s): debate (42), news (228), social networking (61)

Excellent videos explain the discoveries made in this Institute using 3D animation: Origin of Breast Cancer, Molecular Visualizations of DNA, Colony Stimulating Factor, and many other topics. These 3D videos are housed at YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, you will need to ask for it to be unblocked to show.

tag(s): diseases (66), dna (43), human body (93), medicine (57)

Find fascinating Infographics on a variety of topics: Technology, Environment, Business, Food Facts, Politics, Health Safety, and even Interesting Facts. What are Infographics? A graphic visual representation of information, data, or knowledge.
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tag(s): charts and graphs (171), data (151), graphic design (49), infographics (56)

FORA.tv's claim to fame is as the Web's largest collection of conference and event videos. These videos come from sources such as universities, think tanks, and other intelligent discourses. Videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

Please preview anything before you share it with your students. At the time of this review there was a subcategory "Sex" which may not be appropriate for most classrooms. But always preview! Teachers may want to share ONLY specific video links.
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tag(s): business (52), cultures (180), elections (82), energy (133), environment (252), evolution (89), genetics (80), investing (8), news (228), politics (118), psychology (65), religions (95), sexuality (15), stock market (11), sustainability (50), video (266)

Type in an address and determine the walkability of any location. A map of the address entered displays nearby restaurants, coffee shops, and more that are within one mile of that location. Many, but not all, addresses will also display a walk score rating demonstrating how walkable that area is with a score from 0-100. What a fun way to workout "around the town." More "green" communities often have a better walkability score.
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tag(s): fitness (39), map skills (63), maps (220)

QUARKED! Adventures in the Subatomic Universe has a wide range of engaging multimedia and hands-on materials to introduce the exciting world of particle physics to students ages 7 and up (and their families). This highly interactive site offers videos, games, and a club with downloads based on three themes. Themes include "How Small is Small", "Quarks: Ups, Downs, and the Universe", and "How Do You Find Out About Something You Can't See?" Topics vary from electricity to matter to shapes and much more. Lesson plans, organized by theme, can be done in any order. Some of the featured "games" include Matter Mechanics, Photon Invaders, and Height Chart. Videos even explain connections between subatomic particles and healthy eating! Many other interactives are also available. Though the games require Flash, there is so much more to learn from the videos and other features that this site is worth a visit.

tag(s): atoms (43), electricity (61), geometric shapes (134), matter (45), measurement (122), molecules (43), nutrition (140), solar energy (34)

FIT by WebMD is a great website to promote health and healthy opportunities for students of all ages. Explore five different areas of health: Food, Move, Recharge, Healthy Weight, and Mood. The site offers a far healthier approach to fitness than simply weight. Highlights include an age appropriate body mass index calculator, video clips, recipes, age-appropriate articles, and more. There is an entire Parents area so everyone can be involved together.

A free registration gives the member free tools like a Food and Fitness Planner, Vaccine Tracker, Symptom Checker, and many more. The registration information required is minimal and is legally appropriate for the age level.

tag(s): cooking (32), fitness (39), heart (27), myplate (18), obesity (8)

"Lose It!" is a comprehensive calorie counting and activity tracking tool; this website provides a free way to monitor calorie intake and output to lose, maintain, or manage health and weight. With great graphics and an available phone application, this tool is so versatile and easy that even younger students could learn to use it. The database of food includes restaurant, grocery, and generic food brands and types.
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tag(s): calories (6), DAT device agnostic tool (147), fitness (39), nutrition (140), obesity (8), social networking (61)

The Body Browser (brought to you by Google) is an amazing resource for teaching anatomy and body systems to middle and high school students. The site only requires an up-to-date browser. It allows you to view a human (male or female) body as either a whole or a system (or even body part/organ) at a time. The navigation is EASY! On the left side of the screen there is a toolbar that you simply click to reveal or unveil a particular body system. There are also labels for all parts of the body. The label function can be turned on and off. This is a truly remarkable tool. No accounts or sign up required. Check out specific organ systems or use the search tab in the upper right corner of the site to find specific muscles, nerves, bones, and more!

tag(s): body systems (40), human body (93)

Join the writers and readers of obooko, the free site to publish and read eBooks. Readers' Choice Awards of 2011 winner for free eBooks, obooko offers a platform to share your work and read the works of others. Become a reviewer and write comments on other eBooks. As authors, you retain all rights with no charges or contracts. This site is legal and does not infringe on copyright laws. There are numerous categories to choose from: Romance and Women, Crime, Religion, Thriller, Mystery, Teens, and much more! This site is not intended for children under 13. Some of the content may not be appropriate for the classroom. So be sure to preview.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), ebooks (43), mysteries (23), novels (34), poetry (193), religions (95)

Nobelprize.org is the official website of the Nobel Prize. Here you find information about Alfred Nobel, the prizewinners, interviews, and photos. Videos of interviews of Nobel peace prizewinners, speeches, ceremonies, interviews, banquets, lectures, announcements, award ceremonies, and documentaries fill the gamut of all of the prizewinners. The Nobel prizes awards are in literature, chemistry, medicine, peace, economics, and physics. Under the Education tab at the top find arieties of educational games/activities and lesson plans help explain many of the Nobel Award winners' work. This site clearly explains and illustrates the purpose of the awards, the award winners, and their ideas. Videos give an insider look at each of the winners.

tag(s): creativity (86), literature (221), medicine (57)

Students can learn responsible consumerism by becoming active evaluators and reporters of defective products using this site. Unsafe products reported on this site go onto the Product Safety Commission's publicly available Consumer Product Safety Information Database, after the reported products are evaluated and the reviews are screened by professionals. Along with the founders of the site, students active in reading the database and reporting dangerous products participate in protecting the public from harm, injuries, and possible death. A business portal allows private companies to register and participate in the formation of the database, as well.

tag(s): consumers (14), safety (68)

This PBS site is a reorganized collection of over 16,000+ public media offerings (including radio and photographs), arranged specifically for preK-12 teachers. You can search by subject (the landing page subject is physical education) and grade level across many subjects. After viewing three offerings, you must join (for free) to continue. Membership includes the option of saving favorites. Use the search box at the top to find correlations to state standards. The site is still in development, so material is being added frequently.

tag(s): alphabet (53), careers (156), dance (31), data (151), decimals (85), diseases (66), fitness (39), human body (93), mark twain (8), multimedia (53), music theory (46), percent (59), probability (99), problem solving (233), psychology (65)

This site offers many songs related to math, social studies, and science concepts. Science concepts include water & pollution, scientific inquiry, changes in matter, and much more. Math concepts range from order of operations to quadratic and exponential functions. After choosing a topic, you can listen to the song online, download the mp3, view lyrics, and possibly view an accompanying video. (Not all topics include the video.) Some topics also include a teacher guide with lesson suggestions. This site does mention that you can create your own videos. However, at the time of this review, that feature was not working.

tag(s): africa (148), area (53), atoms (43), bill of rights (33), branches of government (65), cells (82), civil war (139), constitution (96), elements (33), equations (119), exponents (35), factoring (25), factors (29), functions (52), inquiry (24), integers (21), matter (45), nutrition (140), oceans (149), order of operations (29), quadratics (27), rainforests (18), ratios (47), songs (46), sound (72), volume (33), water (102), world war 2 (161)

This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline for one of three types of comparison essays: whole-to-whole, similarities-to-differences, or point-to-point. A link in the introduction to the "Comparison and Contrast Guide" gives students the chance to get definitions and look at examples before they begin working. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information, including a graphic on the right to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion. The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed. There are many additional interactives and lesson plans (with standards included!).

tag(s): charts and graphs (171), concept mapping (15), graphic organizers (48)

Curriki is a nonprofit organization that encourages teachers and learners' to collaborate in developing quality educational materials in a global community. Click What We Do from the top menu and slide to CurikiStudio, and click Creators to create a free account and find resources like questions, photos/images, multimedia, and more for interactive lesson creation. Next under Solutions is CurrikiGo, where you will publish your lessons, etc. Last on the dropdown list is the CurrikiLibrary, where you can search by subject area, grade level, or resource type (interactive, video, or podcast). For a thorough summary of Curriki click the Explore a CurrikiStudio Activity. Join different groups for a more involved way to explore new areas in online learning, subject area interests, or focus questions. Create collections of your resources to keep private or share with others. This site focuses on providing free access to teachers, schools, students, or parents to many new creative ideas for in-class learning, digital learning, and hybrid or blended learning in a global community. Free membership includes monthly newsletters. Follow Curriki on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), or blogs.
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tag(s): graphic organizers (48), literacy (122), OER (43), operations (72), resources (83), rubrics (37), Teacher Utilities (198)

Scroll down the page to find Own Your Space, a free sixteen chapter book for teens and tweens. The book educates students how to be safe online. Each chapter deals with a different topic. At the time of this review, supported operating systems included Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 10.

tag(s): cyberbullying (40), internet safety (114)

This photo essay shares a wonderful gallery of pictures of farmers harvesting different crops, using various tools, from around the world. You will also want to note the diverse containers storing the harvested items. Nutrition, world languages, or cultures classes can use this site to explore what food and agriculture are like in other cultures.
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tag(s): agriculture (49), cross cultural understanding (173), cultures (180), nutrition (140)

Need kid-friendly online news? This safe site, written for kids, by kids, offers news from a younger point-of-view. You can create a class page where you can load a variety of articles, add a book list, a calendar, favorite sites list, add lesson plan instructions, monitor student comments, and more. DOGOnews is kid-friendly, colorful, and flexible. After all, DOGO means young or small in Swahili. You can select articles from a number of categories (Social Studies, Science, World, Current Events, etc.). There is an integrated dictionary for challenging words and maps for geographical context. Some of the articles include short video clips. Students may leave brief comments about each article (no login required). Also, typing the word "video" in the search box will bring up the Video of the Week for the past several weeks. The videos reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. In addition, find a Book and Movie section with a brief summary for the book or movie, and comments. You don't have to join to read the articles, but you do need to join to create a class page. There are many benefits to creating a class page, and it's all free! Don't want to create a class page? You can also embed articles on your current web page.

tag(s): journalism (74), news (228), reading comprehension (149), sports (82)