Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Recently, a large archive of material has been released by the JFK Library focused on the life of John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline. This site provides contextual information about these newly released records, as well as transcripts of oral history interviews. For example, you can now download previously secret audio recordings that were made during White House meetings, transcripts of oral history interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy, and a rich archive of other materials related to the Kennedy Presidency. This newly released material gives us insight into Kennedy's brief time as President, including his involvement in the Cuban Missile Crisis, his attitudes toward the Cold War relationship with the USSR and the build up of US troops in Vietnam. There are teacher resources and lesson plans that make use of the available archival material.

tag(s): history day (39), kennedy (20), presidents (135), vietnam (38)

What Happened When? This useful site allows you to aggregate a text timeline by date, theme or geographic area using links to Google searches, Google images and content from HistoryWorld (with which the site is affiliated). Enter a date or keyword(s) for the event(s). You will see a text list with icons that lead to related Google, images, and HistoryWorld info. Try exploring by themes such as performing arts and science and entering a year to see what occurred during the same year. While the overall visual impact is fairly bland, it's a great "quick and easy" utility for putting events into a chronological context. If you search two very diverse events, you can discover unusual convergences. Additionally, it can be the jumping off point for a more complex search by helping students make connections among ideas, characters and events that may seem unrelated. For example, this is a wonderful tool to explore decades of the twentieth century or periods in the arts.

tag(s): search engines (48), timelines (56)

Each Presidential election cycle brings with it a new crop of political cartoons and caricatures of politicians. Clifford K. Berryman drew political cartoons at the turn of the 20th century and US Presidents from Grover Cleveland to Harry Truman. This site profiles both the cartoons themselves, and the issues and personalities behind the cartoons. Visually attractive, the site also permits downloading cartoons so they can be printed and studied.

As an important primary source, political cartoons provide an important insight into the issues and controversies of their time period. More than simply who did what, and what happened where, these drawings show us the emotions and conflict involved in the ugly and messy business of politics.

tag(s): comics and cartoons (55), elections (82), politics (118), presidents (135)

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)

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)

Investigate the world of art history accompanied by two professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory started as a a blog featuring free audio guides, podcasts, and videos. Later it became an interactive exploration of eras, styles, and artists. Smarthistory has recently merged with KahnAcademy utilizing the same concept: that high quality education should be free and available to all. You can watch Smarthistory videos on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable in class.

tag(s): art history (102), medieval (32), renaissance (38)

Explore collections of primary documents from US History enhanced with tools for teaching. This site adds the ability to manipulate primary documents to build informative and challenging lessons. While a few of the documents and lessons are available for the casual visitor to the site, you need to register (and it's free!) in order to make full use of the amazing resources here. Once you have registered, you can access all the documents and use the activity builder to create lessons which use primary documents to teach sequencing, mapping, weighing evidence, interpreting data, and seeing the big picture. Please note that you do not HAVE to create anything, you can simply use what is already here. (And they do already have a lot to offer.) You will need to create a project if you want to package an activity that you can use now and again later.

tag(s): american revolution (82), civil war (139), digital storytelling (154), great depression (30), industrial revolution (22), primary sources (117), Teacher Utilities (198), westward expansion (39), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (161)

The National Jukebox is a historical music library collected by the Library of Congress (LOC). It includes recordings, genres, artists, playlists, and the Victrola Book of the Opera. Search by category, vocal type, language, place, target audience, label, date range, composer, performer, author, lyricist, and genre or combine several categories to do an advanced search. The attractive opening page offers a sampling of several types of music, playlists, artists and genres. The LOC player is right on the page as well. No membership is required to create a playlist. Send it to yourself via email, share it with friends on a social network, or embed it on a website or blog. Learn related information, such as what acoustical recording is and how gramophones affected the lives of millions of Americans.

tag(s): composers (14), listening (93), lyrics (15), sound (72)

Learn a new language through music and lyrics! Choose English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portugese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Dutch, Danish, or Romanian. Register for FREE and learn the new language. Each language has different activities: karaoke, interactive cloze activities, videos, and more. You can choose among three different difficulty levels. Some activities even have the option to "double click" to read a definition of a word. You also have the ability to submit your own songs and language activities to the site. Note that this site is fairly new and only ha a few hundred songs at the time of this review. Help contribute to the offerings!
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tag(s): cross cultural understanding (173), cultures (180), french (75), german (49), greek (47), italian (31), japanese (47), portuguese (22), russian (26), songs (46), spanish (109)

Keeping Score takes you on a creative historical journey through the composers, conflicts, and culture of some of music's most beloved and classical works. This first-class website contains interactives for composers such as Beethoven, Copeland, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. You can see pictures and listen to stories about the lives and times of the composers, hear the music, read personal reflections or quotes of the composers, and listen to commentary of other musical professionals. Also included are podcasts of the San Francisco radio show, 13 Days When Music Changed Forever which is about musical revolutions. The education link is full of ideas for incorporating music into any and all subjects. It also has time saving, standards guided lesson plans to be used in all educational settings. Musical education websites do not get cooler than this! This type of site can connect with today's learners by bringing them all the information that they need in a one stop, multimedia package. It is classy, concise, and easy to navigate.

tag(s): composers (14), music theory (46), musical instruments (52), songs (46)

This site features a wonderfully specific pictorial database of "every day" images that define cultures. Images are Creative Commons licensed and can be used by download (three sizes) or direct link. At the time of this review, general topics included German, ESL (American,) French, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, and a few others. Besides offering a photograph (in three sizes) of something specifically Chinese or something only found in Japan, the vocabulary label for the object shown as well as its translation into its language of origin is available and indexed. There is also a detailed guide for teachers offering many wonderful suggestions of how to use CAPL in the classroom. The suggested activities include using images as objects, visual "texts," media illustrations, and narratives as well as ideas for using the images to teach vocabulary and culture. More is added to this site frequently, so be sure to check back!

tag(s): arabic (13), architecture (76), china (81), cross cultural understanding (173), cultures (180), france (41), germany (28), japan (56), russia (36), spanish (109)

ThatQuiz is an online assessment tool for teachers of all subjects and grade levels. Create an account to gain access to record keeping tools. You can make your own tests using questions within the site. Students do not need to register since additional features are only for teachers. After choosing a category, different options are available within each of the quizzes to increase difficulty and add features. Quizzes can be timed or completed at the students' own pace. There is also an option to create a url for an individual quiz that can be linked to Facebook or X (formerly Twitter) accounts.

tag(s): africa (148), angles (52), asia (116), cells (82), charts and graphs (171), conversions (37), europe (84), exponents (35), factors (29), fractions (160), french (75), geometric shapes (134), german (49), human body (93), inequalities (25), measurement (122), money (113), north america (15), place value (34), probability (99), quiz (67), quizzes (90), spanish (109), time (91)

This site features five "ready to go" lesson plans related to Groundhog's Day, nearly all include standards, objectives, and even technology options! Lessons designed for grades K-5 include "Where Is Punxsutawney Phil? - A Groundhog Day Tag Game" and "A Shadow of Yourself." Grades K-8 will find the lessons "Find the Hidden Hibernators" and "Graphing Groundhog Predictions." And finally designed for grades 3-12 is "Marmots (Groundhogs) of the World."
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tag(s): animals (294), charts and graphs (171), holidays (187), light (56)

This resource contains great review information, test questions, and other materials for several content areas. The materials included for review are a great way to identify the basic material needed for the understanding of Chemistry, Physics, Geometry, Algebra, U.S. and Global History, Earth Science, and the Living Environment.

tag(s): test prep (69)

This blog was created and is maintained by Dickinson College (in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, just north of Gettysburg and the Mason-Dixon Line) for those teaching about the American Civil War era. The site is indexed by theme and category, making it easy to search for information and resources related to topics from slavery to science and technology to religion. Not limited to information about battles, soldiers or generals, the site offers commentary about the culture and social issues of the mid-nineteenth century. There are links to other resources and projects maintained by Dickinson College and others.

tag(s): 1800s (75), civil war (139)

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 (116), 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 (109), painting (54), surrealism (2)

Find out what happened on any date in history with this informative site. Each event is listed with a short description. Historic events are listed chronologically from oldest to current times. (Some dates are several pages long, be sure to click the "read more" link to continue to newer dates.) Information includes birthdays, discoveries, events, and more. Searches by specific years, months, and famous birthdays. You are able to add events and comments. Note that the general public can also add comments, so preview before projecting in class!
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tag(s): calendars (37), timelines (56)

A comprehensive guide developed by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Appropriate for teachers/media specialists/librarians - This is an excellent resource guide for any teacher/ librarian planning a unit of folklife. It is a copy of a publication available free from the Library of Congress. There is a wealth of information and addresses for planning purposes. State Folklife Centers are also included in the list of addresses.

tag(s): communities (35)

At this site you will find a wealth of material about the culture of Spanish America. This includes color images, short videos, an interactive timeline, essays (Library), and a glossary. The Spanish American culture thrived from the 16th century to the early 19th century, and ran from California to Chile. This site can be viewed in English or Spanish. There are DVDs offered with primary documents, more images, etc., but these are not free. This review is for the free internet site only.

tag(s): cross cultural understanding (173), cultures (180), explorers (64), hispanic (36), resources (83), spanish (109)