Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Code your own art, music, and interactive fiction with Pencil Code Gym. The main language is Coffescript, but you can click the word Reference in the upper left corner to use HTML for writing tags in your code. Pencil Code also supports Javascript and CSS. Follow instructions to code using drag and drop blocks or text. Toggle back and forth between the two formats to view the different formats. Click the pencil in the upper left corner to see several resources including Materials for Teachers, Teachers Manual, Printable Activities, and several others. The wide range of activities make this site perfect for use with students of all levels of coding abilities. When complete, share finished projects on "GymStage", the sharing portion of Pencil Code Gym.

tag(s): coding (85), computational thinking (40), critical thinking (127), digital storytelling (154), drawing (61), geometric shapes (134), musical notation (34), problem solving (233)

Read, annotate, bookmark, and share literature, poetry, and nonfiction with Owl Eyes. Read any available selection without registration; however, free registration (with email) opens up a world of options. Add any book to your library to add your own highlights or annotations. View analysis available on the site broken down by chapters and literary context. Options for annotating include adding highlights, questions, tags, and correlation to Common Core Standards. Create a classroom to assign books. Video tutorials reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): authors (107), book lists (167), literature (221), poetry (193), reading comprehension (149), reading strategies (96)

Design, organize, animate, and publish creations using Animatron. Use Animatron's backgrounds and characters, or upload your own. Be sure to take advantage of the Tutorials and Tips, and the Knowledge Base for a full understanding of the many features available. Registration isn't required to create an Animatron project; however, you will need to register to save and share. Free accounts allow users to create up to five public projects with up to 2GB storage (50Gb/month). The Tutorials are in video format and reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video tutorials may not be viewable.

tag(s): animation (64), movies (54), multimedia (53), slides (43), video (266)

Create and design stunning infographics with Canva's drag and drop infographic creator tool. Choose from several design layouts to begin - upload images from your computer or your Facebook account. Next, change your background, add text, and personalize as desired. When complete, choose from links to publish, download your creation as an image or PDF file, or copy the link to share via URL. This tool works well for collaboration projects, too. Share the URL with others and choose the "can edit" option to allow others to make changes. Midway down the page, you will find step-by-step tips for creating and designing infographics. There is an iPad app (free) available for this tool. Note: you must register (with email and password) before you can access this site.

tag(s): data (151), infographics (56), posters (43)

Learn offers resources and activities to accompany several popular PBS Kids shows including Peg & Cat, Scratch Jr., Ready, Jet, Go! and several others. View the different show options by clicking the arrows, then click on any show to see available resources. Resources include show clips, games, printable worksheets, and more. Some of the favorite shows, like Peg & Cat, even have their own website.
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tag(s): counting (60), emotions (49), geometric shapes (134), insects (68), numbers (120), planets (113), plants (146), preK (270), social and emotional learning (102), solar system (110)

"Hey, I could write a book about that!" Kindle Direct Publishing allows you to write and publish a book for use on Kindles. Download the software in PC or Mac format to begin, then follow the directions to convert PDF's and add interactive content such as image popups, audio, and video. When finished, publish the book to be included at Amazon's Kindle bookstore (with parental permission, of course).
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tag(s): digital storytelling (154), ebooks (43)

CamStudio is a free software download for Windows-based PC's that allows you to record screen and audio from their PC and create video files (a screencast). Other options allow for adding captions and picture-in-picture to recordings. There is a complete FAQ section, and find a comprehensive 13-minute video tutorial with instructions for downloading all the way through to recording, located here. This video resides on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable.
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tag(s): video (266)

Just as the title implies, this site provides many games (and more) for learning and practicing English. Choose from games, worksheets, videos, quizzes, and much more. Within each category is a selection of different topics or use the keyword search to find specific content.
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tag(s): preK (270), printables (36), worksheets (69)

Parents, educators, children's literature authors, and filmmakers join together at KidLit TV to bring wonderful books to kids through different media formats. KidLit TV Radio features podcast editions of KidsLit TV shows featuring authors and illustrators participating in book talks. Other portions of the site include lots of craft ideas (categorized by theme) to bring books to life, and there are book trailers for upcoming book releases. If your district blocks YouTube, the book trailer videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): authors (107), book lists (167), literacy (122), podcasts (108)

Google Scholar is a web search tool for scholarly literature and academic resources such as books, articles, and documents. Enter your search term, then choose to search by articles (with or without patents and case-law). Use additional tools within search results to narrow down by date. Enable the My Library function to save selected results for later use. The Cite link beneath the entry description includes formatted citations in many different options.

tag(s): citations (33), search engines (48)

Hypothesis is an easy to use tool for annotating, collaborating, and sharing web content. Add any URL to the search bar on the home page to begin using Hypothesis after creating your account. Create an annotation by highlighting text; the pop-up allows you to add notes including hyperlinks and tags to your annotation. Add notes or highlights using tools on the site. Save your notes for public viewing or just for your use. Invite others to view your notes or collaborate using the sharing link with your personal URL or with social media links. Click the Education tab on the top menu to see examples of classroom use, 10 Ways to Annotate With Students, Creating a Private Group, and more.

tag(s): citations (33), collaboration (93), note taking (36)

NoPlag is a plagiarism checker that compares your writing to online sources to detect possible cases of plagiarism. Complete five checks for plagiarism a day with up to 500 words without an account. With a free account complete twenty checks per day with 500 words. You will get a report after pasting samples of work into an interactive box that highlights probable plagiarism along with links to the possible websites. The Noplag Blog has helpful articles on the importance of intellectual property rights and additional teaching ideas. There are premium features available, but this review is only for the free account. Educators and students at public and church schools and colleges can request an account through a contact form. At the time of this review NoPlag wasn't working on Chrome.
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tag(s): copyright (44), evaluating sources (29), plagiarism (34), writing (325)

Use this search engine for graphic resources from around the web. Search for graphics in many file formats such as vector, icons, and photos for use with your websites, presentations, and any other graphic needs. In addition to graphics, Freepik offers templates for flyers, posters, and brochures. Many resources offer options for customizing text and color. Each item includes details for editing and downloading, including information on crediting the author. Note: As with most clipart search engines, there are graphics on this site that are not appropriate for children. TeachersFirst suggests that an adult looks for appropriate graphics to distribute to students.
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tag(s): clip art (11), graphic design (49), images (263), vectors (16)

Airtable is an online database for collaboration incorporating many different online platforms. Attach files from services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Evernote to share. Collaborators can view the change history, link data, and engage in chat. Free templates offer options for creating study guides, book lists, and more. Free accounts offer unlimited databases with storage of up to 1200 records each and a 2GB attachment limit.

tag(s): bookmarks (43), collaboration (93), curation (32), DAT device agnostic tool (147)

Primary vs. Secondary Sources is an excellent YouTube video explaining the difference between these two types of sources. The video provides several examples of each type of source and tells why it fits into that category. If your district blocks YouTube, then this video may not be viewable.

tag(s): evaluating sources (29), primary sources (117), Research (87), video (266)

Carrd is a simple to use, one-page website creator. Think of it as similar to an online business card. Begin by choosing from available templates or start with a blank page. A quick page of instructions provides an overview of tools available to use, including adding images, links to social media accounts, tables, and more. When complete, save and publish to your unique carrd.co URL. Please check out the templates and published wording used. It may be inappropriate for your students.

tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), multimedia (53)

Create a poster (meme), postcard, or add captions to a photo. Also, resize and crop images. Save in medium or best quality to your device or download as a PDF or Word doc easily with Picfont. No registration is required. Choose images from your computer or device or select a picture from the gallery. Change not just the color and size of the font, but add an outline in any color and size, place it anywhere on the photo, and many more effects. Use Picfont to spice up social media postings; select to create a Facebook header, and a post with photos, a header for X (formerly Twitter) and an In-stream, an Instagram Post, a LinkedIn cover, or select from several ad sizes. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click features for directions about how to use the different features of Picfont.
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tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), digital storytelling (154), editing (93), images (263)

This interactive map includes links to newspaper coverage of civil rights stories from around the nation beginning with 1954 through 1965. Choose any year to view several front pages with coverage of major events. Read each front page by clicking "view larger image." For additional information on similar topics, scroll to the bottom of the page to find links to more artifacts.

tag(s): black history (133), civil rights (209), newspapers (93)

Explore how the First Amendment influenced the Civil Rights Movement through this collection of resources from Newseum. The collection includes three teaching units with topics of Historical Connections, Media Literacy, and Civics & Citizenship. In addition, an interactive timeline beginning in 1791 demonstrates the Civil Rights journey. A Google Civil Rights map includes links to important American newspapers and their coverage of civil rights events and leaders. Be sure to sign up for your free NewseumED account for complete access to all materials.

tag(s): black history (133), civil rights (209), constitution (96), cultures (180), journalism (74), media literacy (109), newspapers (93)

This NewseumED video lesson explores the role of the press in the 1970's Watergate scandal. Activities include watching a video and completing a comprehension worksheet. In addition to the 30-minute lesson, several ideas for extension activities are included. To find related activities on Newseum, scroll to the bottom of the page for additional ideas. Sign up for NewseumED (FREE) to access all materials.

tag(s): 1970s (10), journalism (74), presidents (135)