Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Teach real-world financial literacy using Banzai! Learn to prioritize spending by using simulations, interactives, and "choose-your-own-adventure" style situations. There are three levels: Banzai Jr (grades 3-7), Banzai Teen (grades 6-12), and Banzai Plus (grades 9-12) all available in PDF format. Start the course with an assesment (pre-test) to determine your financial literacy. Then engage in real-life interactive situations covering balancing a budget and paying your cell phone bill, to paying for unexpected bills like car trouble. Student accounts receive free access to Banzai for life, allowing the opportunity to go back and review lessons at any time. After creating a teacher account, request the opportunity to receive the Life Scenario booklets for your class at no charge (this is dependent on funding from local financial organizations). If not available, print the booklets using the PDF download.

tag(s): financial literacy (93), game based learning (205)

Block out all distractions and just start writing with ZenPen. Remove the instructions found on the page (just highlight and click delete). Begin writing without any visual elements in the way. No registration is required! Highlight text and select options to add italics, bold text, or URLs. Use links on the left side of the page to change text and background colors to black and white, toggle to full screen, add a word count, or save work.

tag(s): editing (93), process writing (37), proofreading (21), writing (325)

Technovation Families: Curiosity Machine connects scientists and engineers with young people to help design and create projects together. Create an account to begin using features on the site. Discover challenges to build on your own, including categories such as aerospace, robotics, engineering, and more.See the menu on the left to see them all. Find inspiration by watching videos of scientists and engineers sharing their inventions. Share your finished projects as inspiration for other aspiring engineers and scientists.

tag(s): aeronautics (11), computers (109), design (79), engineering (129), gifted (66), inventors and inventions (80), makerspace (40), oceans (149), problem solving (233), robotics (24), STEM (297)

Mint is a free money management site featuring several tools for budgeting and tracking finances. Connect to virtually any financial organization to receive real-time updates from bank accounts, credit cards, and investments. Mint analyzes your financial information and provides tips for savings and account management.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), financial literacy (93), money (113)

Finally, worksheets will be cool! Create interactive worksheets, or use one that is already developed and make it your own with wizer.me. After signing up with email get started with Add Task. Follow the prompts for creation; these include selecting text style and color, and choosing a background, adding student tasks (Text, Video, Link, Image), and more. Select question style: Open Question, Multiple Choice, Matching, and more. Then there are the more unusual type responses like Filling in a Table, Image Tagging, Embedding, and others, with promises of more to come. Share with students by posting the URL given, using a pin code on their worksheet board, or use your Google Classroom account. At the time of this review, wizer.me support was through email and real-time online chat. Wizer.me works on any device with a browser and Internet connection but works best on Chrome and Safari.

tag(s): gamification (83), multimedia (53), worksheets (69)

Find an interactive rubric for evaluating the quality of Internet sources students use in academic writing and projects. Fill out a short registration form to have immediate free access to the rubric as a PDF. The criteria for the rubric includes Authoritative, Educational Value, Intent, Originality, and Quality. Below the rubric see an example of three popular sites evaluated with SEER and the scores given for each criterion. Download the rubric to your computer. Once filled in save it to your computer and print.

tag(s): evaluating sources (29), media literacy (109), rubrics (37)

This YouTube channel includes a growing selection of math instruction videos for Algebra through AP Statistics. Browse through videos on the home page or go to the site's playlists for videos grouped by topic. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): angles (52), area (53), charts and graphs (171), equations (119), factoring (25), functions (52), inequalities (25), polynomials (20), probability (99), problem solving (233), quadratics (27), statistics (121), video (266), volume (34)

Reason and Wonder is a blog written by an experienced junior high and high school mathematics teacher. Posts offer insight into classroom lessons and explorations. Choose the Lessons link, on the top menu bar, to find several problem-based lessons aligned to Common Core Standards. Another portion of the site includes challenges for learning and using Desmos, an online graphing calculator reviewed here. Be sure to explore archives dating back to March 2013.

tag(s): blogs (65), characterization (19), equations (119), problem solving (233)

Download Boomerang to organize your Gmail! Schedule when to send messages, remind yourself to follow up if you do not get a reply email, and mark emails that you need to read at a later time. The basic plan is free and includes most features.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): organizational skills (88)

FutureLearn for Schools offers a large variety of free online courses presented by leading universities for students aged 13 and older in a variety of topics. Choose a category to begin browsing topics offered. Content includes history, creative arts and media, literature, and much more. Watch a short video to learn specifics about the course offerings and objectives. This site was created in the UK, so some of the pronunciations and spellings may differ from those in American English.

tag(s): advertising (26), business (52), computers (109), creative writing (124), cultures (180), dental health (14), environment (252), financial literacy (93), gifted (66), literature (222), photography (130), politics (118), professional development (385), psychology (65)

The goal of Learn Engineering is to present "tough engineering concepts" in a logical and simple way. Click Blogs from the top menu to choose from one of the main fields of engineering on the top menu- automobile, mechanical, electrictronics, aerospace, and others to begin. Subcategories within each section answer questions using labeled images and detailed image explanations, and have videos. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): careers (156), engineering (129), STEM (297)

Track learning in real-time with Quizalize. Student answers are color-coded on the teacher dashboard for ease in identifying who needs more help. Create scrambled word, multiple choice questions, and ChapGPT quizzes, and each question can have a custom timer. View reports for each student's progress and learning gaps. Create a quiz or select one from Quizalize's growing library. Quizzes can be "gamified" by showing the teacher dashboard as a leaderboard to see progress against other contestents. Quizalize works on any device with a browser and Internet connection. Sign up with an email and password. Create a quiz, assign it to classes, get a code, give it to students, and let the fun begin! The free account provides 3 classes and 5 activities.

tag(s): differentiation (84), game based learning (205), gamification (83), polls and surveys (49), quizzes (90)

Seesaw is a digital portfolio that is totally free for all devices and on the web. Students can showcase their work, videos, text, drawings, and images, and get feedback from teachers and parents. Create a class blog in your Seesaw for students to write blog posts. Teachers create an account with email and then start creating as many classes as needed. There is no limit on the number of students a class can have. Once students have parental permission, give students a "join" code for their class, and they sign up from there, choosing to access their account through a Seesaw generated QR code or their email. Teachers can enable or disable student likes, comments, and editing. Blog posts and comments must have teacher approval before becoming public. Students will be able to reflect on their work with a voice recording or text, and can share artifacts from their portfolio by clicking the red button at the bottom of the screen and then either print or get the item QR code. Once you have an account, click Help & Teacher Resources to find Getting Started Tips, Tutorial Videos, FAQs, and Activity Ideas grouped by grade level. If your district blocks YouTube, the tutorials may not be viewable. Please be aware that Seesaw falls under the FERPA laws for "directory information" and "educational records." Any school getting funds from the Department of Education (public schools) is required to disclose to parents and get written consent to use Seesaw with their child.

tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), DAT device agnostic tool (147), digital storytelling (154), Learning Management Systems (20), portfolios (23), Teacher Utilities (198)

Develop rubrics to assess what you expect students to learn with Quick Rubric. Registration is free and allows for saving the rubric. Click Create a Rubric and add a title, brief description, and the maximum and minimum scores. Describe your indicators, add descriptors, and even include standards. At any time during the formation of the rubric add columns and rows. Save and share via URL or printing. The ability to copy and modify a rubric from your account is a great time-saver.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): assessment (147), rubrics (37)

Learn something new every day with Brain Pump videos. Choose from the many topics including game design, history, science, math, technology, nature, business, casual science, and more to view a random video about the topic. Not interested? No problem, click the next video link to watch another on the same subject. Sign up isn't necessary but allows you to "star" videos to find for later viewing. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Online-Convert, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): business (52), critical thinking (127), earth (184), financial literacy (93), fish (18), human body (93), marine biology (31), natural resources (37), plants (146), psychology (65), rivers (16), space (222), spanish (109), video (266)

ArtsEd LAB is a FREE publication that provides countless ideas, explanations, lesson plans, videos, podcasts, and more. Download one of several toolkits with links to videos and lesson plans. Free resources list of topics include An Article Library, Resource Guides, Free Lessons, and Teacher Workshops.

tag(s): architecture (75), professional development (385), robotics (24), STEM (297)

Share positive moments and increase your happiness! Share by describing your happy moment, upload a picture (not required), and place it in categories you create, such as working out, family, and more. Click Share to share with others, including on Twitter or Facebook. Why use categories? If you are lacking motivation for working out, viewing your positive messages from before can definitely help! Connect with others and comment on their happy moments! Read helpful tips to center you on happiness, find mini-courses, and use daily reminders to increase your happiness. Read the many articles on your journey to a happier YOU! This site/app is easy to use with today's busy lives, and interactivity is grounded in actual science.

tag(s): emotions (49), mental health (48), psychology (65), social and emotional learning (102)

Do you need a checklist for students to use before submitting multimedia projects? This site provides a printable list (pdf) that covers several areas such as mechanics, documentation, and quality of content. Check off each item on the list, multiply the weight, and come up with the total points.

tag(s): assessment (147), multimedia (53), rubrics (37)

The Los Angeles Unified School District offers resources for math instruction in all grades and correlated to Common Core Standards. Choose from elementary, middle, or high school links to find curriculum maps, lessons, and assessments offered by grade level or high school curriculum topic. Middle and High School links also provide intervention through tutorial labs. Be sure to check out the printable article Opening Strong in a Common Core Classroom that provides many suggestions and strategies for the first ten days of school.

tag(s): assessment (147), commoncore (73), professional development (385)

Bill's Games offers a variety of free online activities and puzzles. Although this site is "plain vanilla," there are classic activities that offer challenges for all ages. Scroll through the home page to find puzzles, board games, mazes, and word games. Each activity includes directions for play and many offer options for difficulty levels.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): game based learning (205), logic (161), problem solving (233), puzzles (149)