Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Create learning games for use on any device using oodlu. Sign up for a free account to begin creating question sets. Take advantage of many different question formats including sequencing, multiple choice, and fill in the blank. Optional features provide the ability to add different forms of feedback to guide students when making incorrect choices. When finished, share the code with students to access the learning games. Students sign in using their username, password, and the code provided. As students complete activities, they earn award badges. Use the teacher dashboard to review and monitor student achievements. Free accounts include an unlimited number of students and questions.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), flash cards (44), game based learning (205), gamification (83)

Deck.Toys is an interactive lesson creation site that works with your existing content. Use the site's drag and drop features to build lessons using your PowerPoint and Google Slides. Add differentiation features within self-exploration paths. Other options include teacher-sync, turn this feature on, and all students are synced to your current slide. Deck.Toys also includes student progress reporting in real-time and a comprehensive lesson report. Included with the free option are two classrooms, up to three private decks, unlimited public decks, and the ability to assign up to two classroom decks at a time. Be sure to watch the tutorials and take advantage of the site's FAQ section to get started.

tag(s): assessment (147), bookmarks (43), classroom management (120), Teacher Utilities (198)

Notejoy is a collaborative note-taking and sharing resource for teams. Create a note for a group and receive real-time updates. Features include checklists, upload of images and documents, and discussions. Quickly see who's viewed your notes and use emojis to respond or participate in threaded chats. Notejoy integrates with several major platforms including Google Drive and Microsoft Office. After signing up for Notejoy, follow the prompts to add your team name and emails of team members. Use your dashboard to create, share, and view notes. Free plans offer up to 5 members per library, up to 3 team libraries, and individual uploads up to 10 MB with a total storage of up to 100 MB.

tag(s): collaboration (93), communication (129), note taking (36), organizational skills (88)

Can you type for three minutes without stopping for more than five seconds? How about five minutes or longer - up to an hour? This website tests your writing persistence. Choose how long you want to write or how many words then start writing. If you hesitate for five seconds, all of your work disappears. However, if you make it to the set amount of time, you can download what you typed.

tag(s): creative writing (124), journals (15), writing (324)

Curate and share texts, documents, links, photos, and more with Netboard. Register and activate your account to begin. Choose "create" to begin a new page and begin adding content. Enter the URL for any website, upload information from your computer, or add text boxes. Personalize the look of your page using layout, font and background skin options. Save your Netboard and share the custom URL with others, privacy options allow others with the link to only view or contribute to your board and for boards to remain private.

tag(s): bookmarks (43), bulletin boards (15), collaboration (93), communication (129), curation (32), images (263)

Create, personalize, and share online forms using Wufoo's form builder tools. Choose from a wide variety of templates for surveys, RSVP's, expenses, and more or create your own form from scratch. The free plan includes up to five forms,10 fields, and 100 entries. Share your form when finished and Wufoo sends you email notifications as responses are posted.

tag(s): data (151), polls and surveys (49)

Adobe Express for Education (was Adobe Spark for Education) offers this version of it's popular presentation tool, reviewed here, specifically for education. Use Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education to create multimedia projects or presentations using the available templates and graphics tools. The Education version provides enhanced data privacy and the ability for students to log in with a code. This tool can be available through your school's Adobe Admin Counsel if your IT team already uses Adobe products. If not, follow directions on the site to set up and begin using this tool as an individual educator.

tag(s): communication (129), creative writing (124), multimedia (53), posters (43)

Renderforest is a video and animation creation tool. Easily create introductions for YouTube videos, animations, and slideshows using the site's free templates. Free accounts allow you to create an unlimited number of 360p videos up to 3 minutes long, 500mb storage, and a limited number of music tracks. Follow the step by step instructions for adding backgrounds, images, and music or your recordings to create videos. After publishing the video use the provided links to share it on YouTube or social media sites or download to your computer.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): animation (64), video (266)

Write a story and create interactive choose your own adventure games with StoryLab. After signing up using email and verification of your account, begin a story with the start page. Add links to items in your story to direct readers to different parts of the adventure. Be sure to watch the tutorial videos and visit the help pages for step by step directions on creating and sharing your games.

tag(s): creative writing (124), writing (324)

Do you need a tool to quickly summarize long chunks of text? SummarizeThis is the answer. Just copy any section of text from online, PDFs, word documents, or where ever and paste it into SummarizeThis. Click the link to summarize, and the result appears immediately.

tag(s): learning disability (21), Special Needs (53), summarizing (23)

Kapwing is an online video and photo editor for creating and sharing short videos for personal and online use. Use Kapwing directly from the website without downloads or passwords. Among the many available features this site offers are tools for adding text, including filters, change images to video, and much more. Begin by choosing a tool from the drop-down box at the top of the homepage. Upload media from your computer using the provided boxes and choose from options to personalize content as you wish. When complete, save to your computer or create an account with Kapwing to store videos and photos.

tag(s): editing (93), images (263), social media (48), video (266)

Do you struggle to find quality resources for teaching STEM lessons? Check out over 260 lessons and units provided on this comprehensive website. Use filters to choose grade level, content, and type of activity, or use the keyword search to locate specific content. All resources include correlation to science standards and most include several interactives and online response options.

tag(s): animals (294), cells (82), dna (43), earthquakes (46), engineering (129), equations (119), genetics (80), measurement (122), plants (146), pollution (53), problem solving (233), space (223), stars (71), STEM (298), temperature (34), weather (160)

Explore and find math activities for middle school students (grades 5-8) aligned to Common Core Standards at this comprehensive site. Find materials through several different search avenues; browse standards, search by grade level, choose a domain, or use a keyword search. Content includes lesson plans, interactive activities, and videos.

tag(s): commoncore (73), decimals (85), equations (119), exponents (35), fractions (160), functions (52), geometric shapes (134), mass (19), measurement (122), operations (72), order of operations (29), place value (34), ratios (47), volume (33)

Pinside is an online bulletin board for sharing notes privately and publicly. Register using email to begin using Pinside. Choose "+New Note" to add a sticky note to your board. Add text to the note and an optional link to an image if desired. When finished, click "Add Note" to share your note to the bulletin board. Drag notes to any position on the board, delete unwanted notes by clicking the x by your name. Use Pinside's settings to add members using email addresses. Share your board with others using the URL of individual boards.

tag(s): bulletin boards (15), organizational skills (88)

Solvemoji offers math puzzles in five different difficulty levels. Use the emojis to figure out the number represented and complete each puzzle. In addition to choosing from varying degrees of difficulty, options include selecting popular or new puzzles. Find solutions by creating and logging in to your account.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): logic (161), problem solving (233), puzzles (149)

Reshot provides free, hand-picked images to use as you wish. The site's goal is to provide a platform for emerging photographers to share their work. Scroll through the site to view trending images or use the search feature to locate images by keyword. Choose your photo, then use the "download free" link to download to your computer.

tag(s): images (263), photography (131)

The Hacking STEM Library provides a vast array of STEM projects for easy incorporation into any classroom. Clicking any feature will bring up a menu on the left that you can scroll through to view the Activity Library, Master Skill Guides, and Bite-Size Activities. Each activity provides a quick look at cost, grade level, and amount of time needed before linking to the full lesson plan. Lesson plans include complete instructions, objectives, and necessary documents.

tag(s): angles (52), critical thinking (128), electricity (61), energy (133), light (56), makerspace (40), Microsoft (80), problem solving (233), solar energy (35)