Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

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)

Investigate the art of shadow puppetry through Shadow Light Productions. This is a commercial site featuring performances for school groups, community centers, or various events. Examples of performances with traditional stories appear in written and video format. A commercial venture on this site sells DVDS of actual performances. Begin your study of shadow puppetry at this site. Detailed plans with standards include suggested objectives, strategies, equipment, materials, and resources for audio, video, and texts. These plans answer all your questions on how to use shadow puppetry effectively in your classroom. Examples of lesson plans and student performance give ideas for language arts classes. Some of the images (although appropriate) may appear scary to younger students. So please preview before you share with your class.
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tag(s): halloween (32), short stories (18)

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)

This site has a comprehensive list of literary awards given yearly for excellence in writing in many categories. Besides a winners' list, there is an explanation of each award. In addition to book awards, there are also separate listings for film and music album awards. Each separate award site has an "honor roll," a list of the best in that area, as well as a complete listing. Archives include many lists from the past ten years as well. Although the list includes many awards public and private school teachers may not be familiar with, the site is a good place to begin to aid in the selection of quality outside reading material. In addition, many offer a "young adult" subcategory that would be helpful for teachers in grades 7-12 in recommending books to students for literature activities, independent reading, or writing inspiration/examples.
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tag(s): book lists (167), movies (54)

As of June 2017 Protagonize is no longer updated, however there is a note that all contents remain for those who would like to explore. Protagonize was originally a site for collaborative story creation. However, now you and your students can create your own "linear" or solo stories, poems, song lyrics, etc. Stories are available for others to comment on or add to. You can easily specify two endings like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series or leave the story's ending unfinished. Alternatively, choose to create different "chapters" of a story. Before writing, choose from many different story genres. If you prefer not to have outside input on the story, you can select "solo" writing. It is easy to change solo to collaborative writing, however. There is also an option to digitally link the chapters. The site is very flexible, and you can write poetry, drama, song lyrics, and writing exercises including role plays. Before writing, students set up "story guidelines" so that future contributors can see the parameters of the piece. Students can also view the work of others. Mature content is marked with a "Mature" marker. Students and other writers have an obligation to report inappropriate content. PDF format or RSS feeds allow the created work to be saved to another format.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), digital storytelling (154), expository writing (31), narrative (16), persuasive writing (58), poetry (193), six traits of writing (4), songs (46), stories and storytelling (58), word choice (14), writers workshop (31), writing (325)

This site offers a searchable database of lesson plans in all subjects and grade levels. Searches can be performed by subject area, grade level, and/or keywords. A short summary of each lesson is offered with the search results, lessons contain an overview, content standards (state and national), learning objectives, materials needed, procedures, and assessments. Remediation and Extension activities are also included. Some lessons also include variations added by site users.

tag(s): resources (83)

Need to be in the know -- now? AOL 5min Life Videopedia gives you five-minute stories about current news in a range of areas including arts, business, health, video games and much more! The how-to videos are great too! The main page features current news highlights. You can join this site, but it is not necessary to view the videos. Please be advised that not all topics are class or school appropriate. The "Knowledge" section has many school-related topics, but there are also useful How-to's in other areas. Preview and select what to share. Videos include short ads at the start. Once the ad is over, you can click the small link icon to find a direct link or embed code for that video.
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tag(s): business (52), dance (31), fashion (12), fitness (39), news (228), nutrition (140), origami (14), photography (130), video (266)

Join YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum in recognizing a biennial review of the best online videos from around the world. As a form of modern and contemporary art, celebrate free access every day for your virtual field trip from a Webby award-winning nominee site for 2011. A panel of 20-25 experts chooses from a selection of over 23,000 videos submitted. Explore art, music, movement, poetry, and prose on this creative video site. The option of subscribing to recent uploads is available at no charge. Click "continue" to see thumbnails of all available winners. If your district blocks YouTube, then this site may not be viewable. Not all comments posted are appropriate and videos should be previewed before viewing in the classroom setting.

tag(s): computers (109), video (266)

Find one minute listening exercises on such common activities as babysitting, chickens, and exercise. The listening selections are alphabetized with several selections for each letter of the alphabet. Each listening selection has a multitude of activities you can download (along with the reading text) in Word and pdf formats. Find Cloze paragraphs, fill in the blanks, words to unscramble, and much more. Many activities can also be viewed online. Each selection has two interactive quizzes. Though targeted for the ESL/ELL student, listening is one of the language arts standards, and this is a good way for any classroom teacher to address listening skills.
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tag(s): dance (31), listening (93), reading comprehension (149), vocabulary (238)

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 (115), 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 (108), painting (54), surrealism (2)

Royalty Free Sound Effects Library for Download by Soungle.com is a go-to resource to keep in your bookmarked favorites for easy, free downloads of sounds, and the best part is it is searchable! The sound effects are short, and there is no membership required. Cautionary advice would be to direct students to type in a search term and avoid clicking on word links which will actually lead away from the webpage.
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tag(s): sound (72), sounds (43)

Find a treasury of old radio shows from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. There are seven genres from which to choose (comedy, mystery, western, drama, etc.), and each genre has at least ten different old radio shows for your selection. There is a miscellaneous section that has such treasures as "Voices From History," "World War II News Broadcasts," and "Fireside Chat with Franklin D. Roosevelt." Downloading of the Mp3 files takes a while, so be patient.
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tag(s): 1930s (20), 1940s (14), 1950s (8), listening (93), oral history (13), radio (20), world war 2 (161)

This wonderful collection of interactive whiteboard activities is designed for students ages 3 to 18. Topics include Math, Literacy, Science, Physics, History, Art, Music, and Religion. Within each topic are categories to help narrow down search results. Activities contain a short summary, a link to the resource, and some have objectives. Because this is a British site, be aware that some vocabulary and content may be unfamiliar to American students, so preview carefully before using.

tag(s): descriptive writing (42), energy (133), environment (252), forces (37), grammar (137), literacy (122), literature (221), map skills (63), maps (220), novels (34), persuasive writing (58), poetry (193), preK (270), religions (95), rhythm (21), rivers (16), seasons (37), shakespeare (99), speeches (23), spelling (98), water cycle (22), weather (160)

The goal of this site is to educate youth about philanthropy and giving their time and knowledge for the global good. To do this, they offer over 1400 free lesson plans for teachers, parents, and community leaders. Lessons are coded to state standards and can be searched by grade level, keyword, subject, or academic or philanthropy standard. Some lessons are geared toward private or religious schools and are clearly labeled as such. Lessons include subject, key concepts, vocabulary, objectives, materials needed, approximate time, procedures, extensions, handouts, and much more. An example of a grade 3-5 lesson would be Cool Kids Compost which explores responsible use of resources by gathering data about lunchroom waste. Don't let the concept of philanthropy keep you from exploring the site, there are many great classroom lessons available for all subjects.

tag(s): african american (115), animal homes (57), animals (294), character education (79), charts and graphs (171), colonial america (95), communities (35), data (151), diversity (40), ecology (103), environment (252), heroes (24), money (113), recycling (45)

Use this site from the New York City Ballet to find ways to introduce your students to the glorious music from Tchaikovsky's beloved holiday classic, The Nutcracker Suite. This site offers lots of ways to incorporate the Nutcracker story and history into curriculum, including science, music, history/social studies, language arts, or visual arts. Also find a word search and coloring pages for your students.

tag(s): christmas (38)

Sound Sleeping contains a great interactive sound-mixing tool. Create music with soundtracks of drums or flutes and the ambient sounds of nature. This soundboard helps you generate background music perfect for meditation, yoga, napping, writing, or quiet reflection.
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tag(s): behavior (45), mental health (48), senses (20), sound (72), sounds (43), stress (7)