Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Down the Drain is a free Internet-based collaborative project that has classes around the world share and compare their water consumption. For a detailed explanation, visit the New to the Project link. The project includes a hypothesis, prediction, data collection, and comparing results. The data collection period lasts one week. There is a link for Student Activities. The Teacher Guide link offers an overview of the project, publishing policy information, and extension activities. The project says it is designed for grades 4-8 but can be used in upper grades, as well.

tag(s): environment (252), recycling (45), water (102)

Explore, discover, collect, and share quotes with Quotery. Search by keywords to find quotes on various topics or by author to find quotes from a certain source. Sort by popular, random, or the latest quotes. Use the toolbar on the left to search by topic, author, pictures, and much more. Links on each quote allow you to easily view the full quote, save to your account, or share using the URL, email, or social networking sites. Registration isn't necessary but does allow you to collect and save quotes for future use.
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tag(s): bulletin boards (15), quotations (19)

Achieve maximum potential from Parent-Teacher Conferences with these three tip sheets (PDFs) from Harvard Family Research Project. Tip sheets for parents, teachers, and principals offer targeted suggestions for teams working together to promote student success. Suggestions include ideas for before, during, and after conferences and suggestions for all participants to "Be Heard."

tag(s): parent conferences (21)

Merge several PDF files into one document or split a PDF document into different documents using I Love PDF. Choose your option and follow the links to upload and convert your files. When complete, click the download link to open and save files to your computer. There is a premium option of this tool, but most features are free. The FREE option allows a total of 80 MB for all uploaded PDFs. Read the chart on the homepage to learn all that is included in the FREE option.

Make the most of Red Ribbon Week with ideas and support from the official Red Ribbon Campaign website. Choose from many downloads such as the official planning guide, Red Ribbon fact sheet, printable pledge sheet, and photo contest flyer. Sign an online pledge for adults to help children grow up safe and drug free. Read the Red Ribbon Blog to stay up to date on all the latest events and information about the Red Ribbon Campaign.
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tag(s): drugs and alcohol (28), red ribbon week (9)

Visit Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center (PNBC) to discover resources for implementing a bullying prevention program in your community and school. There are many pages to explore through clicking on the menu tabs at the top. There are over sixty videos of special interest for all age groups. The Students with Disabilities section (scroll down the main page) has five facts everyone needs to know, and you can download it in PDF format. Investigate the Educator Toolkits and Activities. The Student Activity Kit is for students to help them prevent bullying. There is a Year Long Toolkit available for all classrooms. Use the search bar to find a variety of toolkits, including a Community Toolkit that has ideas for holding a rally, organizing a run, or creating an advocacy program. Under the Educators tab, slide to Middle/Highs School Acitivities where you will find activiites for Instagram, Student Created Videos, music, and others. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable.

tag(s): bullying (48), character education (79), cyberbullying (40), digital citizenship (85)

Learning Front is a free online community of tools for social, professional learning. Tools for professional development aim to improve teaching and learning in the 21st century online platform. Connect and collaborate with individuals or teams. Programs offers the AD682 Technology for Leaders of Learning with Webinars and Coaching Sessions on many professional development tasks for teachers, new or experienced, or pre-service teachers. Wiki Task features units, lessons, and data displays for professional learning. Find lessons to support your subject area. The Networking link allows you to find other colleagues in your area of expertise. They can join your efforts and work with you. Download many free resources.

tag(s): professional development (385), social networking (61)

Liahona Academy offers this PDF infographic as a detailed look at teen social media use and what parents and teachers should know to take an active role in students' online life. Discover how teens spend their time on social media, what platforms they use, and how to stay informed of their activities. Follow tips for monitoring Internet browsing activity with specifics for commonly used browsers. Learn how teens try to hide activity from adults and what you can do to stay one step ahead! Stay informed about tools available to adults to help monitor the safety of students.

tag(s): cyberbullying (40), digital citizenship (85), internet safety (114)

My Autism Team is a social networking site for parents of autistic children. The site includes four key areas: finding providers, finding and networking with other parents of autistic children, questions and answers, and activities -- with daily updates of triumphs and trials. Register using your email to access most information on the site; however, it is possible to search and browse the question and answers and find local providers without registration. This is NOT a medical or "professional" site, though they do have partnerships with several respected professional autism-related groups (see Partners section).

tag(s): autism (15), Special Needs (53)

Join forces with Super Power Speech, a blog written by a speech pathologist, Caroline Bowen. Find professional speech pathology information such as Articulation Printables links, Social Skills, Language based speech therapy, many engaging blog entries, and links to helpful speech resources by clicking on Speech on the top menu bar. Explore resources for Assessment and Response to Intervention. Some material featured on the site goes to Teachers Pay Teachers, but some are free.
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tag(s): professional development (385), social skills (22), speech (69), vocabulary development (93)

Create your own novelty tickets. Choose from two different ticket styles and enter information such as row and seat numbers, event title and place, and date of the event. After entering information, click "Make My Ticket!" to view and save your ticket in JPEG format.
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tag(s): behavior (45), classroom management (120), Teacher Utilities (197)

Never mispronounce a name again, thanks to the help of NameCoach! Record names using your own computer or any other device. Add phonetic spelling or pronunciation tips. You can listen to the names as often as you wish. Create your account to make lists for Back to School, award ceremonies, graduations, and much more. After creating your name page, share a link with peers through email or as a link on your class webpage or blog. Share the link in your substitute plans, too! Create a master list with sublists for use in different departments, classes, or for individual events.

tag(s): classroom management (120), pronunciation (34), substitutes (25)

TeachingEnglish provides free classroom materials, lesson plans, and activities for teaching English from primary ages through adults. Explore free teacher professional development and training materials in addition to articles on the facets of teaching. Any group, whether ESL/ELL or not, can use the lessons and some of the interesting activities they have for learning vocabulary and engaging in conversation. At the bottom of the home page find a huge directory categorized by Teaching Resources, Tools for Teachers, Teacher Development, Teacher Training, Specialist areas, and more. Since the site is from the UK, the vocabulary and spelling used is British.

tag(s): vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (93), word study (59)

Konstella was Simply Circle and now has a new focus - on parent and teacher communication. Konnstella makes communicating with groups easy and productive. Open up the lines of parent/teacher communication with your email address to create an account and set up classroom Konstella. Use Konstella to share messages, pictures, and files. Add tasks, organize events, and assign roles. Members of your Konstella groups receive a weekly digest of upcoming events. There is an option to send urgent messages immediately. Create by adding email addresses; members of your Konstella do not need to be registered members of Konstella to view the emails. Be sure to click features to read about all Konstella can do for you, your school, and your parents community.

tag(s): classroom management (120), communication (129), homework (29), microblogging (14), Teacher Utilities (197)

Wheel Decide helps make decisions interesting and fair. Choose from ready-made wheels with choices such as games or food. Create your own wheels. Scroll down below the wheel and choose "Make/Modify Wheel" to customize your wheel for any purpose. Add up to 100 choices and a title. Advanced options allow you to remove a choice after landing on it, choose from color options, adjust the length of spin, and more. Cancel the "click" sound if it is distracting. At the time of this review saving a wheel required signing in with your Facebook account or bookmarking/copying the URL.

tag(s): classroom management (120), gamification (83), probability (99)

Highlight and print (or view) only what you want from a web page using Printliminator. Downloading this tool is made easy with the drag and drop bookmarklet; Drage it to your browser's toolbar (Printliminator works with Chrome ONLY). Then click the bookmarklet from any page to open up tool options. Mouse over your web page and click on red boxes to remove them from the page. When ready, preview and send to your printer. Be sure to watch the Quick Slideshow Demo for a full overview of all features of the Printliminator.

tag(s): classroom management (120)

Find Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports for problem classroom behaviors at PBIS World. This complete and easy to use resource includes hundreds of interventions, resources, and data collection and tracking tools. There are discussions about behavior, behavior analysis, problem-solving, ideas, and more! Start by selecting the behavior you want to address and proceed through the steps to the interventions and directions for using them. Some of the topics tackled include Anxiety, Disorganized, Poor Coping Skills, Lack of Participation, and many others. Explore ways to help students (or even adults) cope with these issues. There are three tiers to the program with different types of interventions.
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tag(s): autism (15), behavior (45), classroom management (120), difficult conversations (57), emotions (49), Special Needs (53)

Do you need fresh ideas and tips for writing across the curriculum? This site should give you lots of inspiration and step-by-step suggestions to get going. Read about the benefits of cross-curricular writing. Get started with the RAFTS prompts information. RAFTS prompts provide students with focus and clarity in writing projects and encourage creativity and freedom of thought. Be sure to check out these thoughtful ideas as you gear up your writing instruction.

tag(s): creative writing (124), descriptive writing (42), expository writing (31), letter writing (19), paragraph writing (15), persuasive writing (58), process writing (37), writers workshop (31)

Learn what you need to do and know to start using X (formerly Twitter). Sign up to get a X (formerly Twitter) mentor or BE a mentor! Find out what to do before creating an X (formerly Twitter) account, get advice about whom to follow, explore programs to use to help you manage your X (formerly Twitter) account, and read how to keep track of everything. Learn about all the terms needed to be successful using X (formerly Twitter) as a teacher. This site is clean, simple, and very helpful!

tag(s): chat (41), microblogging (14), social networking (61), twitter (13)