Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Create a free, animated speaking character that represents yourself for a blog, wiki, or any website. Voki can also be emailed to others and downloaded to phones. Appropriate for student use in grades 6-12 but for teachers at all levels.
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tag(s): speaking (26)

If you have never used podcasting with your students, but wanted to, this site will help you get started. Although this site is mainly informational, it is a great starting point to learn more about podcasting. It gives a good overview of what it is, how to do it, and how it works in the classroom. It uses examples from projects related to the Smithsonian Institute, but it is easy to see how they are adaptable and applicable to other topics and subject areas. The site also provides several links to use to create your own podcasts! Another great tool for creating FREE podcasts is PodOmatic.

tag(s): podcasts (108)

This well-designed website has books for 8 levels of readers from picture books to adult-level subjects in 17 general categories. Search using the advanced search function or browse through the favorites. Look for fiction or non-fiction, parts of series, and best of all books for reluctant readers. All books feature a summary and also an illustration taken from the book. The descriptions of the books are very enticing and often include quotes from the text.

tag(s): literature (222)

Use this searchable blog to locate images within the public domain for you to use on web sites, in multimedia projects, and more. The site provides complete source information on each image, as well as its rationale for treating the image as "public domain." Public Domain images are not subject to copyright restrictions, so you may use them in places that do not qualify for "Fair Use," such as on open web sites, blogs, etc. Though we are not legal experts and this review should in no way be deemed to be legal advice, our editors found that the evidence of public domain seems credible on this site. The site does include extensive advertising and links to non-education topics and blogs, the collection is very useful for teachers of any level or subject. Note: Because of extensive advertising and links, teachers should spell out specific consequences for following these non-educational links and may want to limit use of this site by students to times when you can monitor directly.

tag(s): clip art (11), images (263)

Every teen and college student knows Skype, the free tool for making calls from computer to computer anywhere in the world. By downloading and installing free software and setting up a free account, you can talk and/or make a video call to a similarly equipped computer elsewhere in the world for free. Skype uses a lot of "bandwidth" so is not suitable for very slow networks. It may also be slow at high-traffic times on a good network. Some patience and pretesting is required before you can be sure it will work for your needs. Connect to classrooms, experts, authors, virtual special speakers, or interview subjects using Skype.

tag(s): virtual field trips (128), webcams (19)

Create a graph simply and easily. Choose a graph type from a variety of choices such as Pie, Bar, Line, or Area. Also choose 2D or 3D as a dimension and add labels, legends, or gridlines. Enter text for the titles as well as the X and Y axes. Create your graph and view the image. Copy the URL for the graph and paste into a blog, wiki, or website to share. Right click on the graph image to save to your computer (use control click in a Mac.)
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tag(s): data (151)

Differentiating activities for all learners has become easier with this tool. Use this free Bloom's Taxonomy tool, created by an educator, to develop great objectives for differentiated instruction. Move through developing your goal on this site by choosing a level of Bloom's Taxonomy and a thinking skill. Then move on to your content, resources, finished product expected, and what kind of grouping you want. These are all tabs at the top of the page. Watch the sentence at the top of the screen change as you create your objective.

tag(s): blooms taxonomy (7), critical thinking (127), differentiation (84), newbies (11)

This site offers "what you need to know" about the swine flu, specifically for schools. Topics include General Information, School Closure, What to do in your School, and Additional Information. Each topic has several "sub-topics." This resource provides a TON of information and is frequently updated.

tag(s): h1n1 (6)

This site, created by the CDC, offers general information about the H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu). Learn what to do if you get flu-like symptoms, how to take care of a sick person in your home, facemask and respirator use, and more. This site also includes audio and video resources.

tag(s): diseases (67), h1n1 (6)

This site offers a short (5-minute) video explaining the Swine Flu. Learn about the symptoms, causes, how to avoid spreading the flu, and more. This site does include some advertising. To avoid advertising, click on the full screen box (bottom right).

tag(s): diseases (67), h1n1 (6)

Take a look at this site, complete with resources for schools. Some of the articles (at the time of this review) included "Preparing for Flu: A Communication Toolkit for Schools (K-12)," "Guidance for State and Local Health Officials and School Administrators for School Responses to Flu during 2009-2010 School Year," "Infections Alert for Institutions of Higher Education," and a few others. The articles are frequently updated, so be sure to check back often!

tag(s): h1n1 (6)

Use Pixenate for quick online photo editing. This free resource requires no registration as there is no image storage, only editing for saving elsewhere. Upload pictures from your computer or enter the web address from somewhere on the Internet. Pixenate cautions users to follow copyright when editing web pictures. Once uploaded, use simple tools to edit the picture such as: undo, select, zoom, crop, resize, flip, rotate, color balance and tools, smooth, brighten, straighten horizon, remove red eye, brighten teeth, or draw lines and shapes. Choose more entertaining effects such as lomo effects, lens filters, adding clip art, creating heart shaped photos, and other effects. Edited pictures can be uploaded to flickr or saved to disk.

Be aware: students should be cautioned that the site sells services to make the photo into a gift (obviously, for a fee!). Other ads may appear on the page, as well.

tag(s): editing (93)

This site allows FREE access to a number of books, newspapers, and magazines, all using adaptive technology. After a free registration (available to participants with documented limited vision), members can download books, textbooks, and newspapers in a compressed, encrypted file. They then read the material using adaptive technology, typically software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen, or Braille access devices, such as refreshable Braille displays. The advantage to this site is that it offers newer books and other written materials than many other online digital libraries. Besides written items, a number of videos are available which assist or focus on typical Bookshare users, many featuring them as success stories. A special page of information for teachers with limited vision students includes information such as other resources, reading lists, and handouts.

tag(s): digital reading (17), disabilities (32), vision (44)

Need to create a quick logo? This logo generator is fast, easy, and free to use. No registration is required. Enter your text and click "options" to customize your logo. Options include a list of fonts, two gradient colors, and one outline color, and text sizes. View your logo before downloading as a png image or generating an embed code. You will need to know how to navigate finding images saved on a computer or using embed codes with various sites or blogs. Here is an example created by the TeachersFirst editorial team:

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tag(s): graphic design (49)

This site allows teachers and students to go through four simple steps to find a book that has a lexile rating. The steps include entering a lexile range (if unknown: enter grade level and ease of reading), interests (similar to a keyword search), search of all items that come up, and list-making.

One disadvantage of the site is that you can only enter a keyword when you get to the third step. After a book list based on interests appears, then you can search by keyword to make the search zero in on specifics. When teachers or students select books for a reading list, they can then click to see the complete list of books they have selected. Clicking on a book title leads to another screen, but it does not contain a book summary; instead, it has a list of other keywords for the book along with other book data.

tag(s): book lists (167), independent reading (81), reading lists (77)

Need help determining colors for a project, website, blog, bulletin board, or (if fashion challenged like me) today's outfit? Use this great site to determine colors that look great together for your next project. Point and click on the portion of the color wheel to pick a central hue of your choosing. Decide among the following choices: monochromatic, complementary, triad, tetrad, among others to choose a selection of colors. View examples of your choice as it would appear on a web page. Use the RGB values for entering into the color number for your web page. RGB values are six characters (numbers and letters) following a # sign. Save your scheme ID number for future reference.
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tag(s): colors (64)

This site allows you to create flashcards, and includes sharing and group capabilities. Many teachers will be able to navigate this free site very easily. Enter vocabulary terms and definitions as well as any html (web page language), such as images and charts to create electronic flashcards and quizzes for word study to use in language or other content areas. Create individual sets of flashcards, or invite others to interact and learn the same words. Teacher or students can create groups to share word lists. As with other collaborative tools, the revision history is easily accessible.

tag(s): flash cards (44), grammar review (31), word study (59)

Do you sometimes just want to compare two things and not need a lengthy explanation of either? Diffen offers the simple goal of entering two terms and instantly receiving the similarities and differences in a table format. View simple definitions under the information table. Need more information? Wikipedia style entries of information area also available on the page. There is a Top 5 list. At the time of this review, the Top 5 included "Gross vs. Net," "Affected vs. Effected," "Meiosis vs. Mitosis," "DNA vs. RNA," and "Fruit vs. Vegetable. While not ALL topics are included, the variety is impressive. You can add your own comparison of terms to the list. You may want to discuss with your class the fact that the information here is only as reliable as the people who submitted it, and ask them whether they agree with the comparisons you find here. NOTE: If you explore some of the ready-mades or requested topics, there are some topics "compared" that are not school oriented, such as comparisons of popular television characters. Preview before turning students loose or simply direct them to a specific "diffen."

tag(s): vocabulary (238)

Nemours' balanced approach makes this explanation of swine flu very helpful for parents, teachers, and kids alike. Not only does the article share the basic facts and simple strategies fo staying healthy. Included are links to related articles for kids and for teens. In the lower area of the page (just below the clickable page numbers), look for "More on this topic" and click on the tab "For Kids" or "For Teens." The common-sense approach will help prevent spread of the disease and reassure frightened students in terms they can understand.

Here is a useful blog created by a high school teacher who saw the value of "Brain Breaks" in his own classroom. Many of the activities could be used with older elementary and middle school students. The blog contains postings from several teachers. Each posting consists of a write-up of the activity as well as a video of the actual activity. The link provides practical uses and allows you to add your own as well. Breaks are archived so you can look at previous months. You can also download them. There are some great "breaks" at this site. Substitutes- take a look at a few of these brain breaks to use with students during your day. They're quick and you'll become the favorite sub to have!

tag(s): back to school (55)