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PDFescape - Red Software
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): Teacher Utilities (189)
In the Classroom
Use to alter documents that may have been saved as a PDF in the past. Save this site in your professional resources. If you work with students who request college recommendations or need to fill out forms for scholarships or jobs, be sure to share this tool with them!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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CurriConnects Book List: Immigrants and Immigration - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (166), immigrants (34), immigration (68)
In the Classroom
Allow students to select books at their own level to understand immigrants and how their own ancestors may have felt upon arriving in the U.S. Perhaps have them write a blog post as if they had just arrived. Have students meet in literature circles as they discuss these books or hold an immigration day where students share the experiences they have read and how immigrants contribute to the many cultures in the U.S.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: Slavery - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (166), civil war (138), slavery (78), underground railroad (15)
In the Classroom
As you study the Civil War and slavery, let students select books from this collection of fiction and historical fiction. As we honor and move beyond the 150th anniversary of many Civil War events, what better way for students to make a more personal connection to the people who lived during those tumultuous times.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: The Way Things Work - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (166), engineering (127), scientists (63), STEM (290)
In the Classroom
Have students choose a book they can connect to concepts you are studying in science class or have them choose a book of interest and generate a list of the questions they would like to learn about after reading the book. The non-fiction selections offer possible informational texts to practice Common Core science literacy skills. For more on text complexity and Lexiles''''®, see this information from the Lexile Framework.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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We Read - WeRead.org
Grades
K to 3tag(s): literacy (121), parents (57), preK (269), reading comprehension (149)
In the Classroom
Share information from this site with classroom volunteers and parents or use information to add to literature you distribute at Meet the Teacher/Back to School night or conferences. The Planning Reading Sessions information may be especially useful to share with parents as a framework for reading at home. Include a link to this site on your class website or blog as a resource for parents to use when reading at home with their child.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Drama in the ESL Classroom - Jessica Davis
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): acting (19), creative writing (124), plays (32)
In the Classroom
Use this site as the starting point for group projects like having the students write and produce their own play(s). This is a great find for gifted students as well as students studying any modern language as the play writing and acting techniques can easily be adapted. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos of the plays they write and produce then edit and save them using using CapCut, reviewed here. Share the videos on a site such as TeacherTube reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Mind is a Metaphor - Brad Pasanek
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): literary devices (13)
In the Classroom
High school AP literature and history teachers or IB capstone classes will especially love this site. Share a metaphor a day as students are entering the class or on your class web site. Allow a student to choose one as today's Metaphor Master! Discuss the meaning together or use it as a quick writing prompt. Use the time period to discuss the historical context of the metaphor. Use these in your own presentations or require students to create a presentation explaining the metaphors you assign. Younger students just beginning to study metaphors can benefit from trying to interpret the metaphors as a group and presenting them to the class. Challenge students to try to create their own metaphors. Develop a class Metaphor Wiki for students to share metaphors. Not familiar with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PDFmyURL - OpenTracker.net
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to print any web page without all of the headings and other extras that generally appear. Make print outs for students to practice highlighting and looking for main ideas in informational texts (especially if you do not have an interactive whiteboard to do this). Upload PDF's to your website for student use of single pages of websites instead of having students go through unneeded pages. Be sure to show students that you must make a note of the DATE when you made the pdf, since you should always include the "date accessed" in a project bibliography entry for a web site. Talk about "fair use" in making web page copies for temporary use as part of research or class activities vs copying web pages to hang them up as locker decorations! This may be a good site to share with parents via your website. (Help them save paper and print only what they need, not an entire website.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ClipChoose - ClipChoose.com
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): polls and surveys (49)
In the Classroom
Challenge students to create their own polls then search for YouTube videos to support or explain each response. Create a ClipChoose poll as a teacher or whole class. Have students respond then write a response using quotes from videos to back up their choice. Administer a poll, then use the data for graphing practice. Display sample polls (made by you or the class) and data for practice with interpreting graphs. Collect parent or student opinions about any topic. Take a poll at back to school night to find out what parents' greatest concerns or misconceptions are. Obtain quick feedback from students about which curriculum topics are confusing them. Allow students to create polls as part of critical thinking exercises such as how poll wording may bias the results. Encourage students to include polls in oral presentations to increase audience engagement. Teach students about types of propaganda using up to 8 example videos in ClipChoose. Ask students to select the one that demonstrates the use of a particular propaganda technique.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Catch the Science Bug - Catch the Science Bug Foundation, Inc
Grades
2 to 6tag(s): animals (295), birds (46), data (151), engineering (127), environment (246), plants (147), solar energy (34), trees (18), water (101)
In the Classroom
Although the standards listed are for grades K-4, much of the material has far higher reading levels. View videos on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as a class when introducing a science unit. Then complete activities provided on the site. The text passages on this site are at upper elementary to middle school level, so you may need to read them aloud or have weaker and stronger readers work together. The visual materials are quite useful for elementary and up. View videos and read biographies of the scientists during a career unit. Share this site as a resource for fun science activities to do at home and with gifted students for self-exploration. Add this to your list of recommended sites to prevent "summer slide." The teacher's guide on the site is an excellent resource for finding activities. Bookmark this on your computer or print and include in your lesson planning guide to use when planning lessons and units. Choose books from the reading list to include with guided reading instruction. For more science reading selections, check out TeachersFirst's CurriConnects lists for various science topics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PDF Converter - pdfconverter.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): worksheets (69)
In the Classroom
Ever find really neat activity sheets, but they need to be tweaked a little to make them work for your classes? This tool helps you save time by allowing you to edit PDF files in Word to avoid reinventing the wheel. (Beware of copyrighted materials, however). Science teachers can take lab activities and refine questions or add instructions as needed for their classrooms. English teachers can add standardized test prompts to preexisting general worksheets to tailor the activity to suit their state's test needs. This is a helpful utility for students entering contests or completing applications offered only in PDF form.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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AllSides - John Gable
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): elections (82), evaluating sources (28), media literacy (107), politics (117)
In the Classroom
This is an excellent site to easily find topics presented from various points of view. Use articles with students to demonstrate point of view in writing, bias in media, or for students to use as points for debates. Use an online tool such as Interactive Three Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to create a visual comparison of different points of view.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sub Hub - Rachel Friedrich
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): classroom management (120), newbies (11), substitutes (25)
In the Classroom
Regular classroom teachers might want to share this in their emergency lesson plans for subs. Substitutes, don't go into the classroom empty handed. Bookmark this useful website (or make it a TeachersFirst Favorite so you can find it anytime) and be prepared for the unexpected! New teachers and student teachers can learn from the many tips. If you are mentoring or working with a student teacher, share some of these ideas. For even more, be sure to check out Teachers First's Ideas and Resources for Substitutes here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Promethean Planet - Promethean, Inc
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Before you try any of these activities, think about how you can make the lesson more student-centered. Find ideas in TeachersFirst's Hands off, Vanna! Giving Students Control of Interactive Whiteboard Learning . Browse the site for interactive whiteboard resources to download for classroom use. Bookmark and save favorites for later use. Download any resource, then tweak it to your individual needs. Have questions about creating Promethean Flipcharts? Post your question on the technical board to receive helpful replies. If you have a SmartBoard, be sure to check out the SmartBoard lessons and resources page located here. You will need to download the ActivInspire software (free).Comments
This is the go-to site for Promethean flipchart downloads. Most files were created by teachers. The only downside is that the files are hit-or-miss. There are many gems, but you might have to browse some not-so-great files to find them.Tim, , Grades: 0 - 6
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Rooh it: Instant Web Highlighter - RoohIt, Inc
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): browser (8), note taking (36)
In the Classroom
Consider using this tool as a way to direct students to specific points of web pages. Include directions in your notes. Assign specific tasks, such as pre-reading questions using the notes feature. Even without "sharing" a URL, use this resource to keep track of specific points for discussion later. Have students use this tool for research papers and other projects. Share current events with others, highlighting specific points. Simply paste the highlighted URLs into a word doc to save and reopen later. Use this resource as an organizational tool for content found on the web. Have students annotate their own pages including their own pre-reading questions, main idea sentences, or summaries using highlighting and notes on a text-based page. Have them explicate poetry, annotate motifs in online literary works, point out fallacies in arguments used in blog posts, or highlight evidence of bias in web page content. They can "turn in" their assignments to you or share them with classmates by URL.Keep a word document with the URLs to your annotated pages and notes about what they are if you plan to assign them to students. If you plan to use this as a TEACHER only, there are no safety/security concerns at all. Be sure to check with your IT department about installing bookmarklets and using this site on district computers. No registration is required. Encourage students to use this responsibly and not highlight information considered inappropriate for school.
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Arcoiris, Educational Games - juegosarcoiris.com
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (53), colors (64), geometric shapes (135), numbers (120), preK (269)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a learning station on individual computers or your Interactive Whiteboard. Leave the language set to Spanish for students to practice learning Spanish on their own. Share with parents through your classroom website or blog for students to practice early learning skills. Use this site as a resource for Spanish speaking students. There is quite a bit of advertising on the site, so you may want to take the time to show younger students how to stay within the site without clicking on external links.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TagCrowd: Make Your Own Tag Cloud From Any Text - Daniel Steinbock
Grades
K to 12tag(s): speech (68), vocabulary (238), word clouds (13)
In the Classroom
This is a great visual tool to use. Take a poll and have your students type their answers into the word cloud builder. Then display on an interactive whiteboard or projector and see which answer was the most popular. Use this site as a way to help students see and memorize text, especially visual learners. Use it also when writing poetry or to "see" themes of repeated words and images. Have students paste in their own writing to spot repeated (and monotonous) language when teaching lessons on word choice. Use this site to surprise students with words that appear often in their writing. Have students work in groups to create word posters of vocabulary words with related meanings, such as different ways to say "walk" or "said" and decorate your classroom with these visual reminders of the richness of language. More ideas for primary grades: Dolch words, class names, numbers to 20, words with the same beginning letters, collection of ALL the words that hang in the classroom (so students can walk around and find/touch them on a laminated Word cloud card in their hands), or any collection of similar words.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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KidsTV123 - YouTube Channel - KidsTV123
Grades
K to 3This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (53), alphabetical order (8), animals (295), colors (64), counting (60), countries (73), dental health (14), phonics (51), preK (269), spelling (98), states (124), time (91)
In the Classroom
View videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. If you allow students to explore on their own, take caution since they could click and go elsewhere on YouTube. To share a single video safely at a center, use a tool such as Nicer Tube, reviewed here, and create a shortcut to the View Pure page directly on the desktop. Share a link to this site with parents through your classroom website or newsletter for students to view at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Famous Scientists - famousscientists.org
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): inventors and inventions (80), scientists (63)
In the Classroom
The reading level of this site is rather challenging. Have weaker readers work together with stronger ones. While discussing scientists and inventors, use this site as a resource for gathering information. Have small groups of students research scientists from the same time period. Have them research their contributions including reactions of others to their discovery or invention. Research why these inventions were particularly important and the scientific knowledge that changed as a result. Have them present their findings to the class by creating a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Vevox, Animatron, Renderforest, and Microsoft PowerPoint Online. Then, if you would like to take your students critical thinking up a notch and extend their learning, you could have the small groups compare the different inventions and decide how and why the earlier inventions had to come before a later invention could be developed. For this you might want to have students use a collaborative graphic organizer like Canva Edu, reviewed here, and have them report out their thoughts and discoveries to the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Word Game Time - Copyright '''''''© 2011 Fila, LLC
Grades
K to 7This site includes advertising.
tag(s): capitals (16), countries (73), grammar (137), keyboarding (28), logic (161), reading comprehension (149), spelling (98), states (124)
In the Classroom
In your classroom, offer Word GameTime as a center. Have students keep a log of the games they successfully complete to earn classroom incentives. Find appropriate interactives by grade level or by subject area. Include this link on your class web page as a place for reinforcement or even enrichment.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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