Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Find your sticky notes with the click of a button. Post your important notes or lists to your home screen on your computer quickly and easily. Download the software and begin writing notes. Easily delete with one button. Change color, theme, or text type on each sticky note if you desire.
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tag(s): brainstorming (18), graphic organizers (48), note taking (36)

Create Bingo cards in no time with Make Your Own Bingo Cards. In the boxes provided, enter any word list and choices for free space, card size, and number of cards to make. When finished, choose the "Generate Bingo Cards" to print.

tag(s): game based learning (205), printables (36), worksheets (69)

Get ready to sharpen your information and visual presentations! Discover resources to make your presentations pop at The eLearning Coach. Find downloadable storyboard templates, editing tools, and examples of online learning. Included are various podcasts to support instructional design. Articles also support audio, authoring tools, graphics, video, mobile learning, and more. The site also provides support and advice. They offer many free templates, ready to go! This site contains some products for purchase. This review is for the free part of this tool.
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tag(s): digital storytelling (154), multimedia (53)

Expand your technology library for free at Free Tech Books! Find a variety of ebooks with topics such as computer science, math, operating systems, programming, scripting, web design, electrical circuits, and engineering. Join the RSS feed to keep up with the latest new additions. Although this site is plain vanilla in appearance, it is full of "sprinkles" of information!
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tag(s): book lists (167), STEM (297)

Do not let the extremely simple look of this site keep you from exploring the links provided for making toys based on science concepts. Create items as simple as a kite or rotor, or as complex as robots, a hovercraft, or motors using directions within each link. All links have clear, precise directions with diagrams. Some links have accompanying videos hosted on YouTube. Be sure to look at the last toy link on the list, "how it's done," for excellent tips for the process of design. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): area (53), measurement (122), motion (47), STEM (297)

All-inclusive student response is what Plickers is all about. Students do not need to have Internet access. Responders use individualized QR Code cards (print a set FREE from Plickers), to answer questions. You use your mobile device to read the QR Code cards that students hold up. Create an account and get started immediately. No need to wait for an email response. There is a demo to use, or see the Support page on the bottom menu for detailed instructions for adding classes, students, questions (with or without images), and folders to organize your questions by unit, topic, lesson and more. You can save student responses to your online Plicker account.
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tag(s): assessment (147), DAT device agnostic tool (147), game based learning (205), gamification (83), qr codes (18), questioning (36), quiz (67)

Wimp offers a wide variety of videos with family-friendly content. Browse through the site using a keyword search or choose categories such as popular, life, culture, learning, and more. Choose a video to read a short description and view. Videos are imported from many different locations such as Vimeo, YouTube, and individual websites. Also, view Wimp on your mobile device by clicking on their link that is optimized for mobiles. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. Although the content is family-friendly, this site contains comments that aren't monitored. If sharing with students, go to the direct link provided with each video for viewing without some of the distractions (and possibly inappropriate comments).
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tag(s): animals (294), musical instruments (52), video (266)

60 Minute Physics is a free online course inspired by the very popular YouTube Minute Physics videos. Physics topics include light and energy, space and time, quantum physics, and more. Enrollment in the courses opens up discussion areas, the ability to download videos for offline viewing, and online tracking of progress throughout the course. Easy registration requires your name, email, and a password to begin.

tag(s): energy (133), evolution (89), forces (37), gravity (43), light (56), magnetism (36), matter (45), solar energy (34), space (222), temperature (34), video (266)

Just the facts and lots of them! The World Bank offers an extensive array of data about the countries of the world. Sort either by country (from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe) or by topic (agriculture to urban development). Look at zoomable, color-coded maps, and analyze rankings by topic. The interface is simple and direct, so if you are just looking for a statistic, you will find it quickly and easily. If you are looking at masses of authentic data to analyze or compare, you'll find that too. Click to download data in several formats.

tag(s): agriculture (49), atlas (5), climate change (99), data (151), energy (133), environment (252), infographics (56), map skills (63), maps (220), natural resources (37), resources (83), united nations (6)

The Engineering Place offers resources for students, parents, and educators to promote and learn about engineering. Explore the student section, sorted by age groups, to find information about careers in engineering. Choose the parents section to download a booklet with information about helping your student with mathematics and tips for encouraging students to explore careers in engineering. Find lesson plans and additional resources in the Educators portion of the site.

tag(s): careers (156), engineering (129)

Track trending topics and Xs (formerly tweets) in any country you specify with Trends24. Select a country by clicking Worldside from the top menu bar and view the breakdown of the trending tweets by hours. Choose between the Timeline breakdown or click on Cloud. Tweet trends show as a word cloud, with the most popular topics showing in a larger font. Click any hashtag name to view the tweets showing for that trend. Are you new to X (formerly Twitter) and hashtags? Find information to help you at TeachersFirst's X (formerlyTwitter) for Teachers page.
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tag(s): microblogging (14), twitter (13)

Become a member of Traffic Team Alpha. Join the mission to get cars through intersections as quickly as possible by controlling traffic lights. As you complete each mission, move up to more congested intersections and improve your problem-solving skills. Read and follow the directions for priorities with each level.

tag(s): computational thinking (40), critical thinking (127), engineering (129), problem solving (233)

Journey deep into Africa's environmental challenges and solutions in this blog-style offering from the Nature Conservancy. Learn about initiatives to save the elephants, promote sustainable grazing, establish fisheries, protect and conserve water, and much more. Don't miss the interactive section about the elephants accessible by clicking "#SaveElephants." Much of the Nature Conservancy's efforts focuses on raising funds for their endeavors. However, the many articles and rich images on this site explain and illustrate the issues well.

tag(s): africa (148), animals (294), earth day (60), environment (252), water (102)

Choosito! is a search engine providing safe access to the worldwide web through filtering of reading levels and subject areas for education. Create an account to add class information and add your collections. Search Choosito! using filters for reading level and subject. Limit searches to Choosito's Library, your collections, or Choosito! Web. Easily share searches using social networking links or save to your library. Be sure to check out the Choosito! Start Guides for a quick overview to getting started with this search engine.

tag(s): bookmarks (43), learning disability (21), Learning Management Systems (20), search engines (48), search strategies (22), Special Needs (53), Teacher Utilities (198)

City Technology offers resources for students and educators to learn about engineering. You learn through the creation of projects and integration across curricular areas such as math and science. The page for kids shares projects for kids to create on their own. Each project features a video showing how to make the item and a list of materials needed. Choose the section for educators to find complete units on Energy Systems, Force and Motion, and Stuff that Works correlated to math and science standards. Each unit includes a video and downloadable lesson plans.

tag(s): circuits (20), energy (133), engineering (129), forces (37), friction (9), gravity (43), motion (47), STEM (297)

Skyenimals is a website just for kids to learn about real and make-believe animals. Skyenimals are mixed up and imaginary animals created by kids. Explore and choose different animals to find related pictures, games, puzzles, and more. Choose the activities link to find coloring pages as well as online and printable activities.
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tag(s): animals (294), creativity (86)

Capture your audience's attention with audio messages from Clash. Type in your message of up to 140 characters and let Clash work its magic. Clash uses audio content from music, movies, and TV. It creates a unique message that is sure to capture anyone's interest. Edit individual words using options from different sources. When finished, choose the Save/Share button and share using the URL or social networking options. Clash seem to work best on Microsoft's Edge. Clash will work on any device with a modern web browser and an internet connection.

tag(s): communication (129), speech (69), text to speech (20)

Find, organize, edit, and share your photos from one place with Google Photos. Automatically upload pictures from any device to one storage platform. Use keywords to locate any uploaded image. Use the editing tools to create animated GIF's from images or combine related images and videos into a movie with a matching soundtrack. Google Photos allows you to upload photos from any mobile device and provides free unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels or videos up to 1080 HD.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), images (263), Storage (6), video (266)

Bloomz is a tool that has several free features that teachers need to communicate with their classroom community: share photos, schedule conferences, send reminders, and more. These features are all in one place. So don't use one program to share photos, one to send reminders, one to share calendar updates, and another to schedule volunteers and conferences. Just use Bloomz and do all of the work from the same site. Once you have signed up with your email, watch the introduction video and view the demo class to see how easy Bloomz is to use. This tool works with all mobile devices and computers. Be sure to check out Bloomz' Privacy Polixy to read about their FERPA and COPPA compliance.

tag(s): calendars (37), communication (129), DAT device agnostic tool (147), images (263), parent conferences (21), parents (57), Teacher Utilities (198)

Quizizz is a free assessment tool that includes much more than quizzes. Quickly create assessments, lessons, and interactive videos using your materials or those from the site's library. Choose from the delivery of activities in live mode or the student-paced feature. Additional features, including a dyslexia font, options for reduced answer options, and translation tools support special needs and diverse learners. After signing in to your Quizizz account, choose from the options on the dashboard to explore options available in the library, add a class, or use AI to create activities. Choose the "Create" link to build assessments, lessons, reading passages, and flashcards. Assign activities directly to Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, or other Learning Management Systems. In addition, students can access Quizizz using the link or join code provided after assigning the activity.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), DAT device agnostic tool (147), differentiation (84), flash cards (44), game based learning (205), gamification (83), polls and surveys (49), quiz (67), quizzes (90), spanish (109)