Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

MakeUseOf offers a large collection of tip sheets for popular programs such as Gmail, Mac programs, and Windows. Find over 40 help guides. Some of the topics include Safari for Mac Keyboard Shortcuts, Shortcuts For Special Characters on Windows, Evernote Search Tips & Tricks, Skype Shortcuts for Mac OSX, YouTube Tips, and several others. View by clicking the thumbnail or use the download link to print in PDF format.
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tag(s): computers (109), search strategies (22)

Iris the Dragon offers children's books to educate young children on mental health and wellness. The site has several FREE, downloadable e-books. There are other materials and offerings advertised on the site, but no purchase is needed to obtain the free e-Books. Topics include ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome, School Anxiety, Anger, Worry, and more. Raise student awareness and empathy levels for differences in people inside and outside of class. A few e-books are also available in French. Fill in the simple form with your name, books desired, and how you plan to use the books. (No email address is necessary, but can be provided if you want email updates from the website.) There is no "wait" period. E-books are available for immediate use.
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tag(s): adhd (27), aspergers (7), autism (16), difficult conversations (57), ebooks (46), empathy (36), french (74), mental health (50), social and emotional learning (109), Special Needs (53)

Vidtionary is a video dictionary defining words through images (and videos). The short videos include the word said aloud and shown in print, with sound effects or engaging music in the background. Browse entries using the search bar or view featured collections. Browse alphabetically or explore collections. Because of the wide range of topics and difficulty levels, these vocabulary words could be used with any age. Video lengths run less than one minute per definition, many as short as 10-15 seconds. Originally designed to teach English to speakers of Korean and Japanese, the visual nature of the site appeals to all language learners.

tag(s): dictionaries (48), multilingual (78), vocabulary (242), vocabulary development (95)

Enjoy science interactives ideal for elementary children through middle grades. Topics include Life Cycles, Seasons, Dinosaurs, Cells, Consumers, Nutrition, Digestion, Skeletal system, and many others. Most resources indicate the appropriate level for their use.
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tag(s): animal homes (57), animals (293), body systems (40), cells (82), dinosaurs (43), life cycles (21), nutrition (139), oceans (149), periodic table (43), preK (286), seasons (37)

Create animated GIF images FREE and EASY using GIFMaker. Animated GIFs are images that change from one image to another automatically. There is no registration required. Select and upload the images that you want to use (in PNG, GIF, or JPG format). Choose your animation speed and image size. You can even choose an image from your smartphone. Animations can be run backwards to create another different animation. Download the finished creation to your desktop.

tag(s): animation (66), images (263), photography (131)

Do you need funds for a classroom project or equipment? PledgeCents is a quick and easy solution to classroom and school fundraising. Begin with a fundraising idea and a goal. Create your class page with a project description, pictures, videos, and other relevant information. Share your page through social media links to Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and more. More simply, share the link on your class web page. Donors click to "invest" in your cause and are guided through a simple process to donate either by name or anonymously. After the project deadline, collect funds easily and safely for use with your project.

tag(s): grants (15), service projects (17)

This tool is cool little tidbits of knowledge. The subtitle is "Boldly Exploring Life's Little Mysteries." Zidbits include facts such as "What is the hardest language to learn?" "Do trees die from old age?" or "What is the most lethal poison?" Find facts for history, science, health, entertainment, and news on this site as well as fun facts. This site doesn't provide just a quick tidbit, but also gives background information and additional details.
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tag(s): infographics (57), questioning (36), speaking (26)

Slideful is a free online slide show maker. Upload up to 10 images from your computer to begin. After images upload choose the "next" button. Select the width and height of your slide show from several options or create your own custom size. Add text, edit backgrounds, or add blank slides to further customize presentations. Continue creating your slide show with options for frames, transitions, speed settings, and slide show player options. Create an account to save your slide show and edit later. Share using links provided for HTML code, download to your desktop, or get the direct link to share your slide show. View an example here, created in less than 10 minutes.

tag(s): images (263), slides (43)

This tool is a wonderful resource for both middle school teachers and students. Find lessons in any physical or biological content area. Find ideas for activities to use as part of your school's Science Club or interesting trivia to use as starters for your classroom. Other resources available include ideas for nature Centers, Puzzles, and links to other resources. This site has quite a few distracting advertisements.
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tag(s): atoms (43), cells (82), earth (183), ecology (103), forensics (12), insects (67), measurement (123), motion (47)

Science Sparks is a blog that shares activities to make science fun for even the youngest of children (and adults). All activities use materials commonly found around the home or easy to find. Scroll through the latest activities or choose from links at the top for preschool science, chemistry, physics, kitchen science, and more. Each activity lists materials needed and step by step directions. Many also include images and links to videos. In addition to directions, each post describes the science behind the activity.
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tag(s): acids and bases (8), chemicals (39), eyes (5), magnetism (35), senses (20), sound (72), water (105)

Discover the science and engineering behind many Hollywood Themes: Zombies, Space, Forensics, and Superheroes. Choose one of the themes to access information, videos, TI-Nspire downloads for interactive activities, and more. Each page also features related Math and Science Activities. The current hosts are Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) and Dr. Z.
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tag(s): diseases (66), forensics (12), space (220), STEM (306)

Transform your students' web-based research with Scrible. Highlight and annotate web pages and easily save, share, organize, and collaborate on Internet-based research. Scrible Edu integrates with Google Classroom and offers browser bookmarklets for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Edge. With the Scrible bookmarklet installed, when you're on a page just click the bookmarklet to launch a menu of bookmarking tools. Access your work right where you left off from editing. Use the option to format your bibliographies as you bookmark. Compile your article clippings into one package. Students may sign up using their academic email address. (If your school's domain name is not recognized as "academic," sign up for the free account and send a "feedback" email explaining that your email address is that of a student.) Student Scrible accounts have double the storage capacity of the standard free account. Educators sign up for the Basic Edition and then click the feedback link to let Scrible know you're an educator. They will set you up with a special edition which includes the same features. Work smarter, not harder with Scrible. Saving your bookmarks with Scrible allows you to easily go back to review a site, and you'll see immediately why you bookmarked that site.

tag(s): citations (33), curation (32), Research (88), summarizing (22)

Use polltogo to create polls for student response during a meeting or class time. Connect with your audience in many ways. Create a question and select the type of answers, how long the poll will last, password or not, and more options. Receive notifications about your poll via your email. Each poll is free for twenty people to vote. Tweet about polltogo and receive another thirty credits so thirty more people can vote. Choose to receive results (via email) after every vote or at the end of the voting period. Interim and final results can also be viewed online. Another great feature is embedding the results link into a PowerPoint or Keynote slide to project results during a presentation. polltogo is a device-agnostic voting tool and will auto-adapt to display on any mobile or desktop device.

tag(s): assessment (146), Formative Assessment (73), polls and surveys (49)

Enter the world of Common Core with NYlearns. Find a myriad of free resources including activities, learning experience unit, lesson plans, multimedia, teacher resources, web-based practice, constructed response questions, document based questions, and rubrics in elementary, intermediate, and commencement. An overview of Assessment includes basics, and assessment builder in which you may choose grade level and subject. Currently, memberships are available to school districts to have access to e-portfolio, website, e-planner, my curriculum, and assessment builder.

tag(s): commoncore (73)

Take a tour of your closet to find out where your clothes come from. Discover the concept of interdependence and the extent of our global footprints. Research where raw materials come from and how clothes are made. Consider the implications of manufacturing and transportation to get them to your closet. This interactive includes informative videos complete with transcript. You can save your place within the interactive by "getting a code" that you re-enter on return.

tag(s): natural resources (37), resources (83)

Introduce evolution with the Evogeneao tree of life. This resource promotes teaching and acceptance of the biological theory of evolution in one transformative way. Life on Earth is one big extended family. Not only are we related to every other living thing in some way, but also to everything that has ever lived.
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tag(s): animals (293), biodiversity (36), evolution (88), plants (147)

This free tool created by a botanist/zoologist is a useful resource about living things. Though some of the content requires a membership, there are many resources that are free. Find information, photos, and even free video clips. Note that illustrations are copyrighted by the site owner, and information from the site must be cited with the correct references given (examples are provided.) Be sure to check out all the tabs that include Plants and Animals, the Planet Earth, Science words and Pics, Human Body, and more. Don't miss the chance to Ask a Zoo Vet (under Bringing Science to You) and many activities for those as young as preK (see Words and Pictures).
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tag(s): animals (293), earth (183), human body (91), plants (147)

Sheppard Software offers hundreds of online learning games for learners in a large variety of subjects. Topics include brain games, seasons, nutrition, and world geography. Search for specific topics or browse categories. Looking for a specific grade level range? Scroll down below the main icons to view recommended sections for different age ranges from preschool to adult. In addition to games, some categories include videos, timelines, and coloring activities. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. Some activities require flash which isn't supported on all browsers.
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tag(s): addition (128), alphabet (53), alphabetical order (8), animal homes (57), animals (293), capitalization (9), capitals (15), cells (82), colors (63), continents (33), counting (61), countries (73), decimals (85), dinosaurs (43), division (97), elements (33), endangered species (27), equations (119), estimation (33), fractions (160), geometric shapes (134), grammar (138), integers (21), landforms (39), life cycles (21), measurement (123), money (114), multiplication (121), number lines (33), number sense (68), numbers (121), oceans (149), order of operations (29), parts of speech (39), patterns (61), periodic table (43), place value (34), puzzles (149), states (125), subtraction (109), time (91), vocabulary (242), vocabulary development (95)

Have fun creating sentences or short messages (like tweets) using drag and drop words at X (formerly Twitter) Magnets! X (formerly Twitter) Magnets calls them poems, though the length limit is a real challenge for poets! Choose from the words offered. Drag and drop the magnets into the message area at the bottom -- up to 120 characters. The tool keeps a character count for you. Need different words? Click the swap words link for new choices. Click submit to view your message/poem and decide whether to submit to X (formerly Twitter) Magnet's feed or not. You can also link to send from your own X (formerly Twitter) account. Note that clicking to see the Twitter Magnets feed will show you "messages" and poems created by the general public. Steer clear or preview to be sure these are appropriate in your setting.

tag(s): creative fluency (5), microblogging (14), poetry (196), Teacher Utilities (203), twitter (13), writing prompts (61)

Bring science to life with this free community of Science Workshop ideas. The site may not look exciting, but the activities bring real hands-on learning to science. Browse a few activities to get the idea. After registering, click on the CSW Projects and Activities tab. Search the activities by project type (e.g. projectiles, music, woodshop) or by STEM content. Workshop ideas are either video or downloaded instructions with images. Most use simple, inexpensive materials.

tag(s): engineering (137), gravity (43), inventors and inventions (82), musical instruments (54), plants (147), sound (72), STEM (306)