Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Deck.Toys is an interactive lesson creation site that works with your existing content. Use the site's drag and drop features to build lessons using your PowerPoint and Google Slides. Add differentiation features within self-exploration paths. Other options include teacher-sync, turn this feature on, and all students are synced to your current slide. Deck.Toys also includes student progress reporting in real-time and a comprehensive lesson report. Included with the free option are two classrooms, up to three private decks, unlimited public decks, and the ability to assign up to two classroom decks at a time. Be sure to watch the tutorials and take advantage of the site's FAQ section to get started.

tag(s): assessment (146), bookmarks (43), classroom management (119), Teacher Utilities (203)

Notejoy is a collaborative note-taking and sharing resource for teams. Create a note for a group and receive real-time updates. Features include checklists, upload of images and documents, and discussions. Quickly see who's viewed your notes and use emojis to respond or participate in threaded chats. Notejoy integrates with several major platforms including Google Drive and Microsoft Office. After signing up for Notejoy, follow the prompts to add your team name and emails of team members. Use your dashboard to create, share, and view notes. Free plans offer up to 5 members per library, up to 3 team libraries, and individual uploads up to 10 MB with a total storage of up to 100 MB.

tag(s): collaboration (94), communication (130), note taking (36), organizational skills (88)

Can you type for three minutes without stopping for more than five seconds? How about five minutes or longer - up to an hour? This website tests your writing persistence. Choose how long you want to write or how many words then start writing. If you hesitate for five seconds, all of your work disappears. However, if you make it to the set amount of time, you can download what you typed.

tag(s): creative writing (125), journals (16), writing (325)

Curate and share texts, documents, links, photos, and more with Netboard. Register and activate your account to begin. Choose "create" to begin a new page and begin adding content. Enter the URL for any website, upload information from your computer, or add text boxes. Personalize the look of your page using layout, font and background skin options. Save your Netboard and share the custom URL with others, privacy options allow others with the link to only view or contribute to your board and for boards to remain private.

tag(s): bookmarks (43), bulletin boards (15), collaboration (94), communication (130), curation (32), images (263)

Create, personalize, and share online forms using Wufoo's form builder tools. Choose from a wide variety of templates for surveys, RSVP's, expenses, and more or create your own form from scratch. The free plan includes up to five forms,10 fields, and 100 entries. Share your form when finished and Wufoo sends you email notifications as responses are posted.

tag(s): data (150), polls and surveys (49)

Eleanor Amplified is a podcast about a reporter who crosses land, sea, and air trying to discover the truth about an evil corporation. Each episode runs less than 15 minutes and recreates the feel of radio dramas from the past. The author states that the four significant lessons learned from the project are "Don't be greedy, ambition has its limits, commercialism can have side effects, seeking truth and speaking truth is important in and of itself."

tag(s): behavior (43), character education (81), creative writing (125), journalism (74), listening (93), podcasts (114)

Adobe Express for Education (was Adobe Spark for Education) offers this version of it's popular presentation tool, reviewed here, specifically for education. Use Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education to create multimedia projects or presentations using the available templates and graphics tools. The Education version provides enhanced data privacy and the ability for students to log in with a code. This tool can be available through your school's Adobe Admin Counsel if your IT team already uses Adobe products. If not, follow directions on the site to set up and begin using this tool as an individual educator.

tag(s): communication (130), creative writing (125), multimedia (55), posters (43)

Renderforest is a video and animation creation tool. Easily create introductions for YouTube videos, animations, and slideshows using the site's free templates. Free accounts allow you to create an unlimited number of 360p videos up to 3 minutes long, 500mb storage, and a limited number of music tracks. Follow the step by step instructions for adding backgrounds, images, and music or your recordings to create videos. After publishing the video use the provided links to share it on YouTube or social media sites or download to your computer.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): animation (66), video (267)

Inspired by road trips from the past, this quirky infographic shares facts from literary road trips of famous authors. Featured authors include Hunter Thompson, Jack Kerouac, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others. Each portion of the infographic includes route length, travel time, and starting and end points. Additional information on this site includes a short description of the featured road trip including the name of the novel, period background, and a link to a map with the entire route.

tag(s): infographics (57), maps (224), novels (34)

Write a story and create interactive choose your own adventure games with StoryLab. After signing up using email and verification of your account, begin a story with the start page. Add links to items in your story to direct readers to different parts of the adventure. Be sure to watch the tutorial videos and visit the help pages for step by step directions on creating and sharing your games.

tag(s): creative writing (125), writing (325)

Do you need a tool to quickly summarize long chunks of text? SummarizeThis is the answer. Just copy any section of text from online, PDFs, word documents, or where ever and paste it into SummarizeThis. Click the link to summarize, and the result appears immediately.

tag(s): learning disability (21), Special Needs (53), summarizing (22)

Kapwing is an online video and photo editor for creating and sharing short videos for personal and online use. Use Kapwing directly from the website without downloads or passwords. Among the many available features this site offers are tools for adding text, including filters, change images to video, and much more. Begin by choosing a tool from the drop-down box at the top of the homepage. Upload media from your computer using the provided boxes and choose from options to personalize content as you wish. When complete, save to your computer or create an account with Kapwing to store videos and photos.

tag(s): editing (93), images (263), social media (50), video (267)

Pinside is an online bulletin board for sharing notes privately and publicly. Register using email to begin using Pinside. Choose "+New Note" to add a sticky note to your board. Add text to the note and an optional link to an image if desired. When finished, click "Add Note" to share your note to the bulletin board. Drag notes to any position on the board, delete unwanted notes by clicking the x by your name. Use Pinside's settings to add members using email addresses. Share your board with others using the URL of individual boards.

tag(s): bulletin boards (15), organizational skills (88)

Reshot provides free, hand-picked images to use as you wish. The site's goal is to provide a platform for emerging photographers to share their work. Scroll through the site to view trending images or use the search feature to locate images by keyword. Choose your photo, then use the "download free" link to download to your computer.

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

FireWorks is a curriculum for all grade levels that teaches about the dangers of wildfires, specifically those that occur in the Northern America mountain ranges. Begin by selecting from the topics available on the the top menu of the home page. Download the entire curriculum as a PDF or choose individual components. All materials align with Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core Standards.

tag(s): biomes (110), fire (22), fire prevention (16), fire safety (16), forests (30), OER (43)

Transport learners back to the time of the Civil Rights Movement through a virtual learning experience. Listen to firsthand accounts, watch 14 videos, and explore many primary source documents found along the learning path. The journey explores seven themes and topics based on the Civil Rights Movement. As students travel the path, this site offers the option to clip and save information to their device for later use. Download the User Guide for complete information on how to use the site, suggestions discussion questions, and extension activities.

tag(s): 1960s (26), black history (135), civil rights (217), cultures (211), martin luther king (46)

Teachers.io is an organization and planning website and app that works hand in hand with myHomework student planning app, reviewed here. Sign up to create classes, upload documents and assignments, and easily share announcements. Create your teacher profile for students and parents to view. Free accounts also include a blog for sharing information and pictures.

tag(s): communication (130), homework (28), organizational skills (88), Teacher Utilities (203)