Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Create a polished, professional live chat on your blog or class site with this FREE tool. Create a "How Can I Help You?" message to pop-up as parents and students visit the page. When in an active chat, visitors receive a pop-up asking if they wish to join the chat. This tool runs on every platform and mobile device. Be sure to check out the demo tab to understand how to use the tool in your website. Add the HTML code into your site to add the chat box and features. Use this tool to analyze site traffic so you can identify what is most used by students and parents.
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tag(s): chat (41), communication (129), DAT device agnostic tool (147)

Easily track time spent on projects without time sheets! Enter your task and click to begin tracking. View the day-by-day breakdown of time spent on the activities. Generate summary, detailed, or weekly reports. Use this tool to create teams and generate team reports. Invite members by email and mark team data as public or private as needed. Use multiple machines in the day? No problem. Time is tracked across multiple devices including Android and iOs.
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tag(s): classroom management (120), DAT device agnostic tool (147), organizational skills (88), Teacher Utilities (198), time (91)

Spend some time with this real-time typing competition to increase your typing speed AND accuracy. Nitro has multiplayer typing car races where competition is against either other unknown members or with friends. At the signal to go, racers type the words they see on the screen and mistakes are highlighted in pink as you go. Correcting a mistake while racing is do-able. The faster you type, the faster your race car will speed ahead. Race as a guest to try this typing game, or sign up to keep track of your progress or to race against friends.

tag(s): game based learning (205), keyboarding (28)

Create and personalize online surveys quickly with SoGoSurvey's easy to use online platform. This survey tool will work on ANY device. Step by step wizards guide you through the process of adding images, videos, logos, and more. There are many features including steps for using the survey process and even receiving email alerts for negative responses. Choose from over 25 sample surveys to modify or start your own from scratch. Add questions in multiple-choice format or more complex matrix grid formats. Share completed surveys via email invitations or social networking links. The free account allows you to create up to 15 surveys with 75 questions and up to 200 responses. Use this tool anywhere a quick, simple poll is required and on any device! This tool works on mobile device browsers.
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tag(s): data (151), polls and surveys (49)

Let the games begin with ARIS, an open-source, web-based platform to create and play mobile games, tours, and interactive stories that will run on iOS devices. ARIS stands for Augmented Reality for Interactive Storytelling. ARIS is an authoring environment for non-programmers, and also a toolbox of useful code for people that want to make their own interactive mobile apps. You will experience a virtual world of interactive characters, items, and media using GPS and QR Codes through Google Maps reviewed here. During the games, you can trade items with other characters, drop them on the map, get them from characters, or have them taken away. Download the free ARIS app to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to play the games. After creating your player account, select from a list of ARIS experiences. Each game will start on the quest screen, and the quests will likely tell you to go somewhere physically. Open the map screen to see your position and destination to begin the game. QR codes are used to help ARIS determine your position as you complete the quests. A few games contain codes that can be used to access some of the content remotely.

Use the ARIS Editor to create your own games under the "Make Games" section of the site. A separate account is needed to play games, but you can use the same username and password if you want. You'll begin with a Google map on the main screen where you can search to zoom into a particular place in the world. Use the object pallet located on the left-side of your screen to create characters, items, and plaques. Drag and drop the items you authored onto your map to build your interactive game. When your game is ready to publish, you need to set up your iOS device to work with the server for the authoring tool. You need to change the server URL under the ARIS settings to http://arisgames.org/stagingserver1.

tag(s): augmented reality (9), design (79), maps (220), qr codes (18)

Fake iPhone text is a tool to create fake screenshots of a series of iPhone text messages. Enter your conversation including name and message. Click the link "Create" to view the picture. Take a screenshot or copy the URL to share.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), digital storytelling (154), gamification (83), writing prompts (61)

ComSlider is free online slideshow creator. Upload your images up to 3mb each, choose a template, then let comSlider work its magic! Customize your slideshow with other options such as width, height, and transition options using controls on the left. Register to save and receive html code for embedding and sharing.

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

Creating online surveys just became easier and quicker using Zoho. Simply use the survey editor to add questions, edit, and modify your survey. Choose from 15 different question types such as multiple choice or more advanced options such as a matrix. Use logic within responses to skip or present questions based on user response. Use social media to share surveys and feedback via links to X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and more. Add a QR code on print material if desired to access surveys.

tag(s): polls and surveys (49)

Classroom Authors uses four easy steps to publish an e-book or a printed book: writing, editing, proofing, and publishing. Teachers create an account and a project. Have students join the project with a code. Every student with the project code will have a chapter to create. Student accounts require email, but they can use a parent email address or an "+" extension of the teacher's email address, for instance, myemail+studentname@myschool.org. All students invited to the project can be working on their section, on multiple computers, at one time. Adding content is as easy as using a word processing program and uploading images to the gallery. Drag and drop the images into the chapter. Students can view the entire book, but only edit their own chapter. Teachers have complete control over editing, style and leaving comments. There are default templates so the books created are professional looking. Customize to give the book your own look. Classroom Authors is not only a vehicle for publishing; this tool will fulfill the Common Core Standard requirements for using technology for collaborating and writing across the curriculum. The best part of this site: it is EASY to use! Classroom Authors uses ePub to format e-books and offers one free printed book for each published project that has 10 or more students collaborating. Beyond that, there is a cost for printed books. E-books are FREE.

tag(s): creative writing (124), descriptive writing (42), ebooks (43), process writing (37), writing (325)

Use this simple, online collaborative writing editor with up to 32 people! No registration is required. Create a free meeting room, and share the link with others or send an invitation email. Use the chat space along the right to comment to one another, perhaps explaining why you made the changes you made to the text. Save versions, view and revert to earlier versions, import/export, and use simple editing tools. Be sure to use or edit at least once per week, if you intend to keep your project. The site is clear on its intention to be a real-time collaboration tool among up to 32 people, not meant for long-term storage. "Pads" may be deleted if they haven't been edited in more than seven days. Be sure to mark the url for your pad as a Favorite or send it to yourself so you can find it again (before the seven days run out).

tag(s): editing (93), proofreading (21), writing (325)

Hashify is a simple tool to create web pages with no HTML experience.... and more. Think of it as the plainest of plain vanilla online writing spaces. Type everything in the left side of the tool and it is automatically formatted on the right side. The tools on the left toolbar tool add formatting: headers, bold, bulleted lists, etc. This tool offers options in between plain text writing and the formatting you would expect in Microsoft Word. It's also supported in many different web applications, including Tumblr and some Wikis. It is a great way to organize notes, to-do lists, or other items. It has all the advantages of plain text writing, but acts like a word processor. Use this tool as a minimalist writing system to jot down your thoughts without worrying too much about the appearance. Export the finished result with formatting added. Click Save. Share above the left typing area to obtain the URL to the page you have created. Others can add their own ideas, too! No membership is required.

tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), creativity (86), social networking (61)

Use the magic of speech recognition to create emails, dictate notes, or write an essay in many languages without ever touching your keyboard. Online Dictation only works in the Chrome browser. Click "Start Dictation," and grant the site permission to connect to your computer's microphone. Begin talking, and watch your words appear on the screen. Dictation detects many different languages so is useful for many non-English speakers. When you finish speaking, export your text using links to Dropbox, Google Drive, your computer, or send as an email. This is a speech to text tool.

Since this tool has to connect back to its own servers to "translate" your spoken words to text, it may not have the sensitivity you expect. It is a good idea to test it first yourself before assigning students to use it. You might want to demonstrate how clearly you must speak to make it work.

tag(s): communication (129), differentiation (84), note taking (36), speech (69), writing (325)

Create video conversations including up to four people instantly with Whereby (formerly Appear.in). There is nothing to download, and no registration is required. Add a name for your room and click "create." Allow access to your computer's webcam and microphone, and your room is all set up. Send the link to others to click and join in. Claim a room to get privileges such as customizing your room's background and locking your room when empty. Whereby works with Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera browsers.

tag(s): blended learning (37), chat (41), communication (129), DAT device agnostic tool (147), remote learning (54), video (266)

Visme helps you create presentations, charts, infographics, videos and animations (GIFs), documents, and social posts. There's more! Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page, find the Create column, and click More to Create. Find templates for all the projects listed. There are 5,000 audio files to select from, and Visme includes the capability of audio voice-over; you can also make your objects into interactive hotspots! At the bottom of the page, under Resources, you'll find the Templates and Video Tutorials for just about anything you want to do. Fortunately, the menu on the left includes information for all the video tutorial categories.
Visme also offers an AI Presentation Maker, reviewed here, making it easy to create and share many presentations using preloaded templates, data visualization options, and a simple design interface.
To start using Visme, choose your type of creation and then a specific template theme. The Navigation area is along the left side. Customize the various tools by clicking My Files and uploading your Google Drive, Dropbox, and/or OneDrive. The work area is to the right of the Navigation, and where the template you selected appears, various new tools, grids, and texts appear to the left. Drag and drop items into the work area and even include vector images. Click My Files to upload pictures, audio, and video from your computer. Once placed in the work area, style images how you want, including animation! Invite collaborators or team members through email. Products created by this tool play on any browser or device or can be embedded in a web page or blog. Free accounts allow 100 MB of storage.
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tag(s): animation (65), charts and graphs (171), images (263), infographics (56), multimedia (53), presentations (23), video (266)

Download the Jumpshare tool for sharing and viewing files easily. Create an account with your name, email, and password to begin. Drag and drop files to share. Use the link to browse and find files on your computer. Jumpshare supports 200 file types including images, videos, and documents. Once uploaded, use links to share documents via email or social networking options. In addition to the file sharing you can now create screenshot capture and screen recordings (making your screenshot into a video. Free accounts include storage of up to 2 GB and a limit of 100 MB on individual files.

tag(s): collaboration (93)

This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research curation tool, knowledge-sharing community, website annotation tool, and social information network all rolled into one "cloud" package. To get started, check out the About link. You will find information and videos on the uses of Diigo. Set up an account, being sure to click the FREE education edition upgrade. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly. At this time Diigo is experiencing issues with the "Top 10 Tags" from the menu on the left.

This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
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tag(s): bookmarks (43), collaboration (93), curation (32), DAT device agnostic tool (147), forum (2), organizational skills (88), social networking (61)

Webnode is a free and easy website or blog builder. Create an account. Choose from hundreds of template design options, including personal blogs (scroll to the bottom menu and select "Make your own website or blog." Add many site features: photo galleries, polls, forums, social features, and much more. Webnode saves changes as you make them, so information is stored in real time. Possible uses are only limited by your imagination!
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tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), social networking (61)

Screencastify is a screen capture/screencast software created for use ONLY with Chrome browsers. It even runs on Chromebooks. Choose the "Free" link to add the extension to your Chrome browser. Screencastify captures video and audio within tabs. Find the application icon on your browser toolbar and click Record to easily record presentations, tutorials, and more. Be sure to ALLOW Screencastify access to your microphone to enable voice recordings. Choose from recording tabs, your entire desktop, youe webcam, or embed your webcam only. Once your recording is complete, return to the Screencastify icon on your browser to name the recording, download to your computer, save to Google Drive, or upload to YouTube.

tag(s): tutorials (52), video (266)

Use Literably to assess students' oral reading and comprehension. Literably will display a text, administer the reading assessment, score it, generate an audio recording, and keep a running record. It will also report words correct per minute, percentage accuracy, and a leveling recommendation. Literably also provides readers' Lexile measures, grade levels, and guided reading levels. Test comprehension levels using open response or multiple choice questions. Register with an email, and set up a class easily. Keep your username short for ease of registration by primary students. The free account allows for testing 10 students per calendar month. Student sign in is extremely easy, even for a first grader. Print results or email to parents for easy sharing. IMPORTANT Note: Results (accuracy and WPM) are not available instantly and take up to 18-24 hours to arrive via email or be posted on the site. Literably is compatible with most browsers, and there is a free iPad app.
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tag(s): assessment (147), fluency (26), literacy (122), reading comprehension (149)

Create a printed or PDF timeline using this handy tool. There is no registration required. This tool allows you to easily add, drag, and rearrange items as work progresses. Timelines can be organized by day, date, or event. Add an image for each event to make a timeline visually appealing. The event label can include an annotation for the image with short or long descriptive text. Save as a draft to make revisions later or finalize and share the timeline via email (as a pdf). You can also download and save the file. Click Get Started and begin your timeline by simply entering your name and the name of the project. Teachers will want to explore lessons that use this timeline tool. Lessons are divided up by grade level. For more explanation about saving work in progress, go to the Videos menu and click "Using RWT" to find a video about Saving Work With the Student Interactives.

tag(s): timelines (56)