January 21, 2024

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Featured EDTECH Resources Reviewed by TeachersFirst

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January is National Hobby Month

Both teachers and students enjoy hobbies. Whether you like painting, fishing, baking, or puzzles, we’ve included resources you and your students can use to find free activities to help you pursue hobbies and interests. 


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Share your thoughts with our community

Weekly Poll

This week, our poll asks you to survey your students to discover whether cooking, fishing, or skiing is the most popular hobby in your class. View the responses of other educators once you click submit!

What are your students’ favorite hobbies? »

Grades K-12

Paint With Music by Google Arts & Culture

If you enjoy music and painting, check out this fantastic tool that translates brushstrokes into music. Choose one of four canvases, draw your design, and pick the instruments (or other add-ons). When finished, you can share your song.

Grades 1-12

Artyfactory

Learn to draw, paint, or design by following step-by-step tutorials from Artyfactory. Discover basic drawing and painting techniques through still life lessons, or practice perspective, proportions, drawing animals and portraits, and more.

Grades 3-8

Kids Gardening

Calling all gardeners! Scroll to see an overview of what this site offers educators and to find some at-home gardening fun. Explore the menu at the top to see all the available topics, then share the activities with your students to try at home.

Grades 2-12

Grow For It

Grow For It offers lessons and resources for exploring agriculture, natural resources, and insects! Download several lessons correlated to Common Core Standards and find teaching materials about gardening, insects, and soil erosion.

Grades 1-8

MDC Online

View information on hunting and trapping, backyard habitats, and more. Click the Wild Life tab at the top, then select Field Guides to browse information by species group. Watch video clips and explore a teacher portal that includes recipes and activities

Grades 9-12

Fishbanks: A Renewable Resource Management Simulation

Here, fishy fishy! This simulation focuses on sustainable fishing. Students can manipulate variables (numbers of fishing boats, catch quotas) and see how those changes affect the bottom line, fish quantity, the environment, and more.

Grades 3-12

Take Me Fishing - Fishopedia

Learn about all the different fish species in the United States and worldwide. Explore Fishopedia to learn facts about different types of fish, such as where they live, what kind of food they eat, and how to catch them.

Grades 7-12

The Science of Cooking

Are your students interested in the chemical changes that occur during cooking? This site shares proper cooking techniques and identifies the science behind them. Explore topics like recipes, ingredients, healthy molecules, and more.

Grades 3-12

Foodista

Foodista is a community of food lovers who share and exchange ideas about all things food! Find recipes, cooking ideas, food news, health and nutrition, video directions, questions and answers, and blogs. Add your own recipes or questions, too!

Grades K-12

My Crossword Maker

Create crossword puzzles or word searches, or browse the variety of free options available on My Crossword Maker. Complete the crosswords online or use the links provided to print or save them as a PDF. Search by grade level, subject, and more.

Grades 6-12

Puzzle Prime

Puzzle Prime is an excellent collection of some of the best puzzles, games, and illusions on the Internet. Run by a small group of mathematicians, content is carefully selected to meet their high standards. Select a puzzle by type, skill level, or topic.

Grades K-12

Ribbet

If you love photography, check out this neat tool that doesn’t require registration! Follow the prompts to upload images, then use the editing tools to crop, resize, and fine-tune the photo. Liven up images with stickers and filters, or create collages.

This Week at TeachersFirst

Join us this Tuesday for our next free OK2Ask virtual workshop of the winter season and check out the related blog post. We’re also sharing a collection of resources to use as you recognize the 100th Day of School. 


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Tuesday, 1/23, 7 PM ET

OK2Ask: Google My Maps Basics

Google My Maps allows educators to create customized, interactive maps to engage students with location-based projects across subjects and grades. Learn strategies for using MyMaps with students so they can create their own explorations.

Build a customized MyMaps demo map incorporating markers, shapes, and multimedia elements »


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Infusing Technology Blog

Tech Tool of the Month: Google My Maps – Part 1

Learn more about Google My Maps before (or after) attending this week’s OK2Ask session! View this two-part blog post that offers a description, tutorial, correlation to standards, and classroom use ideas for using Google My Maps.

Read all about this free tool »


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Celebrate a milestone

100th Day of School

Discover many ways to recognize the number 100 in honor of the 100th Day of School. This list provides 50 nifty ideas to celebrate, plus many additional web resources.

Resources and ideas for your lessons »

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TeachersFirst is a collection of curated, classroom-ready content and ideas — including teacher-authored reviews of thousands of web resources. Built-in guidance from seasoned professionals makes effective classroom technology use trouble-free. TeachersFirst is made available free to K12 teachers by The Source for Learning, Inc., a nonprofit that has been providing educational resources for more than 40 years.