January 14, 2018 |
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Celebrate Creativity
International Creativity Month is celebrated around the world this month! Use the tools highlighted here to encourage creativity in your students. January also brings us National Puzzle Day (January 29th) and our list of puzzle-tastic resources is sure to brain tease students as they scramble, problem-solve, and crossword away!
Grades 8-12
@stake
Try this interactive game for 3-5 players (all in the same room) to build creativity and empathy through small group deliberations. The game includes three rounds of discussion and debate ending with the choice of the best idea shared by each group.
Grades 3-9
The Wonderment
Sign your students up for this creative social platform! Choose a bot or secret identity and receive a choice to follow many different paths. View a video, story, or idea to solve a problem. Design a response using text, photos, or a video.
Grades K-12
Educator Innovator
Get creative in your teaching with this blog and site, packed with ideas to encourage the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy, creating! Find webinars, podcasts, and videos by educators who have found new ways to design creative lessons for students.
Grades K-5
I Am An Artist
Explore six creative art strands at this site: paint and color, clay, fabric and fiber, drawing, construction, and print. Each strand includes videos, slideshows, detailed instructions, and more. Flip your art instruction with this website.
Puzzles, Logic, & Problem-Solving
This medley of resources is the perfect collection of tools to test students' ingenuity or knowledge just in time for National Puzzle Day! We've also included edtech puzzle tools for all ages, and our full list of featured sites spotlights additional puzzling resources as well.
Grades K-12
ProProfs Brain Games
Challenge your students with this eclectic puzzle collection: word scrambles, hangman, crosswords, tic tac toe, and more. Create a free account to make your own puzzles. When creating puzzles you can choose the difficulty level, add images, and more.
Grades 4-12
Data Games
Player data is stored at this site, allowing you to analyze your results. Use the included videos for explanations on how to play. Learn how to use the data to increase the odds of winning. Find popular strategy games and more.
Grades 6-12
Puzzle Prime
This site, under the direction of a small group of mathematicians, offers some must-see puzzles, games, and illusions. You can select a puzzle by type, skill level, or topic. To check your work, click to find the solution to the puzzle.
Tools to Practice & Showcase Creativity
Explore three creativity-focused utility tools to showcase students' imagination and ingenuity! Writing Sparks is a series of inspirational writing challenges for your whole class, and Microsoft offers two engaging resources that are sure to ignite students' creativity as well!
Grades K-12
Writing Sparks
Find free instant writing challenges for students of all ages. Choose the age range of students, the type of writing spark (story, poems, news article, or opinion), set the time limit, and begin. Read our full review for more details about this site.
Grades 6-12
Microsoft Visual Studio
Get creative and use your logic skills as you explore these free tools and services to build and develop apps on any platform. Register for a free account to access tools and information for integration across platforms.
Grades 3-12
Sway
Try your hand at this creative tool offered by Microsoft. Easily create interactive presentations across all devices. This tool is available as both an app and on a web browser. Read our full review for a detailed description and tech integration ideas.
This Week at TeachersFirst
Educators and edtech coaches: ISTE's People's Choice Awards for 2018 are happening RIGHT NOW and WE NEED YOUR VOTE to send our session to #ISTE18! See below for details. Also happening this Thursday is an all-new Twitter chat focused on Project Based Learning. And our weekly poll awaits you as well!
Join Our Twitter Chat Using #OK2Ask HashtagProject Based LearningJoin us on Thursday at 8pm ET for a Twitter chat about Project Based Learning. We will explore the basic components, share tech tools that aid in successful implementation, and share resources and promising practices with one another. |
Guiding Tech-Reluctant TeachersPeople's Choice - Vote Today #ISTE18ISTE has launched its first-ever People's Choice Awards and our session -- which aims to help teachers and edtech coaches guide "tech reluctant" teachers into the shallow waters of technology -- is in the competition! May we please have your vote? |
Creativity in the ClassroomWeekly PollHow do you encourage creativity in your classroom? |
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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.