Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Enjoy these engaging and "quick to solve" story problems every day of the year. Topics include content familiar to kids such as Dog Years, The 10 Second Rule, and House of Cards. Following each short story is a question for three different age groups - wee ones (preschool), little kids (k-2), and big kids (3rd grade and up). Sign up to receive problems daily by email or check the website daily for new problems.

tag(s): preK (261), problem solving (226)

The Lost Museum is a 3-D re-creation of P.T. Barnum's American Museum. This pre-eminent cultural institution of 19th century America was mysteriously destroyed by fire on July 13, 1865. Roam freely among the four digitally re-created rooms. Move your mouse left and right or up and down when arrows indicate, to move around the room. Click"hot spots" indicated by a question mark "?" to access some of the vast number of items and exhibits Barnum displayed in his museum. Animations and close-up views reveal much of what the contemporary visitor to the museum might have experienced. An archive link appears beneath the museum window when viewing an item that has related documents in the Archive for viewing. Be sure to visit the classroom portion of the site for further materials and resources providing background on the social, cultural, and political history of antebellum and Civil War America. This interactive emphasizes issues of race, gender, reform, immigration, sectionalism, and popular culture. Several teaching activities are available with titles such as Fame and Fortune: The Marketing of Celebrity and The Debate Over Women's Roles in Public. This site mentions that it is not optimized for use on a Safari browser. You also must enable your pop-up windows.

tag(s): 1800s (74), civil war (135)

View this Prezi to learn more about the focus and goals of the Common Core English Language Arts standards. Among the highlights are reasons for the Common Core, shifts that are taking place, video clips explaining WHAT the Common Core means, and where Common Core plans to go.

tag(s): commoncore (75)

Arizona's TIM presents levels of technology integration with fifty exemplar lessons to show increasing expertise at enhancing learning with technology. Presented in a 25 cell matrix format, these lessons include five meaningful learning environments and five levels of technology integration (all defined on the grid). Each cell has two lessons with a short video. The lesson levels are K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. These detailed lessons also include Arizona State Curriculum and Technology Standards. The lesson page is printable, and the accompanying video is concise.

tag(s): professional development (402), teaching strategies (42)

Find ideas for using QR codes in the classroom. This slideshow is a must-see to get many unique ideas for using QR codes. Examples include adding QR codes to worksheets for students to check answers or to go to a video explanation for completing the worksheet. Another idea: print a QR code on a sticker and place into textbooks for students to access additional content. Add to displays or bulletin boards to make them interactive. There are many great ideas shared on this site. It is definitely worth a visit for anyone using or wanting to use QR codes in their classroom. Of course, you do need to have devices that can read the QR codes; smart phones and iTouches work well.

tag(s): qr codes (17)

Find a growing database of high quality images used by science researchers. Photographs also include those taken under the microscope. You can use these images as long as you include the copyright information from the copyright link. These are beautiful images for use in science!

tag(s): cells (82), images (261), microorganisms (10), photography (118)

Crop and resize your images using this online tool. Upload your images and select the desired size. There are several predefined sizes to choose from: an avatar image, gallery thumbnail, Facebook timeline cover image, or you can select a custom size (width and height) for your particular purpose. Crop up to 5 images simultaneously. The site detects the most interesting part of each image to use when cropping. Adjust the placement as needed. When finished, select images to keep and download to your computer.

tag(s): images (261), photography (118)

PortfolioGen is a platform where teachers and pre-service teachers can build simple webpages to highlight their professional portfolios. Write "about me" pages, highlight certifications, upload documents, and provide links. Use the included forms for potential employers to contact you. Create an account by choosing a username and inputting basic email and contact information. Choose from available templates or create your own using your own background image and colors. Upload documents such as resumes, lesson plans, transcripts, and more. Use of the site is free; however, the free version does have limited document uploads and file sizes.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): portfolios (23), professional development (402)