Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

10 Minute Mail quickly creates a "disposable" email address to use with web tools that require email registration/activation. The best part is that no registration is required to use this EASY site! Use 10 Minute Mail as your solution for registration on free, membership-required sites requiring individual sign-up using an email address. This is the spam, update, and junk email dumping ground! Your disposable email is only available for 10 minutes unless you click the link to extend your session another 10 minutes. The genius of this site is that it is temporary but completely functional for protecting individual identities. The only downside to using a short term email address is that you will never receive the "forgot my password" emails. You won't receive the endless annoying emails, either!
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tag(s): internet safety (112)

Book lovers rejoice; this site is just for you! Any New Books? delivers weekly email notifications with new books in the subjects you love. Enter your email to get started. Choose genres of interest to receive weekly emails with information about new books in each category. Categories range from Children's books to the types you might see in a real or online bookstore. Choose three categories to receive three weekly emails. If you prefer, subscribe to the RSS feed for any category instead of signing up for email notifications. The lists include links to purchase on various web sites and ebook formats. The introduction video is hosted on YouTube. If YouTube is blocked at your school, you may want to view the video at home.
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tag(s): book lists (161)

Stroll down memory lane with this huge archive of over 29,000 television theme songs! Scroll through the latest additions or browse by alphabetically. Use the download link to save a song clip to your computer or share using social networking links. In addition to finding clips, challenge yourself to Name That Theme Song with a lively one or two player game. Be sure to read the "Legal" tab to know what is and is not legal use of these copyrighted songs.
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tag(s): songs (44)

This bright and colorful poster illustrates the concept of factoring numbers through the use of cartoon characters. Each block representing a prime number has some feature relating to the prime such as number of sides on the head. Others have blocks representing composite numbers. Some of the lower numbers are represented with eyeballs. Each number is different and leads to more exploration. Unfortunately, the author did not provide easy ways to navigate among the various pages associated with this poster, so we share them here. Be sure to visit here for a complete explanation of the poster. View smaller portions of this poster by visiting this link for #1-30, or this link for #31-60 or this link for #61-90.

tag(s): factors (29), number sense (70), prime numbers (26)

Create highly stylized map images with this tool. This tool is very similar to the Photoshop layers palette and easily creates map layers using data already available in Open Street Map. Create layers using backgrounds, roads, labels, and satellite imagery. Modify the layers' color, opacity, and brightness. Easily highlight or color portions of the map you want to standout. Share the image you create via Pinterest or Tumblr. Share your map image also by a link. Use precision detail with image overlays and layer effects, even creating masks for other layers. The tool can also be used to create a regular map in the colors you want. This site takes some tinkering to figure out but yields colorful and interesting maps.

tag(s): images (261), maps (208)

Use this tool to create texts from any Android device AND from your computer. Texts are sent using your Android phone number and appear in the inbox of your phone. Text directly from Google Chrome! Easily sync your videos and images from your phone to computer or tablet. Why use this tool? Managing and responding to texts on the computer is easier when you use power view and can see all conversations at the same time. Additional features include texting from your Gmail account, editing photos using filters, and receiving alerts about the battery life of your phone. If you are an iPhone/Mac/iPad user, you already have similar functionality built in with iMessage.

tag(s): chat (41), classroom management (122), communication (138)

Create a personalized newspaper from your X (formerly Twitter) account or for any topic of interest. Connect this site easily with your Twitter account and generate a newspaper in minutes. View the newspapers of your X (formerly Twitter) friends or popular newspapers from other X (formerly Twitter) users. New to X (formerly Twitter)? Learn more from TeachersFirst's X (formerly Twitter) for Teachers page.

tag(s): communication (138), digital storytelling (150), newspapers (91), social networking (64), twitter (18)

Encourage budding poets with Power Poetry. Power Poetry's mission is to close the literacy gap through poetry. This is a community where young people of all backgrounds come together to process their emotions using poetry. Find challenges to write about social issues or to write a poem in only 140 characters. Scroll down the page and point out the topic "7 Famous Poetic Pop Songs" where students are sure to recognize current singer/song writers. Find many supportive community members to encourage you to develop your voice. From the dropdown menu on the top click Resources then Teachers to find lesson plans, a free "How to Teach Poetry" course, and lots more. Poets are free to write about any subject; however, there are site guidelines to prevent hate speech and other inappropriate content. Join with a username and email address. On your profile, there is the option of sharing your first name and last initial, profile picture, and a short biography. You can message each other within the site, but this feature can be disabled from account settings.

tag(s): poetry (189), social and emotional learning (94)