Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Constantly challenging your students to the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy, creating? The time has come for you as a teacher to jump into creativity in teaching. Join the blog and growing community of educators and organizations that support you to change education. Get inspired with webinars, podcasts, and videos by educators who have found new ways of meeting and challenging students. Grant opportunities and webinars of successful, innovative teachers challenge you to look for more. Some of the videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): grants (16), professional development (402)

Virtual dice can be addicting when trying to figure out what number will come up next, and they are quiet! You'll never have these dice roll off the table and under furniture. Choose from one, two, or three virtual die at a time. Simply click Roll and start the guessing.

tag(s): game based learning (179), mental math (19), operations (72), probability (98)

Homeroom Mom is an online community to share tips and tools for working with classroom teachers. Don't let the title fool you, this site contains valuable information for anyone working with students! Choose from the many categories to find ideas for decorations, crafts, holidays, and much more. Select Letters, Flyers, and Forms to find a yearly planning calendar, party sign-up sheets, and other handy forms for immediate use.

tag(s): classroom management (122), field trips (8), holidays (170), parents (59), preK (261)

Looking for views of orbiting satellites with actual data about the Earth? Find it here with the Eyes on the Earth tool. Note: This tool requires a one-time download. After installing, launch from the web page (the install button turns into a start button). Be sure to view in full-screen mode for the best effect. Change your perspective of the Earth by changing the tilt (hold down the mouse and rotate). Zoom in and out with the tool along the right (much like the tool in Google Earth or Maps). Choose from among the tools along the top. As you click on a tool, read information in the window to the left. Be sure to click Turn Audio On to hear the narrative. Use the additional links there for more information. Visible Earth shows the movement of two satellites and the images from both. Choose the speed of the motion of the satellites with the slider along the bottom. Other tools include Temperature, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Sea Level, Antarctic Zone, and Water and Ice. Click on the last two tools to view the actual datasets and missions. Some of the tools have relief maps, showing a 3D representation of the data. Click Show relief to really capture student attention. The tools in the lower right corner control the brightness of the image and full or partial screen.

tag(s): antarctica (29), arctic (40), carbon dioxide (10), climate (82), climate change (90), earth (185), glaciers (17), temperature (35), water (101)

What can you learn when you embed a teacher with scientists in research groups? Plenty! PolarTREC chooses teachers and pairs them with scientific research groups in polar regions, which changes how they view and teach science. Use their journals and information to change how you and your students view science as well. Access a variety of polar-related resources that support the STEM classroom including videos recorded by the teachers and the research team. Read journals written by the teachers working with scientists in the Arctic and Antarctica that document their field experiences and research in science. Participate in live webinars where classes can hear from the teacher and scientists in real-time and ask questions. View teacher posted videos and lesson plans that can be used in the classroom. This site features a lot of different careers in science uncovered in the journal entries. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.
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tag(s): antarctica (29), arctic (40), careers (138), polar (11), scientific method (46), scientists (63), STEM (269)

Discover a large collection of free to use images for presentations, slide shows, reports, and more at Free Tiiu Pix. The creator of this site designed all images available. Go to the image gallery to browse images sorted by categories. The categories range from Architecture, Food, Animals, Insects, Plants and more. Right click to save images or choose optional links for different resolution sizes. In addition to the image gallery, be sure to check out the slide presentation gallery including visually appealing PowerPoint presentations on many topics. From the Clip Art Gallery (with free clip art to use) there is also a link to Learn How to Draw Your Own Clip Art. These are FREE to use. However, be sure to read and understand the Terms of Use! Note: you must be 18 to use this site. So while this is an excellent site for teachers to find resources, this shouldn't be shared with students to use independently.
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tag(s): images (261), photography (118), slides (42)

Explore the world with this great online geography game using Google Maps (street view images). View the provided image, zoom in and out, and move around to explore the area to find clues for the location. When you think you know the place, click the location on the map to place a flag then choose go. Compare how close you placed your flag to the actual location versus other players averages.

tag(s): cities (17), context clues (5), continents (32), countries (72), images (261), map skills (56), maps (208)

edX offers access to many of the best courses offered at top learning institutions - for FREE! Institutions include MIT, Harvard, and Berkley. Classes are available to complete for a Certificate of Achievement or as an audit. Choose from courses with topics in many areas including computers, literature, and humanities. Each course listing offers a short description of the course, details about the university offering the course, estimated time involved, course staff, and available options for taking the course. Start any course at any time. Take the edX Demo course to get a good idea of how courses work and find out about the online learning experience.

tag(s): aeronautics (9), architecture (62), artificial intelligence (136), china (62), circuits (20), civil rights (197), computers (109), electricity (59), engineering (123), environment (237), evolution (86), folktales (34), greeks (32), magnetism (36), medicine (56), nutrition (136), poetry (189), psychology (67), religions (79), shakespeare (92), solar energy (34), speech (67), statistics (119), terrorism (41)

This interactive timeline shows the route Lincoln took to become the President. Use the links to dig deeper into Lincoln's life.
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tag(s): elections (80), lincoln (62), presidents (124)