Online Tools: Suggestions from TeachersFirst
This editor's choice collection offers timesavers and organizational tools for teachers. They include "utility" sites for teaching tasks such as seating charts, rubrics, and certificates. Other tools facilitate parent communication, such as text messaging or online conferencing. Our editors have also hand picked simple, timesaving, creative tools from the TeachersFirst Edge. These tools organize to-do lists (for yourself or for students), convert files, remove ads from web pages, check web site readability, write a one-time blog, generate an online signup sheet, make a simple graphic organizer or chart, create online corkboards or stickies, and much more. Mark your Favorites using your free TeachersFirst membership, so you can find them quickly!
For a full listing of reviewed "creation" tools by category, try the TeachersFirst Edge, today's hottest tools for creating teacher and student projects online.
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PDF Mergy - PDF Mergy
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): classroom management (122)
In the Classroom
PDF Mergy is an excellent resource for combining multiple ideas for lessons. Save fraction handouts, continent maps and worksheets, or plant identification activities all together as one file. Remember that copyright still applies to any copyrighted pdfs you combine! Save student reports in PDF and combine to put the entire class' work in one single document. Save project receipts in one easy to find file, the possibilities are endless! Want to make a cool flippable book from your combined pdf of student writings? Try PDF to Flipbook Converter, reviewed here to turn the PDF into a flippable online book.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Compress Now - compressnow.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): images (261)
In the Classroom
Bookmark Compress Now (or save it in your favorites). Use this site throughout the year when working with images. Compress images for use on web pages to make pages loading more quickly. Use when emailing images to make sure they will get through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Rewordify - Neil M. Goldman
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): multilingual (69), reading comprehension (142), vocabulary (237), vocabulary development (87)
In the Classroom
This site is a must for saving and bookmarking for classroom use! Start the school year out by posting the link to Rewordify on your class website and parent newsletter for student and parent access from home. Be sure to share with learning support and ENL/ELL teachers and students. Save a link to Rewordify on classroom computers for students to easily paste text from any website to read in a simpler format. Copy and paste any difficult text into Rewordify and display on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to enhance student understanding or show meaning in complex texts. Have students guess meanings from context clues in the more complex version, then share the "rewordified" view to test their guesses. Have students create a word cloud of difficult words identified using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. Have students take a screen shot of passages that have been "rewordified" to share and discuss.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quozio - Quozio.com
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (15), images (261), quotations (20), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
Use Quozio to create a beautiful image to begin a unit. Start with an interesting quote or comment. View the finished picture on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as a starting point for the unit. Make a bulletin board of quote images as writing prompts or verbal snapshots of an era, an author, or a famous person. Have older students be responsible for creating a Quozio image each week with a quote of the week or interesting comment on events that occur in class. Have students choose one interesting quote or piece of information from any text to create a Quozio then have students explain their choice as part of a class presentation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Flask - flask.io
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): organizational skills (86)
In the Classroom
Help students organize the specific tasks necessary to finish a project. Use class discussion to create a list of all necessary items or steps. Organize tasks and set due dates to assist students in time management for completing projects. Create weekly lists of due dates and important information to embed on your class website. Use this tool to support students in learning organizational skills. Share this tool at the beginning of the school year for your students to use to organize assignments. Use this tool for your own organizational purposes. Create as many separate lists as needed.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Printable Paper - printablepaper.net
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (169), comics and cartoons (53), handwriting (16), letter writing (18), musical notation (33), preK (261)
In the Classroom
This site is a must bookmark for classroom use. Use anytime you need graph paper, writing paper, music sheets, etc. Share a link on your classroom website for student use at home. Share this site with parents at Back to School Night. Share this site with older students the first week of school. Now there is no excuse for not doing homework because of not having the correct type of paper! Some of the papers have alternate uses, such as using quilting graph paper to create and study geometric shapes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tableizer! - Danny Sanchez
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blogs (65), data (147), spreadsheets (22)
In the Classroom
Tableizer is an excellent tool for easily displaying data on your web page or blog. Use anytime you want to display information from a spreadsheet. Share with students for use in displaying lab results, scientific data, budgets, etc. Use this to list a schedule of events, requirements, etc. in a clear table on your class blog.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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dotEPUB - Xavier Badosa
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
What a great find for BYOD programs! Use dotEPUB for students to take content from your course blog or website and put it on their e-readers for easy access wherever they go. Have students download informational texts from web sites to annotate in their e-reader software as you build comprehension and "close reading" skills a la CCSS. Elementary teachers will need to help students learn to use this tool. Use dotEPUB to create an ePub portfolio of your students' blogging efforts. In Spanish class, convert your website into an e-book for students to practice language learning. Make ePubs of any web content for portability and annotation tools available on e-readers.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Venspired Free Posters - Krissy Venosdale
Grades
K to 12tag(s): posters (43)
In the Classroom
Start your school year out by using some of these posters to decorate your classroom or hallways. Print pages to add inspiration in student notebooks or for motivational bulletin boards. Have students create their own posters after viewing the blog. Looking for a classroom theme? View the options available to enhance your room. Use the posters as a theme for the day, week, or month. Discuss the poster during class meetings. Relate the messages to character traits from reading selections, historical figures, or famous people. If you have a special class event, upload the images to Flickr (reviewed here) to make posters about it. Secondary teachers can create custom posters using their own digital pictures from historic sites or even roller coasters (for physics class).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timer-Tab - brillout.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): classroom management (122), counting (59), time (92)
In the Classroom
There are many uses for this practical online tool. At the beginning of the school year, display on your interactive whiteboard or projector to time or countdown any classroom activity. That will get the students in the habit of checking how much time they have left. Use this tool for students to practice speeches, or to limit time for a quiz or spelling test. Use the countdown feature for timing the rotations from center to center. Use the timer for reading fluency exercises or physical education warm-ups. Employ the count-down as a clever classroom management tool on your computer screen when you want the class to settle down for directions or to transition to the next subject. Students may even want to use this tool for themselves. Have a timer tab open in your web browser as you display web sites on a projector or web based activities on an interactive whiteboard so students know how much more time they have to read the site or complete the activity. Have kindergarten students practice counting along with the watch!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bingo Baker - Matt Johnson
Grades
K to 8tag(s): printables (37), worksheets (70)
In the Classroom
Use Bingo Baker to create Bingo games to review any topic with small groups. Instead of telling the word that is on the Bingo card give the definition (so students must find the term) or a math problem whose answer is among those on the card. Create sight word bingo cards for younger students. This is a great review tool for science or social studies. Put a short description of a vocabulary word into the space. Tell students the name of the vocabulary word and see if they can find it on the Bingo card. Or do the reverse and write the vocabulary word on the card and read the definition to the class. Encourage students to create bingo games for each other as review or to engage the audience during oral presentations. Learning support teachers can create them together with students as an engaging way to review. World language teachers (and students) can create bingo cards to reinforce vocabulary.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wordmark.it - wordmark.it
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Share with students to use when preparing any presentation or document. Use this site when creating items for your class blog or website. Be sure to save this tool in your favorites to use for professional projects and lessons!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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QuizBean - Bluehouse Group
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
This site would be great for review in many subject areas. Share how to use this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Create a QuizBean for early elementary students to identify nouns and verbs, animals and plants, vertebrates and invertebrates, healthy or unhealthy foods, etc. Have students identify Union or Confederate items for Civil War studies. In Science challenge students to categorize animals as mammal or reptile. Pretest your gifted students and allow them to "test out" of material already known. Challenge students to create their own QuizBean for others to use for review and post a link to the quizzes on the class website or blog. Create this-or-that quizzes for ESL/ELL students as they learn English, and then as they start writing to identify proper subject verb and subject pronoun agreement.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bubble Test Form Generator - Answer Sheets - Catpin Productions
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): assessment (149), test prep (67)
In the Classroom
Are your students in trouble with the bubble? Provide them with a daily double bubble form. Introduce your students to the many different styles of testing early in the school year. Create forms that mirror graphics, a feelings chart, fact/opinion, music staffs, and many other options. Go beyond the bubble and have students analyze assessment results. Tired of grading? Use the registration marks to create forms for automated testing machines. Students can self-correct using test keys. Get instant results for faster analysis. Give your younger students regular practice with bubbles by creating a "lunch count" bubble sheet students fill in "packing" or "buying" or a daily attendance check in sheet.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fotor - Photo Editing Made Easy - fotor.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): collages (17), comics and cartoons (53), editing (92), images (261), photography (118)
In the Classroom
Use this tool anytime that photos need to be edited for use on class blogs, wikis, or sites. In primary grades, this tool could be useful for teachers to use to edit pictures from a field trip, science experiments, and more. Consider making them into a collage and posting it on your webpage. Share the editing process with your younger students using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Edit together! Encourage older students to use this site themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood. Use caption bubbles for the photos themselves to tell the stories. Have students annotate or label Creative Commons online images of cells, structures of an animal, and much more. Share the results (with an image credit) on your class wiki. Not comfortable with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Chart Jungle - Wendy Shepherd
Grades
K to 4This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (169), classroom management (122), flash cards (42), handwriting (16), homework (32), organizational skills (86), presidents (124), printables (37), time (92)
In the Classroom
Use Chart Jungle as a resource for charts for use throughout the school year. Familiarize yourself with this site at the beginning of the school year. Use the reading chart for students to record the minutes spent reading at home. Use the homework charts to help your students stay organized. Share the flash cards link with parents to use at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Word Search Builder - PedagoNet.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): puzzles (143), spelling (97), word study (58)
In the Classroom
Use this resource to help students review spelling words or other content related vocabulary. Change the font to a larger size and print it out for young children or students that have vision issues. Have students create word searches for other students to take. Learning support teachers might want to have partners create word searches as a review activity for terms.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quick Picture Tools - QuickPictureTools.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): back to school (63), firstday (22), images (261)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site for easy image editing for you and your students for any classroom projects. No registration is required, and images are saved directly to your computer for immediate use. Make simple reminder posters or classroom signs using the text emboss tool. Invite students to create image/text combinations for bulletin boards, such as types of leaves or insects. Make introductions of students as a first day of school activity using digital pictures and the text tool.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kinteractive Learning - BarryFunEnglish. com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): classroom management (122)
In the Classroom
Use the free registration option to sign up for the site. Bookmark and use this site as a tool for classroom management, such as a way for choosing random students, keeping score, stopwatch, and others. All of the tools are perfect for use on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Open them in separate windows so that you can drag off to the side if doing an on-screen activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CloudMagic - Webyog, Inc.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): organizational skills (86), search engines (49)
In the Classroom
"It's in here somewhere!" Use this site as a teacher organization tool for your classroom resources, parent contacts, and more. Are you trying to find your updated class list or notes for your Algebra 2 review? Search for class list or Algebra 2 to find it without having to search through all of your online and email accounts. Share this site with older students as a resource for organizing and finding their online resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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