Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

For the Teachers contains an incredible number of lesson ideas, differentiation tips, instructional strategies, and much more for all teachers. Search for specific content using the keyword search or scroll down the home page to find some of the site's most popular content. There is a great deal of useful content on the site to explore, of note is the Reading Skills for Big Kids and Differentiation links. The Reading Skills for Big Kids includes skill-based lesson plans for use with the many included leveled articles. The Differentiation portion of the site provides specific ideas and tools to differentiate content, assessment, and lesson activities and materials.
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tag(s): characterization (11), charts and graphs (160), constitution (87), differentiation (63), graphic organizers (43), inferencing (5), mean (20), measurement (137), median (16), mode (14), multiplication (129), patterns (64), place value (42), plot (6), reading comprehension (122), rubrics (30), sequencing (15)

Reduce your paper load and grading time with TeacherMade's easy-to-use tools. Upload worksheets and PDF files, assign to students with a link through Google Classroom or Clever, and post questions in various formats. TeacherMade even automatically scores responses and provides opportunities for feedback. Register to create your free account, then follow the directions to upload a file of up to 12 pages or start from a blank page. Options allow for several different file formats, including PDF, DOCX, and JPG files. After creating and editing your file, follow the steps to create and share your assignment. Learn more about all of the features of TeacherMade by following their online community forum.

tag(s): differentiation (63), homework (33), Teacher Utilities (113), worksheets (66)

This helpful guide provides specific information for effectively using the Response to Intervention (RTI) process. The article begins with a review of RTI strategies then provides specific teaching strategies for each of the three tiers. Be sure also to check out the accompanying infographic, found here, that provides an excellent summary of RTI information.

tag(s): assessment (119), data (130), gamification (78), professional development (258), teaching strategies (34)

Freckle Education is a Common Core-aligned program with resources for math, ELA, science, and social studies for K-8 that adapts to individual student skills. Freckle has over 50,000 math questions matched to all math standards and more than 500 ELA non-fiction articles that often cover social studies and science standards as well as all ELA standards. There are five reading levels offered for each article. Sign up to create a class account and add student information. Students login in through an iPad app or with the online web version and the class code. Students complete a diagnostic pre-test and then begin working at their individual level. Awards of coins for completion of levels promote student engagement and enjoyment of the program. Freckle also promotes student collaboration through their inquiry-based, cross-curricular lessons. Other features include a scratch pad for working through problems, virtual manipulatives, and individualized printables for practice. Receive detailed analytics and student reports on your dashboard. You may encounter a warning about how Freckle may not work on your browser and to use the Chrome app. For this reviewer Mozilla FireFox and Microsoft Edge seemed to work fine for a student pre-test and the teacher dashboard. This program is great for supplementing your instruction, blended learning classes, and remote learning. Freckle was titled Front Row.
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tag(s): collaboration (80), differentiation (63), independent reading (105), inquiry (22), reading comprehension (122), Research (51), Teacher Utilities (113), writing (281)

Create and organize lesson plans aligned to Common Core Standards with this free lesson planner. In addition to providing a lesson plan template, use the site's database to find and incorporate lessons from Khan Academy, CK12, and more. Collaborate with other teachers to share schedules and lessons. The Standards Planner also imports material directly from your Google Drive and Google Apps. After creating your account, follow prompts to drag and drop materials to develop lessons on your calendar.

tag(s): collaboration (80), commoncore (78), organizational skills (91), Teacher Utilities (113)

Browse or search through more than 2600 (yes, 2600+!) lesson ideas, Google templates, PDFs, and more to find teaching resources for all grade levels and subject areas. Get a quick overview of each resource within the list; each item includes the title and link, content area, target grade level(s), and resource type. Also, because the list is extensive, viewers may use the filters at the top of the page to narrow down resources by topic, grade, or type of material. There is also a keyword search for use when trying to find specific terms. After accessing any of the Google documents, follow the directions to create a document to edit and share from your Google Drive.

tag(s): professional development (258)

The PictureStem Project offers STEM teaching units for grades K-2 incorporating the engineering process and correlated to science standards. These three units - one each for grades K, 1, and 2 include modular features that contain content within different lessons throughout the school day. Each lesson within a unit provides science concepts based upon literary connections using picture books. Select any unit to view and download the entire unit including printables.

tag(s): animal homes (59), animals (262), engineering (109), geometric shapes (131), main idea (8), measurement (137), numbers (135), patterns (64), phonics (37), preK (230), reading comprehension (122), STEM (217)

Boddle is an engaging math learning platform for grades K-6 that adapts to student ability levels. Create your account and classroom to begin. Add your students manually or import information from Google Classroom. When created, share your classroom using the link to Boddle and your class code. Additional options include creating assignments that have specific skills for the entire class or individual students. As students engage in Boggle, view results, and progress on your teacher dashboard. Free accounts include access to games and the learning platform but don't include the instructional videos and professional development offered within the site.

tag(s): differentiation (63), Learning Management Systems (23), Online Learning (30), Teacher Utilities (113)

Differentiating activities for all learners has become easier with this tool. Use this free Bloom's Taxonomy tool, created by an educator, to develop great objectives for differentiated instruction. Move through developing your goal on this site by choosing a level of Bloom's Taxonomy and a thinking skill. Then move on to your content, resources, finished product expected, and what kind of grouping you want. These are all tabs at the top of the page. Watch the sentence at the top of the screen change as you create your objective.

tag(s): blooms taxonomy (5), critical thinking (101), differentiation (63), newbies (14)