Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Independence National Historic Park is the National Park which encompasses Independence Hall and the surrounding area. Visitors can tour Independence Hall, visit the Liberty Bell, and learn about the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the drafting of the Constitution. This site provides directions, operating hours, and other information for those planning a visit. There are also pages which provide additional details on the history of the various buildings and the events that happened in them.

tag(s): colonial america (95), constitution (96), philadelphia (10)

This fort was built by the French in 1562. It lasted only a few years until the Spanish arrived to claim the territory. You can visit a reconstruction of the fort buildings.

tag(s): colonial america (95), florida (12)

How the Pilgrims Lived, a journal written by Governor Edward Winslow in 1621.

tag(s): colonial america (95), pilgrims (12)

The Mayflower Compact was the agreement that the Pilgrims wrote by which they agreed to govern themselves.

tag(s): colonial america (95), pilgrims (12)

Cape Cod National Seashore offers a number of attractions both historical and scenic. Their home page will take you on a cyber-visit to many of these attractions.

tag(s): colonial america (95), pilgrims (12)

There are actually three resources on this site for video tours! The first link will take you to The American Experience by PBS and has many videos to explore. The first video on this museum site is The Wampanoag Way. Witness the life of the indigenous people who were part of the Wampanoag Nation in the first 7-minute video for all grades. The second video is about Plimoth Plantation. View the simple life of the Pilgrims in this 30-minute video for all grades. There are several other resources on this page such as the history of Thanksgiving, an interactive about Thanksgiving, and a link to a podcast. The videos reside on YouTube. If your school blocks YouTube, you may not be able to view them.

tag(s): colonial america (95), native americans (109), pilgrims (12)

A First Hand Account of life in the first Roanoke colony was written by Ralph Lane, whom Sir Richard Grenville left in charge of the colonists. The 16th century English is a little tough, but you'll get the ideas.

tag(s): colonial america (95), roanoke (6)

Weebly is an easy, free website creator with tons of features for you to choose from. The easy, "drag and drop" elements allow even novice technology users to create their own website. Besides the basic "drag and drop" features for the title, text, text with a picture, etc., the free version allows you to use cool items: photo gallery, slide show, YouTube videos, Google Maps, an assignment form, and lots more. They promise that the free service will remain 100% feature-packed.

tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), portfolios (23), writing (325)

This site focuses on the history of Great Britain; it does have one time line on US Westward expansion and one on the history of smallpox. Each timeline contains a number of points that have associated video content. Short (7-10 minutes) video clips illustrate concepts connected to the timeline using actor portrayals or historical footage or illustrations.

tag(s): britain (26), great britain (16), westward expansion (39)

This web site honors the legacy of President John F. Kennedy in recognition of the fifty years that have passed since his inauguration on January 20, 1961, when he first captured the hearts of Americans and memorialized a moment in history with his words, "Ask not what this country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." JFK50 is filled with cutting-edge multimedia that inspires and invites students to explore the themes of public service, civil rights, leadership, and more to discover how relevant they remain to social and political issues today.

tag(s): kennedy (20), presidents (135)

This comprehensive site on the African Slave Trade is robust enough for those doing serious research, and accessible enough for those who want an overview and supporting materials for a classroom survey. There are maps, 3D Video Reconstructions, links to resources, an image bank, and large, searchable and downloadable data bases of African names, ships used in the slave trade and their voyages, tables of data focused on the number of slaves involved, and timelines.

tag(s): africa (148), black history (133), cultures (180), slavery (79)

Mission US is a free online interactive US History adventure. Mission US offers amazing interactives that are set throughout US History. The first activity Mission 1: "For Crown or Colony?" has players becoming a 1770 14-year-old printer's apprentice named Nat Wheeler. As players move through the activities they meet characters from all walks of life and must choose where their loyalties lie. This site does require a log-in and password, but no email address is required. Use the links to download and play on a Mac or PC, since the online version requires Flash.

tag(s): 1800s (75), abolition (7), american revolution (82), evolution (89), great depression (30), immigrants (34), immigration (68), slavery (79), westward expansion (39), world war 2 (161)

This site offers over 5000 maps from various times throughout history and includes ALL continents and many individual countries. With the advent of satellite technology, it's simple to get a current map of any area on the globe, sometimes down to the street level. What's more challenging is getting digital copies of historical maps, larger political maps, or reproducible maps. Maps ETC gives you access to maps of the world, browsible by continent. Maps ETC includes current maps, but most importantly, historical maps. Want a map of 19th century pre-colonial Africa? It's here. A pre-Civil War US trade and migration map? Got that too. The site is easily searched by gallery or by entire database.

Maps are also available in PDF format so you can download and print for classroom use. Note however, the very specific terms of the license under which these maps are available. A limit of 25 maps can be used in a single project without special permission, and a link to Florida's ETC must be included when maps are used on websites. The license is clearly spelled out and would also serve as a good exemplar to use with students to teach them how to credit the resources they find on the internet.

tag(s): maps (220)

This application for note-taking is extremely simple to use, but performs in a very sophisticated way. There is a very easy text tutorial and FAQ to tell you about such features as creating an outline, accessing the DuckDuckGo search engine or looking up a word on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary without ever leaving your notes. It also connects to definitions from Wikipedia. And, you can automatically send your notes to your Amazon Kindle device. For math and science, the text tutorial will also show you how you can enter equations in your notes using the LaTeX format.

tag(s): note taking (36), organizational skills (88)

Whether you are a lover of major league baseball or have a "soft spot" for overcoming the odds stacked against you and achieving a dream - the American dream, you will find videos and activities on this Web site that will surely capture your heart and the hearts and attention of the boys as well as the girls in your class.

Every year, people across the country pause on April 15 to celebrate the historic event that marks the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball in 1947. Use this educational unit (in PDf format) to bring the significance of Jackie Robinson's legacy to your classrooms. Although Breaking Barriers centers around an essay contest, you may choose to simply use the ideas to offer and assist your students in learning opportunities to teach them values that will enable them to face their own barriers and express themselves in written form. There are lessons, printables, book lists, videos, and more that align with language arts, math, and social studies national standards. The link to the videos is at the top of the second page.

tag(s): baseball (32), civil rights (209), sports (82)

Find an extensive list of great inventions on this straightforward site. The "look" is simple, but the information useful. Click each invention to view a definition/description, information on its invention, the inventor, and other related information including links to other topics. Note that ads do appear on these pages. Caution students to avoid them.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): inventors and inventions (80)

Create online sticky type bulletin boards to view from any online device using lino. Click to try it first without even joining. The "Give it a shot!" button has a "How to" canvas has stickies explaining how to use lino. Join and create your own canvases to share stickies, reminders, files, and more. Change sticky colors from the menu in the upper right hand corner or use the easy editing tools that appear when the sticky is selected. Use the icons at the bottom of each sticky note to "peel them off," share, edit, and more. Create a group from your lino page to share and collaborate on canvases. You can also share canvases publicly so anyone with the URL can participate. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly.

tag(s): bulletin boards (15), collaboration (93), collages (17), creative fluency (5), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (147), gamification (83), note taking (36)

Shmoop has done it again by adding slideshows to their literature, civics, and history sections! With "Picture This," you can add visual interest and engage visual leaeners in your history, civics or literature units. What's more, you can copy and paste the HTML for the slide show onto your own web page. There are slide shows for every unit in civics and history, and for 40 of the literature units. You will know if the literature unit has a slide show by looking in the menu bar at the top for "new photos." View photos of the presidents, The Civil War, Hamlet, and much more.

tag(s): literature (221), slides (43)

HistoryWorld is an ambitious attempt to pack a whole lot of history in a relatively small space. The site includes "histories," a series of condensed versions of historical topics across a very wide range of subjects. These histories might be helpful as a summary or preview of a wider unit lesson plan, but experts on these topics will probably find them too cursory. A second feature is the collection of timelines related to historical topics. While they are not terribly exciting visually, each entry on the timeline contains a series of clickable links taking the user to a Google search of the entry, a Google images search, and/or the section of HistoryWorld's condensed narrative. You can also generate a fairly random history "quiz" of 10 questions to test their knowledge.

Take caution when using the Google images search feature: the images that can be generated may not all be appropriate for classroom use.

tag(s): timelines (56)

Every ten years, the United States participates in a census; the census represents both a raw count of the country's population, but also how that population is distributed demographically. The US Census Bureau has begun unrolling the data collected during this most recent census. This site will continue to update, so check back often for more. The ability of the Internet and computer data to be distributed widely has changed significantly since the 2000 census, and this site reflects increased transparency and ease of access to this vital information.

tag(s): census (13), demographics (13), population (51)