Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, offers this site with resources about slavery, past and present. Although a portion of the site is designed specifically for visitors to the Center, there are good resources and lesson plans on the Underground Railroad, the problem of modern day slavery, and human rights. The site also has a good section on the special challenges of doing genealogical research on families who have experienced slavery.

tag(s): genealogy (8), slavery (79), underground railroad (15)

This site provides a daily chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln. Information can be accessed by conducting a general search, by year, using a calendar to search, or by clicking on search this day. Links to supporting documents and additional information is embedded in the entries.

tag(s): lincoln (66), primary sources (117)

Shmoop, the study site created by Stanford grad students, now has an entire section of biographies of famous people, and they are not just famous authors! Click on the tabs at the top to read a summary, biography, or even a resume. You don't need to have an account to see the information on Shmoop. However, signing up (for free) gives you the ability to "clip" files and keep them in a folder. Registration does require an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.

tag(s): biographies (94), famous people (19)

At Digital Karnak you will find videos, photos, models, and PDF files with every thing known about Karnak in Egypt, one of the largest temple complexes in the world. On this massive site you'll be able to view the ruins as they look today and models of how they must have looked in ancient times. There are four options to choose from at the top of the home page or at the bottom is a link for the "Temple Complex Overview." There is so much to see and learn about the Karnuk Temple and the surrounding area that this is a must see for anyone who teaches ancient Egyptian History. A caution about the videos, the beginning of the videos shows architectural type drawings and animations; the middle to end of the videos will show models of how the buildings must have looked. For younger students, the middle to end of the videos will be of more interest.

tag(s): egypt (56)

This collection of stories from CBS has information about the effects of 9/11 that range from 2011 to 2021. They also host information about the victims, coverage about the opening of the new Trade Center, and information about the results of the re-building efforts on ground zero. To see a montage of the events that led up to 9/11, check out While America Slept, at here.

tag(s): sept11 (18), terrorism (41), terrorist (12)

Often times students only hear about the catastrophe of 9/11, and not the events that lead up to it. Although it's a little "plain vanilla," this site from ABC offers a contextual timeline about the events leading up to 9/11. Starting from August 11, 2001, the timeline details what America was doing and what the hijackers were doing, day-by-day, and shows how CIA analysts and FBI agents try to sound the alarm about the rising threat, and were ignored.

tag(s): sept11 (18)

Are you looking for ways to inspire meaningful discussions of September 11th and to help make sense of this tragedy? The Tribute World Trade Center Visitor Center of New York City presents awards to honor teachers who have created exemplary educational projects for students to express and sustain the memory of September 11th. Using the menu bar on the far right, this site shares their projects from the globe and involving all aspects of the arts and humanities, including history, language arts, visual, media and performing arts. Although this site is mainly designed for grades 5-12, there are some activities for younger elementary students found in the "Resources for Your Classroom" section of the site.

tag(s): sept11 (18), terrorism (41), terrorist (12)

This tribute to 9/11 is a series of interactive photographs that highlights the episodes that transpired from shortly after 8:00 a.m. when the American Airlines flight was hijacked and struck the first tower of the World Trade Center, to the aftermath when the pile of debris that was once the Twin Towers became flooded with volunteer rescue workers doing the indescribable heroic work of helping the surviving victims and recovering the remains of the human lives that were destroyed. Click your curser on the photographs to see it enlarged and read actual descriptions from flight attendants, survivors, firefighters, family members and others who were part of tragic history in the making. Under the photographs, on the lower right of your screen, you will see two small arrows; click there to see the complete timeline with short video clips. This is an opportunity to "relive" that day, almost minute by minute, as if you were actually there.

tag(s): sept11 (18), terrorism (41), terrorist (12)

Quiznator is a free, web-based worksheet, test, and any other type of learning document creator. Membership is free and is promised to always be free. You are able to access your creations online from anywhere! Email is required to join, however, verification is not required. Add your documents, test questions, and worksheets and let Quiznator organize and update them for you. This makes creating multiple version of the same exam quick and painless. This is a great way to back up files on the web for school!

tag(s): worksheets (69)

Published under Creative Commons license, Jamendo offers a great variety of copyright-free music. This makes a great addition to your technology resource list as both you and your students can use this site to create soundtracks for videos, use music in podcasts, and just download music to play for students during activities. Once you click on a song that you want to play or download, there is a screen that asks if you would like to make a donation to the musician. This is completely optional and not required to download. However, it may help you to discuss ethical music practices and copyrights with your students. One thing to keep in mind when using this website is that to keep the music, computers must have downloaded permission from your district. If this is a problem and this is a tool you want to use, try talking to your technology department and/or your administration for special, educational permission.

tag(s): copyright (44), sound (72)

At this site you will find a slide show with at least fourteen different programs you can use instead of PowerPoint for your lectures. Are your PowerPoint lectures boring you and your students? Take a look at this online slide show, and choose one of fourteen different programs to convert just one of your PowerPoint lectures. Not only is each program explained, but many have suggestions for integrating your lectures with the program. Take a look. Learn about some great web 2.0 sites (Prezi, TypeWith.me, Animoto, ToonDoo, and many others). Note that many of the tools mentioned are also reviewed on TeachersFirst in greater detail if you want to learn more.

tag(s): chat (41), comics and cartoons (55), digital storytelling (154)

Get to know the new $100 bill through this resource provided by the Department of Treasury. There is an interactive video quiz and an applet to design your own bill. The video quiz can also be seen with captions. In addition, there is a link to materials that can be downloaded for classroom use.

tag(s): currency (14)

TeachersFirst doesn't normally review lists of "links," but this hotlist from Fact Monster was good enough to pass our review team. The links here provide all kinds of ideas for classroom activities for Flag Day, including quizzes, puzzles, and a flag timeline. There's also additional information about the national anthem and Betsy Ross.

tag(s): american flag (7), american revolution (82), evolution (89), flag day (5)

This site from the Smithsonian provides ample information about the American Flag, as well as early American history. The Explore option on the site allows you to investigate and discover important facts about the flag and its creation. There is also a section about the National Anthem, as well as an interactive quiz about the early days of American government. A great site for Flag Day or early U.S. history!

tag(s): american flag (7), american revolution (82), evolution (89), flag day (5), national anthem (3)

Although this site may look pretty simple, it has some great information on the history and evolution of the American Flag. The site hosts images of all the flags, including the famous "Don't tread on me," flag from the revolutionary period. Besides images, each flag hosted on the site has a brief history accompanying it.

tag(s): american flag (7), american revolution (82), evolution (89), flag day (5)

This site allows you to safely share YouTube videos and crop the parts that you do not want from the video. The process is simple. Find a YouTube video that you would like to share with your students. Paste the link for the video into safe share TV, click to edit, and copy the link of your trimmed YouTube video. It can be pasted into powerpoint, webpages, social networking sites, and anything else you can think of! A safe and easy way to bring media into your class for free.

tag(s): safety (68)

Create your own piece of art using a style and technique similar to Jackson Pollack. Click on the screen to create art on the blank canvas. Just click your mouse and watch the painting begin. Using your mouse, drag and click to disperse paint. Left-click to change the color of the paint. Right-click to save the image to your device.

tag(s): painting (55)

This informative site gives an entertaining education about life in George Washington's 18th Century world. Click to learn about Washington's Treasures, Harpsichord Hero, Bombarding Yorktown, Jigsaw Puzzles, or the Archeology Memory Game. This site offers several educational games. An additional benefit of the site is that it is visually appealing and students can learn about the life of that time period by just looking at the images. The animation is fairly realistic. Some parts are read to the students; other parts they will have to read themselves.

tag(s): evolution (89), washington (28)

This site takes any quotation or poem and creates a "word cloud" (graphical display) of the words in a passage of text. Paste in any passage or the URL for any blog entry or web page (including newspapers online) to create a word cloud of the text. Enhance basic word clouds by using this site to create clouds in various shapes, use mouse rollover options, use font effects, and more. Elevate your word clouds into an art form. Once registered, change your password by clicking on the profile tab and entering your changes. Before creating a word cloud, agree to their terms that includes only using appropriate content. Copy and paste series of words or use the URL of a page where the words can be found. Choose a shape such as a heart, cloud, or geometric patterns. Choose a font as well as other options, and then click "Build the Cloud." Preview your cloud before saving. WordArt.com is free for personal and non-commercial use. However, you can only download Standard Quality (SQ) images for free.

tag(s): images (263), vocabulary (238), word choice (14), word clouds (13)