Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Brief.ly is a simple way to share a "bundle" of links at the same time. Enter up to 30 links and captions you want to share (one per line or click the wrench for more options). Brief.ly will generate a unique URL. When opened, a Table of Contents page lists the sites included. When you open the bundle, each site appears and tabs appear along the top of the page that allow you to easily jump from one recommended site to the next. This site is very easy to use and helpful for all ages, as long as they can read. With your membership, you can edit the contents of your list later, without resending it or changing the single link.

tag(s): bookmarks (47), organizational skills (89)

This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research curation tool, knowledge-sharing community, website annotation tool, and social information network all rolled into one "cloud" package. To get started, check out the About link. You will find information and videos on the uses of Diigo. Set up an account, being sure to click the FREE education edition upgrade. 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. At this time Diigo is experiencing issues with the "Top 10 Tags" from the menu on the left.

This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
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tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (94), curation (36), DAT device agnostic tool (147), forum (2), organizational skills (89), social networking (64)

Screencastify is a screen capture/screencast software created for use ONLY with Chrome browsers. It even runs on Chromebooks. Choose the "Free" link to add the extension to your Chrome browser. Screencastify captures video and audio within tabs. Find the application icon on your browser toolbar and click Record to easily record presentations, tutorials, and more. Be sure to ALLOW Screencastify access to your microphone to enable voice recordings. Choose from recording tabs, your entire desktop, youe webcam, or embed your webcam only. Once your recording is complete, return to the Screencastify icon on your browser to name the recording, download to your computer, save to Google Drive, or upload to YouTube.

tag(s): tutorials (54), video (262)

Learn computer coding using simple and easy activities, lesson plans, and an interface sure to please all ages! Sign up for your free account and once your dashboard is displayed choose from several helpful videos to get started. To find the Hour of Code click Courses from the left menu and find several including Lesson Plans and Teacher Guides. Learn to code by dropping blocks of commands into sequence on the left side of the screen and seeing the results along the right. The lessons provide step by step instructions, missions, and other materials to learn to code. Teachers can create a class and add students to the class. Click on student view of each lesson to see the tools and student tasks. Follow the instructions along the right panel. Note the tools that are along the top including undo and redo! This tool also features a question bar along the top. Note: This free portion of the resource offers four Coding Courses, weekly STEM Projects, Hour of Code Activities, Project Templates, Coding Tools (Block & Text), Unlimited Student Accounts, Student Progress Metrics, and Professional Development. Sign up for a free account by selecting Teacher and using Google, your email, Apple, Microsoft.
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tag(s): animation (64), coding (90), computational thinking (41), computers (109), critical thinking (117), design (80), game based learning (181), gamification (79), problem solving (225), STEM (279)

10 Minute Mail quickly creates a "disposable" email address to use with web tools that require email registration/activation. The best part is that no registration is required to use this EASY site! Use 10 Minute Mail as your solution for registration on free, membership-required sites requiring individual sign-up using an email address. This is the spam, update, and junk email dumping ground! Your disposable email is only available for 10 minutes unless you click the link to extend your session another 10 minutes. The genius of this site is that it is temporary but completely functional for protecting individual identities. The only downside to using a short term email address is that you will never receive the "forgot my password" emails. You won't receive the endless annoying emails, either!
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tag(s): internet safety (113)

Are you trying to reach a website, and it just isn't working? Down For Everyone Or Just For Me provides a quick answer. Enter the url for the site you are checking (such as google.com) and click "or just me?" to find out. The result will tell you if it is just you or if there is a network outage. There is no registration required! This is especially handy to help diagnose partial Internet outages such as when your Internet provider cannot reach a site, but the REST of the world can ... or if your school's filter is blocking the site.

Practice and learn keyboarding with this free online program. Click on a lesson level to begin. Follow tutorials that teach the correct hand and finger placement. Continue moving through different lessons by earning three stars based on accuracy and speed. Save your work and track progress by creating a free account. Create a school account to add up to three classes and two instructors with unlimited students and the ability to create and customize lessons. You do not have to register to use this site, only to track your progress.

tag(s): computers (109), keyboarding (28)

Learn basic computer coding skills using this tool. There are three difficulty levels: Code Monster for preteens (or even younger), Code Maven for teens and young adults, or Game Maven for ages 16+. Code Monster prompts younger students to change various parameters of an already given code. As they enter different parts to the code, the changes in the object can be seen immediately. Simply click on the dialogue bubble and a new lesson will appear. Unfortunately, creations cannot be saved. (Students can screenshot their creations.) Use Code Maven with older teens, though it appears to have the same lessons as Code Monster. Game Maven is the third and most advanced programming tutorial in this series. Use this to teach a little about programming by creating easy games. In all three tools, skip to further lessons by clicking on the dialogue balloons. Use the back button to return to previous lessons. It is also easy to undo a lesson and start a code over with the reset button. In all tools, if you return to the same browser on the same machine, it will return to the last lesson you were on. Note: Be sure to have played with Code Maven prior to using Game Maven as those lessons are needed to understand how to program (unless there is prior coding experience).

tag(s): coding (90), computational thinking (41), computers (109)

Create safe passwords easily. Set the parameters for creating your new password: character length, use of capitals, numbers, characters, and more. Click "Generate secure password" to obtain the password and a way to remember it (also generates a phonetic password to remember). Be sure to note their great advice about passwords for safety and security.

tag(s): internet safety (113)

MakeUseOf offers a large collection of tip sheets for popular programs such as Gmail, Mac programs, and Windows. Find over 40 help guides. Some of the topics include Safari for Mac Keyboard Shortcuts, Shortcuts For Special Characters on Windows, Evernote Search Tips & Tricks, Skype Shortcuts for Mac OSX, YouTube Tips, and several others. View by clicking the thumbnail or use the download link to print in PDF format.
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tag(s): computers (109), search strategies (22)

Howcast is an aggregator of the "best" how-to videos across the Internet. These short, easy to follow videos cover a wide range of topics, including pop-culture. They are created by HowCast "experts." One very handy feature is the text transcript included with each video (scroll down to see it). Browse through the categories or type a search term into the search box to view available videos. Categories include Fitness, Home, Food, Health, Arts, Tech, and more. Click "Share" on each video page to share via social networking sites or copy the embed code to share the video on a website or blog. The HowCast videos are not simply YouTube searches, so they have different offerings from what you might find there. Not all content at this site is appropriate for the classroom. Please be sure to preview before you share with your students. This is not one that you want students to explore on their own.
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tag(s): business (51), careers (140), computers (109), financial literacy (89), Microsoft (80), money (114), politics (114), sports (81), video (262)

Common Sense Education offers this curriculum for teaching Digital Citizenship to students in all grades from K-12. Topics include cyberbullying, digital footprint & identity, media balance & well-being, among others. Create a free account to access all lesson materials, including lesson plans, media, and student materials. Many of the included materials are available for bilingual learners.

tag(s): cyberbullying (40), digital citizenship (89), identity (29), internet safety (113), media literacy (106), social networking (64)

Alice will have your students in wonderland as they use this innovative 3D programming environment targeted to middle and high school students. Be the director of a movie or the creator of a video game. 3D objects appear in an on-screen virtual world imagined by the creator and move around according to the directions you give by dragging and dropping tiles. The drag and drop technique provides a more engaging programming experience for first-time programmers. Alice provides exposure to object-oriented programming. Alice has practical value for students to learn how computers think. The instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. While using Alice, programmers can immediately see how their animation program runs and the behavior of the objects in their animation. Manipulate camera angles and lighting to make further enhancements. Alice is a revolutionary method to teach programming, especially to first-time learners. It allows students to understand programming concepts, a 21st-century skill.

tag(s): animation (64), coding (90), digital storytelling (152), problem solving (225), video (262)

Have fun creating sentences or short messages (like tweets) using drag and drop words at X (formerly Twitter) Magnets! X (formerly Twitter) Magnets calls them poems, though the length limit is a real challenge for poets! Choose from the words offered. Drag and drop the magnets into the message area at the bottom -- up to 120 characters. The tool keeps a character count for you. Need different words? Click the swap words link for new choices. Click submit to view your message/poem and decide whether to submit to X (formerly Twitter) Magnet's feed or not. You can also link to send from your own X (formerly Twitter) account. Note that clicking to see the Twitter Magnets feed will show you "messages" and poems created by the general public. Steer clear or preview to be sure these are appropriate in your setting.

tag(s): creative fluency (5), microblogging (15), poetry (191), Teacher Utilities (159), twitter (18), writing prompts (58)

RADCAB is a way to evaluate information and resources. RADCAB is a mnemonic acronym: Relevancy, Appropriateness, Detail, Currency, Authority, and Bias. Click on each word for details on that topic. An excellent rubric is available for download in PDF format at the bottom of the home page. This simple site is a great resource for discussing and teaching information literacy lessons about evaluating information and sources.

tag(s): evaluating sources (28), internet safety (113), media literacy (106), Research (84), rubrics (35)

The Center for Game Science offers an eclectic group of games that promote scientific discovery, problem solving, and learning through game play. The Center is focusing on using "gamification," or game play, to facilitate learning, and this collection shares its grant-funded prototypes. Choose from activities teaching diverse subjects: biochemistry, fractions, visual perception, and more. Each interactive includes a short description along with options such as single or multi-player, and an overview of the game. One game, a downloadable program, deals with protein folding. Be sure to read the descriptions in detail and practice with games to understand how they work. Many of the games are still in development and may become unavailable as they move form one phase of development to the next. A few have ads, but you can use a forward arrow to skip past them. The "capstone" listings show games created by university students, but few of these seem to be instructional.
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tag(s): cells (83), dna (43), fractions (157), game based learning (181), gamification (79), STEM (279), vision (45), whole numbers (9)

Just as the title states, this site offers tutorials in basic math concepts such as addition and subtraction all the way through fractions, money, algebra, and counting change. There are also tutorials that provide training in Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets. Choose any topic to begin with a lesson, quiz, or to view a video. Click the link for the printable version of lessons. Videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

tag(s): addition (127), decimals (84), division (97), fractions (157), Microsoft (80), money (114), multiplication (121), percent (58), spreadsheets (22), subtraction (108)

Create a free website in just minutes with Jimdo. Use the drag and drop feature to insert and move content easily. Toolbars offer editing options such as adding images from Flickr, including YouTube videos, files, Google Maps, and formatting your text. Add share buttons to connect your site using social networking. Changes save and publish automatically. Although there are paid options, the free site offers 500mb of storage along with many features useful for the casual website builder.
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tag(s): communication (138), portfolios (23), social networking (64)

Next Vista offers Learning videos for teachers looking for alternatives to YouTube. At the time of this review, they offered over 1,000 videos (most useful for in the classroom). Videos are made by teachers and/or students. Search by three main topics: Light Bulbs, Global View, or Seeing Service. Better yet, use the right sidebar to search by topic: Math, Science, World Languages, History & Culture, Performing Arts, and more.Next Vista offers an extensive collection of career videos to use as a resource for exploring and discovering career opportunities. View videos directly on site or share using the link or embed code provided. Throughout the school year, Next Vista hosts video creation contests for students and teachers. Submit your own videos less than 5 minutes in length using directions provided. They even offer small prizes for winners.

tag(s): africa (142), asia (72), careers (140), computers (109), europe (77), literature (218), musical instruments (49), musical notation (33), north america (14), parts of speech (40), poetry (191), shakespeare (95), south america (39), speech (68), video (262)