Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site is the perfect example of false information that you can find on the Internet! Learn all about the endangered tree octopus and efforts to keep them from extinction at this very realistic "fake" site. Read all about the characteristics of the tree octopus including habitat, reproduction, and why it has become endangered. View some of the activities such as a trick or treat box to collect candy to hang in trees for the octopus. Peruse pictures of rare sightings of the octopus. The falsehoods shown on the site, such as the inclusion of other hoax species and organizations (mixed with links to pages about real species and organizations) are sure to give you a chuckle!
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tag(s): creative writing (124), evaluating sources (29), internet safety (114), literacy (122), media literacy (109), satire (6)

Ducksters is a safe, extensive, educational portal for kids. Find a wide choice of content such as interactives, sports, movies, and music. Begin by choosing a category to explore choices. The study category includes extensive information such as world history, many biographies, science explanations, and information on all continents and many countries. Interactive subjects include math times tables, checkers, and guess the country. There is a TON here to explore.
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tag(s): addition (129), african american (115), american revolution (82), animal homes (57), animals (294), artists (84), biographies (94), china (81), civil rights (209), civil war (139), cold war (30), continents (33), countries (73), data (151), division (98), egypt (56), elements (33), energy (133), environment (252), explorers (64), fractions (160), friction (9), geometric shapes (134), greece (47), habitats (92), human body (93), inventors and inventions (80), keyboarding (28), mean (19), median (16), mode (13), multiplication (122), planets (113), presidents (135), puzzles (149), recycling (45), renaissance (38), rome (37), solar system (110), sound (72), sports (82), subtraction (110), sun (71), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (161)

US Digital Literacy is a comprehensive informational site to help better deliver digital literacy information to students. Help to prepare your students to understand and use information in multiple formats from a broad range of sources. Students need to be able to read, and interpret media, reproduce data and images, evaluate, and apply new knowledge from digital environments. Learn how to use the tools, promote responsible digital citizenship, while providing a framework to access, analyze, and create new information. Under Digital Toolkits find information about digital citizens, web 2.0, augmented reality, social bookmarks, wikis, images and creative commons, keyboarding practice, and mobile learning communities. For your own use, find professional learning networks, adaptive learning systems, learning management systems, project based learning, and STEM and STEAM. The Twenty-first- Century Skills section gives background in the Common Core, core subjects, learning and innovative skills, information and media literacy, and life and career skills. Instructional Strategies provide information for classroom management, activating strategies, vocabulary strategies, cognitive growth strategies, organizing strategies, summarizing strategies, and assessment types. Information regarding thoughtful technology leadership includes videos to promote conversations and challenges for your school website. Each section includes interesting and informative videos. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): augmented reality (9), digital citizenship (85), literacy (122), professional development (385)

Enhance STEAM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Design, Math) through great ideas found on the this blog. The ideas demonstrate activities for use including instructions and images of students completing activities. View archives for additional lessons. Find art, articles, lessons, or resources under the categories link. Add your email for notification of new posts and updates.

tag(s): blogs (65), STEM (297)

Protect your email address and reduce spam with Scrim. Scrim converts your email address into a short, safe link for sharing on social media, forums, or any public site. Enter your email and add a unique ending to the Scrim URL to receive your unique code. Copy and paste the code for use on social networking sites, documents, or forums.
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tag(s): internet safety (114)

Interested in coding and looking for others who are interested as well? CoderDojo is an open source movement of free coding clubs for young kids that is led by volunteers and found around the World. Activities vary with each "club" but all focus on coding. Click "Organize a Dojo" to become a volunteer organizer. You are then responsible for setting up and maintaining the dojo. Not a coding master? Don't let that discourage you. Organizers are responsible for bringing learners and technical experts together. Students can click "Attend a Dojo" to find a location nearby to join. Volunteers can also find a dojo nearby to offer their services.

tag(s): coding (85), communities (35), computational thinking (40), computers (109), engineering (129), STEM (297)

Learn how to touch type or increase your touch typing speed and accuracy with this handy resource! You can practice with NO registration. But if you want to keep track of your progress, registration is suggested. You can sign up with your email or Google or Facebook account. Use the cloud to store your results. This enables use of this tool anywhere, anytime. There is a thorough slide tutorial when first arriving at the site. You can find it again under the Help section. The tutorial explains how the lessons are set up, what you will see on your screen, and what each feature does. You do not have to register to use this site, only to track your progress.
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tag(s): computers (109), keyboarding (28)

Want to make sure you are up to speed on all your Common Core resources? The links guide you to resources in math, language arts, writing, reading, science, and technology. Find a short description of the site, and then go directly to the site. There is also quite a bit of professional information about the Common Core standards. Substitute teachers can easily be led to ready to go Common Core sites.

tag(s): commoncore (73)

Here is your one stop for FREE training on Microsoft Word and Excel, Typing challenges, and activities in several subjects. There are activities for typing, math, spelling, and life skills geared toward elementary and middle school students. The menu at the left provides links to all activities except Excel. Find those at the top of the page. If you find an activity you like, easily share using links on each activity via email or social networks. Some of the video clips are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.
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tag(s): grammar (137), keyboarding (28), Microsoft (80), operations (72), parts of speech (39), spelling (98), spreadsheets (23), vocabulary (238)

This site offers over 10,000 lessons aligned with the Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards. The lessons were created by 130 Master Teachers. You can browse resources without registering. Click the blue "Browse" button to get started. Choose along the top from Common Core Math, Common Core ELA, or Next Generation Science. Lessons are arranged by grade level or Math, Language, and Science subjects. However, if you want to create your own resources, registration is required. After registering, create a class and then create a unit for that class. Finally, create a lesson for that unit, fill in an objective, select a state standard, and estimate the total time on task. Upload files (or drag and drop) to assign them to the lesson or keep them "unassigned" for later use. Additionally, simply add other members' files to your own curriculum. Search for files by keyword, age-level, and type of format. Click on a result to see every lesson plan using that file.

tag(s): commoncore (73), professional development (385), Teacher Utilities (198)

Algodoo is a 2D-simulation software to create simulation scenes using simple drawing tools like boxes, circles, polygons, gears, brushes, planes, ropes and chains. Interact with objects using click and drag or tilt and shake. Add physics to any simulation using fluids, springs, hinges, motors, thrusters, light rays, tracers, optics and lenses. Explore and play with gravity, friction, restitution, refraction, and attraction within each scene. Begin by downloading to your Windows or Mac computer following instructions on the site. Algodoo is also available as an iPad app. To make the most of all the site features, be sure to visit the Learn It link for a three-session tutorial to help understand the software. Videos on this site are hosted by YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable.

tag(s): friction (9), geometric shapes (134), gravity (43)

Code.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science education and increasing participation by young women and students from underrepresented groups. It offers free, standards-aligned curricula for K-12 students, including courses like Computer Science Fundamentals for elementary students, CS Discoveries for middle school, and CS Principles for high school. The platform provides interactive tools such as App Lab, Game Lab, and Dance Party to make coding engaging and accessible. Educators can access comprehensive teaching resources, including lesson plans, videos, and assessments, as well as professional development opportunities like self-paced and facilitator-led workshops. Code.org also hosts the annual Hour of Code event to promote global participation in computer science.

tag(s): coding (85), computational thinking (40), computers (109), critical thinking (127), problem solving (233), STEM (297), women (151)

We all know about endangered plants and animals, but what about endangered sounds? The Museum of Endangered Sounds offers a collection of sounds unfamiliar to many young people. Click on any thumbnail to hear sounds such as the ka-ching of a cash register, dialing a rotary phone, the sound of dial-up Internet, or the click and winding of a film camera. Although the collection is quite small, it is worth a visit for a trip back to the past! Warning: the clip with TV Snow features a provocative photo. You may want to avoid that example with an immature audience.

tag(s): 1960s (26), 1970s (10), 1980s (7), inventors and inventions (80), sounds (43)

Celebrate 25+ years of the World Wide Web with this retrospective in interactive form. Scroll through to read about the first ideas and learn about the explosive growth and important events throughout the years. Choose auto-play to watch the timeline unfold or scroll at your own pace. As you progress through the story, watch for links to web stories. Viewers of the site share their personal memories each step along the way. Hover your mouse over the right side of your screen to link to the entire report in PDF format.

tag(s): computers (109), internet safety (114), inventors and inventions (80)

We all know that the Internet is a busy, non-stop source of activity and information. This interesting infographic spells out just how much data is generated each minute as of April, 2014. Find information such as how many Google searches occur in a minute, how many emails are sent, and the number of Apple app downloads take place every minute. This fascinating infographic provides a wealth of information to help understand the size of the Internet and social networking sites.

tag(s): infographics (56), internet safety (114)

Liahona Academy offers this PDF infographic as a detailed look at teen social media use and what parents and teachers should know to take an active role in students' online life. Discover how teens spend their time on social media, what platforms they use, and how to stay informed of their activities. Follow tips for monitoring Internet browsing activity with specifics for commonly used browsers. Learn how teens try to hide activity from adults and what you can do to stay one step ahead! Stay informed about tools available to adults to help monitor the safety of students.

tag(s): cyberbullying (40), digital citizenship (85), internet safety (114)

Learn what you need to do and know to start using X (formerly Twitter). Sign up to get a X (formerly Twitter) mentor or BE a mentor! Find out what to do before creating an X (formerly Twitter) account, get advice about whom to follow, explore programs to use to help you manage your X (formerly Twitter) account, and read how to keep track of everything. Learn about all the terms needed to be successful using X (formerly Twitter) as a teacher. This site is clean, simple, and very helpful!

tag(s): chat (41), microblogging (14), social networking (61), twitter (13)

Spend some time with this real-time typing competition to increase your typing speed AND accuracy. Nitro has multiplayer typing car races where competition is against either other unknown members or with friends. At the signal to go, racers type the words they see on the screen and mistakes are highlighted in pink as you go. Correcting a mistake while racing is do-able. The faster you type, the faster your race car will speed ahead. Race as a guest to try this typing game, or sign up to keep track of your progress or to race against friends.

tag(s): game based learning (205), keyboarding (28)

Let the games begin with ARIS, an open-source, web-based platform to create and play mobile games, tours, and interactive stories that will run on iOS devices. ARIS stands for Augmented Reality for Interactive Storytelling. ARIS is an authoring environment for non-programmers, and also a toolbox of useful code for people that want to make their own interactive mobile apps. You will experience a virtual world of interactive characters, items, and media using GPS and QR Codes through Google Maps reviewed here. During the games, you can trade items with other characters, drop them on the map, get them from characters, or have them taken away. Download the free ARIS app to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to play the games. After creating your player account, select from a list of ARIS experiences. Each game will start on the quest screen, and the quests will likely tell you to go somewhere physically. Open the map screen to see your position and destination to begin the game. QR codes are used to help ARIS determine your position as you complete the quests. A few games contain codes that can be used to access some of the content remotely.

Use the ARIS Editor to create your own games under the "Make Games" section of the site. A separate account is needed to play games, but you can use the same username and password if you want. You'll begin with a Google map on the main screen where you can search to zoom into a particular place in the world. Use the object pallet located on the left-side of your screen to create characters, items, and plaques. Drag and drop the items you authored onto your map to build your interactive game. When your game is ready to publish, you need to set up your iOS device to work with the server for the authoring tool. You need to change the server URL under the ARIS settings to http://arisgames.org/stagingserver1.

tag(s): augmented reality (9), design (79), maps (220), qr codes (18)

Fake iPhone text is a tool to create fake screenshots of a series of iPhone text messages. Enter your conversation including name and message. Click the link "Create" to view the picture. Take a screenshot or copy the URL to share.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), digital storytelling (154), gamification (83), writing prompts (61)