Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Explore the many apps that integrate with Google to save time and increase productivity. Use the included filters to find apps by topic, age range, categories, and languages. Many resources are Google Classroom add-ons, allowing teachers and students to use the tool within Google Classroom. Not all tools are free; however, most offer a free component.

tag(s): Teacher Utilities (198)

Generate quizzes, lessons, and gamified assignments using Gibbly and the power of AI. After creating an account, visit Gibbly's library to browse and search for lessons and quizzes. Open any item to view and edit questions, print a PDF, or share the link by social media or email. Assign activities for solo play or host a live, synchronous activity. Create quizzes and lessons using the create button; options include manual and AI quiz generators and AI-generated lessons. Build lessons by adding the topic and grade level for the lesson; Gibbly then generates a lesson plan and several options for slides, including background information, discussion questions, and Did You Know information. Free accounts include 10,000 tokens monthly, unlimited hosting of review games, the creation of unlimited quizzes and lessons, unlimited classes, unlimited access to disover content, and Google exports and Google SSO.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), gamification (83), preK (271), quizzes (90), Teacher Utilities (198)

Gauth uses AI to provide homework help in math and science topics, including chemistry, physics, calculus, and more. Under the menu topic - Subjects, you will also find help with Literature, Writing, Social Science, and others. To begin, upload a question or an image. Gauth then provides a step-by-step response with a detailed explanation of the answer. Find additional explanations by selecting Copilot, which is built into Gauth's platform, or by choosing from suggestions for related questions. You don't need to register, but doing so will allow access to your search history.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), equations (119), literature (221), statistics (121), STEM (297), tutorials (52), writing (325)

This Hour of Code tutorial guides you through creating a virtual telescope in a computer browser to search for astronomical objects in a virtual world. Follow the instructions in the twenty-step tutorial to culminate in the completion of the game engine, which includes loaded images of stars to explore. Each activity also includes an optional challenge component to enhance learning.

tag(s): coding (85), space (222), stars (71), telescopes (11), tutorials (52)

National Geographic Education shares many classroom resources for all grade levels, including videos, interactives, maps, and more. Use the keyword search to find content related to specific content, filter by grade, type of learning materials, and subject, or browse the site to view some of the latest resources. Although registration isn't required, creating an account allows members to bookmark and save favorite resources.

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The Big Fib Podcast encourages kids to separate accurate information from falsehood by listening to an interview with two participants in a game show format. The participants are known experts and liars. Recent podcasts include kid-friendly topics such as whales, bicycles, and laughter. Several educational guides are available for download, including a Listening Guide for prelistening, an Explore Board for use before and while listening, and a Choice Board for after listening activities. An additional document includes correlations between reading and literature standards and speaking and listening standards.
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tag(s): game based learning (205), media literacy (109), podcasts (108)

Tumble is a science podcast for kids; however, it is entertaining and informative for the entire family. Topics include timely events like a solar eclipse and thought-provoking questions like whether dinosaurs burped. Each podcast episode includes a blog with a transcript and supplemental information such as videos, images, and links to additional resources. Most podcast episodes run between twenty and thirty minutes and are available on several podcast-hosting resources, including Apple, Google, and Amazon Music.

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Varsity Tutors offers a series of free live classes for summer learning. These sessions begin on May 6 and run through August 14. Classes provide learning opportunities to help students prepare for the SAT and ACT exams, learn about hieroglyphics, visit an aquarium, and more. Select the link to any class to learn more about the content and suggested grade levels, and enroll. Each class is offered at a specific time and date and lasts 45 minutes to an hour.

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Can you and your students identify AI-generated images vs. human-made images? This activity shared by Curipod, reviewed here lets you select from image options to generate a lesson with a series of slides with polls for students to choose the correct image format. Additional slides include the prompts for creating the AI images and a short lesson on verifying AI-created images. Customize the presentation as desired before sharing it with students, or share it with the link or by selecting "Present" on your device to display it in real-time.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), digital citizenship (85), images (263), Teacher Utilities (198)

Use your AI prompting skills to find how closely you can match an image. Every thirty minutes, a new image appears, and users have up to one hundred characters to match the image as closely as possible, using up to one hundred characters in the prompt. After generating the image, Twin Pics provides a percentage indicating the similarity between the original and the generated image. Scroll down the page to view the current leaderboard of user-generated images.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), descriptive writing (42), images (263), writing prompts (61)

Use the three lessons in this article to help your students learn about and respect the need to understand copyright and fair use. Let's Give Credit, for second grade, teaches students why it is essential to give credit and how to give credit the right way through role-playing activities as detectives. A lesson plan for fourth graders guides students through the rights and responsibilities involved with using images. The Four Factors of Fair Use provides middle school students a framework for understanding fair use, copyright, and domain. Create a free account to access the lessons and materials shared. All lessons correlate with national standards, including ISTE, Common Core ELA, and CASEL.

tag(s): copyright (44), digital citizenship (85), STEM (297)

Media Education Lab offers a twenty-two-video playlist teaching educators and students the purpose of copyright and fair use in digital learning. Most videos are less than fifteen minutes long; however, a couple more extended offerings are approximately twenty minutes long. Topics include plagiarism vs copyright, the future of copyright, and others. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

tag(s): copyright (44), digital citizenship (85), plagiarism (34)

Pi calls itself "your personal AI." It is a chatbot designed to understand your interests, needs, and goals and provide personalized feedback. As you begin using Pi, it asks what you want to discuss and provides suggestions, such as brainstorming ideas, practicing an extensive conversation, and learning something new. After entering the main space in Pi, you are also offered several conversation starters, and a recorded daily news brief is adjusted to reflect your interests from previous discussions. Registration isn't required; however, creating an account allows you to access previous conversations, participate in longer discussions, and enable Pi to personalize responses based on those conversations. As always, when using artificial intelligence tools, verify the information is accurate.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), chat (41), tutorials (52)

Ted Talks Daily produces episodes each weekday that provide thought-provoking discussions on many topics from A to Z. Most episodes run approximately twenty minutes or less, although occasionally longer episodes of up to forty-five minutes are produced. Recent topics include conservation, politics, education, AI, and more. Listen to podcasts on most popular platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, reviewed here.
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tag(s): journalism (74), listening (93), logic (161), news (229), podcasts (108)

Designing effective and productive chatbot prompts requires understanding how generative AI tools work. This site provides many time-saving prompts for educators' and students' needs. The prompt library is broken into several categories: assessment, lesson planning, and communication, and the prompts work with GenAI chatbots, including ChatGPT, reviewed here, Claude, reviewed here Perplexity reviewed here, and others. Each suggested prompt also includes examples and suggestions for modifying the prompt to fit individual needs.

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Teach middle school students how to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) safely and responsibly using the lesson and materials provided by Microsoft Learn. The toolkit includes a teacher's guide, PowerPoint lesson presentation, classroom agreement document, and a PDF document sharing the elements of a good prompt. The lesson helps students develop skills in fact-checking, good digital hygiene habits, safeguarding data privacy, and strategies for managing well-being. The lesson components include an introduction, two thirty-minute activities, and a closure reflecting critical takeaways of the lesson materials.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), digital citizenship (85), internet safety (114), professional development (385), social and emotional learning (102), STEM (297), Teacher Utilities (198)

Google's Women Techmakers program shares resources, tells the stories of women techmakers, and provides visibility to events and tools for women interested in technology. Sign up to receive notifications for enrollment in the Ambassador program, which includes over 1000 women who champion diversity and inclusion in technology. Create a profile to join Google's Women Techmakers program to receive updates and early access to workshops and events. Visit the initiatives portion of the site to learn about Black Women in Tech, International Women's Day, and Hackathon, as well as tools and training for improving women's online safety. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

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