Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Capture your entire screen, or just a part of it with this easy to use screen recorder that includes audio. Download and install the launcher required for your operating system then follow prompts to set up your recording. Save in several popular video formats or directly upload your recording to YouTube, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

tag(s): communication (138), tutorials (54), video (262)

Create beautiful multimedia digital books with Book Creator. Scroll down the landing page to the bottom menu, and click the "Help With Getting Started" title. Note: This points out how you need to change to the "teacher sign in" (the default is for students). This is a wonderful tool with many features. Reading the short Getting Started Overview first and watching the beginning videos would be best. Then, you can go to the Resources tab from the top menu, where each grade level has a video, and you'll find example books created by students. Under Resources, you can also search by subject to find suggested ideas and books designed for a specific subject. Next, click Resources from the top menu to find the "Teach your first lesson toolkit" with lesson plans, remixable student templates for different age ranges, and a teacher guide. You can also choose Remixable Books to get you and your class started. When finished, publish and share your book using the site's web-based reader for access on any device. Once you have mastered the basics, click on Features to see the magic of using the pen and discover all the features of the graphic organizers, comics, and more. By clicking the "more" you will can embed documents on your page(s). These documents can be narrated and interactive! The free plan offers one library with up to 40 books storage. Book Creator presents a variety of levels for technology use depending on teacher requirements for the project or even student ability; it allows for adding narration, videos, text, using your webcam, and adding links to help explain the artwork. When creating your book, click on the big + in the upper right corner to add text, audio, images, your camera, and the pen; you will also see The lowercase "i" (for inspector), which offers colors, comics, paper type, and more. There are other apps, but you must have a premium account. You can use Book Creator on iPads, Macs, Android devices, PCs, and on these browsers: Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Chrome. Teachers need to provide an email to create an account. However, students do not need emails to make their books. Once ready, follow the site's prompts to add video, text, images, audio, and more to your book.
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tag(s): collaboration (94), DAT device agnostic tool (147), digital storytelling (152), ebooks (40), literacy (116), preK (263), reading comprehension (147), writing (323)

Do you need some ideas for writing projects? The New York Times offers a school year of prompts and images as inspiration for writing across many genres. Scroll through the site to find categories for images based on the form of writing encouraged for students. Also, a lesson idea bank inspires using pictures and writing in the classroom.

tag(s): creative writing (122), descriptive writing (40), journals (16), writing prompts (58)

Write. That is all you do with this minimalistic program. This is a great tool for timed writing at the beginning of any class! Choose a length of time to write from options on the screen, then start writing. Stop for more than 5 seconds, and your writing disappears. When time runs out, your writing saves with an option to download as a text file to your computer, or upload to a file of your choice.

tag(s): process writing (38), writers workshop (31), writing (323)