Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This is a marvelous collective resource for any teachers of ELL/ESL students and even for teachers of other languages. The range of offerings goes from lesson plans and activities to games to grammar explanations and more. There are also teaching tips and informative articles. The overall ESL Base website also has job-finding and other important information for ESL/ELL teachers worldwide. The GRAMMAR section of this site would be useful to any class learning proper grammar (articles, reflexive pronouns, passive voice, and more). (This website does not use American English, so you may notice some slightly different spellings if using this is American schools. For example, practice is practise.
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tag(s): grammar (137), grammar review (31), professional development (385), resources (83), verbs (26)

Public Domain Pictures is a database of pictures allowed to be used in any way that you see fit. You can also upload pictures to share. The only time to worry about a model or property release is if you choose to use an image for commercial use. Most images are free. Enjoy some time browsing pictures. Please note that a log-in (with an email address) is required to upload your own pictures. You do not need an account to download a picture for free. Be sure not to click on the "Premium Download" button, as this download is for a fee (even with the "free" photos). Scroll down a bit and click on "download picture" to download for free.
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tag(s): graphic design (49), images (263), photography (131)

Make a PDF using the text you enter and a creative layout you choose. Simply type or paste in your text into the large box, choose from one of the three available fonts, font size, and paper size. Then choose a layout for the finished project. Text can be produced as a banner, maze, rebus, spiral, Valentine (heart), or waves. Students will love seeing their work reproduced in a new way! The finished product is generated as a PDF file to be saved and easily printed.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), poetry (193), posters (43), valentines day (11), vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (93)

Jump into fiction and poetry with fictionteachers.com. Find information about teaching reading, poetry, readers theater, and inviting such authors to visit your classroom. Write a Girls to the Rescue, a mini mystery, or a new fangled fairy tale. Lesson plans have creative ideas to inspire students, teachers, and parents.
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tag(s): poetry (193), readers theater (12)

This site is a wiki that allows ENL/ELL teachers to share helpful websites, games, presentations, and songs with other ENL/ELL instructors. There are PowerPoint presentations, games, templates, tutorials, songs, and more... all ready to go! You don't need to join the wiki to enjoy the games, PowerPoints, etc., but , by joining the workspace, you can comment on materials and methods, and add your own activities. Another benefit of joining is that all members receive notification of changes and new activities added to the wiki, in their email.

tag(s): directions (11), grammar (137), songs (46), vocabulary (238), writing (324)

Enter the world of assisted learning with Word Talk, a free plugin for use with Microsoft Word. This software downloads onto unlimited computers for educational use. A talking dictionary assists with definition and spelling. The ability to turn the words into MP3 format is available. This plugin has won the Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award.

tag(s): dictionaries (48), Microsoft (80), text to speech (20)

Socrative is a smart student response system -- the answer to not having expensive "educational clickers" in your classroom. Socrative works on tablets, smartphones, iPod Touch, laptops, and others. There is an introductory video demonstrating teacher and student logins and how your class will interact in real-time. You can create your own multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. You may also choose to use one of their ready-made activities as exit tickets, thoughtful questions, or games. See your students' responses in an Excel file or view online as a Google spreadsheet. Multiple choice questions are automatically corrected.

tag(s): chat (41), DAT device agnostic tool (147), game based learning (205), gamification (83), polls and surveys (49), questioning (36), social networking (61)

News and information from top thinkers and doers around the world, screened so that it is condensed to that which is significant, relevant, and applicable, that is Big Think. This website is a phenomenal source for information and news. The philosophy of Big Think is that as we "move to the knowledge era" that you will be able to better function if you know more and understand what you know. This website was awarded one of TIME magazine's best websites of 2011 for news and information. Please screen any articles that you wish to share BEFORE sharing with your students. Some content is NOT appropriate for the classroom. This is not a site you want to send students off to explore on their own.
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tag(s): brain (56), business (52), cross cultural understanding (173), environment (252), news (228), politics (118), psychology (65)

This site offers more than just worksheets. Choose from over 17,000 worksheets and lesson plans for teaching English, make a word search or word scramble, or generate "double puzzles." Find worksheets by selecting topics including grammar and vocabulary, or use the search feature to find specific topics of interest. This site also includes many ESL essentials including games and ideas for focused lessons.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), descriptive writing (42), grammar review (31), listening (93), multilingual (77), pronunciation (34), reading comprehension (149), speaking (26), Teacher Utilities (198), vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (93)

This site offers well-organized lessons of English to limited English speakers. There are three levels. After selecting a level, students can choose the theme of each lesson they wish to study. Offerings include vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, pronunciation, reading, and other types of practice. Besides complete English lessons, the site offers a word of the day and also lesson plans for teachers that correspond to the lesson themes. At the time of this review, these were only available at the beginning level. The site promises that those at the intermediate and advanced levels will be coming soon.
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tag(s): listening (93), reading comprehension (149), reading strategies (96), speaking (26)

Test any website's readability using The Readability Test Tool. Test readability by URL or direct text input from any source (such as copy/paste of student writing). Simply enter the web address (URL) and get the readability of the site on several scales. You can also check your own webpages by using the "referer" section. You will get a score for the most used readability indicators: Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease and Grade Level, Gunning Fog Score, Coleman Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index (ARI). These tell much more than a simple "grade level." View sentence info such as total characters, number of words, average word length, percentage of short and long sentences, and more. View word usage of types of verbs, conjunctions, and other parts of speech as well as type of words used to begin sentences. Click the link provided to view an explanation of each type of score.
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tag(s): independent reading (81), readability (5), writing (324)

Interested in making a QR code, but think it is too difficult? Use this site for a quick and easy way to make a QR code of web links. Simply enter the url. (Be sure that SmallQR is selected under Advanced options.) Save your QR code as a PNG image file and be sure to read the tips: a.make sure that the image is not printed too small and b. test the QRcode out before using it elsewhere.

tag(s): bookmarks (43), qr codes (18)

Join the writers and readers of obooko, the free site to publish and read eBooks. Readers' Choice Awards of 2011 winner for free eBooks, obooko offers a platform to share your work and read the works of others. Become a reviewer and write comments on other eBooks. As authors, you retain all rights with no charges or contracts. This site is legal and does not infringe on copyright laws. There are numerous categories to choose from: Romance and Women, Crime, Religion, Thriller, Mystery, Teens, and much more! This site is not intended for children under 13. Some of the content may not be appropriate for the classroom. So be sure to preview.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), ebooks (43), mysteries (23), novels (34), poetry (193), religions (95)

As part of their extensive site for vocabulary, roots, and more, MyVocabulary.com has added a themed area for President's Day. Find interactive vocabulary activities using President's Day related vocabulary words. You will also find printable crosswords, fill in the blanks and more, all using the same theme words. This and other "themes" available on the site will make vocabulary development fun.

tag(s): vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (93)

Pearltrees.com is a great place to organize, share, and store websites for current, future, or collaborative use. More than a standard social bookmarking website, Pearltrees allows you to create trees of sites to show relationships or even the order in which to browse websites. It is extremely simple to sign up, free, and easy to use once you have joined. To use it, you can download to your browser extension or bookmarklet, use a bookmarklet, or just use your home spot to paste in websites that you want to add to your own pearl tree. There are "big pearls" that function as folders for multiple strands of Internet pearls. 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.
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tag(s): bookmarks (43), curation (32), DAT device agnostic tool (147), webquests (8)

This PBS site is a reorganized collection of over 16,000+ public media offerings (including radio and photographs), arranged specifically for preK-12 teachers. You can search by subject (the landing page subject is physical education) and grade level across many subjects. After viewing three offerings, you must join (for free) to continue. Membership includes the option of saving favorites. Use the search box at the top to find correlations to state standards. The site is still in development, so material is being added frequently.

tag(s): alphabet (53), careers (156), dance (31), data (151), decimals (85), diseases (66), fitness (39), human body (93), mark twain (8), multimedia (53), music theory (46), percent (59), probability (99), problem solving (233), psychology (65)

Mind 42 is an easy to use mind mapping (or concept mapping) tool. You create the format and easily add links, notes, to do lists, images, or even a Wikipedia article. Import the result into documents or perhaps a Skype conversation. Bring mind maps/concept maps to a new level!

tag(s): concept mapping (15), mind map (27)

This site is a non-profit website dedicated to answering the question, "When Will I Use Math?" The site describes the importance of mathematics and many career opportunities available to students who discover mathematics. Although there is a store and social links on the site, it is worth the visit for the information provided. The Careers Using Math link provides an extensive list of careers that use mathematics along with the approximate salary scale. Clicking the title of the Careers in Math leads you to a biography of someone with this career, their education, math required and used in this career, potential employers, and other facts. Other interesting sections of the site include a Blog that offers other math problems and information and Featured Math Tidbits (tidbits and trivia related to math). There is also a link for teachers with other math resources, and information about math competitions.
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tag(s): biographies (94), careers (156), statistics (121)

This free tool is designed to help high school students prepare for state standardized testing, better understand college admissions and financial planning, and generally help prepare for their futures. Preparation for these types of exams can greatly increase scores, so why not use a free, already created tool. Sign up as a student, teacher, or parent/mentor. A logged-in user can access state standardized test preparations, SAT and ACT practice tests, flashcards for ACT and SAT test preparation, Zero Hour Threat (a cool video game to help increase ACT and SAT scores as part of the college entrance process), and college planning tips.

tag(s): college (45), test prep (69)

Bounce allows you to upload from your computer or grab an image from the web to share with others. Make "bouncing around" on the web easier and more directed by guiding people to what you want them to see. Once you grab or upload an image (screenshot), you can add notes and comments. Share via email or using the url on the page. Free registration is required to be able to share links, view projects, and collaborate.

tag(s): images (263)