Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

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 (92), reading comprehension (152), reading strategies (98), 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 (82), readability (5), writing (322)

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 (19)

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 (125), ebooks (47), mysteries (24), novels (34), poetry (195), religions (113)

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 (242), vocabulary development (97)

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 (146), 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 (52), careers (183), dance (33), data (150), decimals (85), diseases (66), fitness (39), human body (91), mark twain (8), multimedia (55), music theory (47), percent (59), probability (98), 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 (28)

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 (183), statistics (120)

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 (44), 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)

authorSTREAM, an internet based presentation maker that is based on PowerPoint formatting, is easy to use and offers some very useful and unique features. Offering more than the basic PowerPoint creation greatly expands its value. Special features of authorSTREAM include the ability to make public presentations, download presentations as FLV, MP4, AVI, and WMV files, present live to an online audience anywhere in the world, and the ability to create a "channel" or collection of all your online work. With this application, you can add YouTube videos and sound narration directly to your presentations. Of these features, perhaps the two most unique are the ability to download in different formats. Using this, you can create a movie to be played on a television or create a file that can be shared by all of your audience on iTunes, since MP4 is iTunes language! With private presentations -- or even public ones -- you can protect access with a password. Also, this program has an add-on in PowerPoint that allows you to search web content directly from the application.

tag(s): multimedia (55), slides (43), video (267)

Here you will find the most extensive list of homonyms ever seen! Download this PDF list of over 460 homonyms (words that sound alike but have a different spelling and meaning) organized for us by Alan Cooper. If you've exhausted your list of homonyms to use with your students, check this site out. If you're still confused by which witch is which, use this site to cite the correct word!

tag(s): editing (93), homonyms (8), spelling (98), word choice (14), word study (58)

NaturalReader is a text-to-speech program that offers many language and voice options. To access the free version, choose the personal use link to use NaturalReader online. Choose from hundreds of voice options, including the ability to clone your voice and record it in many languages (free registration is required for the cloning feature). Add documents, copy and paste text, add scanned photos or screenshots, or listen to the contents of webpages. Once your text is ready, choose a voice and select play to begin listening. Additional features allow users to highlight areas of text and add notes. Use NaturalReader's filters to personalize areas to skip, such as text in brackets or URL text. When ready to share, download it as an MP3 file to your device or share it using the link in your history.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (189), DAT device agnostic tool (146), dyslexia (11), learning disability (21), learning styles (17), listening (92), Special Needs (52), text to speech (19), writers workshop (31)

Learn a new language through music and lyrics! Choose English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portugese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Dutch, Danish, or Romanian. Register for FREE and learn the new language. Each language has different activities: karaoke, interactive cloze activities, videos, and more. You can choose among three different difficulty levels. Some activities even have the option to "double click" to read a definition of a word. You also have the ability to submit your own songs and language activities to the site. Note that this site is fairly new and only ha a few hundred songs at the time of this review. Help contribute to the offerings!
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tag(s): cross cultural understanding (178), cultures (226), french (72), german (46), greek (46), italian (30), japanese (54), portuguese (22), russian (26), songs (46), spanish (110)

Use Yippy to pull search results from other search engines and avoid being "tracked" by your own searches. Yippy groups topics together and breaks it up by clusters or "clouds." Yippy self-filters against many topics that students shouldn't be exposed to, such as gambling, pornography, political propaganda, or other inappropriate sites. As always, keep a close eye on students working independently and talk about what to do when something inappropriate comes up. While Yippy is safer than a general search engine, students still need to learn about safe and ethical behavior online, since nothing is foolproof. Enter your search term. View the definition at the top. Different clusters appear along the left navigation side to help refine your search and help beginning searchers learn how to add more specific terms.
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tag(s): search engines (47), search strategies (22)

This site offers a myriad of memory games, brain games, quizzes, and more. Train your brain to think! Interactives offered in a variety of languages include: Dragger, Counterfeit, The Game you Can't Stop, Masterpieces, Sudoko, Mastermind, Crime Scene, The Image Quiz, Anagramania, Square Words, Speed Read, and Spellice. Many other games are also included. After winning a game, you earn a ticket. The tickets let you enter the bonus room to win a surprise image.

tag(s): gifted (64), logic (160), spelling (98)

Keeping Score takes you on a creative historical journey through the composers, conflicts, and culture of some of music's most beloved and classical works. This first-class website contains interactives for composers such as Beethoven, Copeland, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. You can see pictures and listen to stories about the lives and times of the composers, hear the music, read personal reflections or quotes of the composers, and listen to commentary of other musical professionals. Also included are podcasts of the San Francisco radio show, 13 Days When Music Changed Forever which is about musical revolutions. The education link is full of ideas for incorporating music into any and all subjects. It also has time saving, standards guided lesson plans to be used in all educational settings. Musical education websites do not get cooler than this! This type of site can connect with today's learners by bringing them all the information that they need in a one stop, multimedia package. It is classy, concise, and easy to navigate.

tag(s): composers (20), music theory (47), musical instruments (54), songs (46)

This "wordy" site offers word definitions with a challenge! You see the first letter of a word and its definition. You must quickly type in a word you think fits the definition. The site allows you to pass if you do not know the word, but the definition of the word appears anyway (along with the answer). Once the correct word is entered, the definition changes quickly so you can accrue as many points as possible in a limited time. The site also keeps a list of words used at any interaction, so you can see the words correct and missed. Some definitions offer easier hints in their wording.

tag(s): game based learning (208), vocabulary (242), vocabulary development (97), word study (58)