Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

CPALMS is an online source of information, resources, interactive tools, and lesson plans to help educators K-12. Although created for use in Florida, you can find resources for Common Core by subject, grade, or area. With free membership you can save favorites. Find free online courses by grade level or general education. Find exceptional professional development for instructors of elementary, middle, high, or adult ed. Explore Model Eliciting Activities or problem based learning lessons enriched with engineering based concepts by grade level and subject. Lesson Study Resource Kits cover grades K-12 in math, science, and English Language Arts. Discover information for unpacking and understanding Common Core Standards and information about how to use complexity ratings in Common Core.

tag(s): commoncore (73), professional development (393)

Find news features on current events, politics, space, weather, sports, and more. This would be useful in any classroom where a "knowledge of the now" is a focus. At the time of this review some of the specific topics included What's New on the Climate Crisis, remembering Children's Author Beverly Clearly, Huge Container Ship Blocks Suez Canal, the discovery of new planets, and much more. Of course, as the news changes so will the features on this front page. Subscribe to their newsletter to receive updates on new articles.

tag(s): news (226)

Flippity is a versatile and useful tool for creating many types of educational activities, games, and assessments. Easily modify the included templates to suit any subject or content area. Flippity integrates with Google Sheets, allowing users to input and organize data to use in their activities easily; updates to Google Sheets are automatically reflected in the Flippity activity. Templates include flashcards,10-sided multimedia flex cards, quizzes, crossword puzzles, and more. Customization options include adding images and text, choice of fonts and colors, and the ability to embed videos or other multimedia elements into activities. Flippity offers helpful tutorials to guide users through the process of creating and customizing content.

tag(s): flash cards (43), game based learning (208), quiz (66), quizzes (90), test prep (69), vocabulary (241), vocabulary development (96)

Practice and learn basic words and vocabulary in Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, German, Czech, and Russian. Imendi is a flashcard activity featuring various languages in a drag and drop format. Choose your language to begin. You can choose between a random lesson or select a lesson topic from the dropdown menu on the upper left corner of the page. The upper left is also where you can choose to look at different vocaulary lists or use the "all words" option. Match new language terms to the English word then quickly view results and start over with a new set of cards. These are quick and easy reviews. Use the non-English speaking option to translate from any included language back to English.
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tag(s): arabic (12), french (72), german (46), italian (30), multilingual (78), portuguese (22), russian (26), spanish (110)

Word Counter is a powerful, simple tool for anyone who writes. Paste in the text of your own writing (a paper, a blog post, a letter, etc.) and see how many times you repeat a word. Choose to include "small words" (the, it, etc.) in the count or not. Search your writing by roots and choose how many words you want the site to list. Repetition of words is boring for your reader and often shows "lazy" word choice. Try using this program and Big Huge Thesaurus, reviewed here, to spice up your writing. Make revision for word choice one of the steps in your writing process.
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tag(s): process writing (36), word choice (14), writing (323)

Vidtionary is a video dictionary defining words through images (and videos). The short videos include the word said aloud and shown in print, with sound effects or engaging music in the background. Browse entries using the search bar or view featured collections. Browse alphabetically or explore collections. Because of the wide range of topics and difficulty levels, these vocabulary words could be used with any age. Video lengths run less than one minute per definition, many as short as 10-15 seconds. Originally designed to teach English to speakers of Korean and Japanese, the visual nature of the site appeals to all language learners.

tag(s): dictionaries (47), multilingual (78), vocabulary (241), vocabulary development (96)

"See" daily news headlines in illustration form on this clever blog created by illustrator/designer Maria Fabrizio. Each day she chooses a headline to illustrate in a sort of visual riddle, and she also includes the link to the article that inspired it. The result: an engaging visual prompt that tempts your guess at one of the day's top stories. The news sources vary among various mainstream U.S. news sources, such as the New York Times, NBC, NPR, or USA Today. Challenge yourself to stay up to date and think visually. Cycle back through the daily entries since early 2013 or search by clickable tags to see the breadth of news represented here and find related stories. You can also sign up to receive the daily stories via email.

tag(s): news (226), visual thinking (8)

Use polltogo to create polls for student response during a meeting or class time. Connect with your audience in many ways. Create a question and select the type of answers, how long the poll will last, password or not, and more options. Receive notifications about your poll via your email. Each poll is free for twenty people to vote. Tweet about polltogo and receive another thirty credits so thirty more people can vote. Choose to receive results (via email) after every vote or at the end of the voting period. Interim and final results can also be viewed online. Another great feature is embedding the results link into a PowerPoint or Keynote slide to project results during a presentation. polltogo is a device-agnostic voting tool and will auto-adapt to display on any mobile or desktop device.

tag(s): assessment (146), Formative Assessment (73), polls and surveys (49)

Disappointed that your favorite book or TV series has ended? Satisfy your craving on FanFiction. Discover FanFiction stories written by up-and-coming writers based on your favorite comic, cartoon, movie, book, television show, or other genre. Read and vote for your favorites or even write your own. Whether you are a fan of fiction or like to dabble with writing, take a look at FanFiction. Fanfiction authors write new stories about characters from their favorite books (movies, TV series, etc.). Read to your heart's content and leave a comment without even signing in. To create and submit your own writing you need to sign up with an email. Click on the genre of your choice to get started! This site can be accessed in a variety of languages. Click the small "mobile forum" icon at the top to use on mobile iOs or Android devices.
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tag(s): creative writing (125), novels (34), short stories (18), writing (323)

Have fun creating sentences or short messages (like tweets) using drag and drop words at X (formerly Twitter) Magnets! X (formerly Twitter) Magnets calls them poems, though the length limit is a real challenge for poets! Choose from the words offered. Drag and drop the magnets into the message area at the bottom -- up to 120 characters. The tool keeps a character count for you. Need different words? Click the swap words link for new choices. Click submit to view your message/poem and decide whether to submit to X (formerly Twitter) Magnet's feed or not. You can also link to send from your own X (formerly Twitter) account. Note that clicking to see the Twitter Magnets feed will show you "messages" and poems created by the general public. Steer clear or preview to be sure these are appropriate in your setting.

tag(s): creative fluency (5), microblogging (14), poetry (195), Teacher Utilities (201), twitter (13), writing prompts (60)

Word Sense is a dictionary and thesaurus presented in a unique, interactive display. Enter your word in the search box and view the definition. Click on any of the related terms to view definitions and connections from the associated words. Use links to go directly to the definition of any associated word or term to continue exploring and understanding terms. There is a link to "Learn How it Works" to learn more about the possibilities at this site. We strongly recommend that you explore how it works first! Note: This is a full service dictionary, so ANY word is available for search, including those not appropriate at school. Use caution with less mature students searching independently. Be certain to set clear expectations and consequences for inappropriate searches.

tag(s): antonyms (12), dictionaries (47), synonyms (15), thesaurus (22), vocabulary (241), vocabulary development (96)

This simple, free tool can shorten or summarize an otherwise long passage or text. Simply copy and paste the text passage into the text box. Specify the percentage of summarization (there is a slider you can drag to the percentage that you want). Text Compactor produces a shortened version below the original. Summarization of text is now easy and fast. Be sure to mention to any student using this site the importance of not plagiarizing and using only original writing. To learn more about how the tool works (and possibly consider some of its "short" comings), see "About."

tag(s): creative writing (125), descriptive writing (41), expository writing (31), multilingual (78), paragraph writing (15), process writing (36)

Discover a comprehensive YouTube channel of ENL/ESL videos at Learning English With Mister Duncan. This channel includes over 75 videos at the beginner through intermediate levels. Subjects include survival English, grammar, travel, the history of linguistics, and more. Videos vary in length from just a few minutes to over 30 minutes. Mr. Duncan is a British series, so American English speakers may notice some slight differences in pronunciations. Mr. Duncan claims to offer a new video daily! If your district blocks YouTube, these videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): cultures (226), grammar (138), multilingual (78), punctuation (25), slang (15), video (267)

WordSense.eu is part dictionary and part thesaurus, based on Wiktionary information. Type in any word in the search bar to view word origin, definitions, synonyms, and more. This site provides a multitude of information about the words. Click on underlined words within a definition to view their definitions. Our editors note that this is an unabridged dictionary including words not appropriate for school. Discuss consequences of inappropriate use and/or avoiding using this resource with immature students. .

tag(s): dictionaries (47), prefixes (10), root words (10), suffixes (8), thesaurus (22), vocabulary (241), vocabulary development (96), word study (58)

Just as the name says, Online Voice Recorder allows you to record your voice from your computer and save the file. With no membership required, this is a free and simple recording treasure! Simply push the record button and follow screen prompts to ALLOW the application access to your computer's microphone. Talk as long as desired. Then listen to the recorded playback. Trim and edit the length using easy sliders as desired. Save your finished version in MP3 format using the link.
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tag(s): blended learning (36), communication (130), fluency (30), preK (291), speech (69), spelling (98)

Duolingo is a free, online language learning class. Sign up with email. Make a selection from Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, and many others. Earn points on different levels as you work towards mastery. Practice provides both seeing and hearing the words. Your responses require choosing the English translation and also spelling the words in the "new" language. Put your knowledge to work in the immersion section and translate a document or even upload a document of your own. Check the vocabulary you have learned and your progress toward mastery. Track your weekly progress. The discussion section answers individual questions. Duolingo is free for schools. There are free iOS and Android apps for Duolingo.

tag(s): arabic (12), chinese (43), DAT device agnostic tool (146), french (72), game based learning (208), german (46), hebrew (15), italian (30), japanese (54), multilingual (78), OER (43), Online Learning (36), portuguese (22), russian (26), spanish (110)

The Mathematics Enhancement Programme is a comprehensive resource full of free math curriculum resources for all grade levels. Materials include lesson plans, practice materials, printable number lines and cards, and student activity sheets. Click any key stage level to download an entire year's worth of course materials. In addition to printed materials, interactive tutorials (offered in a fairly basic-looking computer style) offer lessons and remediation for many math topics. The site was created in the UK, so some of the pronunciations and spellings may differ from those in American English (as well as the type of currency used for money problems). The site dates back a ways, so the actual "look" is a bit old fashioned.

tag(s): counting (61), data (150), fractions (159), functions (52), geometric shapes (132), money (113), number lines (33), number sense (68), numbers (120), percent (59), prime numbers (26), probability (98), time (91)

Make quizzes from ready-made quiz show templates or create your own using this free tool. NO membership is required, but you will need to remember the password you add to the quizzes you create so you can return to and edit it. Templates can be edited to suit your purpose. Some of the general topics include most subject areas (history, math, science, social studies, languages, and technology). There is also an area related to sports and games. It is helpful to know some html code to make your quiz look the way you wish it to (boldface, etc.), but there are reminders at the side to help with this option. Note that the quizzes do NOT score your results and are intended to be played orally (Jeopardy style).
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tag(s): quiz (66), quizzes (90)

Create your own cloze quizzes out of any piece of text. Paste the text into the box and select how you want the cloze test made. Select different sentence functions. Choose to have every few words eliminated, or choose your own items to be removed for the cloze. Participants can choose either interactive or text only quizzes. The missing words appear at the top of the quiz. With the interactive quiz, the player types the missing word in the blanks. The site has a lot of flexibility in creating cloze tests. The site will work with world languages as well, but instructors have to choose the every few words option since the site will not recognize, for example, prepositions in another language.

tag(s): quizzes (90), reading comprehension (152), reading strategies (97)

Science 101 is a science Internet portal. Although rather "plain vanilla," this site has a LOT to explore. After choosing a subject area: astronomy, bacteria, biology, books, calculations, chemistry, data, earth, electronics, or ethics, find articles or website links for further information. This site includes over 30 subject areas on a variety of science and math topics. Use as a resource to begin explorations. Some links may lead to flash activities, not all browsers support flash.
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tag(s): resources (83), science fairs (20), scientific method (48)