Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Ready to think big? How about an interactive timeline that covers all of time from the Big Bang to today? Chronozoom is an ambitious project, just launched (at the time of this review), that seeks to create zoomable, interactive timelines for the entire history of time. At present, the site is still under construction, but it is visually stunning and a little overwhelming. You will need to set aside some time to watch the video tour and to tinker with the site before presenting it to students. Every move of the mouse, every click, seems to create "explosions" of graphs and timelines; you'll need to be patient and get the hang of navigation.

The site's creators freely admit that they don't really know where the project will lead, and what technologies might emerge that will help them create more content for the site. There are some caveats for using the site. First, the site assumes a particular theory of the creation of the universe, and the timeline of its existence. Second, the site can lend itself to aimless "mousing," or the temptation to simply click and move the mouse to see how the site will react, with no attention to the content at all.

tag(s): charts and graphs (171), evolution (89), Microsoft (80), timelines (56)

Here you will find a "kid-appropriate" search tool featuring countless general topics: Facts & Reference, Computers/The Internet, The Arts, Strange & Mysterious, Hot Topics, The World, Science & Math, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Nature, and several others. Within each of the main topics are subtopics. For example, in the Classroom section you will find English, Foreign Langauges, Math, History, Reference Tools, Shapes, Woodwork, Colors, Art, Religion, Philosophy, Social Studies, and Homework Help. There is a ton here to explore! The information includes articles and images/photos.

tag(s): alphabet (53), animals (294), animation (64), clip art (11), colors (63), comics and cartoons (55), cooking (32), crafts (64), creative writing (124), cross cultural understanding (173), cultures (180), dance (31), dinosaurs (43), disabilities (32), diseases (66), drawing (61), fitness (39), flags (18), folktales (34), geometric shapes (134), grammar (137), homework (29), insects (68), journalism (74), measurement (122), museums (52), mysteries (23), numbers (120), nutrition (140), oceans (149), operations (72), origami (14), painting (54), photography (130), poetry (193), psychology (65), rainforests (18), religions (95), search engines (48), seasons (37), sign language (10), social networking (61), spelling (97), sports (82), trivia (19), vocabulary (238), weather (160)

This site documents how four Native American communities are responding to changes in the environment where they live. First click the link in the first paragraph or the picture on the right to find this unit. Through videos and primary sources, you can explore these four Native American cultures. Each tribe's section is broken down into the following areas: Getting Started, Meet the People, About Our Homeland, Our Environmental Challenge, Our Strategies, and Our Future.

tag(s): environment (252), native americans (108), natural resources (37)

Explore plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean at this terrific site. Click Educators on the top menu, and fine several lessons, videos, toolkits, and more. Be sure to check out the Students tab at the top to see Student Spolights to explore accomplishments of students from around the world.

tag(s): environment (252), oceans (149), plastics (4), pollution (52)

Find great Infographics about a variety of topics. Use the beautiful arrangement of data to uncover relationships between various pieces of information. Easily share or embed the chart where needed. Click on References and Data Table to look at the raw data and origins of the information. Choose from major topics in the tabs above such as Country Information, Environment, Food and Agriculture, and more. Search your own topics with the search bar.
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tag(s): business (52), charts and graphs (171), data (151), infographics (56), maps (220)

Have you ever wanted to see your own face on a dollar bill? Use this online image editor to personalized bills with your own picture. Just upload your picture (or any image) using the photo link at the bottom of the page. Images can be moved around within the picture frame, and there is an option to adjust the image size by zooming in or out. Save the edited image by right-clicking the image and selecting "save" to download the output image to your computer. Then print the dollar bill with your image. The site offers currency from many different countries from Antarctica to Yugoslavia, and you can create posters, decks of cards, and more.
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tag(s): currency (14), financial literacy (93), money (113)

What Happened When? This useful site allows you to aggregate a text timeline by date, theme or geographic area using links to Google searches, Google images and content from HistoryWorld (with which the site is affiliated). Enter a date or keyword(s) for the event(s). You will see a text list with icons that lead to related Google, images, and HistoryWorld info. Try exploring by themes such as performing arts and science and entering a year to see what occurred during the same year. While the overall visual impact is fairly bland, it's a great "quick and easy" utility for putting events into a chronological context. If you search two very diverse events, you can discover unusual convergences. Additionally, it can be the jumping off point for a more complex search by helping students make connections among ideas, characters and events that may seem unrelated. For example, this is a wonderful tool to explore decades of the twentieth century or periods in the arts.

tag(s): search engines (48), timelines (56)

It's certainly not difficult to find websites about Ancient Egypt, but NOVA provides an absolutely stunning interactive look at major Egyptian historical landmarks and objects. Take a 360-degree glance at the Great Pyramid or an ancient tomb, browse photo galleries, study cross-sections or examine artifacts from every possible vantage point. You can access these features from a number of search options: chronological, geographical, or by media type. Some of the features require Flash, but most of the valuable information doesn't.
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tag(s): egypt (56), pyramids (21)

This list is dated as it only covers 2012. Graphic novels are quite prolific now. This website will allow you to jump to other years. Increase your knowledge of the popular genre, graphic literature, with this updated reading list from the American Library Association. The Young Adult Library Services Association branch guarantees quality literature and general appeal to teen subject interests in this annotated list. In addition to the 56 annotated titles, divided into both fiction and non-fiction categories, there is a link to the top ten recommended titles.

tag(s): book lists (167), reading lists (77)

Try this excellent tool when teaching budgeting, comparing salaries and cost of living in different areas, and money management. Enter two locations and a salary and occupation. Graphs show the difference between cost of groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, and health care in the two places. A comparison shows how much salary you would need to maintain the present standard of living in the other location. You can also compare the cost of living to other major cities.
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tag(s): careers (156), money (113)

Use Educreations' simple web-based whiteboard for the iPad app to record lessons and share with your students. Create your course(s) and control privacy settings from the beginning. Make the content public, private to your students, or private to all within the school. Create a lesson by using the online whiteboard and your microphone. Easily upload images from your computer and switch between whiteboard screens. Click on the Students tab to provide a link for students to be able to find your course. Students can self-register using the unique classroom code. Each lesson has a unique URL you can share, as well. Students can access your lessons via the web or an iPad. You can remove students from registration lists in this section.
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tag(s): blended learning (37), homework (29), remote learning (54), Teacher Utilities (197), video (266)

Find useful, interactive whiteboard resources, downloads, and lesson ideas (aimed at the elementary levels). These resources are divided into categories such as Flashcards, Scorers, Interactive Stuff, Time Killers and the Lab. Each of the resources can be downloaded or accessed directly from the site by clicking the image next to the title. They will run on computers or any brand of interactive whiteboard or projector. Flashcard sets include handwriting practice, number practice, the Verbinator, mysteries, flags of the world, and more. Scorers are different forms of scoreboards use keeping track of game play. The Lab section is a very nice interactive demonstrating proper formation of letters in block, basic, or cursive script. Click on the color link on this page to break each of the letters into colored sections to help visualize the proper letter formation. Be sure to check out the interactive clock and dice located under Interactive Stuff. This site appears to be updated often, so be sure to check back. The downloads are JAVA applets that can run offline. Unfortunately, the activities do not work on iOs devices like iPads.

tag(s): alphabet (53), flags (18), flash cards (44), handwriting (15), iwb (31), numbers (120), verbs (26)

IndyKids is an online newspaper for kids. This online version is the same as the printable version that produces 10,000 copies of each issue, reaching kids in 36 states of the US. Articles are written by both kids and adults, featuring topics related to current events and topics of interest to kids. Articles written by kids are noted as such and include the writer's age. At the time of this review, some of the "kid written articles" included Growing Poverty: Hard to Ignore At Home, Wasps: Do I Know You, and several others. Be sure to check out the category search on the lower right-hand portion of the site with topics such as: Kids Around the World, Culture and Activism, Education, and much more. Newspapers are archived in PDF format for easy printing and dated back several years.

tag(s): creative writing (124), expository writing (31), journalism (74), persuasive writing (58), writing (324)

FORA.tv's claim to fame is as the Web's largest collection of conference and event videos. These videos come from sources such as universities, think tanks, and other intelligent discourses. Videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

Please preview anything before you share it with your students. At the time of this review there was a subcategory "Sex" which may not be appropriate for most classrooms. But always preview! Teachers may want to share ONLY specific video links.
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tag(s): business (52), cultures (180), elections (82), energy (133), environment (252), evolution (89), genetics (80), investing (8), news (228), politics (118), psychology (65), religions (95), sexuality (15), stock market (11), sustainability (50), video (266)

Explore collections of primary documents from US History enhanced with tools for teaching. This site adds the ability to manipulate primary documents to build informative and challenging lessons. While a few of the documents and lessons are available for the casual visitor to the site, you need to register (and it's free!) in order to make full use of the amazing resources here. Once you have registered, you can access all the documents and use the activity builder to create lessons which use primary documents to teach sequencing, mapping, weighing evidence, interpreting data, and seeing the big picture. Please note that you do not HAVE to create anything, you can simply use what is already here. (And they do already have a lot to offer.) You will need to create a project if you want to package an activity that you can use now and again later.

tag(s): american revolution (82), civil war (139), digital storytelling (154), great depression (30), industrial revolution (22), primary sources (117), Teacher Utilities (197), westward expansion (39), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (161)

Type in an address and determine the walkability of any location. A map of the address entered displays nearby restaurants, coffee shops, and more that are within one mile of that location. Many, but not all, addresses will also display a walk score rating demonstrating how walkable that area is with a score from 0-100. What a fun way to workout "around the town." More "green" communities often have a better walkability score.
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tag(s): fitness (39), map skills (63), maps (220)

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)

See the famous Seven Wonders of the Ancient World through this virtual tour. Some included pages have 3D images, there is a short description of how to view them for those not familiar with this. You can follow the tour in order through use of links on the page, or there is a link to a map that can be used to complete the journey. Each page with an ancient world wonder includes some pictures, quick facts, and a lengthy description of its history and significance. There are quite a few advertisements on the site; so it may be best to show this site on your interactive whiteboard before assigning to students so that they can be shown how to remain on the correct page!
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tag(s): egypt (56), greece (47), greeks (46)

This site provides a wonderful chronology of mathematical information starting about 3000 BC on up to the 21st Century. Information can be accessed in several ways. Upon entering the site there is a timeline across the top and all information included is in list form on the main page, simply scroll through to view all items. Searches can be narrowed to defined time periods by mousing over that area on the timeline or typing dates into the blank box at the right of the timeline. There is also a link to a chronology index which leads to time periods already broken into smaller portions. Also available is a biographical index which can be used by time period, or choose female mathematicians or use the alphabetical index as an option.

tag(s): biographies (94), cross cultural understanding (173), timelines (56)

This site provides several collaborative science and engineering projects with various start dates. Projects are available for a full range of grade levels. The target grade level is listed with the project. Some projects at the time of this review included: The Global Sun (grades 5-8), Bucket Buddies (grades 1-5), Human Genetics (grades 6-12), Home Lighting in Developing Countries (grades 9-12), and several others.

tag(s): animals (294), engineering (129), genetics (80), light (56), plants (146), scientists (67), sun (71), water (102)