Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This collaborative website focuses on controversial contemporary issues, including juvenile justice, eco-topics, gun control, women's rights, voting rights, civil liberties in war, and affirmative action (go to Browse Topics from the Home page to find these). Help students understand the role of the news media in a democracy. This website combines the radio broadcast resources of Justice Talking and written articles and features from the NY Times Learning Network. Lesson plans corresponding to each "hot topic" offer social studies, language arts, and science teachers opportunities to connect the real news with topics in their curricula. A glossary of words important to the democratic process and a link to the Constitution with a "what it says, what it means" feature allow students to understand authentic sources as well as historical references. "In Their Own Words" (accessible from the Site Guide) provides primary source documents and statements from each of the three branches of government, from the press, and from schools.

tag(s): character education (80), civil rights (209), ecology (103), radio (20), women (151)

This PDF document explains in clear language the concept of intellectual freedom. Use this site as an extra resource when teaching the Bill of Rights. It is an excellent reference resource for ideas that older Americans assume kids know about. Subtopics include the history of intellectual freedom, the first amendment, an explanation of the role of libraries in exercising intellectual freedom as it applies to written materials and records of who's reading what, how the concepts of privacy and confidentiality apply to the use of intellectual materials, and what respecting the needs of others means. It ends up with an well-researched bibliography of further materials on the subject of intellectual freedom and the right to read. These books are fiction and non-fiction and focus on ages 10 and older.

tag(s): bill of rights (33), constitution (96)

The United States Constitution is put to the test in the 2004 Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow Supreme Court case. This site contains background information and supporting documents that explore the constitutionality of a school district policy requiring teachers to lead students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Links are provided to briefs, related articles, and editorials. Give your students an authentic introduction to how constitutional law and case law can affect the public school system. Created by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

tag(s): constitution (96), courts (20), speech (69)

Looking for an easy to use free jeopardy game? Look no further than this site. Download the application for free or create the activity to be played online. View and try activities already created online. If you like your project you can save it to a folder on your computer. There is a short video in the "How To" section that will walk you through the process of making, saving, and playing a Flash Jeopardy game. Those of you who have used the PowerPoint Jeopardy will find this flash version much less time consuming to create and to recreate new Jeopardy games.
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tag(s): grammar review (31), matching (8)

Are you looking to collect and analyze class data easily? Choose from 16 different ways to view data. Decide the items you wish to count (the free plan allows up to 100 different things to be counted.) Also determine the category the items can be placed into (use up to 10 different categories in the free account.) Add a statement panel to your display panel to add notes and make comments about the data. Be sure to click the How To at the bottom of the home page to learn how to use the Daytum site.
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tag(s): charts and graphs (171), data (151), infographics (56), statistics (121), visualizations (11)

Want to view data and make connections in visual form? Find interesting infographics to make connections between related concepts. The general subject areas range from health to government to economics to science and more. Click on 'Visualizations" to view a variety of different graphics from many different topic areas: The Billion Dollar-o-Gram, When Sea Levels Attack, Left vs. Right (US), Caffeine and Calories, and countless others. Click on the link below to view the actual data that was used to make the graphic. View comments even further below.

Keep in mind that many commenters are very spirited in their discussions! Preview the comments before sharing with your class.

tag(s): data (151), infographics (56), oil (22), oil spill (13), visualizations (11)

Preceden is a free service that allows you to create timelines with multi-layers for overlapping events. The different layers are visually interesting and allow you to easily see the sequence of events in several different ways. You can input your own time increments such as by day, week, month, year, decade, etc. In addition, you can create your own labels for events. You need to create a FREE account to make a timeline. Timelines can be embedded on your blog, shared by URL, or download as a PDF.

tag(s): timelines (56)

With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War beginning in 2011, this site provides both a research engine and a Civil War "Today in History" lesson. Dickinson College, located just north of Gettysburg in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, serves as a case study for how the Civil War divided families, friends, and institutions. Alma Mater of President James Buchanan and Chief Justice Roger Tanney, author of the Dred Scott decision, Dickinson's staff, students and alumni were of divided loyalties. This site offers documents, biographies and images from the College's archives and can make the events and stories more personal.

tag(s): civil war (139)

Check Teachers First reviews for specific fun and creative tools from this expansive site. As Big Huge Labs continues to add to their offerings, be sure to check back to the main page of the site to find what is new. For now check out the Trading Card Maker, reviewed here, the CD Cover Maker, reviewed here, The Big Huge Thesaurus, reviewed here, Mosaic Maker, reviewed here, Magazine Cover Maker, reviewed here, Guess the Title, reviewed here, Captioner, reviewed here, Map Maker, reviewed here, Movie Poster, Badge Maker, Billboard, and Calender. In addition they have many photo editing/photo enchancing tools: Bead Art, Jigsaw, FX, Mat, Wallpaper, Cube, Lolcat Generator, Framer, Color Palette, Pocket Album Hockneyizer, Photobooth, and Pop Art Poster. Some of these tools are more suitable for play, but if you are beginning the process of integrating technology, these will be engaging to your students. Take time to look over some of these tools before sharing the site with students. Big Huge labs also has some other free services you may want to use such as a ranked list of the Top 100 Digital Camera Makers and Models that is updated weekly. There is also Scout to help you find your photos on Flickr Explore, Random Photo Browser, On Black, Sunset, Favorite Surfer, Flicker DNA, Photo Fortune, Profile Widget, and Writer, reviewed here.
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tag(s): collages (17), editing (93), images (263), maps (220), multimedia (53), photography (131), posters (43), thesaurus (22)

Each year, teachers are asked to observe Constitution Day with special instruction on one of the United States' founding documents. This site provides sample lesson plans and resources, for all grade levels, including some flash-enabled interactive lessons and activities on specific aspects of the application of the Constitution.

tag(s): bill of rights (33), constitution (96)

Penzu offers a FREE service to write journals or diaries online with exceptional privacy options. As an added benefit, you can add images or your own artwork as illustrations. There is a very short demo video on the home page. On Penzu you can keep everything completely private or share selective posts by email or URL. Perhaps share selections on a class wiki page? Don't have a wiki? See the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through for practical management and safety tips for a class wiki. Note: Premium service is available, but this review is for the free version.

tag(s): communication (129), DAT device agnostic tool (147), journals (15), writing (324)

Shmoop has added Economics to its series of study guide sites. To call this "just" a study guide, however, would be to underestimate its depth and usefulness. The site includes content in the major subareas of economics (supply and demand, money and banking, macroeconomics, etc.), and within each area, there are content summaries, questions that require higher order thinking, an interactive to try and test student content mastery, and links to content elsewhere on the web. The layout is intuitive and easy to use, although there are ads on the side.

Students can create accounts on Shmoop to access more features, but the site is very useful even without an account. Creating an account does require an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.

tag(s): financial literacy (94), money (113)

This is an extensive collection of ready to go, teacher-made SMART Notebook activities. This collection covers all grade levels and subject areas. Click Elementary, Middle School, Jr. High, or High School to find the many (MANY) resources). The topics vary greatly and the quantity is impressive. You must have Smart Board software installed on your computer to open these files. Some files will work using the SMART Notebook Express online viewer available here. (Download the notebook file from Longwood's collection to your desktop and then upload to SMART Notebook Express site.)

Create your own motivational posters easily and simply. Choose a random picture (one from Flickr or Facebook) or use one already on your computer. Choose colors and other options as well as the type of text to be used. Enter your text and preview the result. Once complete, save to Flickr, your computer, or print. Remember you can use a saved image in PowerPoint shows and on a class wiki, as well as blogs and other sites.
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tag(s): collages (17), images (263), photography (131), posters (43)

Create online sticky type bulletin boards to view from any online device using lino. Click to try it first without even joining. The "Give it a shot!" button has a "How to" canvas has stickies explaining how to use lino. Join and create your own canvases to share stickies, reminders, files, and more. Change sticky colors from the menu in the upper right hand corner or use the easy editing tools that appear when the sticky is selected. Use the icons at the bottom of each sticky note to "peel them off," share, edit, and more. Create a group from your lino page to share and collaborate on canvases. You can also share canvases publicly so anyone with the URL can participate. 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.

tag(s): bulletin boards (15), collaboration (93), collages (17), creative fluency (5), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (147), gamification (83), note taking (36)

Every ten years, the United States participates in a census; the census represents both a raw count of the country's population, but also how that population is distributed demographically. The US Census Bureau has begun unrolling the data collected during this most recent census. This site will continue to update, so check back often for more. The ability of the Internet and computer data to be distributed widely has changed significantly since the 2000 census, and this site reflects increased transparency and ease of access to this vital information.

tag(s): census (13), demographics (13), population (51)