Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

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)

Wridea is an idea management, brainstorming, and collaboration tool. It's a place to organize and categorize your ideas, share them with others for input, and store them. To collaborate using this tool, you must have individual memberships (email required). Note that maps that are shared can be seen by the public, but not altered. You specify the members who may collaborate and make alterations. At this time, this site does not work properly in Internet Explorer. However, it is a great tool to use in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or other browsers.

tag(s): brainstorming (18), concept mapping (15), graphic organizers (48), mind map (27), organizational skills (88)

Tricider is an exciting tool to help people brainstorm and make decisions. You put a question in the appropriate box and then select who is eligible to comment and vote. Invite people to join in making decisions via Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), or email. Options include setting a time limit, or closing down the question or discussion. There is no registration required, and the site is completely free.

tag(s): brainstorming (18), conflict resolution (9), debate (42), persuasive writing (58), polls and surveys (49), questioning (36)

Math teachers (and others) will enjoy using this site to find literature that corresponds to math topics. What a great way for cross-curricular connections! To find a book, choose from a list of math topics such as angles, percents, regrouping, place value, and many others. A list of books that can be used will be displayed along with a link to purchase the book on Amazon. The concept is simple, yet can be very useful to classroom teachers or parents looking for literature options to connect with math lessons.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): addition (129), angles (52), area (53), book lists (167), charts and graphs (171), counting (60), division (98), equations (119), estimation (33), fractions (160), geometric shapes (134), matching (8), measurement (122), negative numbers (13), patterns (61), percent (59), perimeter (20), place value (34), ratios (47), rounding (8), sequences (12), subtraction (110), time (91)

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.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): graphic design (49), images (263), photography (131)

This site provides resources for educators interested in improving students mathematics learning and development. The site includes video examples of innovative teaching methods and tools for immediate use in classrooms. Each grade level offers links to Core Ideas and most offer MARS Tasks, Rubrics, and Analysis. The MARS Task is where lesson ideas are found. These lessons are available in portions (task, rubric, questions, etc.), or as a large downloadable file containing all portions of the lesson. Be sure to click on the Common Core Resources to find tasks and materials, by grade level or standard, you can use immediately. Many other resources are available such as a school-wide problem of the month, professional development resources, and administrative leadership resources. Be sure to take the video tour of the site as an overview of all that is available.

tag(s): commoncore (73), number sense (69), place value (34), probability (99), problem solving (233), rubrics (37), statistics (121), teaching strategies (50), video (266)

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)

QUARKED! Adventures in the Subatomic Universe has a wide range of engaging multimedia and hands-on materials to introduce the exciting world of particle physics to students ages 7 and up (and their families). This highly interactive site offers videos, games, and a club with downloads based on three themes. Themes include "How Small is Small", "Quarks: Ups, Downs, and the Universe", and "How Do You Find Out About Something You Can't See?" Topics vary from electricity to matter to shapes and much more. Lesson plans, organized by theme, can be done in any order. Some of the featured "games" include Matter Mechanics, Photon Invaders, and Height Chart. Videos even explain connections between subatomic particles and healthy eating! Many other interactives are also available. Though the games require Flash, there is so much more to learn from the videos and other features that this site is worth a visit.

tag(s): atoms (43), electricity (61), geometric shapes (134), matter (45), measurement (122), molecules (43), nutrition (140), solar energy (35)

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.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): independent reading (81), readability (5), writing (324)

What can you do with 100 snowballs? Find out with this interactive activity where students can let their imaginations run free with creating a winter scene using 100 snowballs. The activity is easy to use, simply click and drag each snowball anywhere in the scene. Finished creations can be saved to your computer or printed using links at the top of the activity.

tag(s): 100thday (9)

Use Calculator.com to access a variety of calculators to use in a classroom or as a reference tool. Choose from standard, fraction, scientific, percent, mortgage, area, units converter, as well as other calculators. Note: This site has many ads as calculators are chosen.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): calculators (36)

Nobelprize.org is the official website of the Nobel Prize. Here you find information about Alfred Nobel, the prizewinners, interviews, and photos. Videos of interviews of Nobel peace prizewinners, speeches, ceremonies, interviews, banquets, lectures, announcements, award ceremonies, and documentaries fill the gamut of all of the prizewinners. The Nobel prizes awards are in literature, chemistry, medicine, peace, economics, and physics. Under the Education tab at the top find arieties of educational games/activities and lesson plans help explain many of the Nobel Award winners' work. This site clearly explains and illustrates the purpose of the awards, the award winners, and their ideas. Videos give an insider look at each of the winners.

tag(s): creativity (86), literature (221), medicine (57)

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)

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 (53), slides (43), video (266)

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.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): search engines (48), search strategies (22)

Math Video Tutorials offers 5,000 free math videos organized by course and topic. And the offerings are constantly growing. Videos are hosted on YouTube and SchoolTube and are all 10 minutes or less in length. Content includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, business calculus, and calculus. Each main topic includes links to the videos organized by more specific topics - for example, algebra videos are sorted by an introduction to algebra, rational expressions, equations and functions, equations and percentages, exponential and logarithmic functions, graphing, linear equations, and more. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): area (53), business (52), charts and graphs (171), equations (119), factoring (25), functions (52), integers (21), measurement (122), operations (72), order of operations (29), percent (59), place value (34), prime numbers (26), ratios (47), test prep (69), tutorials (52), volume (33)

This site offers several interesting interactives for practicing math concepts at the elementary level. Many games go beyond the standard rote-type practice and involve critical thinking skills. For example, Beads on a String asks you to create a bead necklace using a pattern, but then asks that bead number 102 be blue adding difficulty to the challenge. Other activities involve estimation, money, logic, and symmetry. Activities can be sorted by age (5-12). Parts of this site appear in Dutch and you may have to simply hit the "translate" button to see the instruction in English.

tag(s): critical thinking (128), estimation (33), logic (161), money (113), puzzles (149), symmetry (26), time (91)

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 (66), logic (161), spelling (97)