Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

You would never guess by the name of this site that The Exquisite Corpse Adventure opens doors to an engaging way to explore the world of reading and writing a class or group story, book, or even a poem. This project from the Center for the Book and the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance invites students to read, discover, and create fascinating characters, places, and events in a manner that might be as captivating as one of the many trends, popular reality shows. The story takes on unexpected twists and turns because it is actually pieced together out of many parts created, put together, and expanded upon by the contributors. Anyone and everyone interested in helping kids read more, write better, and reach deeper into their own experiences, imaginations, and resources to create stories and art will become hooked. The actual original online book, Exquisite Corpse Adventure, is a recently completed, year-long project with episodes, (chapters), written by remarkable authors such as Jon Scieszka and Katherine Paterson, illustrated and posted with companion games, discussion questions, and activities every two weeks.

tag(s): stories and storytelling (81), writing (304)

A comprehensive booklisting for educators. This site is great for any reader or anyone researching books. It gives you book listings separated by topic. You can access the book review, an extended lesson plans for before the book reading, during, and after. You can also get bibliographies, suggested and related title lists, and a guide about the author. It would be a must visit for anyone. Great resources and guides!!

tag(s): reading comprehension (146)

If you're a Jonathan Allen fan, this is the homepage of the British author/illustrator. His works include board books, picture books, verse, fiction, and even pop-ups! Two of his best-known picture books are "Two by Two by Two" and "Sweetie."

tag(s): authors (116)

Use the power of social media to connect with educators around the world with similar interests with EduMatch. Sign up to be the #edtech Person of the Day and enroll in EduMatch. EduMatch also provides podcasts with discussions on educational issues. Access previous podcast archives or view the calendar for upcoming sessions. Previous topics include issues such as encouraging colleagues to take risks with technology and educator perspectives on grading policies.

tag(s): podcasts (188), professional development (307), social networking (54), twitter (9)

Take a look at Sochi, Russia as it prepares for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. This site offers 26 images starting in December 2012 showing progress in constructing Olympic venues and infrastructure in preparation for the February 2014 event. Some images demonstrate the effect on local people as well as showing construction progress.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): olympics (64), russia (32), sports (105)

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts endeavor aimed at increasing reading and literary discussions. This site's main initiative is to address communities and aims to provide cities and towns with local programs and opportunities to read and discuss books. The resources and study guides are well-suited for teaching and encouraging reading for enjoyment as well as study. Many middle and high school books of all genres, such as Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Great Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe are featured, and are often accompanied by an online documentary film about the author and the literary work, discussion questions and topics, and lesson plan ideas (click the book cover to find these). The Big Read is continually expanding and offers grants.

tag(s): literature (214), resources (79), writing prompts (56)

Share a number of URL's easily with just one link. Simply enter a title, enter the URL's, and click "Create Link." BridgeURL makes it easy to share the URL's.

This site explains the meanings of the great variety of lexile scores found with some books. The search feature allows teachers to check to see if any particular book has a lexile rating, and if so, what it is. The site also compares lexile ratings and grade levels. It also has seasonal booklists and other helpful information for educators about choosing appropriate books. Students can use this site to find books for independent reading.

tag(s): independent reading (85), readability (5), reading lists (79)