Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Motivate young writers with printable story starters organized by the month. A section with prompts that are appropriate for any time of the year is also available.
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tag(s): writing (322), writing prompts (59)

Make beautiful online "multimedia" newsletters (flyers) to display on your smartphone, tablet or computer using Smore. You can arrange your content easily with Smores' drag and drop editing. Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer, or images from the web. Quickly embed text, videos, and tweets, too. Choose from several attractive themes. Share your creations via email, URL, Facebook, X (formerlyTwitter), or print it to hand out or hang on a bulletin board. Check to see who has read your newsletter and who hasn't. The free account plan offers three total newsletter credits, 500 contact credits, and 200 email credits.

tag(s): design (80), infographics (57), multimedia (55), posters (43)

Celebrate Children'sDay/Book Day for both Spanish and English speakers. Find resources for teachers, librarians, and families that include book lists, websites, information about partners, webinars, and a collection of library stories from around the country. An interactive map gives access to celebrations occurring in your area, and a free registration entitles you to free stickers and buttons. The day is observed in April each year.

tag(s): book lists (168), cross cultural understanding (178), literature (221)

Join Mobileread, a social networking site for eBooks. View as a guest, or join to be able to submit a nomination or comment to a discussion thread. Find free eBooks, eBook lending libraries, eBook reviews, Notable eBook uploads, and poetry. Discover latest technology, audio books, hardware reviews, and accessories. Conversion, reading software, and authoring software fulfill your Ebook needs. Get mobile links, Ebook blogs, web clipping software, or Mobile Mobilereads. The option to choose a language is available to accommodate for ELL/ESL readers. Be aware: This site has a lot of public interaction. Either explore the site yourself for whole group activities or monitor carefully.
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tag(s): audio books (29), book lists (168), ebooks (47), social networking (61)

This kids' branch of Learn English (created in the UK) contains interactives, short stories, crafts, songs, and even an opportunity for students to help their younger brothers and sisters learn English. A free log-in allows you access to printed versions of the stories (with questions), the ability to make comments, enter competitions, answer polls, and even create a "character." Another log in for teachers and parents opens up suggestions for teaching and using the resources of the site. Professionals can also find video tips and access to helpful articles. Access to the site is available in other languages such as Chinese and French, all aimed at teaching English. A text help feature using "BrowseAloud" opens up the English learning to students with vision or reading challenges. Note that vocabulary used is British, so you may need to explain a few words to US or Canadian students, e.g. "rubbish bin."
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tag(s): interactive stories (22), preK (291), songs (46), vocabulary development (97)

Find a comprehensive list of sources for eBooks and ways to use them. Dr. Terry Cavanaugh has a wide variety of information dedicated to using eBooks in the classroom. Find links for online libraries, news, blogs, history, platforms, features, accommodations, samples, and borrowing guidelines. A section entitled educational applications, features creating eBooks with PowerPoint, digital Big Books, and eBooks in higher education. Classroom lesson ideas along with reading strategies help you incorporate eBooks into your curriculum. A link to the Florida recommended eBook list is also given. Find advice on video book talks, Book trading with eBooks, and an online Book cataloging library resource tool. A section for books promoting eBooks use in the classrooms lists resources to make you proficient. Find samples for creating eBooks to fit into your own classroom needs.

tag(s): ebooks (47), reading strategies (98)

Bring some creativity into your literature lessons using this site that goes way beyond rote answers. Choose skills from drop boxes, identify one or two stories to analyze/compare, choose your thinking skills, and decide what the final product will be. For example, "Substitute The Giver's setting for A Wrinkle In Time's setting. Dramatize how this would affect A Wrinkle In Time's plot. Create a skit," or "Rearrange Oh The Places You Will Go's plot. Analyze how this would affect its tone. Create a photo essay ." Choose whatever book(s) are relevant to your class. Experiment with different ideas easily until coming up with the perfect response question for your class or individualize easily for different student responses. The creator of this site does admit that it is a rather new site with a few kinks. His email is provided if you see any issues. Our review team noticed nothing unusual, and all options were functioning properly, at the time of this review.

tag(s): blooms taxonomy (7), characterization (19), creative fluency (5), creativity (87), critical thinking (137), debate (42), literary devices (13), literature (221), plot (15), setting (5), stories and storytelling (63)

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 (95), money (112)

Engage students while learning about poetry with this easy to use Theme Poem Generator (formerly known as Shape Poem Generator). Type in the author's name and see an example of a Theme Poem. Choices of themes include nature, school, celebrations, and sports. Each theme offers several choices of shapes. Choose a shape and then type in several words or phrases that go along with the shape. Make a title and use the words and phrases as ideas to include in the poem. When finished, read the poem, go back and edit, or print the link on the page.

tag(s): poetry (195)

Fill in the blanks of online forms to create instant poems of many types. Even though the site looks "plain vanilla," the results are great fun! Click a poem form from the ten options. The options include more traditional cinquains, haiku, and more. Once you complete the form, click to create the instant poem and display the results on the page. Keep a copy by printing or -- even better-- by copy/pasting into a document or other online tool for sharing. Make any day better with poetry! The page is very simple, but the results are inspiring.

tag(s): creative writing (125), figurative language (19), poetry (195), writing (322)

YouTube Teachers and the related YouTube EDU form an education-oriented area of YouTube that categorizes videos into subjects for easy retrieval. YouTube is a vast online video library. You upload, view, share, and comment on content found on the site. Videos found on the full YouTube range from commercial to educational content. YouTube often has questionable content so is blocked in many schools. Some schools block YouTube simply because streaming video "hogs" network resources. If inappropriate content is your administration's main concern, YouTube offers a way your tech department can configure a limited access channel. See the explanation video and related information to share with the tech department. YouTube is very valuable to educators looking for great educational content. There are videos for early elementary concepts like safety up through college-level courses. YouTube has the ability to stream content into channels based upon your viewing preferences, and videos are easily marked as "favorites" to find in your history. It offers suggested channels based on your watching history including trending and popular videos. Parents can filter out objectionable content and comments using Safety Mode -- which is often disabled. Create a YouTube channel to collect videos for easy access by students. Upload teacher-created videos for your class to your channel. Do you know a great video not featured on YouTube EDU? Suggest it for the EDU collection.
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tag(s): video (267)

Try Duck Duck Go, an open source search engine that protects your privacy by not tracking your search habits. Without tracking, you get true search results not tied to your personality or search habits. Duck Duck Go shows search results in a unique way. The site is very clean and uncluttered. Results of your search term can provide a definition or other general information, labels on links that are an official site, and more. On the right side, find additional search ideas. Clicking on terms will add that term to your original search term and generate new results. Go to the settings page to change privacy settings. Change result settings, color settings, look and feel of the search results page, and interface settings also. Search for calculations, dates and events, and more. Be sure to click on Goodies under the search box to find an easy way to enter search terms. Instead of copying and pasting these search strings, change the information you need to alter in the box and press Go! An unbelievably easy way to search!

tag(s): search engines (47), search strategies (22)

Springo is a portal designed for preschool and elementary students to surf for age appropriate websites and information. Click if you are under 8 or over 8, and a list of links appears. Choose if you are a boy or girl to find activities geared more towards gender stereotypes (car activities for boys, princess games for girls, etc.). Note that the actual content is NOT part of Springo. All links on this site are approved by Springo staff; however. Picture icons help you find information like homework help, sports websites, online research resources, art activities, educational interactives, and (of course) games. Sample topics in the Under 8 section include: Educational Games, Coloring Pages, Learning, Characters, Sports, Hobbies, Games for Girls, and many more. If you are over 8, some of the sample activities include: Reference, Science, Math, Learning, Making Friends (warning: some of these sites involve social networking), Hobbies, and more!
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tag(s): bookmarks (43), preK (291)

Poster My Wall is a simple online tool to create posters and videos. Make and download simple posters for free and without registration. Note that free downloads are not high-quality print resolution, so they may appear "fuzzy" if printed in large formats. The simple tools look and feel like a computer program. Choose or upload photos, backgrounds, Flickr photos, and clip-art. You can move and re-size using the floating symbols and add multimedia. Register to be able to email products to friends. (Registration requires email, but there is no waiting for a confirmation.) Obtain the poster or video URL by emailing to yourself. (In the email, click "view larger" to get the link). Check out the reviewer. Enjoy the free teacher accounts where students don't need to register.

tag(s): collages (17), posters (43), video (267)

Many Book.net is a free web site offering eBooks from Project Gutenburg, The Human Genome Project, and creative commons works. Using author, title, genre, language, and recommended eBooks, find your favorite reads. Join an RSS feed or X (formerly Twitter) to receive updates of the latest eBooks. Submit your work for consideration and possibly to be added to the selections. Register to create your own bookshelf with eBooks you have read. Keep it private, share as an embedded URL, or share on the actual site. Find conversion tools to help with any formats required. Explore the devices available to read the eBooks.

tag(s): book lists (168), ebooks (47), independent reading (82)

Try your fingers at a puzzle similar to the classic word jumbles found in newspapers. Choose a puzzle date; then the timer starts to test how quickly you can find a solution. Unscramble the sets of words by dragging the letters into their correct spot in the word. Then unscramble the circled letters to find the answer to the problem in the puzzle. The cartoon with the puzzle question can be printed in pdf format and colored. Click on the hint button for additional help in solving puzzles.

tag(s): puzzles (148), spelling (98), vocabulary (242), word study (58)

Word Hippo is a word study tool for synonyms, antonyms, and more. Look for rhyming words, opposites, translations to a variety of languages, plurals, definitions and uses for the word, etc. The site also makes suggestions for other words in case you might have made a typo or do not know the spelling. As with any other reference, students should be cautioned to be sure these are accurate definitions needed for the context in which they are studying the words. You will want to spell out consequences and/or supervise to be sure students are not searching for inappropriate words, but the most egregious words of bad taste do not appear to be available for search at this site.
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tag(s): antonyms (12), dictionaries (47), spelling (98), synonyms (15), vocabulary (242), vocabulary development (97), word study (58)

This site provides many rubrics for assessing portfolios, cooperative projects, oral presentations, and much more. Quick links lead to different categories such as web 2.0 and content areas of math, art, and science. Each rubric is in a table form with criteria listed vertically and rating categories are horizontal, all contain well-defined expectations and explanations of each category of scoring. Be sure to check out the section with rubrics for primary grades including a kindergarten writing rubric and rubrics for teamwork. Print any of the rubrics using the PDF link located near the top of the page.

tag(s): assessment (146), rubrics (36)