Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site offers a pronouncing picture dictionary arranged alphabetically. Students can click on letters of the alphabet to see a selection of pictures and hear the words pronounced. They can also select "Index" which leads to an entire listing (34 total lists) of the words offered. The site continues to add new content, including videos for learning English!

tag(s): sight words (23), vocabulary (238)

This interactive site provides the story of the "Shoemaker and the Elves" to listen to and read along. You may read the story or play several games (not all games relate to the story and some are more for fun than education). The story does include some entertaining pictures.

tag(s): air (101), audio books (26), folktales (34)

The resourcea on this site suggests behaviors and activities that can assist parents, preschool teachers, and early elementary teachers in getting children ready to read. Available in both color and black and white formats, the brochures are also downloadable in Spanish. The brochures encourage people to use books, songs, stories, and word games to reinforce the importance of reading in education.

tag(s): literacy (121)

A series of resources and web information assist parents with helping children develop pre-literacy and other developmental skills. Click on Early Language & Literacy to find out how to use books and stories to help children prepare for school-age tasks and reading. Other topics include Brain Development, Health & Nutrition, Social & Emotional Development, and several others. Though the information and handouts seem to be for much younger children, they will also be helpful for parents new to English and the American school system.

tag(s): parents (57), preK (270)

Use this simple and free tool to create a video recording of your screen to upload and share on a teacher web page, wiki, blog, etc. This is an easy way to create a tutorial from your own computer screen. When you visit sites that have tutorials on how to use their software, you are looking at a screencast. Use this site to communicate specific directions on how to use different applications in and out of the classroom. Audio is not necessary for the screencasts but may be beneficial, depending upon the tutorial. Free features include: 5 video quizzes, unlimited recorder, full video editor, audio recording & editing, interactive video storyboards, and automated captions.
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tag(s): communication (129), tutorials (52), video (266)

This site allows you to create and customize online quizzes. Once registered, create quizzes using the shared templates or make your own from scratch. Current templates for educators include quizzes in several subjects, including geography, math, and language arts. This site also consists of an extensive database of ready-made questions to use. Customize your quizzes by adding images, changing backgrounds, and more. Use the preview feature to review your quiz before sharing. Share quizzes with a link, use the embed code to embed onto a website, print, or share with social media links.
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tag(s): quiz (67)

You can be as adventurous or not as you wish! This safe, free site lets students and teachers show off their talents by sharing their appropriate videos to be viewed all over America. With a simple registration, you can upload your classroom video, which then goes into a "holding" area. That video then awaits approval by the website's moderator before becoming available. Because of the layering of approval, this site poses no security concerns to students or schools. Not only can teachers and students upload videos, but administrators may also want to post welcome or informational videos to be viewed by parents and students. You may also wish to share some of these videos with your class. Teachers will find videos suitable for classroom instruction (and lesson plans). Use the search box at the top of the webpage to look for topics that relate to your current units of study. Searching the site and simply viewing the videos does not require any registration or log-in. There is a link to SchoolTube Games , as well.

tag(s): video (266)

I'm Reading! is the highest level of the Starfall.com reading activity levels. This site offers various books, with or without audio, and students can highlight the words of each read-along story at their personal pace. Through literature options such as plays, fiction/non-fiction, comics, Chinese fables, Greek mythology, and folk tales, students can experience a wide variety of literary genres.

tag(s): spelling (97)

It's Fun to Read provides simple reading activities for beginning readers such as read-along, labeling, poetry, and tongue twisters. The activities provide opportunities for students to learn color words, number words, descriptive vocabulary, and spelling rules. All About Me! is a great activity for labeling rooms in a house, creating their own self image and talking about their favorite toys and pets. There is also an Art Gallery, Music, Bird Riddles, and more. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): phonics (51), preK (270), spelling (97)

Starfall's ABC site provides letter-sound examples for students in a user-friendly manner. It focuses on each individual letter of the alphabet and breaks out the vowels sounds. Students can simply click on a letter and watch several examples of words, pictures, and sounds relating to each letter. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): alphabet (53), sound (72)

Your busy life needs a manager. Now you have one: RememberTheMilk.com (also known as RTM). Don't worry about missing a date; any or all of these applications or programs will remind you: email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo) are all supported. Set up a free account in minutes. Secondary students will embrace this tool to remind them of tests or assignments or sporting events. List making has made it to a whole new level.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), organizational skills (88), time (91)

Do you ever think you are the only veteran teacher who is tired of doing the same thing in your classroom? Do you wonder how to take on a massive change and learn new technology tools to implement the change? This article in Edutopia magazine (online and print) features Louise Maine, one of TeachersFirst's review team members, and tells the story of the changes she made to her teaching style after 20 years in the classroom. The companion article , also in this Edutopia issue, provides specific how-to-do-this advice on making a class wiki the center of your class. Louise used the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through and our Wiki Warranty template at the start of her journey, and look where the path has lead!

tag(s): wikis (14)

Use this terrific online tool for your students to create posters or short reports in a poster format. Create lessons, worksheets, or class pages and instantly publish them online using this free Web Poster Wizard. The teacher sets up an account (for free), and follows simple directions so students can upload images and write about their project or pictures. The site even includes management tools so you can keep separate classes of students and see their work by class.

Plan to spend some time reading through the directions and trying out this tool before you assign it to students. Teachers and students must register and login each time they use this tool. Students can share the URL for their posters with grandparents or parents to show off their good work!

Students will need to know how to locate and upload a file for an image (such as a digital picture) to place it in their poster. If you allow them to use images from the web, the tool asks them to give information on their image source, as well (hooray for ethical use of the Internet!). If you use digital pictures of students, be SURE that you do NOT use full names on the site. You should get parent permission for uploading any student images, even if anonymous.
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tag(s): posters (43)

Pics4Learning offers free, safe images for educational use. Find pictures using the search feature or by choosing from the categories listed on the home page. Download selected images quickly using the included links to download to computers or Google Drive. Although it isn't required, each image also includes the citation for attributing work to the source.
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tag(s): creative commons (28), images (263)

This portal site is loaded with links, information, and resources to use in your classroom to teach about this timely issue. Although it is a Canadian affiliated site, information applies to all youth around the world. Highlights of this site include fact sheets (in PDF format), examples, warning signs, links to more resources, and others. Especially take note of the Resource tab on the top menu. Sliding down to Students find Tik ToK, Digital Dating Abuse, Cyberbullying Fact Sheet: Identification, Prevention, and Response, an several others.

tag(s): bullying (48), cyberbullying (40), internet safety (114)

The goal of this website is to become the easiest, fastest online dictionary available. Is it? Try it, you'll be impressed. An exciting tool is the audio component, allowing you to listen to the English pronunciation for selected words ( the triangular "play" button will show next to the word on the entry) . DefineItFast.com has a bookmarklet that you can drag and drop to your browser's link bar (if your computer is not "locked down" at school). When you look up definitions, highlight the word and click the linkbar button or you can directly type the word by clicking the button and click 'OK'. View the tutorial video to learn more about the bookmarklet feature. Note: The dictionary, like many real-world dictionaries, includes words that may not be classroom-appropriate. Decide how you will handle students who make inappropriate choices in using this tool.

tag(s): dictionaries (47)

Move over YouTube! Teachers now have their own place to learn and to teach: TeacherTube.com. Since this site is designed specifically for education, there is not as much concern about "public" contributions and appropriateness for school! Teachers will find videos suitable for classroom instruction, such as Ben Franklin chatting with a group of students, or there are also professional videos ideal for staff training (such as Classroom Strategies for Differentiated Instruction). Search and view videos or click on the subject area that interests you, and then click on a video to view. To leave comments, save your favorites, or upload your own video, you will need to register. It's all free. Obviously, this isn't a site for students; however, there are many educational videos suitable for all subject areas that you could share with your students. If your school blocks streaming video sites, consider accessing this site and choosing videos at home, or they may not be viewable.

tag(s): video (266)

Use Creature Creator to make interesting and imaginative animals. Your students may recognize it as a tool for making characters for the Spore video game, but it is actually a useful tool for learning, as well. Use a pre-made creature or create your own custom creature. Add carnivore features to your creation that include mouths, ears, eyes, arms, hands, feet, and legs. Weapons such as horns, spikes, and clubs can also be added to the creature as well as wings. Change the position of the features and alter them through unbelievable joint changes which then alter how your creature walks and moves. Paint your creation when done and place it in its woodland environment. The creature can walk, show emotion, have offspring, and make sounds. Use the software to take a picture, record a movie, and make an avatar. By adding a description and tags, your creation can be uploaded to the spore website or to a You Tube account. Here is the first Spore tutorial , which is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, it may not be viewable.

Creature Creator is a free download but is a limited version of the original purchased program. The purchased program provides many more choices for the features and environments used to make the creatures. The download is available for both PC and Mac.

tag(s): adaptations (16), animals (294), animation (64), classification (22)