Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This PDF document explains the concept of intellectual freedom in clear language. 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 scholarly materials, and what respecting the needs of others means. It ends with a well-researched bibliography of further materials on intellectual freedom and the right to read. These books are fiction and nonfiction and are intended for ages 10 and older.

tag(s): bill of rights (39), constitution (104)

The Kennedy Center's "A Listening Doll" lesson introduces students to the clay sculpture traditions of the Pueblo People of New Mexico. Through discussion of storyteller dolls, hands-on clay modeling, and guided reflection, students learn about cultural context and artistic principles. The resource includes a comprehensive teacher's guide, a step-by-step lesson plan, background information on Pueblo traditions, and suggestions for classroom discussions and reflections. Teachers can easily integrate these materials to support a culturally responsive, creative arts experience.

tag(s): crafts (110), native americans (127), stories and storytelling (77)

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 (104), courts (25), speech (66)

The National Baseball Hall of Fame offers lots of information on famous players and the history of the game. It's a great starting point for students interested in baseball's impact on American culture, especially in the early 20th century. Visit the Sights and Sounds, link to view videos, hear authentic news clips and interviews, and more.

tag(s): 20th century (169), baseball (28)

This Library of Congress collection has information on Jackie Robinson and lots more. This site includes lesson plans, class activities, and many additional resources. Standards are included. As always, the images are the star of the show, and there are pictures of early teams, documentation on Robinson's entry into the big leagues, and much more. This site also includes some information about primary sources. Well worth a visit.

tag(s): baseball (28), civil rights (220)

The Humanitarian, formerly IRIN, brings news and analysis on current humanitarian efforts in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. As you help students evaluate and sift through the huge volume of news content available to you, you can use sites like this to help students focus on specific issues and geographic areas. Much of what is found here will never appear on their Yahoo or Google news feed; that does not diminish its importance. Sort by Conflict, Environment and Disasters, or Migration from the top menu, or scroll the page to sort content based on themes like Current coverage, Editor's picks, Most popular, and Latest videos.

tag(s): africa (162), asia (138), cross cultural understanding (177), cultures (290), media literacy (123), middle east (51), news (222)

Use Tumblr as an easy set-up, easy to use microblogging and blogging platform. Tumblr offers many ways to get content into your blog. Choose the text type of content for a more traditional looking blog post. Also choose to share photos, audio, or video. Use the quote, link, or chat option to share quick portions of text. Add additional context information to your post. For example, with a photo, add a caption; or for a link, add a title, description, or link. Edit posts in the dashboard, and add the content type and additional elements. It is best to stay with the plain text editor for ease of use. Create posts by email and SMS as well. Other ways to post content are available through the dashboard. Add posts by installing a Tumblr bookmarklet to your browser window. Use Tumblr to follow others and see recent posts from those people. Change templates and even customize templates. Find those you follow and those who follow you on the right sidebar. The Radar in this sidebar brings in the latest information being posted on Tumblr. This tool can be minimized by clicking the Hide link but does exist and may have inappropriate content. Use the Mega editor to make changes to a lot of posts at the same time. Find the permalink to your post by hovering over the post. The top right corner "folds down," and clicking there provides you the permalink. Note: Make additional Tumblr blogs after you make your initial one (click the + icon in the dashboard.) This allows you the option of making the blog private by password-protecting the viewing of the blog.

tag(s): blogs (79), communication (123), microblogging (14)

This site provides sample student activities and "how to" instructions for students to create timelines, museums, pattern makers, and more. Explore the tools to give students ownership over their learning. Create your own activities or use the sample activities given with each tool. Use the Timeline Builder to easily create a simple but customizable timeline. Examine text for better understanding with the Annotate It! tool. Build spatial sense with the Pattern Builder that combines art and geometry in a fun to use tool. Create your own Museum is a great learning tool to decide what to showcase in any type of museum. Besure to check out the Learning Resources tab at the top for great digital activities for all ages!

tag(s): museums (55), patterns (77), reading comprehension (146), timelines (60), writing (306)

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 (34), matching (9)

This site is a resource for those interested in building Spanish resources in libraries and helping Hispanics discover and use libraries. REFORMA contains listings of Hispanic sources and information, and was developed at UCLA. From the top menu under Resources and Publications click Information for libraries and librarians serving Latinos & Spanish - speaking communities to find many useful resources for your school library and your classroom.

tag(s): communities (40), hispanic (53), service projects (17), spanish (111)

Write your own original books, add images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in an interactive, online form. There is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling." Take advantage of the free apps that make Bookemon even easier to use with any device! Use Bookemon Reader to READ books you created in Bookemon or Bookemon edCenter (available for both iOS and Android). BookPress for iOS devices only allows you to CREATE books from scratch, including using photos from your iPad/iPhone. InstaPress (for iOS only) offers options to create books from documents, PDFs, etc., for sharing on mobile devices as e-books. http://www.bookemon.com/book_Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up a free membership on this site, students (or teachers) can choose to create from scratch or use the provided templates. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example, so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. EdCenter users can collaborate on books. After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire book online, either among an audience of "just my friends" or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books on a class or school web page, wiki, or blog. The easiest option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully public option to create learning materials for classes that can be accessed year to year for at-home review or reading practice.

This site requires a simple registration. Teachers can set up an edCenter for their school or class in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions "In the Classroom" below and in our sample book! Newer mobile device options include iPads and more for viewing your books.
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tag(s): creative writing (124), digital storytelling (167), writing (306)

This VERY simple tool lets you or your students make simple, folded small booklets that fit in a pocket. You choose what will appear on each page: from blank space to lines to calendars or checklists. Then print the single sheet (and run copies!) for a student "organizer" useful for homework assignments, long-term project deadlines, checklists, even student-made study guides. Students use the booklets the old fashioned way: by WRITING in them; but the clever, customizable format lets you teach organizational skills in a way that works.

See a sample PocketMod checklist, notes, and calendar booklet (with a separate page of folding directions) and one made from a PDF of the Pennsylvania Science and Technology Standards, converted using the free downloadable software.
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tag(s): organizational skills (90)

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 (181), data (205), infographics (71), statistics (127), visualizations (15)

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): calories (8), data (205), infographics (71), oil (20), oil spill (14), visualizations (15)

At this site you will find a wealth of material about the culture of Spanish America. This includes color images, short videos, an interactive timeline, essays (Library), and a glossary. The Spanish American culture thrived from the 16th century to the early 19th century, and ran from California to Chile. This site can be viewed in English or Spanish. There are DVDs offered with primary documents, more images, etc., but these are not free. This review is for the free internet site only.

tag(s): cross cultural understanding (177), cultures (290), explorers (65), hispanic (53), resources (80), spanish (111)

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 (60)