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Welcome to a New Year in the Classroom!

Welcome to our comprehensive back-to-school resource collection for busy educators! Whether you're a seasoned teacher preparing for another exciting year or a newcomer looking for guidance, you'll find everything you need to start the school year strong. From engaging first-day ideas and creative classroom activities to practical management strategies, these resources are here to help you create an inspiring learning environment. We've carefully curated materials that will help you save time while enhancing your teaching effectiveness so you can focus on what matters most—connecting with your students and fostering their growth.

Grades K-12

TeachersFirst's Self-Care for Educators

This collection recognizes that teacher well-being directly impacts student success. Find practical, evidence-based approaches to physical, emotional, and professional self-care and resources like podcasts, meditations, puzzles for brain breaks, and more!

Grades K-12

TeachersFirst's Do Now Resources

Ideal for the start of the school year, Do Now activities (also known as entrance tickets) are essential instructional strategies that help educators kick-start lessons, assess prior knowledge, and engage students from the moment they enter the classroom.

Grades K-12

TeachersFirst's Brain Breaks for Students

Regular brain breaks are a simple but powerful way to boost student focus, engagement, and retention in the classroom. These brief periods of physical activity or mental rest reenergize young minds when they begin to feel tired or restless.

Grades K-12

iGradePlus Online Gradebook

iGradePlus Online Gradebook provides an intuitive, FERPA-compliant interface with numerous options for busy educators. After creating an account, you can follow the step-by-step tutorial to create a grade book and add classes and students.

Grades K-12

Google Read Along

Google Read Along is an entertaining, interactive website designed to help young children learn to read. This site is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Urdu. Share this resource with families!

Grades K-12

Crowd Buzzer

No more wondering who hit that buzzer first! Crowd Buzzer is a virtual game buzzer that allows players to buzz in from any device that displays players who buzz in from first to last. Watch the short video for a more detailed explanation.

Grades K-12

SchoolStack

SchoolStack is an instructional design system that provides tools for creating personalized learning options for students. Create a free account to unlock a variety of features, such as adding exit tickets and making tasks optional or required.

Grades 6-12

Along

Along is an online tool for providing digital check-ins and reflection activities to students using audio, video, or text. Share a question with some or all students to check in on their wellness and encourage them to make connections.

Grades K-6

Teacherstack

Teacherstack helps manage and organize simple classroom tasks such as center rotation schedules, seating charts, and displaying to-do tasks for students. Create your account, add students and classes, and begin improving classroom management.

Grades 4-12

ClassroomQ

Explore a digital way to organize your students’ questions. The premise is straightforward: the teacher creates a class code and gives it to students. As students work and find they need help, they provide their name, class code, and comments.

Grades K-12

Bloomz

Bloomz offers several free features to help teachers communicate with their classroom community, including resources for creating student portfolios, scheduling conferences, and sending reminders. Access all of these easy-to-use features in one place!

Grades K-12

Future Me - Write a Letter to the Future

Future Me allows you to write an email and have it delivered in the future—up to 50 years later. This is an excellent tool to use at the beginning of the school year. Ask students to send themselves (or you) an email to open on the last day of class.

Grades K-12

Classroom Management Made Simple - Seating Charts

This classroom management tool enables you to create a seating chart quickly and easily. There is also a random name generator and a classroom group maker. You can create an unlimited number of classes that accommodate up to 100 students each.

Grades K-12

Icebreakers, Games, and Fun Group Activities

Start the first day of school with these getting-to-know-you activities designed for all ages. The site is easy to navigate and sorts ideas by group size and activity level. There are also activity suggestions for Zoom if you teach remotely.

This Week at TeachersFirst

We invite you to attend our OK2Ask workshops this week! We’re also sharing a collection of posts from our Infusing Technology Blog. Read the details below!