Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Do your students have trouble filling in the bubbles? Create free bubble sheets for assessments. Carefully fill in the fields as you scroll down the page. Blank boxes will not appear on the test form. Change font sizes for the text, and provide directions in English or Spanish. Format your bubble columns and styles that best meet your assessment needs. Select a variety of other graphic styles that are not necessarily "normal" looking bubbles. Various styles of math grids are available. Choose from a menu of miscellaneous options to add some creativity to your test form. Include scoring boxes for evaluation and comments. Include registration marks for automated test marking machines. Select the "Test ID" option to reprint your form at a later date. The ID number will appear on your form. All data is saved for future retrieval (1-2 months). Create a test key by printing a bubble sheet on a clear transparency. Use a permanent pen to mark the correct answers on the test key.
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tag(s): assessment (146), test prep (66)

Would you like to use The Hunger Games to provoke your students into thinking about real world issues? Educurious has just the mini unit for you! Download the free PDF titled "Avoiding the Path to Panem" and be on your way to creating the thinking citizens of tomorrow. In this one-to-two week project based unit, students will use primary sources, contact experts, and write a final informative essay about sustainability, poverty, racism, economics, or war. In the essay students are to recommend specific ways our country can avoid the post-apocalyptic world of The Hunger Games. The essay will be part of a "Glog" or another form of a public post, to represent their findings and recommendations visually. The unit includes three short videos about directing The Hunger Games movie, surviving high school, and writing. Not only does this unit support the Common Core State Standards, but also the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S).

tag(s): essays (20), expository writing (31), novels (31), persuasive writing (55), politics (112), posters (45), reading strategies (98), social networking (67)

Explore the complex topics of copyright and plagiarism. Find information on identifying plagiarism, ethical concerns, and ways to avoid stealing others' material. Explore essential questions such as Why Should I Care?, What Does it Look Like?, and How Can I Use My Own Brain? Student tools offer tips for avoiding plagiarism such as correctly citing sources and learning proper phrasing. Teacher tools include videos and posters to help students explore this topic and understand copyright issues. View several videos in the digital ethics portion of the site that discuss the fine line between plagiarism and mashups, downloading, and music use. Some of the videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

tag(s): copyright (46), digital citizenship (89), ethics (23), plagiarism (34)

Explore this useful catalog of all free e-books available for Kindles through Amazon. It is quite extensive with many categories: Advice & How-to, Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Investing, Children's eBooks, Fantasy, History, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers, Politics & Current Events, Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Science Fiction, Sports, Teens, Travel, and many others. At the time of this review, there were over 69,000 free eBooks listed on the site.

tag(s): book lists (161), independent reading (85)

Discover interactive and animated representations of historic events and time periods. Choose from American, European, Latin American, or African history. Within each of these choices is a list of modules. Each module provides information and interactive content such as timelines or maps that guide you through the specified time frame. The slideMapHub, at the bottom of the map allows you to move in time.

tag(s): 1700s (36), 1800s (72), 1900s (73), africa (137), alaska (20), american revolution (82), central america (15), civil war (134), cold war (30), colonial america (95), colonization (20), explorers (64), great depression (28), greece (27), greeks (31), hawaii (7), industrialization (11), italy (16), maps (207), native americans (91), romans (33), slavery (75), south america (36), spain (11), war of 1812 (14), world war 1 (72), world war 2 (149)

Find a great source for all your energy information at Energy Kids! Discover energy sources, forms of energy (renewable and non-renewable), electricity, hydrogen, and recent statistics on energy use. There are games and activities to help reinforce the concepts presented. Detailed lesson plans, science fair experiments, field trip information, and more help you provide a more comprehensive unit. Don't miss the history of energy timeline with all the famous people. There is even a link "For Teachers" where you can find lesson plans from K to secondary.

tag(s): conservation (83), energy (130), natural resources (37)