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return to subject listingTeach Dear America - Colonial Period - Scholastic
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): 1600s (20), 1700s (36), colonial america (95)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site and combine it with TeachersFirst's CurriConnects leveled reading list forColonial America and the Revolution and Frontier Forts on the American Revolution for multiple offerings and angles on the Colonial and Revolutionary time period. Create a link to various activities, quizzes, and downloadables for students to explore on classroom computers. Include crafts and recipes from the site during your unit. Have students create an annotated image about Colonial times including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here to demonstrate concepts learned when making crafts or recipes. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here) to compare Colonial life to present day. Have students create timelines using Timeline JS, reviewed here. Timeline JS also offers the option to upload and add photos, videos, audio, Tweets, and Google Maps making it interactive. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a student their age living in Colonial America.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Cumberland Trace Gifted - DAP Tool - Julia Roberts and Tracy Inman
Grades
K to 12tag(s): critical thinking (112), differentiation (84), essays (20), interviews (14), posters (47), rubrics (33), service projects (17), speech (66), writing (315)
In the Classroom
Offer individualized rubrics for every project so each student can demonstrate appropriate expertise. These rubrics are perfect to use in the heterogeneous classroom where you might have a mix of ESL/ELL, gifted, and learning support students. Many of these activities are ideal for differentiating for your gifted students and providing challenges more suited to their ability, creativity, and thought process.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Online Tools: Suggestions from TeachersFirst - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): classroom management (128), graphic organizers (49), rubrics (33)
In the Classroom
Mark your Favorites using your free TeachersFirst membership, so you can find them quickly!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: Childhood Here and There - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (161), cross cultural understanding (157), independent reading (85)
In the Classroom
Include these books for independent reading during a unit on world cultures, in a guidance class about differences, or in a reading unit about drawing inferences. Spark discussions about what we assume is "normal" and what we should realize about our own upbringing. The conversations will easily evolve into projects where students can compare and contrast or create "profiles" of childhood in different places and cultures.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Online PDF Calendars - Kevin MacLeod
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this calendar maker to create calendars throughout the year. Create a calendar from a year in history to discover days of the week that historic events took place. Include a calendar with multimedia projects for a written perspective of time and events. Create a calendar for the future to explore events such as days of the week birthdays will occur, day of the week for future holidays, or for the upcoming school year. Create calendars for upcoming years to view days of the week for annual events. Give your students calendars to highlight in different colors showing vacations, major projects, field trips, and other events. Help your "organizationally challenged" students by printing calendars they can annotate and keep inside the clear cover of their binders or in a plastic sleeve page. Have young students (or ELL students) decorate a yearly calendar as they learn the months of the year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mini-Court: Mock Trial Activities - New Jersey State Bar Foundation
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): civil rights (194), courts (19)
In the Classroom
Use Mini-Court lessons and activities as part of your government unit. Incorporate activities into a folk tales unit to "try" characters such as Goldilocks. Next time your students complain that something is "not fair," use the opportunity to learn about how the courts make things "fair." Challenge even your youngest students to come up with "court cases" about famous characters (i.e. Cinderella's stepmother held her hostage, Snow White was poisoned, and many more). Create a timeline together on your interactive whiteboard using Preceden, reviewed here, to show the sequence of events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Literably - Tyler Borek and Habib Moody
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): assessment (147), fluency (24), literacy (107), reading comprehension (141)
In the Classroom
After creating a class list, either choose readings based on your estimate for each student or let Literably choose them. You will need to demonstrate on a projector or whiteboard where to click to Allow the mike to work. Set up a center (or several) in your classroom and rotate students through it. The free account allows your to test five students, but there is a work around. If you have Gmail, you can use the subaccounts feature to create "new email addresses." See how to do this here. This tells how to set up Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Using Gmail subaccounts will allow you to test more than five students. The Literably results and ability to give parents expert feed back on their students literacy skills make creating Gmail subaccounts well worth your time! You will probably want to use headsets with microphones to limit distractions when using Literably. However, the built in microphone on the computer will work just fine. This tool is perfect for reporting to parents and administrators. It's also great for resource teachers to share during IEP meetings. Turn this assessment tool into a teaching tool by having students listen to their recordings and follow the text to pause the incorrect recording and read it correctly. Have them try the same reading again to see if they can improve their score.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timeline - ReadWriteThink
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): timelines (49)
In the Classroom
Demonstrate how to use this tool with your projector or interactive whiteboard. In lower grades, you could make a timeline of the months and add images of all who have birthdays each month. This tool is so versatile it can be used for a variety of topics and subjects, including autobiographical incidents, plots of a story or book, the cell cycle, stages in volcanic eruptions, any history topic, steps in a math problem, or steps in a plan to create a project. As students learn about informational texts in CCSS, they can also learn about adding (and interpreting) graphical information to accompany their words. Students who cannot complete their work during the class time can save their work in a local computer (in its own rwt file format) to finish later. Just make sure the student names it logically and knows WHERE the file is saved!!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kahoot! - Mobitroll
Grades
K to 12tag(s): assessment (147), DAT device agnostic tool (143), Formative Assessment (70), game based learning (171), gamification (74), polls and surveys (46), quizzes (90)
In the Classroom
This is a powerful formative assessment tool that is also fun! Create pretests to offer to gifted students to "test out" of already learned material. Students can easily see the choices and choose answers using a browser on a laptop or any device. Make it a class challenge! Use this tool at the start of a new chapter or unit. Project your quiz to the entire classroom using a whiteboard or projector. Students can easily see the choices and choose answers using a browser on a laptop or any device. Use the Team choice when reviewing for a unit test. Students can see who is at the top of the leaderboard during the play and can even ask questions while going through the quiz. Use this tool often to obtain a snapshot of each student's understanding of content.Comments
What makes a good web tool? In my opinion, a web tool should be two things. They should be easy to look at, and easy to use. When you use these tools you need to be able to see clearly what a site does and the purpose it serves. Not only do you need to be able to see what you are doing, but do it easily. If it takes students more effort and energy to use a web tool or website, they will stop using it. You have to be able to keep the attention of the user. Beyond that an education tool needs a few additional items. Education tools need to be fun and interactive to continuously grab the attention of students. Students should have fun when using the site/tool.Ad, , Grades: 0 - 12
Kahoot fits all the above criteria. Not only is it fun and easy for students to use, but easy for teachers to set up and use for students. Kahoot is a fun quiz tool that teachers can use to build discussions, polls, and quizzes for the classroom. Students can then log into the quiz using smartphones, tablets, or computers. The tool is designed for students and works for students. Kahoot is well thought out, and well executed. This tool really brings the learning experience to students who are so familiar with technology.
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Dropmark - Oak Studios, LLC
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bookmarks (47), curation (35), organizational skills (90), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Use Dropmark to create a bank of resources to use for each content unit within your subject or classroom. Student can then download and use the raw materials you provide to make their own projects or to learn independently. Create a separate class account for students to curate their own lists or bookmarks and resources. Use this tool to compile web treasure hunts to learn or introduce any topic within your content area. Collect links to informational texts for students to read "closely" a la CCSS. With younger students, create links of audio books for children to view and listen to or simple interactives teaching colors, numbers and more. Have students create their own Dropmark as a place to store links for a project. Share a link to your Dropmarks on your class webpage. Save pictures of class activities with a Dropmark collections then share with parents.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WhenIsGood - Keith Harris
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): calendars (40), parent conferences (24)
In the Classroom
Create a calendar for scheduling parent-teacher conferences to send to parents. Scheduling a special presentation and inviting parents? Use this tool to find out what date and time of day will work best. Use WhenIsGood to set up grade level or department meetings. Share with your school's Parent Teacher Organization as a tool for scheduling meetings, fundraisers, or book fairs.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wordsmyth Kids! - Wordsmyth
Grades
K to 5tag(s): dictionaries (48), parts of speech (40), spanish (105), thesaurus (22), vocabulary development (90)
In the Classroom
This site is a must-add to any elementary classroom's bookmarks! Demonstrate Wordsmyth Kids! on your classroom whiteboard or projector, bookmark it in your favorites, and make it directly available to students from your class webpage. Tell parents about it, too. Elementary students will enjoy defining their spelling words or content area vocabulary. Have students categorize words by parts of speech or create a list of synonyms. Have students create their own word "sticky note boards" for new vocabulary words using a tool such as Lino, reviewed here (no membership required) to create and share their sticky notes. Be sure to share this site with parents for use at home too! Speech and language and ESL/ELL teachers will love the audio possibilities and the activities related to many of the basic vocabulary groups, such as animals, etc.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Eventbrite - Kevin and Julia Hartz
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): calendars (40), Teacher Utilities (146)
In the Classroom
Use Eventbrite to increase excitement for any classroom event. Be creative and have students attend an "event" to review for exams (with bar coded tickets they can earn by sharing a student-made review activity). Offer tickets to in class enrichment "events" for those who test out of a unit. Have student groups design "events" instead of giving class presentations. The "event" could be a quiz show or game session that teaches a curriculum topic, such as "World War Wonders." Have your class work together to plan a culminating "event" such as a tea for famous Americans, and issue invitations and tickets to students who play the parts of the people they researched. Invite parents to Open Houses and Conferences. (Perhaps provide a small door prize for those using the Eventbrite app as their admission ticket!) Use Eventbrite to manage events with limited seating or a limited number of participants. If you provide professional development sessions, this is an excellent way to spread the word and manage participation. If you are an advisor for a school club, this tool would make club-sponsored events easier to organize.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Powtoon - powtoon.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): animation (62), digital storytelling (141), movies (51), multimedia (43), slides (45)
In the Classroom
Challenge older students to create their own PowToons. Students can use PowToon to share their ideas or to "prototype" an idea. Students can create videos to show math processes, explanations of complex concepts, review new learning, teach others, explain scientific processes, tell stories, or present research. The possibilities are really endless, and students will come up with hundreds more uses. Flip your classroom using PowToon presentations. Use PowToon to create teacher-authored animations for students in ANY grade. This is a great way to present new information or ideas for discussion. It is an easy way to share information with the class when a substitute is in your classroom. Embed your PowToon creations on your website or blog for students to review at home. Use a PowToon on the first day of school to explain class rules or give an exciting introduction to the year ahead. Use PowToon to create movies or presentations for back to school night or conference nights to display on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Teacher-librarians can ask students to create PowToon book reviews to share kiosk style in the library/media center.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
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Wibki - Roy Pessis
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Create a Wibki of the most used sites for your class. Link to teacher web pages, webquests, resource sites for your subject, and any other resource that is helpful for students. Consider creating a login for the whole class to update with suggestions from class members. Be sure to link your Wibki on a computer center in your room for easy access. Since icons are shown rather than words, you could use this site with your nonreaders. Create a Wibki mix for parents and students to access at home before tests. Team up with other teachers in your subject/grade to create chapter by chapter Wibkis for all your students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Noisli - Stefano Merlo
Grades
K to 12tag(s): creative writing (122), learning styles (18), sounds (43)
In the Classroom
Be sure to share this link with students (and their parents) looking for less distracting sounds while brainstorming or working. Reading a book to the class or conducting a science lab? Turn up your speakers and use these background sounds as mood music to set the stage for your story. Why not listen to waves or water while studying it! Play a few minutes of relaxing sounds before a major test. Let a student "DJ" create a class relaxation or creativity soundscape. Consider using as background sounds for student presentations. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Animatron, Sway, and Presentious. Use the writing tool available at this site to motivate your students with music, color, and more. If you talk with students about discovering their own learning styles, offer this site as a suggestion for them to try while prewriting or studying for tests. Emotional support (and autistic support) teachers may want to experiment to see if these sounds can help their students. Some students may find them overstimulating, while others may find the sounds very helpful.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Zeemaps - Zee Source
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): directions (12), map skills (56), maps (209)
In the Classroom
If you teach geography, this one is a must. It is also helpful for showing students WHERE a story or news event takes place. Teach map skills by letting students explore and annotate their own community. This site is great on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Create multiple markers for various points within your community. Annotate the markers with specific information that students research. Remember to create an admin password (and save it somewhere safe!) for others to collaborate on the map. Research various places around the world, and create markers of must-see places, historical finds, and other locations of interest. Create a map of news hot spots around the world. In Biology, find places where environmental or biodiversity concerns are occurring. Collaborate on a map to include annotated information of student research about these problems. Create a map to introduce various cultures around the world. Enter video, audio, information, and links that students can use to "uncover" the content to be learned.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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QwikSlides - Russel Tarr
Grades
K to 12tag(s): images (270), qr codes (17), slides (45), video (257)
In the Classroom
Use Qwikslides to create quick slideshows for any classroom use. Easily share slides with information or (online) images on your website or blog to remind students about a project or assignment. Have students create presentations to "introduce" themselves to the class during the first week of school. Create a slide show to introduce any unit and have students guess what they will be learning. Create a Qwikslides easily "on the fly" as a review resource to embed on your class website or blog. Use the QR Code feature to add information to textbooks, on student of the week displays, or to Science fair projects! Students can easily create mini-advertisements for books by entering their text here and sharing via a QR code pasted on the book jacket. This site is perfect for your BYOD (bring your own device) classroom, since it is viewable on any device. Make quick "cue cards" for students to read their lines off a projector or interactive whiteboard for a video or school news broadcast! Paste your school or class announcements into slides and embed them on the class or school website. Have your world language or ENL students write messages in their new language for a classroom "activity tour" and convert them into QR codes to post around the room. Their classmates can "tour" the room and follow the directions for each activity using their smartphones to read the codes. Activities could include speaking, following directions such as "touch your nose" or question/answer about an image.Even the youngest gifted students can create simple presentations to go beyond regular curriculum in your class. Be sure to show young ones how to copy/paste the url for their finished work to send it to you or mark it in Favorites on the classroom computer or iPad. Have them make slide shows telling a story, explaining about a famous person, and more. During a unit on plants, have them create a guide to plant care or a show about the world's strangest plants. Have them write and illustrate slides as book reviews for independent reading they have done. This tool is simple enough for any student who can read.
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VideoAnt - Regents of the University of Minnesota
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): media literacy (102), video (257)
In the Classroom
If you are lucky enough to have a (BYOD) Bring Your Own Device classroom, allow students to add comments as you watch videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Share the "Ant" link and have students add comments and questions to any YouTube video. This works for any subject. Identify examples of foreshadowing in dramatic videos. Add questions to math explanations. Identify landforms with videos from different locations. If you joined the site, use the embed code to add annotated videos to your class website or blog. Ask students to contribute comments directly onto the video. Share this site as a way to review before tests. Have media literacy students use the annotation feature to critique videos for bias, poor writing, weak information, etc.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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How Does Your Garden Grow? A Project-Based Approach to Learning - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6tag(s): book lists (161), life cycles (21), plants (144), soil (16)
In the Classroom
After reading one or two of the suggested books as a class, brainstorm what students know about gardens using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Consider setting up stations around the room with the other recommended books and their activities; be sure to request some of the books on inter-library loan if you do not have them in your school. After completing the stations, return to the brainstorm and revise what students know about gardens and planting. Use some of the ideas from Gather Information to implement spring garden planting, literacy, and a growing understanding of science. Next step, planting! Use one or more of the ideas in this article for planting your garden. You might even consider working across grade levels and subjects and planning a school garden together. Your health/PE teacher will probably join in the effort! Follow through with one or more of the Show What You Know suggestions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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