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This lesson summary provides ways to help children of all ages deal with frightening news about school violence. Use these ideas on those terrible occasions when the students simply need to talk. The National Association of School Psychologists provides this "teachable moment" strategy to help.

Share this with your principal and fellow teachers when you know students are in need.

This site offers 101 ideas for a Great Start to your school year, semester, or even January doldrums. (Okay, actually there are 111 with the 10 bonus ideas). The ideas are broken down into sections: Creating a Welcoming Atmosphere, Set a Positive Tone, Encourage Active Learning, Encourage Students to Keep Up and Do Well, Provide Support for Students, Be Efficient and Effective with Your Time, Gather Feedback on Teaching, and the Bonus 10. Some of the tips are more suitable for college professors, but teachers of all levels can find numerous ideas at this site. There are a few links to other sites (at Iowa State University). Some of the sites are relevant; others are not. Some require Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Use these activities at the beginning of the year (and throughout) to help your students acclimate to the new classroom. These tips are also very useful for substitutes or for teachers presenting at professional meetings.

Find a tech tip a day for the entire school year in this listing created by a teacher in Pennsylvania. You can also sign up to receive the tips via email if you wish.

This section of Nik Peachey's Learning Technology Blog for ESL/ELL teachers offers 20 ways to use web cameras for classroom activities. There are videos, blog entries, reviews of some GREAT sites, and more. These suggestions include things such as diaries, dictation, class research, poetry, having a tip of the day, questions, guessing games, news, and student support. If you are not a techie, he has also made suggestions about which type of web cameras work and how to use them. This is a great tool to learn about some new online tools.

This site would work well for world language courses and segments of classes where cultural studies and world awareness are important. Share the webcams, video clips, and more on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use these suggestions as group activities; ask your students to suggest more ideas with web cameras. Challenge students to create video commercials “advertising” their new idea. Share them using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here.

This lesson plan, created especially for students in grades 10-12, offers background information, activities, and critical analysis of the H1N1 Flu. Learn more about the flu, causes of the flu, participate in a class simulation, learn about vaccines, and much more. National standards are provided.

Divide your class into cooperative learning groups and delve into this lesson plan! Have groups read and review the handouts together. Challenge groups to create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Provide some choices to share what they learned: an interactive map, online book, or even a group wiki. For interactive maps (showing WHERE H1N1 has hit) have students use a mapping tool such as Mapskip (reviewed here). This tool allows you to add audio stories and pictures. Use Bookemon, reviewed here, for online stories. Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries – check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here.

Looking for a simple way to teach note-taking skills? This wiki web site provides a template and simple instructions for taking notes Cornell style. The template contains a 4 section layout that includes a section for demographics such as name and topic, a section for simple, bullet-style notes, a section for review questions based on the notes and lastly, a section for a summary. Simple and easy - a tool every student can benefit from utilizing.

Special Ed teachers will find this system quite helpful for their struggling students. Consider teaming up with content-area teachers to require it of ALL students! Teachers may want to use the template in their own graduate coursework, as well.

This well-designed website has books for 8 levels of readers from picture books to adult-level subjects in 17 general categories. Search using the advanced search function or browse through the favorites. Look for fiction or non-fiction, parts of series, and best of all books for reluctant readers. All books feature a summary and also an illustration taken from the book. The descriptions of the books are very enticing and often include quotes from the text.

This is a great source for finding and showing students how to find independent reading. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Since students often ask for books like Harry Potter, for example, put this link on your class web page. Show students how to click on the keywords once they find a category they like. When students ask for another book in the same series, this is a great place to start looking. Allowing reluctant readers to search and find their own book is a way to build investment in their reading future. Encourage students to write their own reviews of favorite books not found here. Use the site for a lesson in citing sources and punctuating quotations.

A simple page created by a 20+ veteran math teacher, this resource offers ideas to math teachers new and old with a clear passion and love of mathematics. It is updated regularly (as of 2007) and provides practical ideas backed by sound pedagogy. You will enjoy the positive tone and vast collection of ideas, even though many are links to other sources. There are a few places where she recommends purchase of a book or two, but the site, and its ideas, are free.

Who says the chemistry department can monopolize the periodic table? This site highlights various charts, graphic organizers, tables, and other ways to express information visually. The presentation makes the sell (or better grade). Teachers, especially secondary school, will appreciate this page to show the various ways to make their students' presentations more meaningful. Those who teach advanced reading skills and how to interpret visual data will love all the examples, as well. Hold your mouse over each square of the periodic table to view each type of visual.

Viewing this with the entire class will be more effective with the interactive whiteboard or projector. Teachers in any subject will find this site invaluable in teaching how to make strong visuals for oral or written presentations. What powerful evidence for multiple intelligences! Your visual/spatial students will LOVE this one, and others will learn to build that intelligence. Try these same strategies in YOUR PowerPoint presentations to communicate ideas visually, without being "powerpointless" at back to school night!

This site, created by a New Zealand teacher, has a cluttered "look" but good information for students to self-assess and learn more about their own learning style and/or multiple intelligences. Avoid the Google Ads and stick to the navigation area at the left to access two different learning styles self-assessments, information about different learning style traits and strategies to help each style of learner. There are links to some ideas for manipulative study guides, as well. Teachers who want new activity ideas to reach all learners will like the "strategies" sections. New teachers will find these listings very useful.

Regular ed and learning support teachers from middle school up will want to share this resource with students and parents to help students find the most effective ways to study and retain knowledge. Include the link on your teacher web page or plan a start-of-the year in-class time to help students get off on the right foot. Even teachers of gifted (whose students are notorious for inconsistent study methods because they have not "needed" to study) will find this resources helpful when students "hit the wall" in challenging courses. As part of a study skills unit, have students self-assess and create a single database of the class members' learning styles and subject strengths so they can find peer-tutors during study halls.

This site, written by parents of an autistic child in the UK, presents a parent perspective on autism and the issues and questions that arise for parents. Although not "endorsed" by a professional organization, the site includes many coping strategies and techniques that have worked for this family and is frequently updated with new ideas. They include downloadable pdf files for schedules and other devices to help children with autism and an ongoing diary of the strategies they have tried. The "jargon explained" section is especially helpful for the lay person, including many teachers untrained about autism. The authors are emphatic that their site is not intended as professional or diagnostic advice. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

This site presents the human side of one case of autism. Teachers who have an autistic child in their class can learn from the anecdotal information about the child and also about parental reactions and stresses. Ask your principal to allow you to spend part of a professional day reading through this and other resources on autism listed on TeachersFirst. You and your student will benefit.

While intended primarily for higher education, this long article on academic freedom and social studies will resonate with secondary teachers who may be in a quandary over how to present controversial international events. This discussion at the national level may be useful in guiding controversies at the local level.

The Virginia Department of Education has created a very usable collection of acceptable internet and technology use policies from schools, colleges, and universities. These are presented along with some general guidelines as to the information that an AUP should contain. Great resource for schools and districts that want to be clear with students, faculty and staff about on-line rights and responsibilities.

Share this link with your teaching colleagues who use the internet and technology regularly in the classroom.

Doris Voitier, Superintendent of the St. Bernard Parish Schools in New Orleans area gave this speech in acceptance of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation's Profiles in Courage Award in 2007. Her account of the challenges during and after Hurricane Katrina and the response by the staff of the St. Bernard Parish schools is awe-inspiring and heartening to educators. Her oral history also provides a powerful view of FEMA and the U.S. government from the eyes of hurricane survivors and local public officials.

TeachersFirst is fortunate to have Doris Voitier as a member of the board of directors of our parent company and is proud to congratulate her on this prestigious award.

Educators anywhere will respond to this account on a very personal level. In the classroom, however, this account can also spark discussion about the role of the government in natural disasters, the structure and functions of local government agencies, such as the schools, and the very nature of local economies. Share this real-life story as the beginning of a class discussion on history, government, or economics at the local, state, and federal level.

A program from Genentech which helps high school biology and life science teachers find mentors and allows interested teachers to become mentors.

This site from the Harvard Graduate School of Education offers teachers strategies for developing instructional modules which let students learn by experiencing. These aren't traditional lesson plans; instead they demonstrate a new way of linking topics and developing instructional sequences. Easily navigated, with content for all grade levels.

Your class is welcoming some ESL/ELL students. Here are some tips for starting out right with newcomers who speak little or no English. The tips include drawing on the resources of others so you, as the teacher, do not feel you must do everything yourself. Don't forget to also read TeachersFirst's Top Ten Tips for Working with ESL/ELL students.

Need a quick activity to enhance a literature lesson? Schools of California Online Resources for Educators amassed an activity bank of useful suggestions for teachers. Just click on the links at the left from this homepage, and you will find a wide array of teacher and student activities: Graphic Organizers, Journaling, Literature, and Rubrics. Although the site is intended for California teachers, most teachers across America will find the resources conducive to their state's requirements.

NOTE: SCORE Cyberguides announced that they are no longer checking links and maintaining these excellent resources as of April 2008 due to lack of funding. You will want to verify all links before using the cyberguide in class. You may want to use portions of this cyberguide in combination with other online resources.

Use these fabulous resources to introduce your students to new styles of graphic organizers. Find many new ideas and approaches at this website to use to differentiate your curriculum and keep your students interested in the topic. Allow students to choose among several types of graphic organizers to use for a project, rather than having the entire class use the same format. Many of these organizers can easily be created on PowerPoint slides or in Word using Autoshapes, then right-clicking to "add text." They also work well in Inspiration software. Collect electronic copies of organizers on your classroom computer or teacher web page for students to see as examples in the future.

Adapt your existing lesson plans using these simple strategies to help ESL students. Click on the activity type you have planned and find suggestions and resources to help your ESL/ELL students be successful with the lesson. Some of the same strategies may help with students with IEPs for speech and language or learning support.

Share this one with your colleagues who also have ESL/ELL students.

This site, created by Brenda Nicholson, a mom and trained ADD coach, offers a blog-like format with reference information and more -- all related to ADD. If you have ADD/ADHD students in your classroom, you may want to save this gem in your favorites. There are links for ADD students, life skills, organization, time management tips, RSS feed newsletters, a search engine, and other topics. Although the site includes podcasts, they do not seem to be working at the time of this review. You will definitely want to steer the parents of your ADD/ADHD students here. Be aware there is some commercialization of products (books and coaching) by the web owner, but the advantages warrant a “thumbs up” for this site.

Post this link on your class website among parent resources or for students to access discreetly. This site offers tips to help ADD/ADHD students that are really useful to ALL students. Pass this site along to your special education staff. If you feel a parent needs additional information on this subject, the sister site to ADD Student is ADD Moms .