Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Learn all about U.S. political campaigns and party conventions. Five main sections explain it all: History, Campaign Finance, Nominations, Policy, and Media. Within each section are videos and articles about the current state of affairs as well as past practices. Each section offers lesson plans suitable for high school use. The sections also offer short review quizzes that provide instant feedback. Scroll through each section in order or choose from portions with links at the top of the section.

tag(s): elections (77), electoral college (18)

Address important issues about government policy through the use of infographics with the goal of uncomplicating things for "busy folks like yourself." Government policy discussions are increasingly dominated by the media, and each side of the debate spends as much time trying to "spin" the discussion as it does simply communicating the facts. The graphics on this site are extremely well presented. Choose from among several important issues: Jobs, the Deficit, Health Care, Political Language, and the Federal Budget. Each topic includes a slideshow of infographics, a written script to accompany the slides, questions for discussion, and the ability to print a booklet that includes the graphics and text highlights.

What's missing? There is no audio recording of the script that could accompany the slides; you must print the script and read it while viewing the slides. And, despite its goal of "making it simple" for busy folks, you have to dig a little in the site to discover that the author is firmly in the "Progressive" political camp, and that the presentation on Health Care, for example, includes one section on "GOP Myths" and repeatedly slams the Republican party's handling of the health care crisis. To its credit, the sources for the information presented on the graphics are cited. Be aware also that the graphics use language like "We're Getting Screwed!" which may be inappropriate for younger kids.

tag(s): branches of government (55), congress (40), elections (77), media literacy (86), politics (104)

Danosongs.com provides royalty free music for many different purposes as long as you give credit where it is due: Music by Dan-O at DanoSongs.com. Dan creates music, posts to this blog, and offers it free of charge under a Creative Commons license as long as credit is given. This is a really great trade-off for free music for your presentations, movies, video games, websites, blogs, or even excercise tracks. Possibilities for uses are so broad, you just have to use your imagination to add to this list! There is the option of "buying" the songs for $10 to use without giving credit.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): citations (33), copyright (43), podcasts (61), sound (86), sounds (58)

MathFlix is a resource of over 1000 QuickTime videos sorted by topic. The site also includes over 400 downloadable worksheets that reinforce concepts and provide additional practice. The videos themselves are hosted at many different locations on the web, but this index makes it easy to find them by math topic. Enter the site by choosing either the "I am a teacher" or "I am a student" icon. The teacher link lists topics by standards and content within each standard. Choose from Number & Operations, Algebra, Technology, and more. Each of these links leads to further subcategories listing video titles to view. The student link leads to clickable images or words, including topic and subcategory. Choose one of these links to go directly to the list of videos available for that topic. Be sure not to miss the links at the bottom of the page. They aren't quite as obvious as information for the videos; however, they include additional information relating to Common Core, assessment, and curriculum support.

tag(s): area (63), charts and graphs (183), decimals (117), estimation (42), fractions (218), inequalities (25), logic (212), money (158), numbers (170), patterns (74), percent (74), perimeter (25), polls and surveys (46), probability (123), problem solving (261), statistics (119), symmetry (40), variables (17), whole numbers (15)

LearningJar helps you set goals, assess what you know, and figure out how to get there. Find learning paths, and help to showcase what you have learned. Create a portfolio (of sorts) that can track what you can do and get recommendations to help you do more. The site contains an aggregate of tutorials, lessons, and links to resources to learn skills needed for career choices. The "how to get there" suggestions come from "crowdsourcing," i.e. suggestions from people in the field. Many choices include a challenge option upon completion of tutorials. Currently most careers offered are in technology related fields.

tag(s): careers (138), tutorials (44)

Learn and explore everything about agriculture, food processing, sustainable farming, and equipment engineering interactively at this informate and entertaining site! The activities feature different concepts and promote various aspects of agriculture, math, science and society. Hover over the game icon with your mouse to view a short description of the activity, approximate playing time, grade range, curriculum area, and agriculture theme. At the end of each interactive, you can watch short, related video stories from the public television show "America's Heartland." Don't miss the Equipment Engineering challenge. The Educator Resources section contains standards, implementation ideas, and many activity sheets for classroom use. View resources by curriculum area or agriculture topic using the links on the left in this section.

tag(s): agriculture (51), animals (299), careers (138), conservation (107), life cycles (23), plants (160), problem solving (261), rounding (14)

Use this colorful site to make your own animated water scene. Click once and again to drop sea creatures to where you want them. Click on the creatures to hear their names. Drop them into the scene and hear the sounds that they make. Click the printer icon to print your result.

tag(s): animals (299), environment (274), food chains (24), oceans (157)

Photo Pin is a search engine for Creative Commons photos that you can use (with credit), even if you are placing products on the web. Photo Pin has a beautiful and simple interface; filter your search by keyword and category. Clicking Get Photo also provides the attribution link for the photo and a choice of different sizes to download. Warning: Remind students about school and class rules about searching on the Internet. Give students explicit directions about what to search for. Some images are sexually graphic.

tag(s): copyright (43), creative commons (21), images (265), photography (140), search engines (55)