TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Dec 9, 2018
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
What has the United Nations ever done for you? - The Guardian
Grades
6 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
This interactive offers the opportunity to view what the United Nations has done to help people of all ages from around the world. Choose a persona by entering gender, age, ...more
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This interactive offers the opportunity to view what the United Nations has done to help people of all ages from around the world. Choose a persona by entering gender, age, and country to view a list of ways the United Nations has had a positive influence on their situation. Categories include items such as Human Rights, Child Mortality, and Cultural Heritage. The site was created in the UK, so some of the pronunciations and spellings may differ from those in American English.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): cross cultural understanding (157), cultures (132), united nations (6)
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to explore on their own. Social studies teachers will want to bookmark this interactive for use throughout the year as students learn about different countries and cultures. Instead of paper notecards enhance student learning by having them use Simplenote, reviewed here, to take digital notes; tell students to be sure to save the URL to share their notes and questions with you and their peers. updates across all devices Then, modify technology use by challenging students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, to explain what they learned from this site.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Breaking News Generator - Russell Tarr
Grades
4 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Design professional looking front pages for a newspaper with this tool. Simply fill in the pertinent information (headline, date, place, and more) and an image. Share via URL, Twitter,...more
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Design professional looking front pages for a newspaper with this tool. Simply fill in the pertinent information (headline, date, place, and more) and an image. Share via URL, Twitter, or download to your computer. Be sure to view the several samples available, and click on the little question mark at the end of the title to see ideas for use of this tool. No registration is necessary.
tag(s): digital storytelling (141), images (262), newspapers (91)
In the Classroom
Assess students prior knowledge by creating a Breaking News piece to introduce a new unit. Replace paper and pencil and ask students to fill in an interactive KWL chart from Holt, reviewed here, or discuss in small groups what they know about the topic. Transform student learning by using their "Breaking News" in presentation slides by downloading the image from your computer. Then upload the image to a slide presentation creator such as Slides, reviewed here. Suggest to students that they do the same for their presentations. Use as a timeline of events for lab experiment, a novel study, historical event, and more. You might want to think about using this tool as a storyboard for digital storytelling as this tool could work well for storyboarding.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sway - Microsoft
Grades
3 to 12
2 Favorites
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Use Sway to create interactive presentations across all devices. Drag and drop content from your device, social networks, and the web directly onto your Sway canvas. Log in using your...more
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Use Sway to create interactive presentations across all devices. Drag and drop content from your device, social networks, and the web directly onto your Sway canvas. Log in using your Microsoft account to begin or create a new account using your email and a password. Add content to your storyline using links to add text, images, and media. Change the look of your Sway using the Design tool to change the color palette, layout, and fonts. When finished, click the Share button for options to share to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, URL, or copy the embed code. Sway will work on any device with a modern Internet browser and an Internet connection. They also have an iOS app. The introduction video and tutorials are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.
tag(s): communication (136), digital storytelling (141), Microsoft (84), multimedia (43), slides (45), visualizations (11)
In the Classroom
Use Sway as an alternative to Prezi or PowerPoint presentations. Sway is perfect for use in your BYOD or 1:1 classroom. Use during your presentations to increase student engagement and interaction. Check understanding of your ENL/ESL students by having them respond or pose questions throughout the presentation. Enhance student learning and understanding by sharing with students for them to use during their own presentations, inviting other students to comment and answer questions. During Open House night with parents, demonstrate how Sway provides interaction. Use Sway during professional development presentations to invite discussions from colleagues.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Highlighting Our History: American Revolution Read-alouds PLUS for the Common Core - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6
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This "Read-alouds PLUS" article will show you how you can infuse social studies content, specifically the Revolutionary Period, using the power of daily read-alouds. Practice Common...more
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This "Read-alouds PLUS" article will show you how you can infuse social studies content, specifically the Revolutionary Period, using the power of daily read-alouds. Practice Common Core Standards for the English Language Arts while helping your students understand our history and heritage. If you fear that social studies has taken a back seat to tested content, be sure to share this collection with your students. The article includes book suggestions as well as discussion questions and writing activities connected to CCSS Standards. Don't miss our other articles on implementing Common Core in elementary. Some of the book selections may not be ones that your students can read on their own, but they will work well as read-alouds in your social students curriculum.
tag(s): american revolution (82), book lists (161), commoncore (75), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
Mark this article in your Favorites and take the book suggestions with you to the school library (or search for interlibrary loans). Consider using this as part of a "Then and Now" or "Past and Present" focus in kindergarten or first grade, or with middle elementary students as part of a unit related to the Revolutionary War. Take a look at the suggestions for connecting the read-alouds to CCSS-aligned writing prompts or for short, focused research projects to include as follow-up.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Created Equal - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
9 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Four documentary films related to the Civil Rights Movement, available to stream either in part or in their entirety, form the centerpiece of this effort from the National Endowment...more
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Four documentary films related to the Civil Rights Movement, available to stream either in part or in their entirety, form the centerpiece of this effort from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The films cover time periods beginning with the Abolitionist Movement and continuing through the Freedom Marches and the turbulent 1960s. Explore the meaning of freedom and equality in the United States with relevance still today. There are teacher resources for using Created Equal in the classroom.
tag(s): bill of rights (28), black history (124), civil rights (194), civil war (134), cultures (132), emancipation proclamation (11), segregation (18)
In the Classroom
The documentaries, or the excerpts presented, are all available to stream from the site. While they may be too lengthy to show in their entirety during one class period, they have also been divided into clips according to themes. For example, Equality is part of the full video about Law and the Strategy of Nonviolence. This makes them more adaptable for classroom use. Share the videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector, or flip your class using EdPuzzle, reviewed here, and have students watch clips at home and come back to class ready to discuss. EdPuzzle is a great way to take sections of videos and add your own voice or add questions within the video. Alternatively, you could use VideoAnt, reviewed here, to enhance student learning with students asking questions about the parts where they need clarification. The issues raised by these Created Equal documentaries may be easily incorporated into lessons related to the Civil Rights Movement, modern U.S. history, Black History Month, or civics and government. Use these videos as conversation starters in the classroom.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 12
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This CurriConnects collection of books shares tales of childhood in many cultures and countries. Find books that help you realize that what is "typical" for the kids at your school...more
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This CurriConnects collection of books shares tales of childhood in many cultures and countries. Find books that help you realize that what is "typical" for the kids at your school may seem odd to those who grew up somewhere else. Discover what was typical for our grandparents is not the same as what is typical today. This collection includes tales of growing up in many circumstances, books to make you stop and wonder what "typical childhood" means. CurriConnects thematic book lists include ISBN numbers for ordering or searching, interest grade levels, ESL levels and Lexiles'® (where available) to match student independent reading levels to challenge, not frustrate. For more on text complexity and Lexiles'®, see this information from the Lexile Framework. Don't miss other CurriConnects themes being added regularly. If your library does not have the books, try interlibrary loan!
tag(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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Canva for Education - Canva.com
Grades
K to 12
9 Favorites
0 Comments
Canva presents a simple way to design almost anything with drag and drop technology. Create custom timelines, posters, business cards, infographics, presentations, badges, flyers, charts...more
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Canva presents a simple way to design almost anything with drag and drop technology. Create custom timelines, posters, business cards, infographics, presentations, badges, flyers, charts and graphs, and more using a custom layout or a blank page. Begin by choosing the type of design you want to create. Choose pre-made templates or design your own. Upload images from your computer or your Facebook account. Change your background, add text, and personalize as desired. When complete, choose link and publish to save and download your creation as an image or PDF file or copy the link to share via URL. For creating charts and graphs go to the Features tab. There are iOS & Android apps (free) available for this tool. Canva has recently made the desktop application available for Windows as well as Mac OS. Note: you must register (with email and password) before you can access this site.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (143), graphic design (50), images (262), posters (45), slides (45)
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for enhancing, modifying, or transforming classroom technology in the classroom depending on the requirements of the assignments. Create a slideshow, invitations, or photo collages for any classroom presentation. Share what you created on your website or blog for students to review or for students who were absent. Deliver blended or flipped lessons using Canva Edu by adding links to videos, assessment information, and other learning activities. In the younger grades, teachers would be the ones creating the project. However, older students could easily create their own Canva presentations. Have students use this online tool as they would any presentation tool or image enhancing site. Use this site for research projects about famous people from the past and present. Have cooperative learning groups create presentations about science or math topics. Have students create presentations to "introduce" themselves to the class during the first week of school. Link or embed the introduction presentations on your class wiki or website and have others guess who they are. Use this tool with your 1:1 art class for students to practice design principles and techniques. Create 2 to 5 circle Venn Diagrams. Share student projects with parents and others via URL. Be sure to demonstrate HOW to use this tool on your interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Voices of Youth - UNICEF
Grades
6 to 12
7 Favorites
0 Comments
Voices of Youth is UNICEF's online home for young people to know more, learn more, and do more about our world. Read articles and blogs and share thoughts and opinions ...more
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Voices of Youth is UNICEF's online home for young people to know more, learn more, and do more about our world. Read articles and blogs and share thoughts and opinions with others around the world on global topics. Topics include poverty, education, human rights, health issues, and much more. Choose from links on the home page to find information on specific topics. Scroll through the page to read the latest posts. Click on tags at the bottom of each article to find related articles. Easily view the site in French or Spanish using links provided at the top of each page. Create your own posts or add comments after registration on the site; use email or use a Facebook or Twitter account to register. Some of the videos are hosted on YouTube. If your school blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable.
tag(s): disabilities (29), environment (240), hiv/aids (16), inequalities (23), mental health (34), school violence (10), sustainability (44)
In the Classroom
This site is an excellent resource to bookmark and use throughout the year when discussing current events, specific countries or geographic areas, or for non-fiction reading. Find informational texts that matter to your students. Spark informational writing, as well. Allow students to browse the site to find interesting articles. Have students enhance their learning by creating magazine covers of information found on this site using Magazine Cover Maker, reviewed here. Elevate learning by challenging students to create a newspaper article using articles found on this site as a model by using the Newspaper Clipping Generator, reviewed here. World language teachers will find this useful when viewing articles in French or Spanish to practice translation skills. If you have a blended learning classroom or are teaching remotely you may want to try adding the reading to Fiskkit, reviewed here, to annotate and analyze text and measure reading activity through sharing and commenting on texts. For the videos you could use VideoAnt, reviewed here, to ask questions and have students respond directly on the video.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Humanitarian News - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Grades
8 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
The Humanitarian, formerly IRIN, brings news and analysis on current humanitarian efforts in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. As you help students evaluate and sift through the huge...more
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The Humanitarian, formerly IRIN, brings news and analysis on current humanitarian efforts in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. As you help students evaluate and sift through the huge volume of news content available to you, you can use sites like this to help students focus on specific issues and geographic areas. Much of what is found here will never appear on their Yahoo or Google news feed; that does not diminish its importance. Sort by Conflict, Environment and Disasters, or Migration from the top menu, or scroll the page to sort content based on themes like Current coverage, Editor's picks, Most popular, and Latest videos.
tag(s): africa (137), asia (68), cross cultural understanding (157), cultures (132), media literacy (102), middle east (43), news (229)
In the Classroom
If you focus on current events or on the history or culture of "non-Western" countries, this site should be among your bookmarks or favorites. Encourage students to consider news sources outside of the major US networks or internet based aggregators. Enhance classroom technology use and student learning by asking them to create a simple web page sharing their learning and understanding using using Jimdo, reviewed here. Transform classroom technology use and challenge students or student groups to create an online, interactive, multimedia poster using Genially, reviewed here, to deliver information about a topic they researched. With Genial.l.ly you could allow students to choose the type of interactive media they want to develop.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ePals - ePals, Inc.
Grades
2 to 12
4 Favorites
0 Comments
ePals, a global community, offers students the chance to connect with other students around the world (200+ countries). This site is one of the largest worldwide communities for global...more
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ePals, a global community, offers students the chance to connect with other students around the world (200+ countries). This site is one of the largest worldwide communities for global collaboration. Don't worry about student email accounts as they are no longer needed! Don't worry about the language barrier either, there is a built-in language translation! This content-rich site offers a free "how to" webinar on the Support page on the bottom menu. There are several support videos on YouTube. If you district blocks YouTube they may not be available in you classroom. The program offers teacher to teacher and teacher to student communications, pen pal exchanges, Classroom Collaborative Projects, Spark!Lab Invent It Challenges, and more. In addition, you can click on the Collaborative Projects link to find several ready to use projects (Self Driving Cars, Hamilton, Habitats, Maps, Natural Disasters, Water, and others).
tag(s): black history (124), collaboration (87), communication (136), disasters (36), environment (240), habitats (87), maps (207), natural disasters (16), water (102)
In the Classroom
Navigating this site is rather simple. Simply scroll through the slide show at the top to find your area of interest: Collaboration Projects, Spark!Lab Invent It Challenge, etc. Parts of this site require log-in. Registration does require an email address. A lot of safety features are already put into place at this site. To learn more about the safety features at this site, check out the ePals webinar on YouTube link on the FAQ page.This site offers an amazing assortment of class activities and possibilities. Collaborate with schools in Africa (or 200 other countries) for a geography project. Have your students find ePals to correspond with and practice writing skills in English or in a language you are studying. Get additional ideas for projects, by visiting the "Projects" link or propose one of your own based on ideas from TeachersFirst suggestions you read in other reviews, lesson plans, and articles. After viewing one of the informative videos, challenge your students to study one of the topics available at this site and extend their learning by creating their own videos using Typito, reviewed here. Use a tool such as TeachersTube, to share the video clips, reviewed here.
Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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African-American History Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
These reviewed resources from the TeacherFirst database include teaching ideas, research material, and interactive sites for studying Black History in all grades. ...more
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These reviewed resources from the TeacherFirst database include teaching ideas, research material, and interactive sites for studying Black History in all grades.
tag(s): black history (124)
In the Classroom
Browse this collection as you approach Black History month or simply to add multi-cultural dimension to many history lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Humane Society Careers - Humane Society Youth
Grades
6 to 12
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Explore the Humane Society Career page to learn all about animal protection issues like puppy mills, fighting animal cruelty, the fur trade, factory farms, pet homelessness, cosmetics...more
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Explore the Humane Society Career page to learn all about animal protection issues like puppy mills, fighting animal cruelty, the fur trade, factory farms, pet homelessness, cosmetics animal testing, and other sensitive topics and what you can do to stop these tragedies. If you don't see your topic on this main page, type it in the search bar. This site features a FREE online webinar, printable PDF pages on HOT topics, and a podcast section cleverly titled Humane Voices. Other resouces interesting for teachers and students are from Nose to Tail, which has 5 lesson plans, a Farm Disaster Kit, and the Puppy Mills issue has a terrivic resource "7 ways to stop them." There is also an abundance of information in the category for animals, from alligators to zebras, including why they are important to our environment. Be sure to investigate the blog for current issues.
tag(s): animals (281), careers (139), service projects (17)
In the Classroom
Use this eye opening site in many subject areas. Share the issues on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Present this site and an opposing one as part of a discussion of web sites and even or slanted presentation of information. Ask students to decide whether they see any "bias" on this site. Use this site for research projects. Show students the list of protection issues and suggest they choose one as a service project to earn credit in community service. Use the site as one of several sources for a class debate on animal rights or charge students to explore alternate points of view on animal issues, such as from the AKC or the meat industry. Then invite students to create a multimedia "position" infographic of both sides with supporting facts to share with their peers. Suggested easy infographic creatation tools are Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, and Genially, reviewed here.
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Oxfam Education - Oxfam
Grades
6 to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
Oxfam's Teacher Resource site contains a wealth of information about global issues and human rights. There are plenty of articles, stories, images, and videos on water, health and...more
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Oxfam's Teacher Resource site contains a wealth of information about global issues and human rights. There are plenty of articles, stories, images, and videos on water, health and education, fair trade, social justice, sustainability, and many other issues to create a unit. Some of the topics include a teacher's guide. Click the Oxfam Education big green box and use the search function to enter keywords for your areas of interest.
tag(s): climate change (87), environment (240), water (102), women (137)
In the Classroom
Teachers who focus on current events will find much to explore. Oxfam as an organization clearly has a political point of view, but the depth of resources represented is remarkable. Enhance student learning by having students reflect about what they learned at this site using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. This blog creator requires no registration. Extend student learning by challenging students to take information from their blog and create an interactive infographic using Infogram, reviewed here, to present their learning and understanding.
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