Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Teach students about foods, measurement, or nutrition, and find great recipes at Visual Recipes. View a picture of each step of the recipe as you read the directions. English language learners and new learners to foods will find this a great resource.

tag(s): cooking (33), nutrition (163), sequencing (26), visual thinking (9), visualizations (13)

This easy to use site allows you to make interactive online quizzes or use pre-made quizzes sorted by subject. You can upload classes, assign quizzes, and receive scores (if students are registered.) Current quizzes available range from Drama to Law to Math (and all core subjects). The format allows for any topic, and the enjoyable characters help to maintain student interest. Note: This site was created in the United Kingdom and follows the curriculum of the United Kingdom. You may notice slight spelling/pronunciation differences.

tag(s): assessment (113), quiz (67), quizzes (81)

Type characters and accents in any foreign language simply by clicking them on screen using TypeIt. Especially handy for those of us who do not know the keyboard shortcuts (or ASCI codes) for accents and unlauts, this handy tool lets you compose in a text box, then simply copy/paste the text into your "destination." Now you can write text to include in the many online tools reviewed by the TeachersFirst Edge and include the accurate accents and diacritical markings vitally important to language learning. Simply keep Type It open in one tab and your tool of choice open in another. Prepare the text in TypeIt and copy/paste to text boxes in any tool or even in PowerPoint, Word, or interactive whiteboard software. Type It is easier to use than "insert character" in most word processing programs, as well!

tag(s): french (82), german (59), spanish (109), spelling (123)

For visual learners, maps can be powerful learning tools. This site takes the use of maps to explore cultural and historical changes to a whole new level. Using Berlin as an example, the site uses maps from 1237 through 2003 to tell the story of the city. Each map is richly hyperlinked with popup resources. A sidebar menu lists both people and places of significance; clicking the entry takes you to the relevant place on the map. As an alternative, you can simply explore the maps. From the site, it appears as though other city maps were originally planned, but the project does not seem to have been pursued past 2006; this does not detract from its usefulness.


Be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker or you will be unable to access the site content.

tag(s): german (59), germany (31), maps (281)

Need to translate words or phrases into another language? Use this free and easy to use site for translations. in various languages (Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Romanian, Portuguese, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Hindi, German, and French). View dictionaries that exist between languages, hear audio of the translations, take quizzes, or try language games. Students can play language activities such as hangman, scrambled words, memorize, or match it, as well. Customize each game by clicking "change" next to the "settings." Choose different languages, ease of play, and categories of words.

tag(s): chinese (48), italian (31), japan (58), japanese (42), korea (18), portuguese (21), russia (35), russian (24)

This site offers language lessons for 4 languages: Spanish, English, French and German. The site plans to add additional languages in the future. Joining for free allows students to learn vocabulary, dialog, writing, oral skills, comprehension, and more - in a highly interactive format. Support from native speakers is a regular feature of this site using the interactive video chat capability. The range of topics includes more than 100 commonly used language situations. The site saves errors for review, lists of lessons already studied, results of those lessons, etc. This project of UNESCO's International Year for Languages offers lessons in "What you really need to know!" This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): french (82), german (59), social networking (87), spanish (109), vocabulary (254)

This series of free translating dictionaries allows students to search to/from English in these languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German. Once a definition comes up in English, there are links to other dictionary pages where the word appears in a sentence. You can click on the audio button to hear the word spoken in both languages. This feature is only available in more commonly used words

There are also immediate clicks to other languages, so a student could check the same word in Spanish and French very easily. In addition to the translation dictionaries, there are also "English Dictionaries" (non-interactive) available in Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic (coming soon). Many of the foreign language dictionaries will increase in volume as the site developers add more vocabulary.

Be aware: this site does include minor advertisements. There is a link to Language Forums. It is probably best to advise students to stay away from the forums.

tag(s): chinese (48), dictionaries (51), italian (31), japan (58), japanese (42), korea (18), portuguese (21), russia (35), russian (24)

This site allows students to practice pronunciation in 10 languages, including English, European languages, and Mandarin Chinese. After a free registration, you can put in a search term for lessons. It's a bit difficult to guess search items, so looking at the entire list in any given language is a good way to start. Currently, English has 298 items. You are also able to contribute lessons.

One helpful document is the Chuala inventory which allows instructors to quiz ESL students on their pronunciation by having them pronounce 144 distinct items. They can then search the lessons for practice, recording, and making comparisons on these phonemes.

Some of the lessons take the whole language approach and appear as dialogs, discussions, or Q and A. Most, however, have students practice distinct sounds only, with no context. One advantage of the program is that you can select lessons by distinct language area. For example, American English students can hear examples of American English rather than British English. You can also request that other lessons be created. This site requires Flash and enabled Javascript. Get Flash and directions on enabling Javascript from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

tag(s): chinese (48), pronunciation (39)

This website provides numerous teacher-created PowerPoints. Some of the presentations are excellent, while others are just mediocre. The range of topics goes from astronomy, to history, to French and much, much more! There is something good here for every classroom. You MUST have PowerPoint software (not free) to be able to download and edit the shows.