Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

The Census Bureau offers lots of Thanksgiving statistics, from the total weight of all the turkeys raised in the US to the total amount of food consumed on Thanksgiving. You can plan a huge party with this one!

tag(s): thanksgiving (24)

Suitable for Halloween, Valentine's, or any chocolate-covered holiday, All About Chocolate offers basics about how chocolate is made and an excellent collection of lessons in the "Educator's Resources" area (click at the right). Lessons delve into the South American cultures and environments in which the cacao bean grows. Students can explore chocolate's impact on the economies and environment of these countries, and can also examine chocolate's ancient cultural connections. Sweet!

tag(s): chocolate (4), halloween (30), south america (36)

Here's every parent or teacher's dream: a site that helps you make your own puzzles, word games, and math puzzlers. There is a selection of almost a dozen different formats, each of which can be customized to meet your specific needs. Choose the puzzle type you want from the drop-down menu. Both adults and learners can create games!

tag(s): crosswords (19), puzzles (143)

Students discuss the process of storytelling and listening to stories. Then, they create a listening doll from clay in the tradition of the Native American storyteller dolls. The lesson is in 2 45-minute segments. The students will learn about Native American storyteller dolls, create their own image of a person listening to a story, discuss and assess the various listening dolls created by the class.

tag(s): crafts (50), native americans (91), stories and storytelling (40)

The National Baseball Hall of Fame offers lots of information on famous players and the history of the game. It's a great starting point for students interested in baseball's impact on American culture, especially in the early 20th century. Visit the Sights and Sounds link to view videos, hear authentic news clips and interviews, and more.

tag(s): baseball (33)

This site provides sample student activities and "how to" instructions for students to create timelines, museums, pattern makers, and more. Explore the tools to give students ownership over their learning. Create your own activities or use the sample activities given with each tool. Use the Timeline Builder to easily create a simple but customizable timeline. Examine text for better understanding with the Annotate It! tool. Build spatial sense with the Pattern Builder that combines art and geometry in a fun to use tool. Create your own Museum is a great learning tool to decide what to showcase in any type of museum. Besure to check out the Learning Resources tab at the top for great digital activities for all ages!

tag(s): museums (44), patterns (63), reading comprehension (141), timelines (49), writing (315)

Looking for an easy to use free jeopardy game? Look no further than this site. Download the application for free or create the activity to be played online. View and try activities already created online. If you like your project you can save it to a folder on your computer. There is a short video in the "How To" section that will walk you through the process of making, saving, and playing a Flash Jeopardy game. Those of you who have used the PowerPoint Jeopardy will find this flash version much less time consuming to create and to recreate new Jeopardy games.
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tag(s): grammar review (31), matching (8)

This site is a resource for those interested in building Spanish resources in libraries and helping Hispanics discover and use libraries. REFORMA contains listings of Hispanic sources and information, and was developed at UCLA. From the top menu under Resources and Publications click Information for libraries and librarians serving Latinos & Spanish - speaking communities to find many useful resources for your school library and your classroom.

tag(s): communities (36), hispanic (28), service projects (17), spanish (105)

Write your own original books, add images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. There is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling." Take advantage of the free apps that make Bookemon even easier to use with any device! Use Bookemon Reader to READ books you created in Bookemon or Bookemon edCenter (available for both iOS and Android). BookPress for iOS devices only allows you to CREATE books from scratch, including using photos from your iPad/iPhone. InstaPress (for iOS only) offers options to make books from documents, pdfs, etc. to be shared on mobile devices as eBooks. Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up free membership on this site, students (or teachers) can select to create from a blank start or to use the templates provided. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. EdCenter users can collaborate on books.

After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire book online, either among an audience of "just my friends" or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books on a class or school web page, wiki, or blog. The easiest option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.

This site requires a simple registration. Teachers can set up an edCenter for their school or class in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions "In the Classroom" below and in our sample book! Newer mobile device options include players to view your books on iPads and more.
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tag(s): creative writing (122), digital storytelling (141), writing (315)

This VERY simple tool lets you or your students make simple, folded small booklets that fit in a pocket. You choose what will appear on each page: from blank space to lines to calendars or checklists. Then print the single sheet (and run copies!) for a student "organizer" useful for homework assignments, long-term project deadlines, checklists, even student-made study guides. Students use the booklets the old fashioned way: by WRITING in them; but the clever, customizable format lets you teach organizational skills in a way that works.

See a sample PocketMod checklist, notes, and calendar booklet (with a separate page of folding directions) and one made from a PDF of the Pennsylvania Science and Technology Standards, converted using the free downloadable software.
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tag(s): organizational skills (90)

Are you looking to collect and analyze class data easily? Choose from 16 different ways to view data. Decide the items you wish to count (the free plan allows up to 1000 different things to be counted.) Also determine the category the items can be placed into (use up to 24 different categories in the free account.) Add a statement panel to your display panel to add notes and make comments about the data. Be sure to click the How To at the bottom of the home page to learn how to use the Daytum site. Also click the "Watch A Screencast" link for additional help. Data can also be collected via text or Twitter tweets.

tag(s): charts and graphs (169), data (146), infographics (55), statistics (114), visualizations (11)

Preceden is a free service that allows you to create timelines with multi-layers for overlapping events. The different layers are visually interesting and allow you to easily see the sequence of events in several different ways. You can input your own time increments such as by day, week, month, year, decade, etc. In addition, you can create your own labels for events. You need to create a FREE account to make a timeline. Timelines can be embedded on your blog, shared by URL, or download as a PDF.

tag(s): timelines (49)

The goal of this community is to improve education in all schools from elementary level through university level. The site offers many resources for teachers of all levels for improving critical thinking skills. Teachers may want to start at the Where to Begin section of the site then choose the appropriate grade level for his/her needs. This will lead to many links of resources such as lessons, a glossary of critical thinking terms, and articles to improve teaching of critical thinking. Some grade levels also include strategies and suggestions for students.

tag(s): critical thinking (112), enrichment (9), logic (163), teaching strategies (41)