January 15, 2023

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Featured EDTECH Resources Reviewed by TeachersFirst

Thousands of Teacher-reviewed Resources!

10 Wonderful Writing Resources

Put (digital) pen to paper in honor of National Handwriting Day on January 23! Use these resources to help students learn and practice the art of writing. 

Grades 3-12

OK2Ask: 3 Cool Tools for Persuasive Writing

Understanding the terms "fact," "opinion," and "evidence" is key to digital literacy, and using them appropriately will help students construct an argument. View this on-demand workshop to learn about new tech tools and strategies for persuasive writing.

Grades K-6

Writer's Workshop

What is a writer’s workshop? How do I get started? Where can I find resources? This exclusive resource from TeachersFirst answers these questions and much more. Don’t miss the downloadable resources, organizers, templates, and the link to planning sheets!

Grades K-12

Twitter Chat: Diving Into Digital Writing

This archived Twitter chat opens in Wakelet and explores digital writing. During this chat, participants discussed strategies for maximizing available classroom technology and explored alternative ways to use tech tools for digital writing experiences.

Grades 8-12

College Essay Builder

Share the College Essay Builder with students as they prepare to write college admission applications, or use it as a guide for writing personal essays about any topic. Sign up to receive tools like StoryBuilder and a series of story-writing courses.

Grades 1-5

Biographies with BrainPOP Jr. - Martin Luther King Jr.

This week is the perfect time to teach elementary students about civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Have students view the short video, then click "Write About It" to find an engaging and timely writing exercise related to Dr. King.

Grades 5-12

How to Research: Ultimate Guide [+Online Tools]

Add a link on your website to this handy guide that provides a step-by-step guide to creating a research paper from start to finish. The manual begins with an overview of the three universal research purposes: exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory.

Grades K-12

Wordtune

Wordtune is a fabulous Chrome extension and Microsoft Word add-on that takes your writing and provides suggestions for rephrasing to clarify the information to make it more concise and engaging. The free plan offers up to twenty rewrites per day.

Grades 5-12

Write and Improve

Explore this tool that provides practice and instant feedback on written responses to prompts. Choose from one of the many provided topics, then narrow down options based on writing level (beginner to advanced) and length (emails, stories, etc.).

Grades K-12

Book Creator

Design beautiful, multimedia digital books. Create books as a class as you move through a unit or topic. Enhance student learning by adding images and ideas your students suggest. In a flipped lesson, use stories to deliver course information.

Grades K-5

WriteReader

With WriteReader, students create books that include text, pictures, and voice recordings. Teachers have space on the page to write comments and make corrections. The interface is so simple even young children can use it successfully.

This Week at TeachersFirst

Tomorrow, we pause to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We then invite you to join us for two professional learning opportunities: our first OK2Ask virtual workshop of 2023 on Tuesday and our bimonthly Twitter chat on Thursday. We are also sharing a related blog post and kindly request your input in our weekly poll.      


  Honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. image

Monday, 1/16, 2023

Honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tomorrow is the day we pause to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We are sharing a collection of classroom resources that includes timelines, lesson plans, primary sources, videos, and other information about civil rights events and leaders.

Discover resources to incorporate into your lessons »


  OK2Ask: TeachersFirst Tech Tools Smackdown image

Tuesday, 1/17, 7 PM ET

OK2Ask: TeachersFirst Tech Tools Smackdown

Many technology tools are available for classroom use, but which are teachers’ favorites? This session will share and compare some of TeachersFirst contributors’ favorite resources. Help us decide which tool is this session’s winner of our Smackdown!

Evaluate one or more tools for classroom use »


  Twitter Chat: SEL: Strategies to Support and Empower Learners image

Thursday, 1/19, 8 PM ET

Twitter Chat: SEL: Strategies to Support and Empower Learners

Come and tweet with us using the hashtags #OK2Ask and #TeachersFirst as we explore resources that help students use social awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships.

Discuss ways to develop self-awareness and self-management skills »


  Tech Tool of the Month: Elementari  image

Infusing Technology Blog

Tech Tool of the Month: Elementari

Read this blog post to learn about Elementari, a colorful and engaging website that allows you to easily create digital stories as slideshows. This blog post includes connections to standards and frameworks, classroom use ideas, and a full tutorial.

Discover Elementari »


  Weekly Poll image

Share your thoughts with our community

Weekly Poll

This week our poll asks, “What type of writing do you find the most challenging to teach?” Submit your reply and view the responses of other educators.

Expository, narrative or persuasive? »

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About TeachersFirst
TeachersFirst is a collection of curated, classroom-ready content and ideas — including teacher-authored reviews of thousands of web resources. Built-in guidance from seasoned professionals makes effective classroom technology use trouble-free. TeachersFirst is made available free to K12 teachers by The Source for Learning, Inc., a nonprofit that has been providing educational resources for more than 40 years.