Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Find information on this site, not only for Washington State educators but for all teachers. This site has four Learning Goals that can apply to any student in any state. From the left menu, find resources like Talking to Young People About Race, Racism, and Equity, Open Education Resources, Special Education, Learning Alternatives, and others. Explore Learning Standards by subject and year of adoption.

This online library includes books and literary works in the public domain from a large variety of authors: Victor Hugo, Samuel Johnson, Karl Marx, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, and countless others. The genres include essays, fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, single quotations, and short stories. To find desired works, you can search by author or by specific title.

This site provides extra practice with phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang for ESL and ELL students and any students learning about idioms. The thematically organized idioms and slang choices provide definitions, sentences, and comprehension exercises, all attractively packaged. The phrasal verb sections with "do," "come," and "go" provide practice and explanations of some of the most confusing verbs in English.

This site provides quizzes, interactives, and extra grammar help for older learners. Students can choose from over 300 grammar quizzes. Topics range from "Adjectives and Prepositions" to "AM, IS, or ARE" to "Currencies of the World" to "Zero Infinitive" to hundreds of other topics! Whatever grammar topic you are learning about or teaching, chances are very good that it is here. Though originally meant for ESL/ELL learners, this site is appropriate for all learners. The site also includes downloadable resources for teacher and student use.
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Looking for a way to teach vocabulary about the Holocaust? Explore vocabulary and word activities related to the Holocaust on this extensive site for vocabulary, roots, and more. Find interactive vocabulary activities the same list of using Holocaust vocabulary words. There are printable crosswords, fill in the blanks and more, all using the same theme words. This and other "themes" available on the site will make vocabulary development fun.

Students can test their core knowledge of English, French, German, math, social studies and more with this entertaining collection of interactive quizzes, puzzles and games. Click on the Learning Hub and select a level (elementary, middle school, or high school) to explore age-appropriate challenges across content areas. Many of the activities on this site are free, but registration and a fee are required to access some of the special features.

This website provides descriptions and examples of myths, legends, and fables. The stories are from all around the world. The comprehension levels vary from early elementary school through primary (grade levels are listed with the stories). At first glance, this website may appear too juvenile for middle school students. However, many of the activities and stories are quite age-appropriate and would be both educational and enjoyable for middle school classrooms.

Create online sticky type bulletin boards to view from any online device using lino. Click to try it first without even joining. The "Give it a shot!" button has a "How to" canvas has stickies explaining how to use lino. Join and create your own canvases to share stickies, reminders, files, and more. Change sticky colors from the menu in the upper right hand corner or use the easy editing tools that appear when the sticky is selected. Use the icons at the bottom of each sticky note to "peel them off," share, edit, and more. Create a group from your lino page to share and collaborate on canvases. You can also share canvases publicly so anyone with the URL can participate. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly.

Though this site is now archived, the links and information are still good. This is a true on-line digital library, with information about the books searched presented in a library-type (MARC) format; items include title, author, keyword, subjects, notes, content vocabulary etc. Links to the digitized texts are offered in both pdf and jpeg form at the bottom of the page. The collection covers children's literature from 1850 to 1950 and more, only those items found in the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida. While not a comprehensive library in the sense of offering the classics of children's literature, the approach is instructional and the offerings well presented. Items are searchable by keyword, author, and title.

Teaching poetry can be a challenge in any school. Here's a site that offers both teaching strategies (lots of them!) and teacher-designed lessons on a variety of topics. If you approach the annual poetry unit reluctantly, take courage here.

The Poetry Archive is a comprehensive place for bringing poetry to life in your classroom. This resource provides lesson plans and activities for all key stages, built around authentic recordings that offer lively, engaging ways of unraveling the mystery of poetry. There are numerous internet sites that provide audio versions of poems; however this site provides access to the actual voice of the poets as they read their poems the way they intended them to be heard. Find out what they say about their own writing and the importance of hearing poems aloud. Browse all poems by title, poet's name, poetic forms, or themes. A full glossary of poetic terms is provided. There are various featured poets in residence, and there is even a link to a Children's Archive with favorite poems for younger students. The Poetry Archive includes a wide range of resources designed to help students learn background information on the poets and understand the context for their work.

Select from two levels - beginner or advanced - and practice parts of speech with this interactive game. When students successfully complete a round of questions by identifying the correct word in each sentence, the grammar gorillas receive bananas. Very appealing.

This site provides a detailed list of writing idea generators, what ifs, and more! If you have reluctant writers, students with writer's block, or just need to change things up a bit, this site will fit the bill. The site is visually bland but content-rich, mixing the unlikely with the unusual to build mental flexibility and help spark students' creativity. There are six categories of Story Inspiration: Envisioner, Quick Story Idea Generator, Quick Story Theme Generator, Romance Story Generator, Story Generator, Symbolitron, What-if-inator, and Writing Challenge Generator. An example of an "envisioner" story is "A fusion of the story of the little Dutch boy and the story of Romeo and Juliet that concerns a group of manicurists." The site also includes a TON of links to other writing "generators" - everything from Fantasy Novels to an Adventure Generator. Other ideas include character generators, song challenge, and villain plot generators as well as others. Clicking on one will give you a choice of generating anywhere from 1-50 results and you have the option to print them as well.

Be aware: there are some "social" features of this site (see the Community links. This site also includes some advertisements.

This is a nifty site that includes a variety of children's book reviews, professional resources, and author pages from Avi to James Stephenson. Many of the review pages suggest activities to do with some or all of the books on that page.

Looking for a quiz tool that is better than all the rest? Quizizz is a free tool. It works on any device: web browser, iOS, Android and Chrome apps. You can access hundreds of ready-made learning quizzes or create your own. Join as a teacher, pick a quiz, and use the code for a virtual room to give to your students. Alternatively, you can create your own quiz on Quizizz, even importing questions from excel/CSV files with just a click of a button. Students use the code to enter and submit a nickname, code name, or numerical name (students do not have to register). Quizizz now has to be marked as trusted by an administrator to be able to use it with your Google Classroom account, even if you have been using it. With Google Classroom, students can join by signing in with their Google Account with just one click. Even better, if you assign a Quizizz through Google Classroom, all your data gets updated in your Classroom dashboard. You will get notifications when students complete assignments and their responses and grades show. Teachers can choose to make their quizzes public or private. Embed images with your questions. Check or uncheck the settings, including music. You can even duplicate an existing quiz to save into My Quizizz. A created Quizizz can have randomized or non-randomized questions.

Don't miss the memes that are displayed when students answer a question; these are sure to be a hit with students. You can also customize your Quizizz by creating your own Memes. Use images of the school mascot, students' pets, or favorite game characters to create a set of ten or more memes. Click the My Memes from the top menu, then the plus symbol. You are now ready to start. Be sure to Click "Start Game" after students have entered the code. Send the game link to students (or other teachers to use with their classes) by email, website, or social media. Set time limits of 30 seconds to 5 minutes for students to answer each question. This allows more time for more complex questions. Students earn points for speed and accuracy. Unlike other sites, both teacher and students can see the questions, answers, and the leaderboard throughout the quiz. Most other tools require the teacher to project the answers and leaderboard on a whiteboard. The leaderboard can be turned OFF in this tool as well. And, what is the best part of this tool? Two separate classes can play together using this tool. Quizizz works on any web-enabled device, including smartphones and tablets, and has an iOS app.

You can now email student reports to parents (even send the student reports to multiple/all parents at once), the main navigation bar has moved from the top to the left, and there is a search bar that you can access on all pages, and now you can search both your quizzes and your reports. Quizizz is now available in Spanish and will soon be adding other languages. Don't miss their new Jungle theme with music, backgrounds, and GIFs... oh my!

EZSchool is an educational portal that contains EZ worksheets, interactives, online study tools, and tutorials. Although this site is "busy" with clutter from some related advertisements, it is easy to navigate by grade level, subject, or more specific topics such as grammar, writing, and vocabulary for English, or word problems, geometry, and algebra for math, biology and chemistry for science, as well as Spanish, Japanese, and Hindi language activities. There are also SAT/PSAT practice questions with detailed answers. All materials are free to use, print, and distribute for use in the classroom or at home. The website is frequently updated with new activities. Weekly updates to the site are offered on the home page.
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This website offers a word scramble with words and phrases from fans.

Read Write Think has another winner with an interactive "Persuasion Map" that helps students use persuasive language to make an argument by walking them through the process with their own words. They can print the map, or work online. Clicking on the interactive tool, students enter their name and title (keep the title short). Students can then work back and forth with main points and reasons to support them. They can preview, print, or make changes to their map at any time. To make changes, you must click the "back button" in the top left corner. The page also has a lengthy list of lessons facilitated by the persuasion map; however, it can be used with any persuasive topic. Note: the tool does NOT save their work! Be sure to have them print before ending their session, even if they are not done. At the time of this review, the save feature only worked in an RWT file.