Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Get organized with Media Fire. Store and sync files, folders, and media (photos, music, video). Access them from any computer or mobile device. Download the program to your computer for times when there is no Internet access. MediaFire Desktop keeps your online and locally stored files safe and in sync. View and edit all files and folders privately or share them to collaborate. Find a comprehensive Getting Started PDF manual on the left side menu. Signing up is as easy as typing in your email. MediaFire claims to be "the only online storage solution to offer unlimited downloads, download resuming, zero wait times and more, all for free."
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Do you need help learning how to use Microsoft and Google Suite Products? In Pictures provides a variety of tutorials using color accented screenshots. Choose a product to begin, go step by step through the tutorial, or select a task from the included list. Each tutorial shares complete directions to walk you through the steps to create, edit, and share documents. In addition to Word and Google documents, In Pictures provides tutorials for basic web coding skills and working with Virtual Private Network (VPN) software.
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Use Tumblr as an easy set-up, easy to use microblogging and blogging platform. Tumblr offers many ways to get content into your blog. Choose the text type of content for a more traditional looking blog post. Also choose to share photos, audio, or video. Use the quote, link, or chat option to share quick portions of text. Add additional context information to your post. For example, with a photo, add a caption; or for a link, add a title, description, or link. Edit posts in the dashboard, and add the content type and additional elements. It is best to stay with the plain text editor for ease of use. Create posts by email and SMS as well. Other ways to post content are available through the dashboard. Add posts by installing a Tumblr bookmarklet to your browser window. Use Tumblr to follow others and see recent posts from those people. Change templates and even customize templates. Find those you follow and those who follow you on the right sidebar. The Radar in this sidebar brings in the latest information being posted on Tumblr. This tool can be minimized by clicking the Hide link but does exist and may have inappropriate content. Use the Mega editor to make changes to a lot of posts at the same time. Find the permalink to your post by hovering over the post. The top right corner "folds down," and clicking there provides you the permalink. Note: Make additional Tumblr blogs after you make your initial one (click the + icon in the dashboard.) This allows you the option of making the blog private by password-protecting the viewing of the blog.

Stickies is a collaborative whiteboard for teams that use stickies to share and organize group ideas. In addition to posting sticky notes, Stickies intuitively assigns colors to messages based on the participant's text. For example, "I like" notes turn green, "I wish" is orange, and "We will" becomes blue. After creating an account, double-click on the board to start a new Stickies, then click to add a sticky note. Next, use the plus sign on the dashboard to email and add collaborators. As stickies are added, drag and drop items on the board to organize as desired. You can also make groups by piling the Stickies on top of each other, and you can vote for your favorite ideas. Incognito mode adds a helpful feature when working with collaborators, turn on incognito and set a timer to allow participants a set amount of time to think privately before sharing their sticky.

Design Wizard is an online photo editor app. Create an account using email or login with a Facebook or Google account and verify with a link sent to your email. Choose the link to create a new design to access tools on the dashboard. Choose from thousands of templates and images to create designs for social media, cards, posters, book covers, and much more. When finished, use links to download or share. Note: a great deal of the preloaded content is not free; however, Design Wizard allows users to upload their own images to edit and share.

View visual representations of 200 calorie portion sizes of many foods at Calorie Gallery. Click on any image to view nutrition facts about each item along with other interesting information. Learn calorie density, carb-protein-fat ratio, and various ways to burn off the calories. Add items to the "My Pantry" portion of the site to make side-by-side comparisons of different items. Use the permalink button to share your pantry via email. Note: There is no log-in required. The pantry page explains, "And don't worry, your pantry will be saved for you when you come back!" The pantry collections you make on this site appear to be saved by placing "cookies" (the technical kind, NOT the edible kind!) on the local computer where you make them. This means that the person who opens the site next on that computer will have all your selections showing. Try clearing your web browser's "cache" if you do not want this to happen.

Ribbet is an online photo editing and sharing site that doesn't require sign-up, download, or installation. Follow prompts to upload images, then use Ribbet's editing tools to crop, resize, and fine tune the photo. Liven-up images with stickers, filters, or create collages and more with Ribbet's additional photo tools. When finished, download the picture to your computer or share to Facebook and photo storage sites using the links provided. Free registration allows members to save images and editing history to Ribbet.
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Practice math skills online, print practice sheets, or create your own customized worksheets with this in-depth mathematics site. Choose a grade level to begin. Topics vary from basic operations to Roman numerals to data handling and many others! Choose from the printed paper or solve online options. Free registration is required to print worksheets and complete some of the online activities; however, this option also allows you to customize worksheets to suit your individual needs. An Android app version is available.

Follow five easy steps to create personalized pictograms using the built-in features of this pictogram maker. First, start from scratch or use one of the premade templates and customize your information and design elements. The drag and drop features make it easy for participants to add and change content. After creating an account, begin with a blank template or choose from premade templates, including customer surveys, weather forecasts, and most popular social media channels. After selecting a template, use the dashboard features to change fonts, colors, graphics, data, and more. When complete, share your pictograph using the URL created upon publication, embed it onto a website using the embed code, or download it as a JPG or PNG image file. Visme's Pictogram Maker also offers the option of adding collaborators. Use the collaborator option to share as a view-only image, comment, or add editors.

This collection, created by a black web designer, includes over forty images of people of color for use with any digital project. They include a diverse selection of skin colors, body types, and hairstyles to represent a broad spectrum of black images. In addition to individual images, this pack includes pre-made office and medical scenes. The downloaded contents consist of images in a variety of formats, including PNG, JPG, and others.

Where's George? lets you track the travel of dollar bills through circulation. Enter the serial number on the bill, enter a current zip code, and learn where their bill has been. Choose from two options on the site: find out where a bill has been or enter a current bill to begin tracking from its current location. Finding where a bill has been gives a list of known cities, states, and countries. It also includes travel time, distance, and speed of its journey. Email registration is necessary to follow the travels of a bill and receive notification of current location. One word of caution: it may be wise to enter serial numbers of bills before sharing with the class in case they have been in locations that may need to be screened. Also, be aware this site contains advertisements. At the time of this review, there was a questionable advertisement. Please preview and OPEN, before sharing with your class .
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