Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research curation tool, knowledge-sharing community, website annotation tool, and social information network all rolled into one "cloud" package. To get started, check out the About link. You will find information and videos on the uses of Diigo. Set up an account, being sure to click the FREE education edition upgrade. 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. At this time Diigo is experiencing issues with the "Top 10 Tags" from the menu on the left.

This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
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The Cube Creator offers four different options for creating and personalizing a printable cube for summarizing or story-telling: Bio Cube, Mystery Cube, Story Cube, or Create your Own Cube. Follow prompts to create the cube. The planning sheets help you collect information before making the actual printable cube. Once you have entered all your information, print and follow directions to assemble the paper cube. Follow links to find lessons that use this interactive as well as suggestions for other uses. There are lessons for grades 3-4 up through grades 11-12. Note: Read Write Think has added the capability for students to save their work to continue later. In the last paragraph of the Overview, there is a link to watch the video: Saving Work With the Student Interactives.

"Never stop learning" with this wonderful, high quality, and easy to use site. View videos and live cams, documents, and photos about people around the world who have devoted their lives to extraordinary causes. Search through a wide range of places or causes. View a range of topics from health, animal rights, spiritualism, and education. Explore a variety of global issues to bring cultures and issues into perspective. View videos in HD. Download and embed videos for reuse. Remixing videos is against the acceptable use policy of the site. Read descriptions which provide the necessary background information and view links of related content and materials. This site is a must see! Selected videos can be used with younger elementary classes, depending on the curriculum connections.

Plimoth Plantation (that's the original spelling) is a reconstruction of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth. Take a field trip to the Plimoth Plantation just in time for Thanksgiving. From Learn at the top menu, find and slide down to Bring Plimoth Patuxet to Your School and take a virtual field trip to an English village and Wampanoag home site from 1627. Go inside a Wetu, or home, and look. Become a historian and uncover what really happened on the first Thanksgiving. Primary sources give accounts from the Wampanoag traditions to the English home of Pilgrim Mary Allerton. Each student will finish with a printed exhibition panel. Dig into your ancestry to find out if you are a pilgrim. Find actual genealogical profiles. Explore the museum collections of artifacts. Find these resources under the Learn tab at the top menu; slide down to Teachers Tools, and scroll down the page until your find the resources menu on the left. Besure to check out the Digital Resources!
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Google Lit Trips collects annotated maps on Google Earth to illustrate the travels found in great works of literature. The site presents the work of teachers and others and continues to add maps and content. Literary works are divided by grade level. Each map also provides links to other online material related to the work illustrated, and some trips are accompanied by related podcasts.

"Lit trips" can be reviewed by users so teachers can see comments left by other users. This site uses Google Earth which must be downloaded first. Find full info on Google Earth in the TeachersFirst review, including the link to download.

Users can find any flag in the world in this well-updated database. To search for a specific country's flag, simply click on the first letter of the country and thumbprint flags from all countries beginning with that letter come up. Besides coming to a full sized representation of the flag, readers also see important statistics such as religion, currency, and languages as well as important organizations the country belongs to such as the U.N. In one click, a contextual map of the country comes up.

Prezi is a visual, "zoomable" presentation tool. It is similar to PowerPoint and Keynote, but there is so much more to Prezi! You can graphically arrange a large amount of content, such as a big idea with its supporting information. It creates very dynamic presentations. See samples by clicking "log in" then "Explore" (instead of logging in). Choose a background, follow the instructions and prompts of the program, and before you know it, you will have your very own Prezi to share. If you like to see directions, watch the quick intro video. You can also view Prezis created by others and use them as templates for your own work. Check out the sample created by the TF Edge team here. This tool works in ANY device's web browser, from iPod to Android to laptop. Collaborate on a Prezi with other Prezi members in real time using the Share function. Have a "meeting" to work on the same Prezi in real time. There is a free "edu enjoy" level of membership (requires a school issued email and verification) that allows you to keep your Prezis private, out of public sharing. The regular "enjoy" membership is free for only one month, and its Prezis are public. After 30 days you will be asked if you want to upgrade or continue with the free Prezi, which has File storage limits for free accounts.

This site, created by The History Place offers a chronological listing of Civil War events (with pictures) and is easy to navigate. This site features topics such as Fort Sumter Attacked, Gettysburg, Shiloh, and several others. The timeline format is easy to understand. The photos are authentic and informative.

These interactive geography quizzes test basic spatial knowledge of continents and oceans, the United States, and countries throughout the world. Click on an area of the map to select a quiz. Great review activity.

Although this site is "plain vanilla," it offers some nice research information and photos of five "Lincoln" topics: Lincoln Becomes President, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision. Nearly all of this site is displayed in a timeline format. There are some basic advertisements at this site, nothing too distracting.

Biography TimeLine Templates are back-to-basics download files for creating simple timelines. With the user-friendly format for entering information, this site could be a great method by which to begin timeline introduction lessons as well as for organizing and writing informational pieces. The timeline capability could be utilized for either autobiographies or biographies. Be prepared for the simplicity of this site. It does not contain a variety of editing options.

This is a comprehensive site offering detailed information on the black leagues and the players who made them great. This is an excellent addition to Black History Month! There are links to learn about the history of black leagues, the players of black leagues, and the teams of black leagues. Be aware - there is a link to buy merchandise from the Negro Baseball League. However, all of the information provided is free.

This site offers a complete on-screen primer on fire safety for parents of all ages of children. The very top menu includes an Image Gallery and Podcasts.The menu on the left includes many valuable articles including Prevent Fires, At Risk Audiences, Arson and Youth Firesetting, Outdoor Fires/Wildfires, and many others. This one's worth adding to your Favorites for safety topics.

Use this site to create polls for your students (or have students create their own). The polls are embeddable in your wiki, blog, or class website. The site is still in beta. You can create a name, an expiration date for the survey, questions (multiple choice, yes or no, and ranking), and input your email address to be informed as results come into the site. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Registration is not required to use this site. There are some advertisements and external links at this site (all appropriate at the time of this review). So if you allow students to use this site on their own, be sure to watch carefully.

Here's an extremely well-designed site about the history of American transportation that really moves. You can approach the content in several ways: an eighteen part chronology filled with images, thematic presentations on immigration, technology, etc., or a sizeable collection of reproducible lessons and teaching materials. Middle schoolers should handle the writing level adequately, and the site is sufficiently visual that upper elementary users will follow the presentation. This one should be a welcome addition to anyone's transportation unit.

Use Over the Top to explore life as a World War I soldier in the trenches. This interactive adventure is in the form of a story. An introduction page sets the stage for the site as well as providing helpful hints and an overview. Click "Begin Your Adventure" to start. For connections with slower speeds, click on "Low Graphics Version" for a faster alternative. Enter a first name, last name, friend's name, and city to begin. Check your school policies on whether student names may be displayed online and what information is permitted (perhaps initials are suggested), then enforce that policy with your students. The pop up shows an animated cartoon, written narrative below, and audio that reads the narrative. The scene can be replayed for any information missed. Audio can be adjusted in the upper right hand corner and the narratives can also be displayed in French. Turn to the next frame using the arrow to the right. Go back to the previous screen with the left arrow. Click on words that are underlined as they are live links that bring up definition boxes for understanding of key vocabulary terms. At points in the story, students can choose one or more options for more detailed stories. Students and buddy names as well as the name of the town appear throughout the story.