Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Although this site is no longer maintained, most links are working. This site introduces students to the religion of Islam. There is a 26-minute video, which includes questions and answers submitted by students. There are also informative guides, chats, quizzes, pictures, interviews and much, much more. Though some of the activities require Flash, there is still a lot to be learned at this site.

This site is part of a set of detailed cultural, political, and historical summaries created by the Library's Federal Research Service. The emphasis is on less commonly studied nations, and the material will be challenging for some students.

This site examines Napoleon's rise and fall. Originally the companion to a four-part video series by the same title, this site has strong biographical information about Napoleon, as well as interactive resources like a simulation of the Battle of Waterloo. There are also lesson plans for using the site.

Take a unique approach to American History! Games have been used for generations to advance political agendas and propaganda, or to solicit support for social causes. This site includes early nineteenth-century geographical board games; a Civil War game; suffrage games that aided in the battle for women's votes; and a selection of games inspired by television programming. Explore these selections in class and challenge students to consider games that are popular today. What will our pastimes reveal to the historians of the future? Though some of this site requires Flash, there is still a lot of information here to learn about games way in the past and in the recent past.

Celebrate great African-Americans from this complete link. Research those famous in medicine, politics, arts & entertainment, armed forces, and sports. This site is actually a downloadable PDF file of a Teacher's Guide with standards, objectives, printables, discussion questions, and specific activity ideas. The PDF file links to a site that provides a timeline of "prejudice to pride." Examples of activities include analyzing photos or poetry, research presentations, and writing exercises. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

howstuffworks offers a brief explanation of this Jewish high holy day, along with a description of customary holiday observances.

This simple site offers several "Classroom Connections" to use in conjunction with a field trip to the museum. However, many of these ideas could easily be adapted into research projects or writing assignments for students in social studies or history class without a museum visit. All topics relate to Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, or 19th Century Kids.

This site is part of a set of detailed cultural, political, and historical summaries created by the Library's Federal Research Service. The emphasis is on less commonly studied nations, and the material will be challenging for some students.

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.

This census site is huge! It will help you teach your students what they count and why! This site is for grades K-12. "Statistics - Census in Schools" has so many resources they can't all be given justice here. There are four tabs at the top for Activities, Resources, Standards, and About. scroll down the page to find Classroom Activities by subject; however the Activities tab includes grade levels and Home and Distance Learning. The Resources tab has Games, Maps, Fun Facts, Videos, Warm-up Activities, and more. There are a plethora of links to other sources on each page.

This site gives background information, Internet resources, and activity ideas for class discussion and projects on the rising nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan.

This site is part of a set of detailed cultural, political, and historical summaries created by the Library's Federal Research Service. The emphasis is on less commonly studied nations, and the material will be challenging for some students.

Comprised of images of women working (both inside and outside of the home) from the 18th and 19th centuries, this site is a good source of primary images of women from the time period. The images are organized in several themes: domestic work, women as merchants, women and war, teaching and education, factory workers, performers and artists, and miscellaneous workers. Each theme contains some brief discussion and several primary images.

This collection of primary sources from the Library of Congress is organized around key topics and themes in American History. View Primary Source Set titles in alphabetical order from Abraham Lincoln through Women's Suffrage. Choose any topic to view Teacher's Guides and analysis tools including graphic organizers for students. Sort information to find materials meeting Common Core Standards, State Standards, or national organization standards.

If taking your students to Washington, D.C., just isn't a possibility, this site is the next best thing to being there. The interactive and viewer friendly tour provides panoramic photos, fascinating historical information, and interesting details about many of the objects encountered along the way. This is an extensive tour, so a teacher-created plan with explicit directions is strongly suggested before students embark on the field trip.

Discover Historical information, Services, Agencies, Tourism, Jobs, Events and more at this Arizona state home 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!

This searchable, nonpartisan site analyzes and comments on the claims and statements made by U.S. politicians. TV ads, political debates, interviews, and speeches are carefully examined to uncover distortions, misstatements, and mangled facts. A great resource to incorporate into a lesson on the 2008 election process.

This site is part of a set of detailed cultural, political, and historical summaries created by the Library's Federal Research Service. The emphasis is on less commonly studied nations, and the material will be challenging for some students.

This site is part of a set of detailed cultural, political, and historical summaries created by the Library's Federal Research Service. The emphasis is on less commonly studied nations, and the material will be challenging for some students.