Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Confidently share YouTube videos without distractions or offensive comments with Safe YouTube (no registration required!). Paste the URL of a YouTube link into the bar to generate a safe view link and begin viewing. Use links provided to download or share through social networking sites. If your district blocks YouTube; then they may not be viewable.

Patch is an online newspaper created to provide local information to its readers. By default, readers see top news for the USA including trending information, business news, and arts and entertainment. Personalize your feed by entering your zip code or city. Share your story or photos by clicking on "Post on Patch" and following the instructions. Create an account to share your story and photos. Commenting on articles does not require an account. Comments are public, so be sure to check articles before sharing.
This site includes advertising.

PrepFactory is a free SAT and ACT preparation site. Sign up using email, Facebook, or your Google account to begin. Choose a test and then start watching videos or answering practice questions. Earn experience points along the way as you unlock different problem sets and view videos.

Find many strategies and techniques to keep your class engaged and interested! Many of the strategies are also helpful in adult meetings. View the short video on the home page to get a good overview of what to find and how to navigate this site. Click the View Our Tools button next to the video to see all the tools offered. Not only will all the tools be displayed, but on the left, find a menu with categories to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Most tools now have a video to see the tool in action. There are Opening and Closing Activities, Checks for Understanding, Reading Strategies, and more. There is no sign in to see all the activities. However, by joining the site, you will be able to take and save notes for the different tools of interest. Each tool has an overview of how and when to use it, variations of the tool, and templates (downloaded in Word) for participants to use. Some tools have accompanying videos to show the tool in action. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable; be sure to look at alternatives for sharing the videos on classroom computers.

Find your sticky notes with the click of a button. Post your important notes or lists to your home screen on your computer quickly and easily. Download the software and begin writing notes. Easily delete with one button. Change color, theme, or text type on each sticky note if you desire.
This site includes advertising.

Avoid capitalization confusion! This simple tool does it for you using The Chicago Manual of Style rules. Enter your title to view it correctly in several different formats. Choose from title, upper or lower case, start case, or sentence case. Click "Copy" to copy and paste into your document. This is a very simple tool to use. There are many advertisements on the site. Ignore the ads, and use this great freebie!
This site includes advertising.

Get ready to sharpen your information and visual presentations! Discover resources to make your presentations pop at The eLearning Coach. Find downloadable storyboard templates, editing tools, and examples of online learning. Included are various podcasts to support instructional design. Articles also support audio, authoring tools, graphics, video, mobile learning, and more. The site also provides support and advice. They offer many free templates, ready to go! This site contains some products for purchase. This review is for the free part of this tool.
This site includes advertising.

You are the reporter on Grasswire, a collaborative Internet newsroom! Scroll through to read the most current, most popular stories, or view recent submissions on the right-hand side of the screen. Create an account and sign in to submit your own stories, comment on articles, or up-vote newsworthy items. Since these are user-submitted, take caution in allowing students to explore on their own. Some grammatical errors were noted in a few of the articles. Challenge your students to be the editors and see if they can find any errors.

All-inclusive student response is what Plickers is all about. Students do not need to have Internet access. Responders use individualized QR Code cards (print a set FREE from Plickers), to answer questions. You use your mobile device to read the QR Code cards that students hold up. Create an account and get started immediately. No need to wait for an email response. There is a demo to use, or see the Support page on the bottom menu for detailed instructions for adding classes, students, questions (with or without images), and folders to organize your questions by unit, topic, lesson and more. You can save student responses to your online Plicker account.
This site includes advertising.

Wimp offers a wide variety of videos with family-friendly content. Browse through the site using a keyword search or choose categories such as popular, life, culture, learning, and more. Choose a video to read a short description and view. Videos are imported from many different locations such as Vimeo, YouTube, and individual websites. Also, view Wimp on your mobile device by clicking on their link that is optimized for mobiles. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. Although the content is family-friendly, this site contains comments that aren't monitored. If sharing with students, go to the direct link provided with each video for viewing without some of the distractions (and possibly inappropriate comments).
This site includes advertising.

Join the community designed to educate students and all learners in 21st century learning. The mission consists of building collaborative partnerships between education, businesses, government, and community leaders to promote learning skills needed in the 21st century for life, work, and citizenship. P21 strives to prepare all students for the challenges of the future. Find a framework for student outcomes with support system outlines. Resources for educators include sample lesson ideas, Common Core alignment, P21 Common Core Tool Kit, professional development guides, 21st century skill maps in a variety of subject areas, case studies of exemplar schools, a newsletter, and a Blogazine. Resources for policymakers include information on definitions, framework, and implementing 21st century skills. A parents' guide contains information on 21st century skills and leadership. Most downloadable materials are free. Get a press kit or join an advocacy group or mailing list.
This site includes advertising.

Choosito! is a search engine providing safe access to the worldwide web through filtering of reading levels and subject areas for education. Create an account to add class information and add your collections. Search Choosito! using filters for reading level and subject. Limit searches to Choosito's Library, your collections, or Choosito! Web. Easily share searches using social networking links or save to your library. Be sure to check out the Choosito! Start Guides for a quick overview to getting started with this search engine.

Jump onto your computer and start your road trip! Choose a destination, and start planning the Hotels, Attractions, Natural Wonders, and Weird Stuff for your trip. Plan your trip by entering the starting address and the final destination. Instantly discover the journey's duration, the amount of money needed for gas, and the mileage. Choose the dates you will travel and save your trip. Print your plans, email them to yourself or others, or access your trip plans on the app. Plan several trips and save them in your account. Not sure where you want to go? Discover interesting areas by viewing the stories posted on Roadtrippers. Be sure to preview what you will show students as not all journals are kid friendly.
This site includes advertising.

Start speed-reading with Squirt! Just install Squirt on your bookmarks bar. Clicking Try It Now will show you how this tool works. Back on the home page, click Install Squirt to read the FAQs and install the bookmarklet. When visiting a page on the web, select the text you would like to speed-read. Click on the bookmarklet, and watch the magic of Squirt begin. Squirt shows one word at a time while you adjust the speed of the words you read.

Capture your audience's attention with audio messages from Clash. Type in your message of up to 140 characters and let Clash work its magic. Clash uses audio content from music, movies, and TV. It creates a unique message that is sure to capture anyone's interest. Edit individual words using options from different sources. When finished, choose the Save/Share button and share using the URL or social networking options. Clash seem to work best on Microsoft's Edge. Clash will work on any device with a modern web browser and an internet connection.

Find, organize, edit, and share your photos from one place with Google Photos. Automatically upload pictures from any device to one storage platform. Use keywords to locate any uploaded image. Use the editing tools to create animated GIF's from images or combine related images and videos into a movie with a matching soundtrack. Google Photos allows you to upload photos from any mobile device and provides free unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels or videos up to 1080 HD.

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!

Digital Citizenship offers a large number of resources for teaching digital citizenship for students of all ages, teachers, and parents. Scroll down the page to find categories for Online safety, Healthy online habits, Teaching and learning, and more to begin. Each section includes articles and resources for learning responsible digital citizenship. The site was created in Australia. American English speakers may notice some slight differences in spellings and pronunciations. The videos reside on sites other than Digital Citizenship. Some are on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

Begin a research unit with Mission Possible, a downloadable online movie promoting research skills, effective searches, writing skills, citations, and Internet safety. Along with the video, find an accompanying teacher lesson plan for providing a great start for the introduction of a research project. A student worksheet goes along with the lesson.

TeachThought stretches teachers to think beyond the norm, and try new exciting ideas such as learning in a digital world, flipped classrooms, project based learning, and simulations. A few examples of the articles include: 10 Team Building Games that Promote Critical Thinking, 25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area, 55 Free Apps For iPads, 249 Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs for Critical Thinking, 14 Brilliant Bloom's Taxonomy Posters For Teachers, and 20 Things You Can Do in 10 Minutes For A Smoother Running Classroom. Join in the conversation, add your opinion, or ask a question. Sign up for TeachThought's newsletter.
This site includes advertising.