Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Use code to make your own Minecraft game or learn the basics of computer coding by moving characters through a Minecraft world with these Hour of Code activities. From the top of the page choose one of the Minecraft Activities like Voyage Aquatic, Heros Journey, Adventurer, or Designer. These activities teach and reinforce coding skills through the familiar Minecraft game. Scroll down the page to watch one of the inspirational video as an introduction. Free resources include a lesson plan, videos, computer science curriculum, and a teacher training. The free trial is limited by the number of logins and includes 25 for teachers with an Office 365 Education account and 10 for all other users. Trial logins cannot be refreshed.

Let's face it, creating proper citations is difficult due to the many different formats and the variety of sources cited. EduBirdie helps with this problem with its Auto Citer. Click Citation Generators from the top menu and then choose the type of format you need. The three step procedure begins at the top menu with choosing the type of work that is cited then moves on to adding requested information to the form generator. Click "Generate Citation" to complete your citation ready to copy and paste into any document.

Formilla is a live chat widget add-on for your website. Compatible with all formats, Formilla is customizable for different languages and appearance. Free accounts include access to one website, one chat agent, and up to 30 chats/emails.
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Loom is a Chrome browser extension for creating quick and easy video screen recordings up to five minutes long. Download and install the extension following directions on the site. Loom allows you to record the entire desktop, just an application, or use the computer camera for recording. When finished, Loom automatically saves the recording and provides the URL for sharing through Gmail or social accounts. As of March 12, 2020 Loom is offering their PRO program free to verified teachers. This is a permanent change; moving forward Loom will continue to provide Loom Pro to verified teachers and students for free.

Classroomscreen is a background utility for use with interactive whiteboards or projector screens. Choose from circles at the bottom of the screen to add 13 widgets including a calming background, random name picker, text, timer, and clock. Drag items to place them on the screen as desired. You can use Classroomsceen without signing up, but will get more features, for free, if you create and account. There is also a premium version, but this review is only for the free versions.
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Is a paperless classroom your goal? Duck Soup is for you! Instead of making copies of papers to hand out and then grade, upload any PDF or Word document to your Duck Soup account to quickly turn it into an e-sheet gradable activity. Receive feedback in real time as students complete work. Duck Soup also offers the ability for students to "write" on documents as they would with pencil and paper. Options include setting times to submit responses, set number of retries for incorrect responses, and set values of questions. This site fully integrates with Google Drive making it a "must have" for any Google Classroom.

Ganttology is a web-based service for creating Gantt charts. Gantt charts allow you to track the progress of tasks using horizontal bars representing sub-tasks and milestones. Free accounts allow you to create a chart with up to 50 tasks including groups and sub-groups. Other features include color coding of items and the option of assigning tasks to different people.
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Expresso is a tool to improve and analyze writing through providing data to enhance your writing style. Paste your work into Expresso to analyze your sample. Expresso's analysis provides a significant amount of data including the number of weak verbs in your writing, frequently used words, and readability statistics. Take full advantage of the power of this site by exploring how to use the sections in the metrics information menu and the site's tutorial.

Drag, upload, or paste text files to convert your text to speech instantly. Choose from many voice and language options for replay. Other options allow control over the speed of your speech replay. Use the upload icon to save to your computer.
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Build an emoji with Bitmoji. Bitmoji is an Android and Apple app, also available as a Chrome extension. Use email to create an account then follow prompts to create an emoji with your likeness; save it as a PNG to your computer, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive. The fun starts after creating your emoji! Choose from countless options to share your Bitmoji in emails, messages, as an avatar (even inserting it into your favorite games), or anywhere you communicate online.

The purpose of this blog and the accompanying podcast and videos is to support "a vibrant, encouraging, stimulating community of teachers, supporting each other toward excellence." General education, resource, and ESL/ELL teachers will find plenty of subjects of interest. Choose from broad topics including instruction, classroom management, or technology for ideas in honing your craft through topics of interest to any teacher. Dig deeper to find leadership ideas and hot topics. Check further down the page to browse and find information on specific subjects and grade levels.

Twig Science Reporter provides high-quality videos and resources for teaching K-5 students science with real-world news through scientific inquiry and reasoning. Weekly content additions ensure fresh content for viewers. Scroll through the home page to view the most recent content. Each item includes information on the type of material within the link such as articles, video, or news update all correlated to NGSS standards. Also, all content includes learning points for discussion, curriculum keywords, and links to additional information. The site was created in the UK, so some of the pronunciations and spellings may differ from those in American English.

Weather Lab is a browser-based app that allows you to take on the role of a meteorologist in North America. Interact with weather processes to predict spring weather and appropriate clothing for different regions of the United States. Follow the instructions to choose an ocean current and air mass, then make your prediction for preparing for the day's weather. Correct predictions initiate an animation showing the weather event, or click to see a satellite image of a similar event.

Capture your entire screen, or just a part of it with this easy to use screen recorder that includes audio. Download and install the launcher required for your operating system then follow prompts to set up your recording. Save in several popular video formats or directly upload your recording to YouTube, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

Create beautiful multimedia digital books with Book Creator. Scroll down the landing page to the bottom menu, and click the "Help With Getting Started" title. Note: This points out how you need to change to the "teacher sign in" (the default is for students). This is a wonderful tool with many features. Reading the short Getting Started Overview first and watching the beginning videos would be best. Then, you can go to the Resources tab from the top menu, where each grade level has a video, and you'll find example books created by students. Under Resources, you can also search by subject to find suggested ideas and books designed for a specific subject. Next, click Resources from the top menu to find the "Teach your first lesson toolkit" with lesson plans, remixable student templates for different age ranges, and a teacher guide. You can also choose Remixable Books to get you and your class started. When finished, publish and share your book using the site's web-based reader for access on any device. Once you have mastered the basics, click on Features to see the magic of using the pen and discover all the features of the graphic organizers, comics, and more. By clicking the "more" you will can embed documents on your page(s). These documents can be narrated and interactive! The free plan offers one library with up to 40 books storage. Book Creator presents a variety of levels for technology use depending on teacher requirements for the project or even student ability; it allows for adding narration, videos, text, using your webcam, and adding links to help explain the artwork. When creating your book, click on the big + in the upper right corner to add text, audio, images, your camera, and the pen; you will also see The lowercase "i" (for inspector), which offers colors, comics, paper type, and more. There are other apps, but you must have a premium account. You can use Book Creator on iPads, Macs, Android devices, PCs, and on these browsers: Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Chrome. Teachers need to provide an email to create an account. However, students do not need emails to make their books. Once ready, follow the site's prompts to add video, text, images, audio, and more to your book.
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