Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Second Step offers both a free and a paid SEL curriculum that covers empathy, emotion management, problem-solving, and relationship skills. On the free resources link for educators and families, there are multiple activities broken down by grade band: pre-K, K-5, 6-8, and families. Additional resources on the site include Captain Compassion Comics and child sexual abuse information with how-to guides for different age levels.
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tag(s): empathy (41), listening (96), problem solving (240), social and emotional learning (126), thinking skills (57)

The Restorative Justice website offers a variety of free resources that help educators introduce restorative practices in the classroom. Teachers can access downloadable guides, such as the Restorative Justice Principles and Practice Handbook, along with materials for children and youth that explain core ideas such as encounter, repair, and transformation. These resources support activities such as community-building circles, peer dialogue, and structured conversations to help students repair harm and strengthen relationships. The collection provides practical tools that can be adapted for classroom management, conflict resolution, and creating a positive, inclusive learning environment.

tag(s): classroom management (107), collaboration (81), conflict resolution (10)

Discover a rich collection of free tools to support a strong classroom community and effective social-emotional learning practices. Teachers can access printable resources, including morning meeting templates, goal-setting forms, behavior reflection sheets, and planning guides, all ready to use. The site also provides a large library of articles with practical strategies for positive teacher language, classroom routines, and student engagement, along with free videos and webinar recordings that model best practices and offer professional learning support. These free materials make it easy for teachers to incorporate Responsive Classroom principles into daily instruction.
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tag(s): classroom management (107), social and emotional learning (126), Teacher Utilities (170)

Character Lab is a research-based nonprofit dedicated to helping educators and families build students' character strengths, such as self-control, gratitude, curiosity, kindness, growth mindset, and creativity. On this site, you'll find a set of free "Playbooks" (ready-to-use guides for classroom practice) and "Tips" (short, evidence-based articles) designed for easy integration into real classrooms.

tag(s): social and emotional learning (126)

IdeaBoardz is an easy-to-use a collaborative whiteboard created for brainstorming and sharing ideas. Instead of starting with a blank board and adding information, IdeaBoardz provides several options for creating boards from templates. Choose to create a board, add a name and description to begin. Use the dropdown box to select the type of board from choices such as pro and con or creating from up to ten sections. Next, share your board using the URL provided. Finally, participants select the plus sign located next to a heading to add a sticky note and type comments. Registration is not required; however, creating an account allows participants to revisit saved boards.

tag(s): collaboration (81), graphic organizers (50), iwb (27)

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) provides support and tools that include high-quality information for social and emotional learning. The guide shared on this page provides a framework for evaluating social and emotional programs for preschool and elementary programs, and middle and high school. Open the PDF link to view or print the guide. The guide includes an in-depth discussion of the methods used to rate programs, along with charts with ratings and information on the effectiveness of the programs. To get started download the Quick Guide toward the bottom of the page.

tag(s): professional development (273), social and emotional learning (126)

Kialo offers a platform for focused online discussions, this version is dedicated to educational users. Use Kialo to create and map out debates onto an interactive tree featuring arguments both pro and con. Create your own forum or participate in the questions posed by other site members. Choose to make your question private or public then invite others to contribute. Throughout the debate use the site's tools to rate the impact of arguments and switch perspectives to view opinions from the other side. Be sure to watch Kialo's introductory video for an overview of all of the site's features and check out the sample classroom activities and assignments.

tag(s): collaboration (81), debate (39), perspective (24), point of view (7), Teacher Utilities (170)

Looking for a simple way to spark meaningful conversations and build a positive classroom culture? The ClassDojo Ideas website offers a collection of engaging, ready-to-use activities and lessons designed to support social-emotional learning, classroom community building, and student well-being. Organized into categories such as mindfulness, empathy, growth mindset, and gratitude, the content features short videos, discussion prompts, and reflection exercises that can be easily integrated into daily classroom routines. Ideal for elementary teachers, these resources encourage students to develop positive behaviors and emotional intelligence in a fun and interactive way.

tag(s): brain (55), emotions (55), empathy (41), learning styles (18), social and emotional learning (126), social skills (22)

Seesaw is a digital portfolio that is totally free for all devices and on the web. Students can showcase their work, videos, text, drawings, and images, and get feedback from teachers and parents. Create a class blog in your Seesaw for students to write blog posts. Teachers create an account with email and then start creating as many classes as needed. There is no limit on the number of students a class can have. Once students have parental permission, give students a "join" code for their class, and they sign up from there, choosing to access their account through a Seesaw generated QR code or their email. Teachers can enable or disable student likes, comments, and editing. Blog posts and comments must have teacher approval before becoming public. Students will be able to reflect on their work with a voice recording or text, and can share artifacts from their portfolio by clicking the red button at the bottom of the screen and then either print or get the item QR code. Once you have an account, click Help & Teacher Resources to find Getting Started Tips, Tutorial Videos, FAQs, and Activity Ideas grouped by grade level. If your district blocks YouTube, the tutorials may not be viewable. Please be aware that Seesaw falls under the FERPA laws for "directory information" and "educational records." Any school getting funds from the Department of Education (public schools) is required to disclose to parents and get written consent to use Seesaw with their child.

tag(s): blogs (69), communication (113), DAT device agnostic tool (125), digital storytelling (150), Learning Management Systems (18), portfolios (21), Teacher Utilities (170)

Give yourself a brain break using the interactive classroom resources at GoNoodle. These activities promote health, fitness, and mindfulness and are based on cutting edge research. These engaging games and activities provide short bursts of movement leading to improved focus and energy within the classroom. Sign-up using your Google account, or create an account with your email. Signing-up with Google, allows you to sign-in with your Google Classroom account. If you have multiple groups of students (or classes) start by naming your class(es), since each class will show progression on this tool. Choose from Channels, Activity and Movement, Curriculum and Learning, or Holidays & Routines on GoNoodle (directions for registering and other features). Each title has multiple sub-categories. Some options are for paid memberships only. None of the games takes longer than five minutes. While most of these are physical tasks, a few are mental/logic activities. Time required for the activity is shown with each option. Registration does require an email address. If your district blocks YouTube, some activities may not be viewable.

tag(s): classroom management (107), fitness (36), logic (152), preK (290)

Use this free slide-based multimedia app to put lessons and other material on any web browser OR iOs and Android devices. Build your presentations using pre-made templates. The site does offer ready-made presentations (some free). The interactive, pre-made videos and text presentations are from Ted-Ed, Khan Academy, Nearpod, and others. Some include questions to answer as you work through the presentations. What is the best part of Nearpod? There are now three different presentation modes.

When in the "live presentation" mode (in person or remote web conferencing), teachers control the lesson's pace, and students do not move to the next screen until advanced by the teacher. With the "student pace" mode, students progress through independently, whether at home or in class. The third mode is "front of the class;" you project your presentation, and the students do not use their devices. Use the teacher version of the app to push out the presentation to your students. For the first two modes, every student uses their own student app to follow the screens and answer the questions. This provides immediate feedback about every student. The feedback can be emailed to the teacher for later review. This formative assessment tool is invaluable and a unique part of the app. The tool also includes drawing for students to work out problems. Teachers can identify students who are not "on task" and not working within the app when a little red light pops up. Absent students can complete the assignment at home.

The free version of Nearpod for Educators is called Silver; you get 100 MB of storage, 40 students per session/lesson, access to standard formative assessments features, pre-made interactive lessons up to your storage limit, pre-made interactive videos up to your storage limit, create interactive videos, lessons, and activities, upload PDF, PPT, and Google slides, and more. Again, how many lessons and videos will depend on your storage.

tag(s): assessment (127), classroom management (107), DAT device agnostic tool (125), differentiation (75), Formative Assessment (42), gamification (75), Learning Management Systems (18), multimedia (55), Online Learning (31), personalized learning (7), playlists (5), remote learning (31), slides (41), Teacher Utilities (170), teaching strategies (57)

With the Mentimeter presentation tool, you can create free polls, word clouds, real-time question and answer sessions, and quizzes that provide instant feedback from audiences or classes. All of these can be in person, remote, or hybrid. After joining with your email address, your dashboard will appear. Use the top menu bar to find Featuresand then Q&A click it, and you can watch "How to Create" video (about 5 and a half minutes). Choose from various templates and themes, create a question and a set of answer choices, or participants respond with their words. When finished the slide will provide the URL and ID code for your presentation. Participants choose or enter their answers using a mobile device or their computer. You can generate a QR code quickly for the fastest linking. View results instantly (a plus for interactive presentations or classes). Results can also be embedded on a website. The most popular mobile platforms support Mentimeter. The free membership provides unlimited projects/polls. Each individual poll/project allows 34 Slide types, Q & A, Quick Layouts, and Collaborative workspace.

tag(s): assessment (127), Formative Assessment (42), polls and surveys (41), presentations (22), word clouds (12)

Learning for Justice is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and seeks to provide educators with tools to reduce prejudice of all kinds. You might already be familiar with this group's "Mix it Up" initiative which seeks to get middle school and high school students to sit with someone new for one day during lunch at the cafeteria. This site contains lesson plans, links for teachers, teens, and kids, current topics related to prejudice, an on-line version of the Learning for Justice magazine, an order form for free curriculum materials, and links to other resources.

The Classroom Resources link offers Lessons, Learning Plans, Student Texts, Students Tasks, Film Kits, and other helpful pages. There is also a link to receive FREE kits and handbooks! There are online activities, recommended books, "talking points," and more.

tag(s): bullying (43), diversity (49), tolerance (8)

Padlet offers many tools and resources for creating online bulletin boards to display and organize information on any topic. Create a new board from scratch or choose from many templates, including timelines, maps, storyboards, KWL boards, and many more options. Padlet also offers AI features to use as a tool to automatically create interactive activities and custom boards based on topic, grade level, and additional details such as standards or teaching objectives. Padlet Sandboxes allows members to interact and collaborate in real time using sticky notes, drawings, and more. Customize the appearance and format of your Padlets using options such as allowing comments on posts, moderating posts and comments before they are publicly posted, and sorting options for easier viewing. When adding posts, you can add links, images, videos, documents, polls, and more. This is a link to Padlet's Help section for posting a video or an image. Free accounts allow you to make 3 Padlets that include search, themes, stats, premium wallpapers, and cross-device support for uploaded videos. You can always delete an old Padlet to create a new one. Find video tutorials and examples by scrolling to the bottom menu and clicking "Support" on the left side of the page. Padlet 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.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (217), biographies (96), blogs (69), book reports (26), brainstorming (17), bulletin boards (13), DAT device agnostic tool (125), images (254), journals (16), rubrics (38), timelines (57)