Einstein is often quoted as having said "If I have an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes." Clearly Einstein understood how to attack puzzling problems. As teachers we face a host of puzzles on a daily basis. Every student we teach, thanks to their idiosyncrasies presents a unique puzzle. The interactions between students further complicates things. Our goals for our learners, their learning needs, the demands of the curriculum, pressures from beyond the classroom all result in puzzles for us to manage and to solve.
PhotoSoup is a visual word puzzle generator that allows users to create word search puzzles with tag-photo pairs taken from Flickr. The tag is hidden in the puzzle, and only the associated photo is shown as a clue. The objective is to find all hidden tags in the puzzle before you run out of time.
Just Crosswords provides 15x15 crossword puzzles. Click on the clues or the spaces in the puzzle, and then simply type to fill in the blanks. Over 300 to choose from. Also, make your own puzzle, save it, play it and link to it.
Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more-using your own word lists. You can't save the puzzles and link to them - but you could screenshot them (or save the png file it creates) and insert as an image. Alternatively print them out as worksheets.
Jigsaw Planet a tool that will allow you to upload your own photo, then choose to make it into between a 4 and 200 piece puzzle. You can select the shape of the pieces too, and there's a very simple shape suitable for toddlers. Once you click create, you're presented with a screen that shows your puzzle pieces scattered. Rearranging is a simple matter of clicking with your mouse and dragging them where you want them
Anyone teach physics, simple machines, levers, critical thinking, or creative thinking? Check out Magic Pen, draw objects and use physics to solve the puzzle.
A good collection of online crossword puzzles to help improve your English.There are many different levels from beginner with pictures to more advanced.