RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

Here is a list of helpful resources for lesson planning, ideas, dealing with behavioral issues and sensitive topics, and instructional strategies in general.

THE TEACHING CHANNEL

The Teaching Channel offers short videos of real life classes in action. Each video includes an accompanying transcript, teaching resources, grading rubrics, and state standards alignment. The Teaching Channel is a great resource for beginning and seasoned teachers alike. The site includes comprehensive coverage of all of the major primary and secondary school subjects.

EDUTOPIA

Edutopia is another video-centered resource which offers guidance on topics such as social and emotional learning, integrating technology in the classroom, blended learning, project-based learning, cross-disciplinary approaches, assessments, and teacher development. Edutopia focuses on overarching teaching strategies within education, rather than on specific topics such as Shakespeare, etc.

TEACHER TUBE

TeacherTube has some good short homegrown videos from teachers on topics such as Education News and Journalism, Writing, Reading, High School, Middle School and Social Sciences. Most of the videos exhibit raw quick tips, ideas or short activities. None of the videos are edited. Because of this it is a great resource for seeing real teachers in action uncut.

SHARE MY LESSON

ShareMyLesson is a superb site for posting and viewing lesson plans on every major primary and secondary school subject. All lessons are in the public domain (licensed under the Creative Commons). They are free to use and share (though some lessons require that credit be given for use privileges). This site has an extremely nice interface, it is easy to navigate, is well organized by subject, grade level, and by state standards.

STUDY.COM

Study.com is an indelible tool for teachers. It has an entire portion dedicated just to lesson plans for teachers. This site has over 25,000 videos and other resources geared towards middle school, high school and college students on subjects including English, social science, humanities, ACT prep, SAT prep and teaching credential prep. This is a great resource for learning, gaining ideas and adapting lesson plans to suite each individual teacher’s needs. Unfortunately, Study.com is a paid service (starting at $20 a month).

TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

Teachers Pay Teachers is another invaluable resource. Though some of the lessons are free to download, most require a small fee. Why shouldn’t teachers get paid a little money for the hours that they put into lesson creation. I really like this site to browse for hot topics and to get a sense of which subjects are covered the most.

TEACHING TOLERANCE

Teaching Tolerance is an excellent resource for introducing difficult topics in the classroom. The site discusses topics such as LGBTQ, race and ethnicity, religion, learning disabilities, immigration, gender identity, bullying, human rights and activism. It features videos, kits and tasks for each subject covered.

ZUNAL

Zunal is on of the best WebQuest creation sites on the web. I have found WebQuests to be one of the most beneficial teaching resources. WebQuests are a fun way to interactively engage students. They usually consist of a series of tasks which may incorporate video media, imagery and other digital media. Students must complete the tasks culminating in a final project. Some WebQuests require coursework. Others are geared towards individual work. Because of their online nature most WebQuests lend themselves to a flipped classroom model, where students can conduct some of their work from home.  

Learn More About the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

ISTE is an invaluable resource on the standards of technology usage in education today.