Teacher+Resources

This page is a collection of resources for teacher use, rather than tools that you might have students use. Some support classroom organization, behavior management, lesson planning, or idea-wrangling. These are the sites that I immerse myself in during the summer, as I plan new units, management systems, and organizational plans!

[|Pinterest] Pinterest is the one website that I believe every educator should use. The potential for finding resources is enormous! The site prompts you to check out the boards of other people who have pinned similar items, so you are constantly being shown new classroom ideas. And you can create collaborative boards, so that a team of teachers can all pin to the same board and share ideas!

[|TeachersPayTeachers] This is a somewhat addicting site - resources, lesson plans, decorations, classroom management tools, organization resources - the list goes on and on! Everything here has been created by other teachers, and you can preview what you are purchasing. I've also found several great education blogs via this site, as I've browsed the sites of the teachers/creators!

[|Dropbox] You know how sometimes after you've been using a tool for a bit, you can't remember how you ever functioned without it? That's how I feel about Dropbox. Dropbox is a site that stores your documents and makes it easy for you to access, edit, and save them from anywhere with an internet connection. It's a perfect solution for sharing files that are too large to email, and it eliminates the need for a flashdrive to transport things from work to home, etc.



From the [|Not Another History Teacher] blog, a post on interesting ways to use technology in the classroom. I go back to this post repeatedly, because it is well-organized, gives specific and practical examples, and is always inspirational when I've gotten into a rut.



[|Edmodo.com]

This platform is similar to Facebook, but designed for use in classrooms. [|This blog] shares real-life tips, integration ideas, and commentary from other educators.

Evernote (app) I have the evernote app on my iPad, but to be honest, I haven't started using it yet. However, this is the note that one of my teacher friends sent me when I sent out a request for information & tips: "Every kid in my class has a notebook full of notes, photographs, and recordings. In team meetings, if I want to show the group something my kids did successfully or something that I need better ideas for - I can show them exactly what the kids were doing."



[|LearnZillion.com] "Thousands of high quality common core resources created by a national community of top teachers" I should warn you right now, I'm a nut about LearnZillion, and I think that YOU should be, too. This is an AMAZING website that provides short instructional videos created by teachers, nearly all of which are aligned with common core standards. It is incredibly organized - you can search by subject, level, or by clicking on your common core strands!

Once you have chosen a specific topic, you can preview the lessons until you find just what you are looking for. And then you have so many options: You can assign that video to your students, to watch independently. You can look at an example of how other teachers have incorporated the lesson into their lesson plans, seeing what other lessons they used on the adjacent days. You can download the video as a slideshow, so that you can adapt it to meet the specific needs of your class. Or you can send home a letter or email about this specific lesson with suggestions about how families can support learning on this topic. For each lesson, the site also provides a "Coach's commentary" for struggling students, "Guided practice" for some extra experience, and sometimes offers a "Discussion protocol" with guiding tips for class conversation. Incredible, right? And it's FREE!



[|Heather's Animations] You know how sometimes you just want a little *something* to jazz up a presentation or whiteboard flipchart? Sometimes I need a little something to keep the kids engaged in a topic that might not be exactly scintillating. This website is the answer - it has easy-to-upload animations in a huge variety of subject areas. However, this site is NOT CHILD FRIENDLY!

[|I Am Lodge] Do you ever find yourself humming commercial jingles? I'll find myself singing the end of the commercial for a local BBQ joint, "Don't be late. We close at 8!" Seriously. It's such a catchy little ditty, though! At any rate, if you are the type of person who does the same thing, you know first-hand the power of music to help people remember things. This website focuses on education via music. When you click onto the site, you'll see three overlapping circles - the one in the middle, where "music" and "education" meet, is the one we're after. But the others are worth taking the time to explore as well. The "education" circle links to his professional Facebook page. He is well known for exploring the idea of a flipped classroom, and he frequently speaks in public venues. His training videos and professional conversations are quite interesting. In the music & education site, Dr. Lodge McCammon creates songs to engage students in topics and to help them remember the critical information. He has quite an extensive list of topics that have been addressed, and you can search by specific topic or subject area. He shares the lyrics and sometimes even a video. This man can make "demand vs. supply-side economics" catchy!



[|Study Jams] StudyJams is a website created by Scholastic. It focuses on creating short cartoon-style videos (usually 2-3 minutes) about a math or science topic. Each topic also has a short song to increase engagement and memory. My students LOVE the fact that each song has a karaoke-style play option, so they can sing along AND get all of the words right, even if the vocabulary is unfamiliar. This is a site that the kids could also use independently - it offers self-quizzes and a few other activities.

[|Tween Tribune] This news site has sections, divided by grade level, so it is appropriate for K - 12 students. You can search the site by current news stories, by topic, or by grade level appropriateness. This isn't a site for all-the-day's-news, but rather for high-interest stories that would engage reluctant readers. This would be a fabulous persuasive writing prompt - choose one of the more controversial topics and have students post a response! At this site, you create a free account, and then input your class list, so each student has a login. They can then respond to the day's stories. One nice thing is that the stories change each day, so the site doesn't get repetitive. The site is also available in Spanish. And [|here], the site lists sample lesson plans, sorted by Common Core standard and grade level.

[|TeachHub] Search "video writing prompts" in their search box. There are usually 5 examples on the right-hand side of the home page, but if you use their seach feature, you can also see their archives. These are short videos, provided with three writing prompts that differ to accommodate different grade levels. My favorite is the one about the children being asked to wait to eat their marshmallows!



[|Spell With Flickr] This site lets you type in a word and then finds an photo of each letter of your word and compiles them to create your word. You can click on each individual letter if you don't care for that particular photo and it will automatically substitute another photo. The effect is visually interesting. I like to use them as headings on websites.



Using Audio In The Classroom Every day at 11:15 in my classroom, I crank up the song, "Just Eat It" by Weird Al Yankovic. Like magic, my students stop what they are doing, wash their hands, and line up for lunch. I love to use music as a cue in my classroom - it's a nice way to teach the students some self-monitoring responsibility. We have specific songs for recess time, the end of the day, etc. It's not always songs, per se, though - I also play the sound of chimes when I want them to gather on the carpet with me, for example. And I love to play music while my students work. I also enjoy finding music that goes with a "theme" that we are studying - songs that mention food or insects or the 50 states, etc. [|GoogleDoc presentation] about using audio



[|Donors Choose] This site encourages teachers to post information about a need within the classroom, and then donors can choose from amongst projects to support financially. Signing up & registering a project is a bit of a detailed process, and you can only request certain items/activities be funded (the site has an extensive "bank" or "store" from which you can select).



[|MathWire.com] This site is specifically for math activities, all aligned with the common core. It has a FABULOUS selection of learning experiences with writing responses for open-ended math questions, and it includes rubrics!



[|Perfectly Poetic Page] blog [|Create Teach and Share] blog [|Gingersnaps Treats For Teachers] blog [|havefunteaching.com] - music, printables, flashcards, etc. [|I Love 2 Teach] blog [|Lesson Planet]- more than 400,000 teacher reviewed lessons [|Teky Teach] blog [|Two Guys and Some iPads] blog - two teachers on a mission to change the way we learn, teach, and lead by using technology. [|Movie Clips] - movie clips (usually around 30 seconds) to use for writing prompts, comparisons, etc.



You know how sometimes we just need something motivational, something that reminds us about WHY we love to teach? This is the answer - not mushy enough to make you tear up, just enough to make you think, "Oh, yeah, I can do this!" Plus, it's long, so it will give you an 11-minute break from whatever else you are supposed to be doing. And no, it isn't a link...I'm having some video issue, apparently. So this is just a screenshot, but I got the "official" name of the video so that you can go look it up on YouTube.