Monday, February 17, 2014

Lesson Resources


It has been awhile and for that I apologize.  To make it up for you I have put together something that I think it truly great.  This is not a technology that you can use in your class, it is instead a set of resources that can help you prepare.
I have spent some time searching for lesson plan resources.  When we search we often jump right to Google to try to find new material for class.  Sometimes this gives excellent results but often the resources we are looking for are just not available.  In fact, many great resource websites do not show up on a Google search so we need to know about the website in advance before we can find materials on it.
  • http://betterlesson.com/home Better Lesson is one of my favorite resources.  It houses lessons, activities, and entire units created by teachers.  Through a recent grant they were able to hire teachers in both math and English disciplines to create Common Core lessons specifically for Better Lesson.  These “master teachers” were each responsible for creating 90 lessons so there is theoretically an entire curriculum of lessons for each math and English subject already uploaded to this website.  If you are not in these two content areas there are still resources for you as well.  You do need to sign up to use the website, but once you do all of the resources are free.  They have a good search feature, a separate page for Common Core resources, and a planner feature if you want to create a weekly or monthly plan right on their website.
  • http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ Teachers Pay Teachers is an open marketplace for teachers.  They have resources that are free and resources that you need to pay for.  If you want to spend a little money you can find some really good lessons or complete units with everything you need to teach that unit.  If you are a veteran teacher and you have created your own wonderful resources, you can use this website to make some money with material you use every day and use that money to buy new resources (or buy a hamburger and fries).  You do need to sign up to use this website.
  • http://www.sharemylesson.com/high-school-teaching-resources/ Share my Lesson is similar to Better Lesson in that it offers free resources for teachers.  The link above is specifically for their high school site.  Unlike better lesson this website does have a lot more activities, handouts, and other material as opposed to full lessons ( not that it’s a bad thing).  One thing I don’t like as a math teacher is that it divides math lessons into NCTM topics as opposed to courses.  This is a minor quibble but I think it makes it harder to find resources for a specific level of student.  You do need to sign up to use this website.
These three are the ones that I have used in the past but there are several other teacher resource websites.  As I mentioned, none of these resources can be found on a Google search so it is important to know they are there.  Below I will list additional lesson resource sites for anyone who wants to look further and if I have missed one that you love to use, let me know.