I wanted to share some of the awesome resources that I use in the classroom. Of course, we as teachers never stop finding nifty, time-saving and clever resources, but we might as well share the love when we DO find something cool!
1. Education.com
Education.com is a really useful site for teachers (and even parents). Though I do not condone the overuse of worksheets in replacement of hands-on learning, I do enjoy a good writing prompt or math sheet that is a bit outside the box. Education.com provides worksheets that are visually appealing, grade appropriate and much unlike the lame, outdated worksheets you typically see, they are appropriate to our society today! You are unlikely to find a worksheet on Education.com that contains outdated information that causes the student to look at you with questioning eyes: "Ms. Dawson, what the heck is a pager?!" On top of all that goodness, their worksheets are cool and funny! You can find anything from "The History of Zombies" to "How to Use a Semi-colon (It's not just that symbol used in smiley faces!)." In this day and age, it seems any level of humor or wit engages students, especially the upper elementary and middle grades. I highly recommend Education.com as a teacher resource!
Click here to sign up for Education.com!
2. Pinterest
Of course, we cannot talk about teacher resources without the mention of our best friend, Pinterest! Pinterest is a life-saver when your creativity has been sucked dry. What would we do without Pinterest? Why, the same old boring WORKSHEETS because we wouldn't have known about Education.com because we didn't see Ms. Dawson's blog about it on PINTEREST. Now, look at that mess you are avoiding! Aren't you so glad you are here now, reading this very blog? Pinterest is great. What makes it great? My opinion is that Pinterest's greatness comes from the fact that everything is organized and can be saved for later. I have Pinterest boards for every subject and quite honestly, I wish I had an entirely separate account so that I could go education-wild with it and separate certain things by concept or grade level, but that'd be going a little far. No matter how you manage your personal Pinterest habit, it certainly does help to be able to search up something like "fractions" and be led to a variety of sites that offer different perspectives and ideas. It's the collaboration of people without all of the collaboration work (brainstorming, talking, etc.). Like I said, it's great during a creative low point or when you are in a pinch. Thanks for always being there for us, Pinterest!
Check out my Pinterest boards!
3. Remind101
Consider this an update: REMIND101 IS AWESOME. Use it. You will be so glad you did. Remind101 is officially in my long-term bag of tricks without a doubt. For those of you who have not read my previous post, Remind101 is a reminder system that allows teachers to "text" parents without parents ever needing the teacher's phone number. Check out my previous post for more info!
Click here to check out Remind101!
4. Edmodo.com
Edmodo.com is an innovative website used to engage students and connect all learners to all the resources (human resources included) that they need for educational success. Edmodo boasts connecting over 26 million learners and teachers worldwide. Think about it as Facebook for students and teachers with a massive emphasis on learning. All the necessities of social media and human connection are there with their mission of better learning and more information cutting out usual social media nonsense. It's a safe internet environment for students, parents and teachers to keep up with homework, assignments, and communication. It also offers teachers a Pinterest-like approach with organizing content areas where teachers share documents and ideas with others. The thing that sets Edmodo apart- it's all about learning with others- human interaction, putting a face to a name and giving things a purpose. It's pretty snazzy.
5. Teacherspayteachers.com
Teachers pay teachers is a really great resource, not just for worksheets, but for finding resources for behavior management, teacher organization and SO much more. There are so many different things you can find on TPT for FREE! What a great word! I love to peruse the free stuff every once in a while and save the different documents to my files, but what I really love about TPT is that these documents are teacher-made materials. It's about time we get some love for all those hours of making documents for our classrooms! I have yet to upload my own stuff, but I do appreciate that there are so many willing to share!
Check out teachers pay teachers here!
6. The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong
Everything I have shared with you thus far has been a resource fueled by that glorious internet juice we love. Well, dear teacher friends, here is a resource that will require you to go a little bit old school and risk getting a dreaded paper cut...I want you, no matter who you are, no matter how long you have taught (or how long you haven't) to GO GET THIS BOOK. Right now. It's on Amazon. Ebay. It's even in Barnes and Noble. Get it. Spend the $20 or so it takes to obtain this book and just soak in it's wisdom. This is the one and only text I have used in college so far that has been worth the money and time. I have read through it a couple of times and always go back to it. I actually carry it on me in my teacher bag. It is that good. I promise. Get it. Oh yeah...what's it about? Effective classroom management, lesson planning, professionalism, etc. All that foundational stuff that I personally believe colleges should be more interested in fostering in future teacher is in this book. It really is worth the time and money.
Oh hey it's available on kindle: Get it here!
7. Lee Canter's Record Book Plus
This record book is EXCELLENT. I highly recommend it. I don't even know this Lee Canter fellow, but I am fairly certain I love him! I found this record book at a Becker's teacher store here in Delaware. It cost a little more than I was expecting to spend, but so far it has been worth it. I believe I purchased this record book for about $14. Seems like a lot, but you cover so much with this record book. The way this book is set up is super flexible. If you have weird classes like I do (I teach 6-7th grade, ALL subjects...complicated to say the least), it helps so much to be able to alter pages as needed. Not only is it flexible, but there is ample space and pages provided to spread things out if needed. That not all, folks- this particular record book has three separate sections: records, behavior management, and parent communication. Beautiful! The Behavior documentation alone is enough to sell a teacher on this book- I am three weeks into school and it has already helped so much! The parent communication section also serves much better than a to-do list full of parents to call or speak with. It's simply good stuff.
Well dear teacher friends, that's all I have for you for now! I hope you can use some of these things in your own classrooms!
Happy teaching!
Sincerely,
Miss Laura
