Teaching+Resources

Standards
[|Common Core Standards] - This website is a great resource for nation-wide common core standards. [|PA Department of Ed] - Pennsylvania's Department of Education's website gives information regarding PA education standards, as well as assessments and State Testing like the Keystone Exams. [|Literacy Common Core] - This site addresses the Common Core standards of reading, writing, speaking, and language and explains how to put them into action in your classroom.

Top Teacher Sites
[|Edutopia]- This website is dedicated to providing teachers with some of the best and most effective teaching strategies. Edutopia urges educators to employ strategies such as collaborative learning and problem solving in order to enhance classroom instruction. [|Discovery Education] - Discovery Education is a great tool for all teachers looking for a myriad of resources, especially lesson plans. It allows educators to access truly phenomenal lesson plans, especially for those stuck-in-a-rut moments. [|Teaching Channel] - This website allows educators to communicate with one another through videos and text. It's a great resource for teachers who are looking for innovative ideas for their instruction, or those who have hit a rut and need a little inspiration. [|The Whole Child] - The Whole Child is an approach to learning that takes each child's overall well-being fully into consideration. Rather than focusing strictly on academics, like many educational approaches, the Whole Child focuses on social, emotional, and physical factors as well. [|Teachers Pay Teachers] - This website allows educators from all content areas to share, sell, and obtain a variety of resources, including fun posters. [|Education World] - Like similar teaching sites, Education World allows teachers to access lesson plans, but it also provides educators with ideas and information regarding professional development and using technology in the classroom. [|Teach for America] - This organization is dedicated to improving the education of students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Teach for America believes that given the proper skills, knowledge, and resources poverty-stricken children can overcome the challenges they face. [|PBS Teachers] - PBS has a variety of resources that educators can access and use for their classrooms. This is a great site for teachers of any grade or content area. [|Share My Lesson] - Allows teachers to share their lesson plans and other helpful resources.

Lesson Plan Templates
[|EATS Acquisition Lesson Plan] [|EMTS Extended and Refine Lesson Plan]

Teaching Concepts & Strategies that Work!
[|Get Students Ready for Learning]- This short video explains how Mount Desert Elementary School in Maine gets their students ready to learn. By genuinely focusing on the children, teachers of this school have managed to motivate students to learn exponentially, causing this elementary school to outperform other schools on the state's standardized tests. [|Bully-Free Environment] - This video outlines how one school in California created a bully-free program to whole-heatedly tackle the issue. Not only did teachers go through training before the new school year, but they also created a rubric on how to deal with different types of bullying when it arises. This school put an emphasis on making a bully-free environment a school-wide approach. The teachers and staff of this school no longer allow silence to conquer bullying and keep the incidences that occur quiet. [|Culturally Responsive Teaching] - Taking into consideration each individual student's culture is important for educators to do. Just because students are of a similar ethnicity or race does not mean that they have been raised the same or have the same beliefs. It also means that they may not act the same. In fact, students of differing cultures may deter considerably from what one would consider appropriate, but because of their culture's norms, they do not see their actions as inappropriate. Educators need to be aware of the different beliefs of their students and implement strategies that generate a place for all students in the learning environment, which is what this link outlines.

Creating Rubrics
[|Rubi Star]- This website allows educators to make quick and easy rubrics for assignments and other graded work. [|Rubrics for Assessments] - This is a great resource for those tasks that you're not quite sure how to evaluate. It provides you with rubrics and assessment advice for PowerPoints, Web Portfolios, and Teamwork.

Visual Aids
[|View Pure]- This site allows educators to show students YouTube videos without the distracting, sometimes inappropriate content on the side

Copyright in the Classroom
[|Copyright] - The issue of copyright constantly has educators questioning what they can use and what they can't. This website is a good resource for teachers questioning the materials they want to use in their classrooms. [|Creative Commons] - This website is useful tool for any educator who has ever worried about using some else's work in their classroom. It gives educators permission to use items without worrying about violating copyright laws. Creative Commons allow teachers to use items, such as photos, legally.

Professional Practice
[|Code of Conduct] - Due to the role teachers hold in a community, they should always present themselves in a professional manner. This link outlines Pennsylvania's Department of Education's Code of Conduct for educators. [|Federal Teaching Regulations]- This website provides educators and other community members with clear rules and regulations regarding education such as IEPs and Special Education referrals. [|Parent-Teacher Communication] - This link outlines 10 ways in which educators can effectively communicate with parents. Keeping in contact with your students' parents is one of the most beneficial practices teachers can do to ensure students maintain a belief in the importance of education.

Bloom's Taxonomy
[|Bloom's Taxonomy]- This site is a good resource for teachers looking to apply Bloom's Taxonomy in the classroom. It gives educators sample questions for each level, as well as possible outcomes for each level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

PLN
A PLN (personal learning networking) is a social site where one can connect with others who have similar interests or professions as them. They can be used for personal or professional usage. Having a PLN is important because it allows one to discuss topics of importance (and sometimes unimportance). PLN's are a great way of communicating via technology. Below are two links that will direct you to excellent sites which also explain PLN's.[|Creating an Online Personal Learning Network][|The Art & Technique of Personal Learning Networks] PLN Blog - [|Teacher 2.0] - This site allows educators to connect and communicate with other teachers. This site allows users to share ideas and give feedback on posts.