You may have looked around your favorite teacher’s website and noticed some horrible color schemes or designs. Not all teachers are web designers as it turns out, and as a result, many sites look poorly put together. But there is some good news! There are a lot of great tools for displaying ideas and projects, as well as communicating with students. These tools are often used by teachers across the world, but might not be widely known by others. The goal of this list is to bring you the best online resources for teachers, in an easy-to-digest format.
To show our appreciation, we’ve curated a list of fifteen great websites for teachers to bookmark when they need some lesson-planning inspiration.
Science and Math
1. Discovery Education
Discovery Education offers free classroom resources for a number of subjects and also features its own “DEN Community” where teachers can share their own ideas and resources.
From social studies to STEM, Discovery provides interactive lessons and real-world examples to make learning fun and engaging. Students will also love their programs with partners like Myth Busters and the NBA.
2. NSTA
The National Science Teachers Association gives teachers access to the NSTA magazine, books and journals, and lessons that cover everything from climate change to safety in the classroom. Teachers can also find tips on curriculum planning and professional learning.
English and Writing
3. Purdue Owl
Purdue Owl has saved many a high school student as they pulled all-nighters finishing up research papers. Not only does the site offer all of the critical information needed for proper citations, it also offers succinct answers to common grammar questions. Instead of wasting time scouring the web for solutions, your students can focus on finishing their papers.
4. Grammarly
Grammarly is another excellent resource for simple clarifications of common grammar issues. But that’s not all—students can also install plugins that will make helpful suggestions as they compose their papers, or even check their work for plagiarism before submitting an assignment.
5. Educreations
Educreations is an excellent tool for teaching your students how to write and revise their papers. Teachers can record their voices and iPad screens to create dynamic video tutorials that students can access and revisit any time they need. It’s great for editing sample papers and explaining the revision process.
6. The Literacy Shed
When you need a little visual reinforcement, The Literacy Shed is here to help. The site offers films, photos, animations, and picture books that add to literary themes. Although most films are aimed at elementary school students, there are quite a few that even the “big kids” will love.
7. Poetry 180
Teaching poetry to high school students can be hard—but Poetry 180 makes it easier. The site contains 180 poems that appeal especially to teens, designed to cover each of the 180 days in a school year. The poems can be used to teach writing techniques, poetry basics, or even be used as writing prompts.
8. Breaking News English
This site can be a great resource for ESL students in particular. Breaking News English posts real news stories written in plain language. Levels of difficulty range from easy to advanced. Students can read and summarize the articles, or answer questions for comprehension. Daily practice with these will certainly help both vocabulary and writing skills.
9. Best for History: EDSITEment
This fantastic site, developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for the Humanities, offers lesson plans as well as primary sources, videos, and photos for a wide range of humanities topics. And it’s all free!
10. Best for Science: National Science Teachers Association
The National Science Teachers Association site is a goldmine for classroom teachers who may not feel as comfortable teaching geology and astronomy as they do reading and arithmetic. You’ll find journal articles, experiment ideas, and a roundup of the latest science stories in the news.
11. Best for Current Events: Scholastic News
For topics too current for textbooks, Scholastic News classroom magazines offer engaging nonfiction reading online, drawn from the latest headlines. Subscribe to receive the magazine, age-appropriate standards-based lesson plans and skills sheets, plus digital resources
12. Best for Middle School: Underlined
Underlined allows young writers to post their work, receive criticism, and read others’ contributions. From fan fiction to poetry to novels-in-progress, all types of writing are encouraged and shared. Be aware that not all content is school appropriate.
13. Best for Virtual Trips: San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo Kids site offers thousands of resources for educators, including lesson plans, games, live feeds of animals, and detailed information on a variety of species from the African dwarf crocodile to the Western lowland gorilla.
14. Best Multimedia Tool: Glogster
Glogster bills itself as a tool for making interactive posters, or glogs, containing pictures, text, video, links, and animation. A glog on The Three Little Pigs might contain links to various retellings, a read-aloud, images, standards, and more. Fun!
15. Best for Teaching Vocabulary: Flocabulary
Both rooted in research and aligned to state and national standards, Flocabulary presents a variety of lesson plans across content areas. What makes it so special? Each lesson is presented in rap form! Find videos, vocabulary games, reproducibles and more.
16. Best Online Store: Scholastic Teacher Store
Find the books, décor, curriculum materials, and digital products you need on the Scholastic Teacher Store for unbeatable prices. You’ll find everything you need to teach your students in every subject from guided reading to books to teach math concepts.
17. Best for Online Classroom Platform: Google Classroom
With a suite of a number of education tools, Google Classroom has revolutionized the way so many teachers manage their classrooms. It allows teachers to distribute, collect, and manage
18. Best for Video Clips: TeacherTube
TeacherTube is the best source for instructional videos in a safe environment. From enlivening math with teacher raps to sharing table manners videos with parents, TeacherTube has it all.
19. Best for Moviemaking: PowToon
Moviemaking has never been easier than it is at PowToon. To create a short animated clip, all you have to do is write a script and choose characters and other graphics using a simple drag-and-drop tool. The classroom possibilities are endless.
20. Best Standards Help: Common Core State Standards Initiative
This site not only offers an overview of the Common Core State Standards, but also provides a thoughtful framework for how the standards were determined and what we can reasonably expect students at given grade levels to achieve.
21. Best for Tough Topics: Teaching Tolerance
Along with an excellent blog that tackles some of the more difficult aspects of education, Teaching Tolerance offers activities and teaching kits on topics ranging from the civil rights movement to the separation of church and state.
22. Best Professional Development on the Go: Annenberg Learner
Many of the PD series from the Annenberg Foundation are available on demand here, with videos on teaching measurement, writing workshop, and more. You’ll see master teachers at work and undoubtedly snag an idea or two for your own classroom.
23. Best for Your Career: National Education Association
In the hustle and bustle of the classroom, it can be easy to lose track of the outside forces affecting education. The National Education Association explains how to take action regarding the issues you care about most.
24. Best for Inspiration: Scholastic Teacher Magazine
No matter what you’re interested in — savvy tech-integration tips, saving money on classroom materials, creative professional development opportunities — each issue will leave you inspired to take your teaching to the next level.
25. Best of Facebook: Scholastic Teachers
So we may be biased, but we think you’ll find our page your most useful one on Facebook by far. You’ll find free printables, lesson plan and craft ideas, giveaways, and note-worthy news. All you have to do is “like” us.
Conclusion
I think teachers are the unsung heroes of society and often under- and un-paid and given little respect. I also think teachers deserve to be paid more and should be treated with greater respect than they currently are. It is because of this that I recently compiled a list of the best online resources for teachers, which you can find here: