As a teacher, it is important to know where to find the best resources available online. It can be overwhelming because there are basically unlimited resources you could use. I’ve curated this list of free resources for students and teachers to make things easier for you. Whether you are looking for resources for differentiated learning, practical applications, printable classroom materials, or just fun games to keep your class entertained, you will find it here!
Here are the best online resources for both teachers and students.
English and Writing
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
History and Social Studies
Smithsonian’s History Explorer
Developed by the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian’s History Explorer offers hundreds of free online resources for teaching K-12 students about American history. Teachers can find interactive lessons and even show their kids museum artifacts.
General Resources
JumpStart
JumpStart provides free online resources aimed primarily at elementary school educators. With their helpful worksheets, lesson plans, classroom activities, learning games, and audio-visual teaching tools, kids will never be bored while they brush up on math, social studies, science, and more.
Everfi
Everfi provides free, interactive online courses based on national academic standards. With emphasis on real-world learning, Everfi offers courses on everything from health and wellness to financial literacy, social-emotional learning, and more.
Teaching Tolerance
For instructors who want to bring more social awareness to their classrooms, Teaching Tolerance provides free resources that emphasize social justice and anti-bias. Lessons, learning plans, and student texts are available to integrate themes of justice, diversity, and equity into your every day curriculum and promote productive conversations in the classroom.
PBS Learning Media
PBS Learning Media offers free, standards-based resources for Pre-K to 12th grade students. Materials include lesson plans, videos, news articles, activities, and more. There’s even a section on professional development, where teachers can find tips for better planning and preparation, as well as more effective instruction.
Kelly Gallagher’s Article Database
For a weekly writing exercise, teachers can borrow from Kelly Gallagher’s archive of articles that he uses as prompts for his students. Many are very thought-provoking and will still be relevant all throughout the school year, so your students will have no shortage of writing inspiration.
Teacher.org
Who knows what a teacher needs better than a teacher? Teacher.org offers a vast array of tools and resources created by K-12 teachers from across the United States. From lesson plans organized by grade level and subject, to teacher guides and helpful articles, Teacher.org has everything covered. Best of all, they also offer scholarship information for teachers continuing their own educations.
Zoom
One of the leading web conferencing tools. Students and teachers can fill in an online form using their school email addresses and are then verified by Zoom will have any accounts associated with that school’s domain also gain unlimited temporary meeting minutes, according to a site set up for the process overnight. The free Basic accounts are also available by request in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, Romania and South Korea.
Innovate My School
To support schools that are closed, Innovate My School curated a list of all “home / remote learning” tools and promotions on the EdTech Impact platform. This is being updated regularly so it’s a good one to keep going back to.
UNESCO Distance Learning Solutions
UNESCO has put together a list of educational applications and platforms to help parents, teachers, schools and school systems facilitate student learning and provide social caring and interaction during periods of school closure. While these solutions do not carry UNESCO’s explicit endorsement, they tend to have a wide reach, a strong user-base and evidence of impact. Most of the solutions are free and with several support for multiple languages.
Pearson
For a small handful of schools that have already been affected and have concerns around supporting teaching and learning at this time, Pearson are offering free support on primary, secondary and revision resources and have created hints and tips for online delivery.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid’s aim is simple. To engage and empower every voice in every classroom or community by recording and sharing short, awesome videos. Here are two really useful blogs for parents and teachers around Family Learning with Flipgrid and Remote Learning with Flipgrid.
Chartered College of Teaching
If you visit the site, you’ll find four Future Learn courses to help educators use technology in the classroom.
Share My Lesson
A cornucopia of resources ranging from preschool to high school on all curriculum areas. The resources range from videos to lesson plans to activities. They also have a community that you can join to expand your professional learning network or to get some help. Other content providers are doing similar things, so it’s probably a good idea to check out your favourite ones.
Makematic
Last but certainly not least, we have lots of free videos and animations. A mixture of teacher CPD, classroom resource and family projects, these resources can be accessed here.
Best Educational Websites for Lesson Plans
1. BetterLesson: Website offering lesson plans, professional development, and instructional strategies for core-subject teachers from lower elementary to high school. Their database offers literally thousands of unique and compelling lesson plans, instructional strategies, and modules on developing leadership, student engagement, and classroom learning. This is an essential online educational source.
2. Library of Congress: A detailed and comprehensive collection of lesson plans involving all things Social Studies with a particular strength in American History. Contains engaging lesson plans on a diverse range of subjects as Baseball and Race to The Huexotzinco Codex. Perfect for Social Studies and History teachers from grades 6-12.
3. NASA STEM Engagement: Massive catalog of high-interest and engaging STEM lesson plans with free teacher resources, printables, and step-by-step procedural instructions. Tons of compelling video content and interactive activities too. NASA STEM Engagement would benefit any teacher looking for creative and exciting lesson plans for K-12 students.
4. The New York Times Learning Network: Topical lesson plans for the four core subjects with a particular strength in English and Social Studies. NYT is a great resource for those looking to interweave curriculum into current events. Since the Times is a fairly sophisticated source, it works best for teachers working with 8-12-level students.
5. PBS Learning Media: Comprehensive catalog of genuinely fun and engaging lesson plans for Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Engineering and Technology, and Health. Offers material for PreK all the way through high school. A perfect source for all teachers looking for new lesson plan ideas.
6. ReadWriteThink: Massive bank of online teacher resources filled with tons of lesson plans organized by subject, learning objective, grade level, and theme. Perfect for any teacher looking for developed, clear, and well-organized lesson plans, from Kindergarten to 12th grade. English teachers will find this site particularly useful as it holds more than 500 different resources on fiction and literature!
Conclusion
Online resources and tools that teachers can use in their lessons or for planning. Resources are about online education, technology in education, educational websites for teachers, classroom resources, etc.