ne of the obvious boons of the worldwide web is the facility of accessing quality teacher resource materials. Usually designed, written, and submitted by fellow instructors, these teacher resources offer fresh approaches, lend themselves to professional development, and (again obviously) contribute to the enhancement of classroom (or virtual classroom) learning of concepts, strategies, methodologies, and skills.
As an instructor of English and as an online course developer, I have found many valuable teacher resources for linguistic, literary, and rhetorical disciplines in particular and for education and teaching in general. Some of these I would like to share with you, maybe saving you the time I spent collecting online teacher resource materials, or maybe just introducing you to a site, a database, or a teaching strategy or idea that you had yet to discover, but hopefully not creating a redundancy—by listing a site you know well.
ONLINE TEACHER COMMUNITIES
Pro-teacher Community (K-3; 4-8; Math, Science, & Technology; Gifted Students
http://www.proteacher.net/
Teachers.net (Lesson exchange, live chat, job and classifieds boards, and more…)
http://www.teachers.net/
Tolerance.org (Activities, Kits and Handbooks, Web Exclusives, Grants, and more…for teaching tolerance.)
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/magazine/getpublished.jsp
ONLINE TEACHER DATABASES
Teacher Oz’s Kingdom of History (Tracey Osborn’s WWII database)
http://www.teacheroz.com/
Web English Teacher (Carla Beard’s exhaustive site—includes multiple and various subcategories—including Shakespeare, Media and Literacy, Poetry, Study Guides, and much, much more….)
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/index.html
ESL Resources at OWL (Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab—handouts, resources, and exercises)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/index.html
Just for Teachers (Sheboygan Falls teacher Dawn Hogue offers advice, syllabi, book lists, and links for AP English teachers.)
http://www.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/staff/dehogue/AP/teachers/main.htm
ReadWriteThink (Lesson Plans, Web Resources, Student Materials, and Standards)
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/
TeachersFirst.com (Classroom, professional, and site resources for k-12 teachers.)
http://www.teachersfirst.com/
COLLECTIONS/LESSONS/HANDOUTS (PRINTABLE)
Awesome Library: K-12 Lesson Plans (Dr. R. Jerry Adams’ multiple disciplines collection)
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/lesson.html
Helpful Handouts for Students and Teachers (Erica Cassel’s writing, reading, and writing about reading materials)
http://www.mrscassel.com/helpful_handouts.htm
Lesson Plans at Teachnet.com (General and Specific Lesson Plans for Multiple Disciplines)
http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/index.html
Microsoft Education Lesson Plans
http://www.microsoft.com/education/LessonPlans.mspx
S.C.O.R.E. Language Arts CyberGuides (Comprehensive, interactive lesson plan units for k-12.)
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
Teachers.net Lesson Bank (lesson exchange for k-12, advanced, senior, and other level and range teachers)
http://www.teachers.net/lessons/
Using English.com ESL Teacher Handouts, Grammar Worksheets, and Printables
http://www.usingenglish.com/handouts/
Virtual Seminars for Teaching Literature (by the University of Oxford)
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/
There are, of course hundreds more wonderful sites for teacher resources. I have yet to explore and employ them. I have much ground to cover, but in the efforts and explorations, I hope to see you online one day, maybe in one of the community chat rooms.
We learn by teaching, and we teach by learning—so say the wise ones. May all your lessons, then, be wonderful.
