Teacher Resources
Table of Contents:
(Click on the heading in the Table of Contents below to go to that subject)
Discounts for teachers
T-Mobile
https://now.t-mobile.com/education-employee-discounts.html
Verizon (for Fios and for wireless/Mobile)
https://www.verizon.com/featured/teachers
For Tickets/etc.
https://www.govx.com (yes, this works for teachers. I bought tickets to Wicked through them for significantly less than at the box office!).
For all sorts of stuff:
Public Library Resources
We have a whole page dedicated to this under "WAYNE PUBLIC LIBRARY PARTNERSHIP" in the main menu above.
Movies!!!
We now have streaming movies through K12 Swank for Wayne Hills High School! What this means is we have about 200 films that you can stream, and share with your classes (you send them a link, they can watch the film on their computer).
So how do you get started?
Go to https://digitalcampus.swankmp.net/admin/whhs378978 (this is our special Wayne Hills link)
If you no longer have your login and password that I sent via email, please email me and I can give it to you.
Once you log in, you can search through the movies for the ones you are looking for, or just scroll through them alphabetically.
History
Academy4sc.com- 100% free to use, it has videos (all cartoons) on sociology, psychology, philosophy, history and economics that come with lesson plans, ideas for thinking through the concepts in more detail, and more. The site consistently is updated with new material as well.
Ken Burns Films from PBS- you can search by era, film, or subject. Ken Burns and his collaborators have been creating historical documentary films for more than forty years. Known for a signature style that brings primary source documents, images, and archival video footage to life on screen, these films present the opportunity to pose thought-provoking questions for students, and introduce new ideas, perspectives, and primary sources.
Big History Project- combining history and science, it's got all sorts of useful resources. It was developed to be an all-encompassing "course", but you can take a look at the individual units, and pull out what works for you. There are videos, infographic, articles, lesson plans, and more. And it's 100% free, which is fantastic. From their website: BHP delivers a big picture look at the world, examining science and history from the last 13.8 billion years. Students will have a better understanding of how we got here, where we’re going, and how they fit in.
iCivics.org: They have a section for high school, and an additional one for AP U.S. Government & Politics that includes study guides, lesson plans, and tutoring videos (just scroll towards the bottom of the page, and you'll see tabs for upper elementary, middle school, high school, and AP). Everything on the site is free through August 2020.
From the National Constitution Center, pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about the Constitution: https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/in-the-classroom. The National Constitution Center unites America’s leading scholars from diverse legal and philosophical perspectives to explore the text, history, and meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Since its launch in 2015, this nonpartisan tool has allowed learners of all ages to engage with the text of the Constitution, discover how experts agree and disagree about its history and meaning, and explore arguments on all sides of the constitutional debates at the center of American life.
Academy 4 SC 100% free to use- It has sociology-based, psychology-based, and philosophy-based videos (all cartoons) that come with lesson plans, ideas for thinking through the concepts in more detail, and more.
Virtual Tours of National Parks:
https://artsandculture.withgoogle.com/en-us/national-parks-service/parks
https://artsandculture.google.com/project/national-park-service (this has more stuff, plus exhibits)
You can also explore historical events and people: https://artsandculture.google.com/explore (scroll down, you'll see both options! )
Nueremberg Museum if you are covering WWII: https://museums.nuernberg.de/documentation-center/national-socialism/the-beginnings-of-the-nazi-dictatorship/
Primary Sources- National Archives:
https://www.archives.gov/education - general stuff
https://www.docsteach.org- educator resources (you can create a free account and then explore- there is SO MUCH in terms of primary source documents, and half the stuff comes with lesson plans that align with the curriculum standards
Music
One of my former students helped to create this curated list of resources of all things music for her Music Education class (she's a senior at Gettysburg). It is extremely comprehensive, and may be of use for anyone looking for a break, or for music/vocal/instrumental teaching: http://www.findingmusicresources.com
Science
LabXChange.org- LabXchange is a free resource for remote and hybrid learning from Harvard University. They offer high-quality digital content in the sciences, including lab simulations, videos, and customized learning narratives.
Bitescis: You can search it by topic, so Biology, Chemistry, or Physics, and it includes standards, lesson plans, and more. The "about us" section describes the website as: Every BiteScis lesson has two components: A “Bite” and an activity. The Bite is a brief (1–3 page) write-up that makes areas of active science research accessible to a student audience. Bites are available separated from a lesson plan so they can be used in a variety of ways. As parts of our lesson plans, the Bites may be integrated into an activity or serve as a launching pad. The activities themselves vary from a traditional “wet lab” to an old-fashioned minds-on Q&A with everything in between. All BiteScis lessons come with extensive educator documents with background, standards alignments, learning objectives, teaching tips, and of course, the answers.
NASA has created a NASA at Home webpage: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/nasaathome. They have podcasts, videos, virtual tours, a "be a scientist" section and more! Some of the stuff is for younger kids, but a lot of it can be applied to teens (and adults).
The Museum of Science in Boston has a digital museum that they just launched. Here's an article with an overview of the MOS's new offerings: https://needham.wickedlocal.com/news/20200331/strongmuseum-of-science-boston-introduces-online-initiativestrong/3. But to summarize, The Museum of Science, Boston, one of the world’s largest science centers, has launched a new digital museum experience, MOS at Home. With multiple live presentations throughout the day, creative engineering projects, podcasts, kid-friendly activities and more, the museum is inviting the community to visit remotely at http://mos.org/MOSatHome for new content every day.
Virtual Field Trip: a site through Arizona State University, where you can do things like interactive labs, and take virtual field trips Shark Bay Australia to learn about microorganisms. It's free to create an account.
Chemistry- Collisions is a system of digital games, grounded in the rules of chemistry, that can be used to introduce, teach, and review key concepts in chemistry. You can create a free teacher account https://www.playmadagames.com/subscribe/ and then give your class a code. Foreign Language and ESL
World Languages
Flash Academy- It has free resources for ESL students, which might be of use to you! It is based out of the UK, so I would recommend going through the options to make sure they work for the US (I noticed one of the lessons was related to UK culture, so it's interesting, but might not be relevant).
Lingvist- Online language learning platform Lingvist. Educators, parents and tutors can access the vocabulary, statistical learning tracking, course creation tools and a blended learning guide free, for teaching Spanish, French, German and Russian. https://lingvist.com/classroom
Pronounciator allows users access to learn 163 languages. There are personalized courses to match the learner’s interests or occupation. It has videos, music, study guides, audio lessons and quizzes. They can use Pronounciator either on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. There is also a way for teachers to develop lessons (if you are interested in this, reach out to me). All you need is a library card to log in, and once logged in, you can create an account to save your progress. The database can be accessed through the library’s website on their "access online databases page" or through this link.
How to Use Pronunciator (these instructions are on this Library Website HERE).
Amaze.com is totally free, and has some really good videos (all cartoon based). AMAZE aims to provide adolescents around the globe with medically accurate, age-appropriate, affirming, and honest sex education. I was really impressed with the straightforward nature of the site, and the accurate information provided (and I should add- there are levels to it, so you can see if it's appropriate for younger kids, middle school, or teens).
Yoga: https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene
www.weareteachers.com/virtual-pe-classes has a smorgasbord of resources for K-12 Phys Ed, so you can go through and see what looks useful to you!
Some ideas if you have your own younger kids who need yoga (this tells stories that kids know through Yoga- like Frozen and Star Wars):
Health and Phys Ed
Special Education:
Accessibyte makes fun, funky, fully accessible apps for users who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, dyslexic, or have other reading difficulties. We just want kids (and adults) to have fun options when it comes to assistive technology. FREE while online learning is going on.
Prodigy- a Math game that works with the student, and adjusts to their level. FREE (also has paid premium membership options). To watch a video on how it works, go to: https://youtu.be/A0CtplncQnU
Arcademics- Games for students to use to practice math, language arts, spelling, money, and more.
Brainbox- A collection of educational app games (compatible with phones and Chromebooks)- specifically, Magic Spell for Schools- a spelling game app for pupils, their school and parents. Magic Spell for School is designed by teachers to make spelling fun for all pupils. Swipe your way through your school spelling adventure to earn hobs and build your wizard inventory.
Discovery Education through Classlink- go to your ClassLink page and click on Discovery Education. They have a ton of videos and articles that can be REALLY helpful- there's a whole option for Career and Job Skills, as well as traditional stuff on Math, Reading, etc.
Business
https://afsaef.org/- The AFSA Education Foundation is a nonprofit focused on educating consumers of all ages on personal finance concepts and responsible money management. They offer a free personal finance course, MoneySKILL, that is accessible entirely online for students in middle school and above. The course is fully customizable and includes 37 modules available in English and Spanish that address topics such as budgeting, saving, investing, and more. You can visit the website to view a demo and complete a brief registration form to access the full course content (again, it's free!)
EDUardo Business Simulation: EDUardo provides free ready-to-use educational content for disrupted universities and schools- when you go to their home page, you can click on the link to take advantage of this. During the business simulation, participants can learn how to analyze the basic elements of business operation by managing their own virtual company in a round-based environment. EDUardo offers a great number of possible focus topics, such as entrepreneurship, business development, communication skills, adaptive skills, management, and strategic thinking. You can contact them for a free 90 day account.
St. Louis Fed.org- Hundreds of resources that can be used to teach economics and personal finance. All of the resources are free, including an online learning management system stocked with over 400 resources for teachers to use in an online or blended classroom setting to teach economics and personal finance.
https://www.econlowdown.org: Econ Lowdown is a FREE platform with online courses and videos for K-12 and college classrooms (it's also run by the St. Louis Fed).
All Subjects
CommonLit.org: FREE- full articles with assessments, project ideas, discussion ideas, leveled reading, supplemental reading materials for novels, and more. Also has history, STEM, and science articles. Click HERE to see a video on signing up and adding your Google Classroom.
You can assign thematic units, or individual items. You can also connect your Google Classroom so you can keep track of assessment scores, etc. Here's how to assign things and link them to Google Classroom: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gmHyjpdK-SDdTW4GtNlsNpcCl1tinVSL/view
AP classes- Fiveable
Fiveable is a free social learning platform for high school students and teachers focused on Advanced Placement test preparation. It offers live streams, trivia battles and Q&A forums for students to connect with teachers across 15 AP subjects within English, STEM, history and social sciences. https://fiveable.me/
The basic version is great (I used it in my old school), but they are now offering Educator Plus upgrades at no cost to all educators to stay in effect until the end of the school year. GooseChase is a scavenger hunt app designed for educating kids and teens using technology (they can take photos, videos, use Google Forms, etc.- things like "play a major chord on the piano" or "demonstrate 10 pushups"). https://www.goosechase.com/edu is the website, and if you want to do the upgrade, click here to complete your registration and your account will be upgraded within 24-48 hours. The beauty is there are examples of games that have already been made, which you can just copy, or amend to your class: https://www.goosechase.com/edu/game-library
Breakout.edu- This gives fun breakout games that involve solving problems. They have some free ones on this page, and they are broken down by grade level.
Canva has a whole education side for FREE. You can create a free account, share it with your students, and have them create infographics, posters, and presentations.
Google Arts and Culture : There are a TON of virtual galleries and museum tours here, everything from Natural History Museums (dinosaurs!) to experiments in technology to the American Jazz Museum. It also has categories under https://artsandculture.google.com/explore with historical events and art movements.
There are more at https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours
Ted Talks for Students (this was compiled by Weareteachers.com- there are a variety of topics on here, but one that I found particularly interesting was on how boredom actually stimulates new ideas)
Virtual Tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour.
Wings Over The Rockies: an Air and Space Museum whose mission is "to educate and inspire people of all ages about aviation and space endeavors of the past, present and future."- their Youtube channel has episodes from their PBS series about all sorts of aviation topics (they have a really cool one about the Apollo missions)
Math
Poh-Shen Loh, an associate professor of math at Carnegie Mellon University—and also national coach of the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad team—hosts almost daily Math Challenges on YouTube.
Resources that cost money:
Inspark : The description on their website reads: Inspark Smart Courses include textbook replacements, labs, lessons, simulations, and projects. See how active learning can promote a virtuous circle of student curiosity, discovery, and exploration. Adopt or adapt, it's up to you.