25 Best Websites for Teachers
How did we teach without the Internet? Our favorite sites simplify lesson planning, keep the classroom running smoothly, and engage students.
1. Best for Young Readers
scholastic.com/stacks
At The Stacks, students can post book reviews, get reading recommendations, play games based on the latest series, watch “Meet the Author” videos, and more. It’s like Facebook for reading and it’s safe for school, too. Your whole school will want to participate in the “You Are What You Read” campaign, which asks users to list their five most important books.
2. Best for Lesson Plans
thinkfinity.org
There are so many lesson plan databases online, but Thinkfinity stands above the rest because its content comes from the best names in learning-language arts from ReadWriteThink, math from NCTM, science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and more.
3. Best for Finding Books
bookwizard.scholastic.com
Use Book Wizard to level your classroom library, find resources for the books you teach, and create reading lists with the click of a button. You can also plug a title into the BookAlike feature to find books with an easier, similar, or more difficult reading level.
4. Best for Craft Projects
crayola.com/educators
With hundreds of lessons for every grade level, you’re guaranteed to find a colorful idea for your class, such as the “Chinese Dragon Drum” for Chinese New Year or the “What Do You Love?” project for Valentine’s Day. Sign up to be a Gold Star teacher so that you’re first on the list to test new Crayola products.
5. Best for Writing
educationnorthwest.org/traits
The creators of the 6+1 traits of writing offer a terrific overview of the model on their site, with research to support the program, lesson plans, writing prompts, and rubrics. You can also find writing samples to practice scoring and see how other teachers scored the same piece.
6. Best Online Dictionary
wordsmyth.net
Add the children’s version of the WordsmythNow widget to your toolbar, and students can look up new vocabulary no matter where they are online.
7. Best Math games
nlvm.usu.edu
At the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, you’ll find activities for every area of math at every grade level. Need to teach shapes to preschoolers, for example? Try the Attribute Blocks, which challenge students to sort virtual objects. Working on functions with middle schoolers? Drop numbers into the function machine to identify the pattern.
8. Best for Geography
earth.google.com
Zoom over the Sahara desert. Fly past the streets where your students live. Take a tour of the Eiffel Tower. You can do it all with Google Earth, the tool that makes the world feel a little bit smaller with its map-generating capabilities. If you’re new to Google Earth, the tutorials offer a great introduction.
9. Best for History
free.ed.gov
This fantastic site acts as a clearinghouse for all of the educational materials developed by government organizations. You can find primary sources, videos, and photos for just about any topic. For example, listen to “Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier” or find a timeline of Ben Franklin’s life. And it’s all free!
10. Best for Science
nsta.org
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 Middle School
figment.com
Figment is a new site that 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.
12. Best for Virtual Trips
smithsonianeducation.org
The Smithsonian offers thousands of resources for educators, including lesson plans, virtual tours of their latest exhibits, and the opportunity to connect with experts in the field. In one lesson, “Final Farewells,” students can see a school yearbook from the Civil War era up close, and discuss how the political climate may have affected the content.
13. Best Web 2.0 Tool
edu.glogster.com
Glogster bills itself as a tool for making “digital posters,” or glogs, containing pictures, text, video, links, and animation. A glog on To Kill a Mockingbird might contain a link to the Scottsboro trial, a clip from the Gregory Peck movie, and a drawing of the tree where Boo Radley leaves gifts for Scout. Fun!
14. Best for the IWB
exchange.smarttech.com
Go here before creating any lessons for your interactive whiteboard from scratch. Chances are you’ll find an existing lesson ready to grab and go, or at least inspiration from other teachers who’ve taught the same material. Plus, the customizable Whack-A-Mole game is a must-have for test prep and review.
15. Best for IWB Newbies
prometheanplanet.com
If you’re new to interactive whiteboards, don’t miss the help available at Promethean’s teacher community. You’ll find a boatload of tips and practical advice, addressing questions like “How do I find websites that work with an IWB?” “How do I use PDFs?” and more.
16. Best for Wiki Help
wikisineducation.wetpaint.com
Wetpaint will walk you through the process of creating wikis and connect you with other teachers using them in the classroom. You’ll find great examples to share and templates for starting a book club wiki, for example, or one centered around a community service project.
17. Best for Video Clips
teachertube.com
TeacherTube is the best source for instructional videos in a safe environment. We especially love the clips of teachers showing off the catchy rhymes they’ve made up to teach certain topics-check out the “Mrs. Burk Perimeter Rap” and the “Mr. Duey Fractions Rap.”
18. Best for Moviemaking
xtranormal.com
Moviemaking has never been easier than it is at Xtranormal, where all you have to do is write a script and choose a background and characters, and the text is transformed into a short animated clip. The classroom possibilities are endless-challenge kids to write an additional scene for a book you are reading, or have one character explain the water cycle to another.
19. Best Standards Help
corestandards.org
Whether or not your state has adopted the Common Core, you’ll want to bookmark this site, which not only offers an overview of the new standards but provides a thoughtful framework for how the standards were determined and what we can reasonably expect students at given grade levels to achieve.
20. Best for Tough Topics
tolerance.org
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.
21. Best PD On the Go
learner.org
Many of the professional development 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.
22. Best For Your Career
nea.org
In the hustle and bustle of the classroom, it can be easy to lose track of the outside forces affecting education. The NEA explains how to take action regarding the issues you care about most-including merit pay, NCLB, and funding for education.
23. Best for Inspiration
blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching
Reading the Top Teaching blog is like paging through a cooking magazine. Just as you might be inspired to try a 12-course meal instead of your usual mac and cheese, you’ll leave wanting to push your teaching to the next level. And even if your classroom will never look like blogger Beth Newingham’s (in a word-amazing!), you’ll benefit from these veterans’ wealth of experience and knowledge.
24. Best Reality Check
itsnotallflowersandsausages.blogspot.com
Sometimes you want inspiration…and sometimes you just want to connect with someone who understands the frustrations of field trip forms, unmotivated colleagues, and the latest buzzword your principal mentions at least a dozen times a day. When the business of school has got you down, visit Mrs. Mimi’s blog for a sympathetic friend, a laugh, and the priceless knowledge that you are not alone.
25. Best for Teacher Giveaways
facebook.com/scholasticteachers
So we may be biased, but we think we’re offering up some of the Web’s best giveaways on our Facebook page. Every week our fans have the opportunity to win prizes such as children’s books, T-shirts, and flash drives. All you have to do is “like” us. And stand by for the fascinating discussion that happens on our page, too
Quick Tip
Ask your colleagues to share their favorite websites, too. Group them by subject area and bookmark them on your personal computer and in the school computer labs. Your colleagues may have some real time-savers to share!
KVS PRAKASH
9849982730
EDU CLUB
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