Teacher Resources

Library Databases -- 39 databases of reliable, in-depth, and current information, including Proquest Professional. Always the best place to start for quality resources. You will need to log in with your regular user name and password.  Add " @qsbyin " to your user name.

Plagiarism and Copyright

Information and Tools for Educators

National Center of Education Statistics
Academic Info-- "Education Gateway - Directory of Online Teaching & Professional Development Resources Sections include: Education Digital Library ; Distance Learning ; Teacher Training ; Organizations, Teaching with Technology ; School Librarianship ; Resources by Subject."
ACSD -- The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  Lots of stuff on many issues in education. Including scheduling.
Education Week -- "American education's newspaper of record."
School Improvement Through Data-Driven Decision Making -- "Resources, tools, and action steps to foster school improvement."  From the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory®.
Center on Education Policy -- "Helps Americans better understand the role of public education in a democracy and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools."
Center on Instruction -- "A cutting-edge collection of scientifically based research and information on K-12 instruction in reading, math, science, special education, and English language learning." From the U.S. Department of Education.
Instructify -- "Practical, time-saving classroom ideas and cutting edge methods of instruction." From the LEARN NC, a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education.

New York State Regents Exams -- "NYS Regents Exams in PDF format, some going back as far as the 1950s" from the New York State Library Digital Collections.

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General Sites for Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources
Thinkfinity -- "Lesson plans, interactive activities, and other online resources ... authoritative educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after school programs.”  A good, substantive site. Now merged with Marco Polo.
The Gateway -- “A consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to the substantial, but uncataloged, collections of educational materials found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.”  Excellent.

 

Kathy Schrock's Educator Page -- A recommended collection of links, lesson plans, and more.

Educator's Reference Desk -- Includes the ERIC database, your favorite educational database of documents, journal abstracts, lesson plans and more.
Sharing Success -- "The New York State Education Department's statewide system for identifying and disseminating successful educational programs and practices."

K-12 Practitioners' Circle -- From the National Center for Education Statistics.

 
NYSED Virtual Learning System-- "A tool for teaching and learning and to assist classroom teachers in locating Internet resources for instruction."

Edinformatics New York State Education Resource Page -- There's a lot here.

New York Times Learning Network

 
Edutopia -- "Detailed articles, in-depth case studies, research summaries, instructional modules, short documentary segments, expert interviews, and links to hundreds of relevant resources."  From the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Knowledge Loom -- "What works in teaching and learning."
Apple Learning Exchange -- Apple Computer's site for educational Internet content and lesson plans.
 
Awesome Library -- "Organizes the Web
with 18,000 carefully reviewed resources,
 including the top 5 percent in education."

Sites for Teachers  

 
ProfilerPro -- "A comprehensive survey tool developed to meet the evaluation and knowledge management needs of k-16 educators in measuring effects of technology adoption and integration into learning environments and also in measuring the effects of comprehensive staff development programs."

 

TeachersFirst

 

 
ESubjects -- "Origami for the mind."  Lesson plans for English, History, Mathematics, and Science.
Regional Education Laboratories -- "A network of ten laboratories that serve the educational needs of a designated region by providing access to high quality scientifically valid education research through applied research and development projects, studies, and other related technical assistance activities."

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Subject-Specific Sites

English
Read-Write-Think -- "Providing educators and students access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction."  From the MarcoPolo suite.
Web English Teacher -- "The best of K-12 English/Language Arts teaching resources: lesson plans, Web Quests, videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles, and classroom activities."
Doucette Index-- "K-12 Literature-Based Teaching Ideas: An Index to Books and Websites".
EDSITEment -- Lessons and web sites.  Excellent.  From MarcoPolo and the National Endowment of the Humanities.
Outta Ray's Head -- "A collection of lesson plans with handouts by Ray Saitz and many contributors; all of the lessons have been used and refined in the classroom."  Well done.

Online Poetry Classroom -- From the Academy of American Poets.

 

The Writing Process -- "Conn McQuinn from Puget Sound ESD in Burien, Washington guides teachers and students alike through the Writing Process."

 
English Language Arts Annotated Writing Models-- Models of different writing genres for grades 6 - 12 with helpful notes.  Includes Expository, Persuasive, Literary Response, Creative and Expressive, and Reflective Essay.  From Greece Central School District in Monroe County, New York.
Biography Maker-- Steps and tips for writing an interesting biography.  From Bellingham, Washington Public Schools.

LibriVox -- "Provides free audiobooks from the public domain. There are several options for listening." mp3 or ogg files.

 
Young Minds Inspired -- Teaching guides for Animation, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costumes and Makeup, Documentaries, Film Editing, Screen Writing, and Visual Effects.  From the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Concord Review -- Publishes "exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world ... Varsity athletics and athletes are celebrated everywhere. We celebrate Varsity Academics®."

Words Without Borders -- "Publishes selected prose and poetry on the web and in print anthologies ..., develops materials for high school teachers to use foreign literature in classrooms, and continues to build an unparalleled online resource center for contemporary global writing."
Big Think-- "Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind."

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Social Studies
History Matters:  The U.S. Survey Course on the Web -- "Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses.  This site serves as a gateway to Web resources and offers useful materials for teaching U.S. history."  A wealth of information from CUNY and George Mason University.
Lesson Units Using Documents -- "The lessons were researched and designed by local area teachers." From the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center.

 

EconEdLink -- "A premier source of classroom-tested, Internet-based economic lesson materials for K-12 teachers and their students."  Part of the MarcoPolo suite.

Teaching History with Technology -- "To help K-12 history and social studies teachers incorporate technology effectively into their courses."

Learning Curve -- From the British National Archives.
Television News Archive -- Transcripts of network news broadcasts back to 1968.  From Vanderbilt University.
National Geographic Xpeditions -- "Home to the U.S. National Geography Standards—and to thousands of ideas, tools, and interactive adventures that bring them to"
Sound Learning -- "A launching point to Minnesota Public Radio's content on the Web. This site is designed exclusively for teachers to access timely text and audio clips for use in the classroom."
Financial Education -- Lesson plans from the PBS station WNET in New York.
Learning To Give -- Lesson plans on philanthropy and civic responsibility.

Friendship Through Education

 
LibriVox -- "Provides free audiobooks from the public domain. There are several options for listening." mp3 or ogg files.
Teachable Moment -- "A project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility ... TeachableMoment aims to encourage critical thinking on issues of the day and foster a positive classroom environment." 
The Concord Review -- Publishes "exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world ... Varsity athletics and athletes are celebrated everywhere. We celebrate Varsity Academics®."
Coverdell World Wise Schools -- "Dozens of Peace Corps Volunteer stories, letters, and folk tales with standards-based lessons to your class. Also discover ways to involve students in service learning."

Youth Media Project: Student Town Meetings -- Media literacy program from local public radio station WAMC.

 

Big Think-- "Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind."

 
HotChalk -- "A learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment."

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Math and Science
Science NetLinks -- "Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is your guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students." From the MarcoPolo suite.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

 
PhysicsWeb -- "Physics news, jobs, and resources."
Science Teacher's Resource Center -- "Labs, demonstrations, and any other information which teachers can access."

Illuminations -- From the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Part of the MarcoPolo suite.

Tools for Understanding -- "A resource guide for extending mathematical understanding in secondary schools."

 
HotChalk -- "A learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment."
Virtual Courseware for Earth and Environmental Sciences -- From California State University, Los Angeles.
Mrs. Roberts AP Calculus Course -- Links, online lessons -- all sorts of stuff.
Math Lesson Plans -- "Worksheets, puzzles, tips, and other ideas for math lessons in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and calculus."  From the John Handley High School Mathematics Department.
NASA - IMAGE Education Center -- "A wide range of classroom activities related to space weather science, through its summer intern program at the NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center. This archive contains over 100 classroom projects and activities tested by teachers. Don't forget to visit our Extra-Credit Problem of the Week page for new activities 'ready to go'."

Big Think-- "Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind."

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Art and Music
Arts Ed Net -- The Getty's Arts Education web site.
Kennedy Center Arts Edge -- Part of the MarcoPolo suite.

Jazz in America -- From the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.

 
Sound Learning -- "A launching point to Minnesota Public Radio's content on the Web. This site is designed exclusively for teachers to access timely text and audio clips for use in the classroom."
Young Minds Inspired -- Teaching guides for Animation, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costumes and Makeup, Documentaries, Film Editing, Screen Writing, and Visual Effects.  From the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Big Think-- "Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind."

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Foreign Language
Language Links -- Materials for use by teachers and learners of languages.
Miscositas.com -- "Dedicated to those who know the joy of teaching, learning, or living more than one language ..."

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Physical Education
PE Central -- "the latest information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children and youth."
 

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Information Literacy and Technology
Center for Media Literacy -- "Works to help citizens, especially the young, develop critical thinking and media production skills needed to live fully in the 21st century media culture."

Media Awareness Network -- "Resources and support for everyone interested in media and information literacy for young people."
WebQuest Page -- Instructions and examples for constructing Web Quests, a creative technique of Internet lessons using clearly defined tasks and resources.

WiredSafety -- "The world's largest online safety and help group."

NetSmartz Workshop -- "Keeping kids and teens safer on the Internet."

ResourceShelf -- "Where dedicated librarians and researchers share the results of their directed (and occasionally quirky) web searches for resources and information."

Find Sounds -- "A free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples."
Singing Fish-- "The premier audio/video search engine, and Singingfish.com is the place for consumers to find, explore, and experience the universe of free media"
LibriVox -- "Provides free audiobooks from the public domain. There are several options for listening." mp3 or ogg files.
Young Minds Inspired -- Teaching guides for Animation, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costumes and Makeup, Documentaries, Film Editing, Screen Writing, and Visual Effects.  From the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
SchoolTube -- "Provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website."
Youth Media Project: Student Town Meetings -- Media literacy program from local public radio station WAMC.
Big Think-- "Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind."
WorldImages -- "Access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It contains over 65,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery."
HotChalk -- "A learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment."
Awesome Stories -- "Thousands of hand-selected and relevant links to pictures, slide-shows, videos, audio-clips, artifacts, manuscripts, documents and other primary sources linked, in context, within each story." Tons of stuff, easy to use.

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Block Scheduling Resources
CAREI: Block Scheduling -- The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota.  Excellent.

Using Time Well: Schedules in Essential Schools -- From the Coalition of Essential Schools.

MENC: Block Scheduling Resources -- A host of information and resources from the National Association for Music Education.

FLTEACH: Block Scheduling -- A synopsis of posts on the subject to the Foreign Language Teaching Forum.  "Unscientific," but interesting and well organized.

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CETAC -- Character Education and Civic Engagement Technical Assistance Center.  From the U.S. Department of Education.
GoodCharacter.com -- "Character Education: Free Resources, Materials, Lesson Plans."
Character Counts! -- From the Josephson Institute of Ethics.
Character Education Resources -- From Public Schools of North Carolina.

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IDEA -- Information on the Individuals with Disabilities Act. From the Federal Department of Education.
CAST: Universal Design for Learning -- The Center for Applied Technology is a nonprofit organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies.
Introduction to AT -- Informatin on assistive technology from the Assistive Technology Training Online Project.
NCIP-- National Center to Improve PRactice in Special Education Through Technology.
Misunderstood MInds: Resources -- From the PBS series.

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Information Age Inquiry -- "Information literacy standards for student learning, indicators for student performance, and hundreds of collaborative lesson plans around the country."
21st Century Literacies -- "Focus on four 21st century literacies - information, media, multicultural, and visual... resources, both bibliographic and web-based, to assist you in your quest to learn and/or teach literacy skills."  From AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer.
Galileo:  Inquiry and ICT -- "What do schools and classrooms start to look like when they become knowledge-building environments in which 'all children could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people's ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on this most complex world."
Moving from Rote to Inquiry -- An article from Library Media Connection by Violet H. Harada and Joan M. Yoshina.
Guided Inquiry -- "Brings together research and scholarship to show how Guided Inquiry through school libraries in 21st century schools can be developed and implemented to enable students to learn meaningfully from the diverse and complex information sources. It articulates philosophical and professional foundations and guiding principles for Guided Inquiry based on available research."  Dr. Carol C. Kuhlthau & Dr. Ross J. Todd at Rutgers.
Inquiry Transforms Learning Environments for Students -- Article from the Alberta Teachers' Association Magazine.
The Keys to Inquiry -- " This document has two sections. The first is a series of six brief essays to address the kinds of questions teachers often have about inquiry based learning and learning from one's experience... The second section is a set of big ideas, questions, and attitudes that are central to the project." From the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
What Teacher Educators Need to Know about Inquiry-Based Instruction --  " This presentation, specifically for teacher educators, defines inquiry, reviews research about the topic, and discusses classroom implementation of inquiry principles." From Alan Colburn at California State University.
Concept to Classroom:  Inquiry-Based Learning -- Part of an online series of FREE, award-winning professional development workshops from the Educational Broadcasting Corporation.
The Great Question Press:  Squeezing Import from Content -- "This article first appeared in the February/March 2004 issue of From Now On - The Educational Technology Journal." By Jamie McKenzie.
Copyright Resources -- Compiled by Mary Ratzer for the SLS BOCES. Excellent and exhaustive.
Crash Course in Copyright -- What is "fair use"? "Can I use this legally?" From the University of Texas at Austin.
Copyright -- From the U.S. Copyright Office.
Mantor Library Anti-Plagiarism Website-- From the University of Maine at Farmington.
Plagiarism Stoppers: A Teacher's Guide -- Lots of links and suggestions.  From Naperville Central High School.
NoodleTools -- A guide to searching the Internet.
Wise Guide -- "Designed to introduce you to the many fascinating, educational and useful resources available from the nation's library and one of the most popular Web sites of the federal government."
Filliamentality-- "A fill-in-the-blank tool that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Internet, gathering good Internet links, and turning them into online learning activities."  From AT&T.
Rubric Makers -- From teAchnology.
Graphic Organizers -- From Masterminds Publishers.

Free Powerpoint Background Templates for Teachers

 
Project Poster -- "Allows students to make online school projects and short reports quickly and easily. Students can include one image, four links to other Web pages, and a report of up to 3,500 characters."

SchoolTube -- "Provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website."

Big Think-- "Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind."

WorldImages -- "Access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It contains over 65,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery."

 
HotChalk -- "A learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment."
MindMeister -- "Create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime."
Midomo -- "Delivering the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a Web browser."
MakeBeliefsComix.com -- Enter your own dialogue with pre-drawn comic characters.

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