Top Ten Sites for Teachers

Websites for Teachers

Here are my top ten sites for teachers. You'll find help with lesson plans, classroom activities, ideas to stimulate your students, and resources to make the learning process fun. Whether you teach small children or older ones, we applaud you in all your efforts for helping our upcoming generations of adults become the best they can be in whatever field they choose to pursue.

1. ABC Teach offers over 5000 free printable worksheets for kids Pre-K to 8th grade. I found festive Halloween Bookmarks that you can print, complete with name and date. Why do it yourself when someone else has gone through the hassle for you? You can also become a member for $35.00 a year and have access to over 12,000 worksheets.
2. Songs for Teaching - Kids of all ages will like the resources at Songs for Teaching. I found Hap Palmer’s "Getting To Know Myself" here, which teaches body awareness, feelings, part identification, and moods. Lyrics are free, and most downloads are only $14.98 while the majority of CDs are available for $15.95. The site also allows you to preview your choices before purchase, suggests activities for your students, and is searchable by subject, artist, or age.
3. Teacher Website - A recent trend in computer-based learning is trying to get your students to do more than merely play games online. "Connecting teachers, students, and parents through technology" is their motto, and they accomplish this by offering teachers their own free Teacher Website. For a small fee of $6.00, you can make your site commercial-free. Upload worksheets, permission slips, and homework with their reference tools and lesson plans. Students can download homework on sister site Class Homework, so there will no longer be excuses such as the dog ate it.
4. Need school supplies? Classroom direct offers thousands of items for arts and crafts, visuals, science, reading, and math supplies for students as well as easels and furnishings for the well-kept instructor. With discount prices, savings of up to 50% on certain items, and free shipping for over orders of $50.00, I found this 4 lb. container of Golden Harvest Wheat Paste to be a great deal at $8.49. Recalling those early paste-eating days in school, even the box sounds yummy.
5. UCSD Safety - Ever since the tragedy at Virginia Tech, schools are equipping themselves with better security. But sometimes that is simply not enough. UCSD Safety gives suggestions for keeping your pupils and you safer, including links to counseling services and local police. Although the site is tailor-made for for that college, their hints are universal and worth a run-through. It is also worth checking your own school’s site, if they have one, or suggesting this as a model, if they don’t.
6. I Love That Teaching Idea is an excellent site for submitting your innovative teaching ideas or learning from others. Designed for grades K through 6, it was founded by 2 elementary school teachers in 1998. Wanting to share the work they did with children, they also wanted to allow those teachers with creative concepts to do the same. Their sister site Teaching eBooks offers such clever ideas as "Helpful Teaching Extras! Volume 1: Awards, Motivators and More!" and "Little Books For Little Hands -25 Mini-Books That Encourage Simple Writing and Illustration!" eBooks. Titles are less than $10.00 and easily downloadable.
7. Sesame Street Workshop - Once your students return to the classroom, it is sometimes difficult to keep them focused. Leave it to Sesame Street to offer some great online teaching tools. The site features games, stories, art, music, and more for elementary age children. What child could resist Elmo reading a book such as "Henry the Little Fish?" I also found the adventures of Super Grover, an interactive game, where kids can help the fuzzy Muppet solve problems with rhyming games.
8. Puzzles in Education - To improve your class's brainpower, Puzzles In Education features brainteasers, logic problems, and interactive jigsaws on many levels, with new ones offered every day. Many of them can be downloaded as handouts or chosen as individual projects for slower students who can use extra tutoring. I must warn you that it is easy to get carried away by this site that has plenty of puzzles for adults, too.
9. Sites for Teachers - If you haven't found it in the list of sites above, then Sites for Teachers features hundreds of other sites with pre-written lesson plans, worksheets, clip art, and activities for reading, math, science, social studies, and much more. The best part is that they are rated by popularity so you can sift through the sites more easily.
10. Live Search Club - Finally, here's an interesting spin on student motivation. The Live Search Club has games for older students whose basic skills may not be up to par. Playing matching and spelling games or crossword puzzles comes with a bonus. They learn how to successfully search while playing. In addition, each game awards points that can be traded for such prizes as free music downloads, computer accessories, ringtones, and t-shirts. Although the best prizes can take up to 20,000 tickets, it will take a lot of patience and learning to earn a Zune or an Xbox 360, but undoubtedly worth the effort for the pupil.