Lesson Plans and Websites for Teachers

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Lesson Plans and Websites for Teachers

Websites that offer lesson plans, worksheets, teaching materials, and links to teacher-oriented Websites.

There are many Websites that offer lesson plans, worksheets, and links to teacher-oriented Websites. Use your favorite Search Engine to search Lesson Plans, and you will find lots of "hits." A few Websites are listed below.

Note that some people are concerned about "org" versus "com" sources of materials. The argument is that non-profit organizations are not necessarily trying to push or sell certain materials, while commercial (for-profit) organizations have a profit motive. This issue is not clear cut. Many non-profit organizations publish and sell materials. Many for-profit organizations provide high quality, free materials in addition to selling materials.

Rather than "org" versus "com," it is more relevant to analyze the Websites and their materials from a point of view of what they contribute to students obtaining a high quality education. Thus, for example, one might evaluate a site on the basis of its contribution to students gaining higher-order knowledge and skills that transfer among different disciplines and endure over time. Such materials are in sharp contrast with materials that emphasize lower-order knowledge and skills, and that might well be designed along the lines of "drill and kill."

References

abcteach [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.abcteach.com/. Quoting from the Website:

abcteach started on March 2000.
This site is a place to get ideas, whether you are a teacher, a soon-to-be teacher, or a student. Parents and Homeschoolers, there are ideas for you too. The purpose of abcteach is to provide educationally sound suggestions that help with learning and teaching. abcteach will provide easy, online materials for immediate use by kids, student teachers, teachers, parents and other visitors to the site. The material can be printed directly from the screen; no downloads necessary.

AskERIC Lesson Plans [Online]. Accessed 9/15/02: http://www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/. Quoting from the Website:

This collection contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which have been written and submitted to AskERIC by teachers from all over the United States and the world. Contributions from individuals are essential to the collection; it is how it grows! If you have a great lesson plan you would like to share with other educators, please send it to us

CNNfyi.com [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://fyi.cnn.com/fyi/

News for students and resources for teachers, from CNN. Includes lessons ties to current events.

Columbia Education Center Portland, Oregon: Resources for Schools & Teachers [Online]. Accessed 1/21/03 http://www.col-ed.org/ .Quoting from the Website:

Here we offer links to [over 600] lesson plans created and contributed by teachers who've used them successfully in their classrooms, web-based teaching resources created as part of the ECHO trips abroad, funding resources, math, science, equity and assessment information, and many links to great sites for educators.

Daily Lesson Plan [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/t
eachers/lessons/archive.html. Quoting from the Website:

The archive [from the NY Times] contains hundreds of free lesson plans for grades 6-12. You may perform a keyword search to retrieve a lesson, browse the archive by subject, or scroll down the page to view the most recently published lessons.

DiscoverySchool.com [Online[. Accessed 12/12/03: http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/.

Hundreds of lesson plans on a wide range of subject areas, provided by the Discovery (TV) Channel

edHelper.com [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.edhelper.com/. Quoting from the Website:

Thank you for your interest in edHelper.com. edHelper.com is dedicated to providing teachers a single shop for educational resources.
edHelper was created by a team of teachers who have edhelped (!) in its development.

edHelper is funded by its sponsors, whom you will see on our pages. We'd like to thank ClassBuilder for their initial support in helping with the site's initial development.

10960 Lesson Plans, 1223 WebQuests, 5000 Free Worksheet Generators, 1600 Word and Critical Thinking Problems, Exams and Puzzles for Standardized Tests.

Education World [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.education-world.com/. Quoting from the Website:

In the spring of 1996, the founders of Education World recognized the need for a Web site that would make the Internet easier for educators to use. They wanted to create a home for educators on the Internet, a place where teachers could gather and share ideas. They wanted to create a complete online resource where educators could start each day to find the lesson plans and research materials they were looking for.
The result is Education World, the Educator's Best Friend, a resource that includes :

a search engine for educational Web sites only, a place where educators can find information without searching the entire Internet;

original content, including lesson plans, practical information for educators, information on how to integrate technology in the classroom, and articles written by education experts;

site reviews;

daily features and columns;

teacher and principal profiles;

Wire Side Chats with the important names in education;

employment listings.

Educator's Reference Desk. Accessed 1/5/04: http://eduref.org/. This is a replacement for part of the ERIC system, effective 19 December 1993. Quoting from the Website:

The people who created AskERIC announce a new service and name to access the resources you've come to depend on for over a decade. While the U.S. Department of Education will discontinue the AskERIC service December 19th, you will still have access to the resources you've come to depend upon. Through The Educator's Reference Desk (http://www.eduref.org) you can access AskERIC's 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses. While the question answer service will no longer be active, The Educator's Reference Desk provides a search interface to the ERIC Database, providing access to over one million bibliographic records on educational research, theory, and practice.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) [Online]. Accessed 11/28/01: http://www.ed.gov/free/.

Hundreds of education resources supported by agencies across the U.S. Federal government. This large resource continues to grow as a wide variety of federal agencies add new materials.

Gateway to Educational Materials [Online]. Accessed 11/26/02: http://thegateway.org/ Quoting from the Website:

Welcome to The Gateway to Educational Materials™ (GEM)!
The Gateway to Educational Materials™ is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.

GEM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Teachers, parents, administrators can search or browse The Gateway™ and find thousands of high quality educational materials, including lesson plans, activities, and projects from over 320 of the 438 GEM Consortium members.

History/Social Studies for K-12 Teachers [Online]. Accessed 11/27/01: http://www.execpc.com/~dboals/boals.html. Quoting from the Website:

The major purpose of this home page is to encourage the use of the World Wide Web as a tool for learning and teaching and to provide some help for K-12 classroom teachers in locating and using the resources of the Internet in the classroom.

Intel: Innovating in Education [Online]. Accessed 11/27/01: http://www.intel.com/education/index.htm.

Intel Corporation provides a broad range of materials design to help engineering, math, science, and technology education.

Lane County Educational Service District(ESD) [Online]. Accessed 2/9/02: http://www.lane.k12.or.us/insttech/.

A number of the ESDs in Oregon are playing leadership roles in Information Technology. This Website contains links to a number of valuable resources for teachers. It also contains a Virtual Training Center that contains training materials on hardware, software, and Internet resources used by Lane County Teachers!

Learningpage.com [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.learningpage.com/free_pages/home.html. Quoting from the Website:

Learning Page is a huge collection of professionally produced instructional material for you to download and print. Lesson plans, books, worksheets and much more can be found on the site.
Membership is free.

Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies Teachers [Online]. Accessed 11/27/01: http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/index.html. Quoting from the Website:

Dr. Marty Levine, Professor Emeritus of Secondary Education, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), has gathered lesson plans and resources from the Internet which social studies teachers will find useful.

Lesson Planet http://www.lessonplanet.com/search/Computer. Quoting from the Website:

For only $9.95 (per year) gain full access to Lesson Planet's 30,000+ directory of lesson plans as a Lesson Planet Silver Member!

For only $24.95 (per year) gain full access to Lesson Planet AND Teacher Web Tools as a Lesson Planet Gold Member!

LessonPlanz.com [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://LessonPlanz.com/. Quoting from the Website:

LessonPlanz.com is searchable directory of free online lesson plans and lesson plan resources for all grades and subjects. Launched on May 1, 1999, LessonPlanz.com was designed to provide an easier way for teachers to find online lessons and teaching resources! By eliminating search results that aren't relevant to teachers, you also save time.
Just enter your topic of study in the search box, or browse the index by choosing from the many subject areas. You will find direct links to lesson plans and resources in your search results. There are nearly 4,000 hand-selected and reviewed lesson plans and resources in the index!

Lesson Plans Page.com (Over 1,500 lesson plans) [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/. Quoting from the Website:

Congratulations! You've just found one of the best PreK-12 teacher resources on the Internet, and it's completely free! Welcome to LessonPlansPage.com! To find lesson plans that match your criteria, simply begin by selecting a subject below, or search for specific topics. Be sure to visit our sponsors before you leave. Their support helps to make this site possible!
You can find our newest lesson plans by selecting Most Recent Additions below, and Seasonal Lesson Plans are also available below. Other sections of this site are accessible via the menu on the left! If this is your first time here, don't forget to bookmark this site and sign up for our newsletter!

Library of Congress: Especially for Teachers [Online]. Accessed 9/15/02: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/.

Contains lesson plans, millions of original documents, and other resources for teachers.

MarcoPolo [Online]. Accessed 2/5/02: http://marcopolo.worldcom.com/. Quoting from the Website:

The MarcoPolo program provides no-cost, standards-based Internet content for the K-12 teacher and classroom, developed by the nation's content experts. Online resources include panel-reviewed links to top sites in many disciplines, professionally developed lesson plans, classroom activities, materials to help with daily classroom planning, and powerful search engines.
…

Just as the textbook helps teachers provide credible information in a structured way that meets your state curriculum guidelines, MarcoPolo is being designed to accomplish the same thing over the Internet. And just like the textbook, it requires that you take some valuable time to learn how to use these sites and the information they offer.

We are striving to meet your needs by offering useable, standards-based content which works within your curriculum and provides a structured and safe Internet experience.

What is MarcoPolo? MarcoPolo is a partnership between WorldCom and seven renowned educational organizations. These partnerships were created to produce six discipline-specific educational web sites. The web sites are geared primarily toward K-12 teachers, although some of the sites' resources are also appropriate for college-level work and for family activities. The partner organizations and their web sites are:

American Association for the Advancement of Science

National Council on Economic Education

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

National Endowment for the Humanities/Council of the Great City Schools

National Geographic Society

The Kennedy Center

Media Mastery Series [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://teachworld.com/tw_pages/media_mastery.html.

Contains five lessons in each of two areas. Quoting from the Website:
MEDIA MASTERY is a set of curriculum materials that provides teachers with the opportunity to strengthen students' critical thinking and communication skills while introducing them to media literacy. The curriculum consists of two major components.
TEACHING THE NEWS introduces students to critical questions that stimulate thinking, writing and reflection about journalism and newsmaking.

TEACHING ADVERTISING introduces students to critical questions for understanding advertising, media economics and the influence of advertising in society.

MEDIA MASTERY provides teachers with interactive, hands-on learning experiences that create rich opportunities to strengthen students writing, reading, listening, speaking and critical thinking skills about the media.

Michigan Teachers Network (MTN) [Online]. Accessed 11/28/01: http://mtn.merit.edu/about/index.html. Quoting from this extensive Website:

Michigan Teacher Network provides easy access to K-12 education related Web resources that have been carefully evaluated for quality, relevance, and effectiveness. MTN describes thousands of high quality resources that can be effectively used with students in the classroom, for professional development, or for educational planning and problem solving.
Michigan Teacher Network is designed specifically for Michigan K-12 educators - defined broadly. Our users include parents, teachers, school administrators, school board trustees, librarians and media specialists, technology coordinators, and other school staff. We also serve preservice teachers and professors at Michigan Schools of Education.

MTN is completely free and no registration is required. Although MTN is designed with Michigan educators in mind; educators from other states will find MTN useful and are welcome to use the site.

Middle & Secondary Educational Resources [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://otn.uoregon.edu/class/secondary/.

This is a collection of resources identified by students in a doctoral seminar at the University of Oregon, with links updated in November 2001.

National Archives and Records Administration: The Digital Classroom [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.nara.gov/education/classrm.html. Quoting from the Website:

Welcome to the Digital Classroom! To encourage teachers of students at all levels to use archival documents in the classroom, the Digital Classroom provides materials from the National Archives and methods for teaching with primary sources. Visit our page regularly as we expand our offerings.
Primary Sources and Activities: Reproducible primary documents, educational units correlated to national academic standards, and cross-curricular connections.

General and National History Day Research: Activities for learning to do research at the NARA Web site.

Publications: Educational materials published by the National Archives.

Professional Development: Information on workshops and summer institutes for educators and opportunities for collaboration with NARA's education program.

National Center for Educational Statistics: Student's Classroom [Online]. Accessed 3/8/02: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/index.html. Quoting from the Website:

Education information and activities for students everywhere!
Welcome to the NCES Students' Classroom, for kids and adults alike. Move your mouse over the images and watch the chalkboard to see what's available, or use the text links below.

National Geographic [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/.

Lesson plans and other materials for teachers. Materials for students and for parents.

New York Times--See: Daily Lesson Plan.

PBS TeacherSource [Online]. Accessed 11/2/05: http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/.

Over 3,000 lesson plans and activities. Links to relevant educational research.

Puzzlemaker [Online]. Accessed 3/8/02: http://www.puzzlemaker.com/. Quoting from the Website:

Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, crossword and math puzzles using your word lists. Build your own maze or print our specialty hand-drawn mazes created around holidays and classroom topics.

Quia Web [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.quia.com/web/. Quoting from the Website:

Wlcome to Quia, the leader in online education. Quia helps teachers teach better by giving them the tools to create, customize, and share learning activities. Quia helps students learn more by bringing the resources of hundreds of thousands of educators together in one place.
Quia is pronounced key-uh and is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive. Quia provides a variety of educational services, including:

A directory of thousands of online activities and quizzes in more than 50 subject areas Templates for creating fourteen different types of online activities, including flashcards, matching, concentration (memory), word search, hangman, jumbled words, ordered list, picture perfect, pop ups, challenge board, scavenger hunt, rags to riches (a quiz-show style trivia game), in addition to columns and cloze for Premium Quia subscribers. Tools for creating online quizzes Quiz administration and reporting tools Free teacher home pages.

Scholastic: Lesson Plans and Reproducibles [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/. Quoting from the Website:

Scholastic Inc., the global children's publishing and media company's corporate mission, which is supported through all of its divisions, is to instill the love of reading and learning for lifelong pleasure in all children. Recognizing that literacy is the cornerstone of a child's intellectual, personal and cultural growth, Scholastic, for more than 80 years, has created quality products and services that educate, entertain and motivate children and are designed to help enlarge their understanding of the world around them.

Schoolhouse [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse/. Quoting from the Website:

Welcome to Schoolhouse, home of the Encarta Lesson Collection and other educational resources. Use the left panel to find lessons by subject, grade level, or keyword.

Sites for Teachers [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.sitesforteachers.com/index.html.

Several hundred Websites that are designed for teachers are automatically rank ordered on the basis of current (the past hour) level of use.

TeAch-nology [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.teach-nology.com/. Quoting from the Website:

TeAch-nology.com offers teachers FREE access to lesson plans, printable worksheets, over 150,000 reviewed web sites, rubrics, educational games, teaching / technology tips, advice from expert teachers, current education news, teacher downloads, teacher finance help, web quests, and teacher resources for creating just about anything a teacher could need.

Teachers.net [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://teachers.net/lessons/. Quoting from the Website:

The Teachers.Net Lesson Bank [from Indiana Wesleyan University] is your opportunity to share your most precious asset - your teaching ideas and lesson plans! Now your genius and creativity can be used to touch lives around the world, and to help teachers reach students in ways they had never imagined before!

Technology Education Lab. Accessed 12/12/03: www.techedlab.com.

The author of this Website, Steve Mikulski, indicates "I am an Instructional Specialist for Engineering, Media, and Natural Resources for Montgomery County Public School working in the Division of Career and Technology Education at central office in Rockville, Maryland.

TERC [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.terc.edu/. Quoting from the Website:

Founded in 1965, TERC is a not-for-profit education research and development organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
TERC's mission is to improve mathematics, science, and technology teaching and learning. TERC works at the edges of current theory and practice to:

contribute to understanding of learning and teaching

foster professional development develop applications of new technologies

create curricula and other products support school reform

TERC has recently begun a new project that is developing online science materials for grades 3-8. Quoting from the Website Accessed 10/2/01: http://LL.terc.edu/

With this project, TERC is redesigning the units in the Kids Network series to incorporate a web-based structure and delivery system and add a new unit for grades 5-8. Each unit includes hands-on investigations, online inquiries, activities for reading, writing and communicating about the science content that is the focus of the unit, and embedded assessments. This work is being funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (ESI-9553592).

ThinkQuest [Online]. Accessed 11/20/01: http://www.thinkquest.org/. Quoting from the Website:

ThinkQuest is a global network of students, teachers, parents and technologists dedicated to exploring youth-centered learning on the Net.
ThinkQuest is an online community where young people learn, teach, mentor, discover, research and grow through ThinkQuest programs

The ThinkQuest World encompasses young people, educators and technologists in more than 100 nations who come together as digital learners, web creators, and Net entrepreneurs.

Through ThinkQuest, young people work together in teams, use the Internet to research a topic in science, mathematics, literature, the social sciences or the arts, and publish their research as an educational web site for peers and classrooms around the world.

ThinkQuest participants learn the 21st century skills of online collaboration, Internet research, asynchronous project management and web communications. They think critically about their selected subject and organize their research into a format that educates and engages their audiences.

Teachers, parents and other interested adults support the participating young people as coaches, technology mentors, and subject-matter guides. They leave the hard work of defining the project, organizing the work, conducting the research and mastering the web technologies to the participating ThinkQuest team members.

usnews.com [Online]. Accessed 11/21/01: http://www.usnewsclassroom.com/resources/
activities/index.html.

Lesson plans developed since the latter part of 1999, tied in with information from US News and World Report.

WebQuest [Online]. Accessed 1/12/032: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/ http://webquest.sdsu.edu/ Quoting from the Website:

This site is designed to serve as a resource to those who are using the WebQuest model to teach with the web. By pointing to excellent examples and collecting materials developed to communicate the idea, all of us experimenting with WebQuests will be able to learn from each other.
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The model was developed in early 1995 at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge with Tom March, and was outlined then in Some Thoughts About WebQuests.

Since then, scores of workshops have been offered to teachers on the format, by instructors who made use of the resources on this site. If WebQuests are new to you, we hope you'll find these pages helpful.

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