Resources for Teachers
Resources for Teachers
Curricula
Gooru is an active South Park Schools partner and offers four tools and a platform to integrate with their application, Navigator.
- Navigator for Learners locates an individual’s knowledge and provides a customized pathway to their goals.
- Navigator for Instructors gives instructors a real time view of each learner and allows for meaningful engagement.
- Navigator Library allows a variety of partners to use existing collections and assessments or build their own to develop custom courses.
- Mission Control shows the data that administrators need to monitor performance and measure learning gains.
- NCore as the platform with APIs and widgets brings the curated catalog and navigated learning functionality, can be integrated into 3rd party applications.
OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Search by subject, education level or Common Core Standard. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curricula.
Lesson Plans
PBS Resource - Middle School: Lesson plans, video, audio, images, can sort by discipline, grade, material type, and national standards
PBS LearningMedia The National Parks: America's Best Idea | Ken Burns in the Classroom, Film, Grades 6-12
PBLU - Project Based Learning: Customizable project based lessons
PBLU - Project Design Rubric: Buck Institute, Ensures best practice in designing project based learning
Scholastic Learn at Home, Grades 6-9: Four weeks of reading plans and activities
Scholastic: Grades 6-8, multiple disciplines; site includes Extension Activities, Teacher Toolkit, and more
Teacher.org: K-12 complete lessons plans, multiple disciplines
The Teacher's Corner: K-12 complete lesson plans, multiple disciplines
Video Libraries and Lecture Capture Tools
Jing (Tech Smith): Lecture and screen capture tool with voice-over capabilities
Kahn Academy: Video collection for K-20
PBS Resource - Middle School: Lesson plans, video, audio, images, can sort by discipline, grade, material type, and national standards
PBL Works! Buck Institute: Project Based Learning Project Videos
Zoom: Live class meetings or lectures can be recorded and archived
Image Libraries
Google Images: search by CCBY licensing to find legally reusable (open) images. In Google Images, go to Settings, Advanced Search, User Rights and select appropriate option.
PBS Resource - Middle School: Lesson plans, video, audio, images, can sort by discipline, grade, material type, and national standards
Unsplash High quality, free (open) images and photos that you can download and use for any project.
COVID Internet Support
South Park Telephone Hotspot Locations (coming soon)
Amplify - Top-rated programs to create a series of remote learning experiences that are high-quality, easy to use at home, and totally free.
Emerson Collective: Resources for Remote Learning
Free Commercial Technology Services
Zoom Tips, Learning Solutions
Rubrics and Rubric Makers: Teachology, Resources for building classroom rubrics
Teachers Pay Teachers: (See Mr. Fieth for further details)
The following is a collection of online classroom ideas teachers can consider building upon to increase student engagement and success rates:
Student-led Virtual Meetings
Student-led Virtual Parent Conferences
Virtual Poetry Slams
Mini Courses for Extension or Remediation
Virtual Debate Club
Virtual Trivial Pursuit as Content Review
Zoom Tools such as the polling, group breakout, and whiteboard features
Demonstration of Learning Challenges using Jing or phone video to record a student's demonstration of knowledge gained. Create a gallery of videos and feedback forum for peer interaction
Connection Circles through Zoom to help students stay connected virtually. Teach students gathering protocol and "rules" and invite them to join the circle to share based upon teacher or student made prompts.
Circle Up (Expansion of Connection Circles) Once weekly the entire class takes 30 minutes to check in with one another. Students are asked to share four responses: name, number (well-being on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being extraordinarily fantastic), how they are feeling (identify an emotion), and respond to the prompt of the day (e.g., what was something positive you did in the last 24 hours?). Daily topics vary and are progressive in developing appropriate disclosure. The Discovery Institute
Online Parenting Classes for De-escalation Methods and learning not to engage in power struggles with their own children
Virtual Spirit Week or Spirit Fridays: School colors, crazy hair, pajama day, famous people in history, contemporary scientists or writers
MERLOT is your free and open library of free and open course content across all academic disciplines. In addition to its over 90,000 materials, it also simultaneously searches over 70 other free and open libraries as well as a dynamic, education-aligned searching of the web.
SkillsCommons is your free and open library of free and open workforce development and training resources funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is a national repository of workforce OER that supported over 700 community colleges creating enhancements and innovations in their workforce curriculum that is now OER available to you. Perfect for CTE oriented learning and training, offering simulations for science classes, supplementals, assessments, and more.
Download the Chronicle of Higher Education's free collection of advice guides and opinion pieces on online learning. You'll get the insight and analysis needed to make the adjustment to teaching a full roster of courses online.
FREE online mini-courses: Learn Teaching Online Basics
Here are two courses developed by higher ed for higher ed funded by federal grants. You can download the course files or take the course "in the cloud".
- Designing and Teaching Online course has six (6) easy-to-review modules to cover the basics created by Tyler Junior College.
- Introduction to Distance Education course has five (5) easy-to-review modules created by the Kenai Peninsula College and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Includes FLASH videos so Internet Explorer browser works and Chrome browser might have problems.
Student Readiness Assessments
Are Your Students Ready to Learn Online? The circumstances around the COVID-19 pandemic have recently required students become online learners. There may be times that these same protocols will be implemented for future snow days as well, so becoming proficient in online learning protocols will help lead to successful academic experiences for students. The following are self-assessments about student readiness to learn online and easy-to-use tutorials to learn the skills they need to be successful in online learning:
- Self Assessments on Readiness for Online Learning: Explore a collection of these self-assessment organized within MERLOT and choose ones that are right for your students.
- Diagnostic Assessment and Achievement of College Skills: Includes assessment of self-regulatory learning skills that are essential for online learning. Learn more about DAACS...
- Tutorial for Online Learning: The California Community College's Online Education Initiative created eleven (11) modules and 4 interactive tools to help students learn skills and plan for being a successful online student.
MERLOT Virtual Labs Portal MERLOT has create a collection of free and open virtual labs across a variety of STEM disciplines that can be very effective in supporting online instruction for laboratory courses.
Virtual Labs Teaching ePortfolios The Virtual Labs portal also provides a collection of teaching ePortfolios by faculty implementing virtual labs and research on the effectiveness of using virtual labs.
MERLOT non-STEM Collection of Simulations MERLOT also has collections of simulations that can support laboratory-like experiences in non-STEM disciplines:
Arts | Business | Education | Humanities | Social Sciences | Workforce Development
Face-to-face learning is essential for learners in apprenticeship programs and mentors face-to-face teaching is essential for successful learning. There are many ways that online learning and teaching can augment and complement work-based learning. SkillsCommons has organized a wealth of resources that can help you integrate online teaching and learning within work-based teaching and learning.
- Apprenticeship and Work-based Learning Portal - Explore and use this free and open resources by SkillsCommons.
- Apprenticeship Program Models - SkillsCommons also provides exemplary models for apprenticeship program that were funded by the U.S. Department of Labor grants.
- Workforce Development Online Curriculum - Explore the wealth of free and open online curriculum in a variety of workforce development areas.
Click here to peruse CTE Resources
Click here to peruse CTE Resources