After a review of posts on Medium and my personal blog, I realize I have been more a curator than a creator of content.
Considering the popularity of some sites, I am not alone. This post celebrates the teachers who have made our jobs so much easier by creating excellent content and sharing it with the world. (Day 7 of the 30-Day Writing Challenge)
I even curated the image for this post. Why re-invent the wheel when there are already so many beautiful creations?
With this post, I thank the teachers and curriculum writers who have developed lesson plans, materials, and other resources. Many of these creations are either low cost or free. I have been able to use many of these as the basis for lessons, pulling in several similar resources to address the needs of my students.
My teaching philosophy and strategies have evolved over the years as I work with students from diverse backgrounds and with varied life experience. It has also evolved as I evaluate existing resources against what I know of my students.
- Will the lesson work for them?
- What do I need to add?
- What should I do in a future lesson?
- Does the recommended content resonate with my students?
- What content would resonate that could also be supported by the skills and concepts of the lesson?
- How can I differentiate instruction to support my students?
- Do I need to scaffold the skills and concepts?
What a relief to have a foundation upon which to build!
My Favorite Sites
These sites are in no particular order.
- Teachers Pay Teachers
- Help Teaching
- EdPuzzle
- CommonLit
- ReadWorks
- NewsELA
- Ms. Effie’s Life Savers
- AP Lit Help
- Pennsylvania DOE’s Standards Aligned System
- EngageNY
- Annenberg Learner
- Royal Shakespeare Company
- Seattle Shakespeare Company
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- Purdue OWL
- Spark Creativity
If you have resources you would like to add to this list, please leave a comment on this article and I will include it.
Thank you for reading the seventh article of my 30-Day Writing Challenge.