Where do you even begin to find all the information you need to start lesson planning and working with your curriculum. Seems like an ocean of information and you’re lost at sea, in a homemade raft no less! There is so much out there that it is daunting and trying to find good stuff that supports the goal >> STANDARDS BASED EDUCATION<< can be misleading.
My first year of teaching I knew what the standards were but had NO idea how to build my lesson to fit the objective of a standard and I literally felt like I was dog paddling in a sea of 30 year old curriculum so I turned to online resources for support. Yes, I relied on Teachers Pay Teachers a lot for fun and engaging sources. Don’t get me wrong, I love TPT and I know the material is tested by teachers, for teachers. In my experience, I have found it is not all research based and the content doesn’t always match my goal for the standard though. I have some favs I always rely on for EXCELLENT quality (I’ll share those down the road), but for real focus on lessons to meet the objective of the standard I turn to industry professionals and their advice.
Finding those pros happens at the root of their subject. No one told me the value of memberships in our core subject organizations until one of my professors took a group of us to a regional conference for the National Science Teaching Association in Seattle. Attending the conference was mind blowing to me to be able to talk to the curriculum experts one-on-one and meet so many other teachers in the break out sessions wanting what I did>>> to learn how to teach that content better. With my bag in tote I filled it to the brim with rock samples, free textbooks and readers, as well as pencil and other giveaways. Take the freebies, I promise you will need them! In your classroom pencils disappear and you’re always looking for “prizes” to dish out to successful kiddos. The take away from that conference was to gather every resource you can and file it away, either by making notes or literally adding material to my files.
The likelihood of attending a conference in this climate of COVID and the world’s chaos is null right now, BUT you can still get in the know and gather resources by joining the industry groups. Choose what is best for YOU. Do you lack math instruction knowledge, then definitely join the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. I’ve joined all of the following groups and have found an endless amount of resources and support that is RESEARCH BASED and TESTED BY TEACHERS. When the world shut down and we had to teach on the fly from home, these groups created online resources overnight to support my need for virtual teaching.
So the benefits… 1. Online so no paper monster!
2. Links to Professional Learning Opportunities.
3. Search engine to find EXACTLY what I need.
4. Their magazines are priceless and with amazing ideas.
5. Links to JOBS (if you are still looking).
6.News related to the content>>> Life Applicable
connections of content!
7. Blog content, journals and a network of support from
other teachers.
Do they cost? Well some do. There’s always a free level or a discounted student
membership. Join what works for you and bookmark their websites.
Turn to these industry resources first when looking for curriculum support. PLUS, taking professional development courses in the future will be easy to find and access for you.
Join any or all of these organizations today to truly enrich your practice as you prepare this summer for your classroom.
Navigating the sea of resources is much easier with a crew on deck!
#Nationalcountilofteachersofenglish #nationalscienceteachingassociation #nationalcouncilofteachersofmathemathics #Nationalcouncilforthesocialstudies #researchbased #teachingstandards #lessonplan #onlineresource #teacherspayteachers
Comments