Knowledge
Offering quality, innovative value and assistance to teachers to manage day to day activities, these websites are true teacher’s pets!
From creating lesson plans and keeping attendance, to behaviour records and communicating with students outside the classroom, the daily routine of a teacher is hectic. Our recommended list of websites offer quality, innovative value and assistance to teachers in managing their day to day activities
Teachers are some of the most skilled professionals around. A day in the life of a teacher can vary greatly depending on the subject and grade level in which they teach. They work long hours, utilise their limited resources to innovate curriculum, and do everything they can to make sure their classrooms are fun as well as safe for students.
From creating lesson plans and keeping attendance, to behaviour records and communicating with students outside the classroom, the daily routine of a teacher is hectic. Our recommended list of websites offer quality, innovative value and assistance to teachers in managing their day to day activities.
National Geographic
The National Geographic Society is a non-profit scientific and educational organization dedicated to exploring our planet, protecting wildlife and habitats, and helping ensure that students in K-12 are geographically literate.
National Geographic’s classroom materials are designed in a modular system, with activities as the base unit. An activity will fill one class period, while a lesson (a collection of activities) can fill up to a week of class time. Units (collections of lessons) are designed for longer periods of time.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/teaching-resources/
Firki.co – The Teacher Training Portal
firki.co is a world-class, open source online training portal by Teach For India which focusses on all aspects of the role of a teacher. The portal provides resources, tips and guidance to any educator who wants to learn and is committed to providing the best opportunities for each of their students.
Through a blended learning model, Firki focuses on the principles and strategies, which have proven successful in improving teacher competencies in low-resource communities. Through online learning, in-person training, 1-1 coaching and classroom observation and feedback, Firki helps teachers identify their strengths and leverage them to build an effective practice, leading to improved student outcomes.
Teachers of India
Proposed by the National Knowledge Commission in 2008, this portal is an initiative of Azim Premji Foundation and is a platform for teachers, teacher educators and others working in education in India.
This website features classroom resources, teacher development resources, and community and discussion forum as well as educators who have made a difference in the lives of their students and the surrounding community. It is available in five languages – English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil.
Teacher Tube
Teacher Tube’s goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. It is a website to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. Teacher Tube was the idea of Adam and Jason Smith, a 14-year veteran educator. Most importantly, Teacher Tube community members are a major part of the evolution of the site.
Members are encouraged to not only upload educationally relevant videos, but also to make constructive comments and use the rating system to show appreciation for videos of value to one as an educator or learner. Users also have the ability to preserve the integrity of the site by flagging inappropriate videos. The website is free for everyone.
Teachers Help Teachers
Teachers Help Teachers is a platform to help teachers understand that in today’s fast paced world, resources can also be bought from another teacher. Every teacher, over a period of their teaching experience, is bound to develop lesson plans, presentations, posters, activities, games, etc. which can be used by fellow teachers through a channel provided to them. THT aims at building this channel by facilitating the process of exchanging ideas and resources.
http://teachershelpteachers.in/
Thingiverse
Thingiverse Education provides over a hundred free lessons that make teaching with a 3D printer easier and more effective for a variety of grade levels and subjects. It also provides a community where educators can exchange best practices or remix projects. It helps teachers bring to the fore the tinkering and creative skills of students.
https://www.thingiverse.com/education
The Smithsonian Learning Lab
The Smithsonian Learning Lab provides access to digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 major research centres, the National Zoo, and more, which can be used together, for learning. It is a comprehensive digital destination that includes instructional materials, more than a million artworks and photographs, audio and video recordings, articles and blog posts, and webpages, interactive tools for annotating collections with “hotspots,” quizzes, and discussion prompts.
Common Sense Education
Common Sense Education provides high-quality digital literacy and citizenship programs to educators and school communities. The focus is to empower students to harness technology for learning and life. The website includes free resources with ratings and reviews of digital tools, a comprehensive K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum, ready-made lesson plans, videos, webinars, and more. More than 2,500 ratings and reviews of apps, games, and websites are available on this website, which has been built by teachers, for teachers. There is curated list of the best tools, tips, tricks, and tutorials to make it easier to integrate technology into your teaching available here.
https://www.commonsense.org/education/
SWAYAM
SWAYAM platform is indigenously developed by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with the help of Microsoft and would be ultimately capable of hosting 2000 courses and 80000 hours of learning: covering school, under-graduate, post-graduate, engineering, law and other professional courses.
All the courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and are available, free of cost to the residents in India. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a non-profit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy was founded by Salman Khan in 2008, and has a team of more than 130 full-time staff. Their resources cover preschool learning, math, biology, chemistry, physics, economics and finance, history, grammar, and more.
This article was originally published in the Anniversary (August 2017) issue of ScooNews magazine. Subscribe to ScooNews Magazine today to have more such stories delivered to your desk every month.