5 Most-usable Teacher Websites

(These are must haves!)

I consider these the best.  Listed here are my 5 most-used websites to incorporate relevance into the our classrooms.

 

As a Middle School English teacher I am constantly looking for ways to incorporate the new Common Core State Standards into the classroom in such a way that has relevance to my kids.  This subject can be difficult to teach for a 12-year-old boy who walks in on day one and says "I hate to read," or the 13-year-old girl who is more worried about the boy who showed interest to her in the hallway or what her best friend said about her.  This is the life of a middle school English Language Arts teacher, but I am sure any teacher of any age or subject will tell you that keeping student interest is paramount to learning.

Zunal Webquests       These are by far some of the best learning projects you will ever come across.  They are teacher created, AND you can create your own and save in your own database of favorites.  Don't worry if you have no computers in your classroom, you can do many of these on the screen from your computer and have the students interact at their desks or in groups.  There are so many ways to incorporate this site.  I guarantee you will use it frequently..

The Writing Fix     If you need to incorporate writing into ANY subject, this is the site to help with that.  There are many, many plans that are not just lesson plans, they are projects that take several days to complete.  When you are done, you will be amazed at all the students have learned.  I had a lady walk through my class when I was doing one of these.  She named me specifically as one that was incorporating "Rigor and Relevance" into my class.  Wow, and it wasn't even my own idea, although I did change and adjust it easily to fit with our curriculum.

Easy Notecards     This website has notecards and flash cards for literally all classrooms!  You can make your own just by entering in the words you need, or pull up some already made.  Spend just 5 minutes of your life looking this site over, and you will save hours and hours.

Rubistar     These are rubrics for all subjects.  This site is so easy to use.  I can make a rubric in 5 minutes, export it to Excel and be ready to print in no time.  Each rubric is customizable and very easy to understand.

Slideshare.net     You can literally find any slide shows for any subject on this site!  Here's mine that I made and uploaded about how to write an Argumentative Essay geared toward Middle School, but can be easily used or adapted for grades 5-10.  All our middle school english teachers have used this.  My students have taken Cornell Notes on this.