Check Out Resources for New Teachers

TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. We offer our own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus. Explore more at http://www.teachersfirst.com/newtch.cfm.  The following are my favorites!

The Differentiator Grade K to 12
http://www.teachersfirst.com/20/getsource.cfm?id=10219

Struggling to create the best objectives for your lessons? Use this free tool created by an educator to create great objectives for differentiated instruction. Based upon the new (1990s) Bloom’s Taxonomy, click on the action verb; enter your content, resources to be used, final product, and group size. You will see your objective created across the top of your screen. Be aware this site does include some “click me” advertisements for contests and more. And the review team did notice one typo. However, we still felt this site would be helpful to many teachers out there “in the trenches.”  

In the Classroom:
For example, use a verb from Bloom’ taxonomy such as “evaluate.” Click on the portion of the sentence at the top to enter your content such as “patterns of environmental issues.” Choose the resource to be used, final product to be made, and number of students in group from the appropriate tabs. Example objective: Students will evaluate the patterns of environmental issues using websites to create a news report in groups of two. Save your objective by copying and pasting into any document or online tool. This site will give you many project ideas that you may not have thought of yourself. Although this site is deceivingly quick and simple, it could be very useful when writing detailed, powerful lesson plans.

Icebreakers, Games, and Fun Group Activities Grade K to 12
http://www.teachersfirst.com/20/getsource.cfm?id=8552

Start the first day of school or a new marking period with a getting-to-know you activity from this great, searchable collection. The activities are designed for all ages, so some will not work well with very young ones (such as writing things on slips of paper). The site is easy to navigate and sorts ideas by group size and activity level for easy retrieval. You are also invited to submit your own ideas. Since the site is designed for general use, not for schools, some ideas may be impractical in a classroom setting but could be easily adapted.

In the Classroom:
New or veteran teachers who want students get to know each other as they enter a new school (starting middle school, for example), want to observe them so YOU get to know them, or need to build better team skills with a challenging class or club, will find ideas to try. Mark this one as a Favorite so you can find it again, since “first day” activities tend to get lost in the flurry —and in the fading memory– during the year.