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This website offers a broad range of free classroom resources that extend learning beyond the classroom. It is also an online community that provides teacher-to-teacher shared ideas and resources

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Discovery Education | Your Daily Learning Platform

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Discovery Education inspires educators to go beyond traditional learning with award-winning digital content and professional development. Learn more today!

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This website offers a wide range of lesson plans, activities, etc. for free based through educators who post their works and to pass on their knowledge. Lessons are organized by grade and topic.

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World's most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than four million resources available for use today.

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This website contains free standardized lessons and interactive white board activities made by teachers for teachers.

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Educational Materials and Teacher Supplies

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Teacher Created Resources is the leading publisher of educational materials, classroom decorations & teacher supplies for preschool, elementary & middle schools.

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This online resource has equipped a community of over one million educators with certified, expertly curated teaching resources designed to help students succeed.

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Print-ready and digital resources
that teachers can trust.

From thousands of worksheets and lesson plans to new PBL projects and complete teaching kits, our content adapts to your individual needs as an educator.

IMPROVE STUDENT OUTCOMES

Choose from 20,000+ worksheets, lesson plans, projects and much more

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"I'm Tara, I create resources and write blog posts for TeacherVision. I love using the TeacherVision resources in my own classroom, especially the choice boards and holiday activities. When I don't have a lot of time for planning or a last-minute change to my schedule has me scrambling for an activity, TeacherVision always saves the day. I just search for what I need, and I'm always able to find something fun and easy to implement."

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"I'm Sara, and I teach high school math and science in Nova Scotia, Canada. Some of my favorite resources to use in the classroom and create for TeacherVision are graphic organizers and math games. I love the seasonal content on TeacherVision, the practical implementation tips from teachers and how the resources are ready to print and use."

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"I'm Jessica Peresta, elementary music mentor, blogger, and podcaster. One of my favorite types of resources is blog posts. I love how TeacherVision has everything we need all in the one place and provides a variety of resources. The subscription definitely saves teachers time, because you seriously can find everything you need in one place."

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TeacherVision provides teachers with expertly curated teaching resources and printables across all subjects for grades pre-K to 12.

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Is a British website that holds over 700K free resources for K-12 teachers that was made by teachers for teachers.

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Tes provides a range of primary and secondary school teaching resources including lesson plans, worksheets and student activities for all curriculum subjects.

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This website is based off of a collection of resources for project based learning, social and emotional learning and much more in the classroom for teachers.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

The benefits of movement in the classroom aren't limited to younger students. Pairing new words and concepts with gestures or dance moves locks in understanding-and active brain breaks prime students to learn even more.

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A free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education.

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This website is a complete online resource for teachers, administrators, and school staff to find high-quality and in-depth original content which they offer more than 1,000 free lessons.

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This resource offers free teaching materials for K-5 teachers that have been designed by experts or tried and found useful by other teachers.

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Resources for teachers are available for any subject and grade, and range from simpleworksheets to educational software for use in the classroom. They are especially useful these days with the increased standards in education and greater expectations from society.

JumpStart has its own collection of free teacher resources. Check them out:

Online Teacher Resources: A Teacher's Best Friend

Sharing classroom experiences and teaching material with other teachers is a great thing, but it may not be possible all the time. Coming up with one's own educational resources is time-consuming and tedious. It may be possible once in a while, but it is certainly difficult to do for every lesson. Moreover, with the number and variety of teachers' educational aids readily available online, why bother? Online teacher resources are collections of hundreds of teaching materials designed by experts or tried and found useful by other teachers. In many cases, making use of the online material may prove to be even more useful and effective than relying on those borrowed from fellow teachers at school. Regardless of one's teaching style and requirements, the huge amount of online collections ensures that teachers never go back without finding the resources they need.

The Different Kinds of Teacher Resources

It is astounding to see the variety of teacher resources available for immediate use for teachers across the country. The most basic ones are worksheets and lesson plans. Tons of these are available in multiple websites and teacher forums. There are also teaching ideas and classroom activities which teachers can make use of to liven up lessons and help students understand concepts better. Teachers can also find descriptions and reviews of various teaching tools - using these helps teachers make informed decisions about the educational material used in the classroom. Social networking sites for teachers allow teachers from across the country to share experiences and advice about teaching. Educational resources also include learning games, audio-visual teaching tools, and interactive educational software. Finally, there are websites that list and describe various sites that offer supplementary teaching material for teachers.

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Resources for teachers are available for any subject and grade, and range from simpleworksheets to educational software for use in the classroom. They are especially useful these days with the increased standards in education and greater expectations from society. JumpStart has its own collection of free teacher resources.

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This resource offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library’s digital collections in their teaching.

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The world’s largest library. View historic photos, maps, books and more. Contact experts for help with research. Plan a visit. Home of U.S. Copyright Office.

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This website is sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English, it provides educators with high quality practices in reading and language arts instruction.

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Dive into a sea of resources, knowledge, and inspiration for all your literacy needs. With thousands of standards-based resources for teachers and students, you can be confident your students are getting the education they deserve.

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This website is a public digital library of open educational content that allows you to explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.

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Open Author helps you build and publish Open Educational Resources for you and for the benefit of educators and learners everywhere.

Learn more about creating OER

Groups provides a flexible environment to organize, create, share, and discuss resources with others in your network. Collaborate with group members, tag and add resources to shared folders, create your own collections, all within a public or private group.

Groups

Search through collections curated by our digital librarians

Collections

Common Core resources organized for your needs

Common Core

Hubs

A Custom Resource Center

Projects, districts, states, and initiatives make use of Hubs to bring groups of educators together to create, organize, and share OER collections that meet their common goals. Explore Hubs

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Custom Digital Libraries

Microsites are custom, flexible sites that include all the features available on OER Commons. Microsites allow your users to search resource collections using a custom taxonomy at a unique URL. Contact Us

Our award-winning OER Professional Learning programs support instructors and curriculum specialists to gain the necessary skills required to find, adapt, and evaluate high quality open materials.

In-person and virtual OER workshops help focus instructors to develop a "commons" mindset, to experience the benefits of open processes using the platform's tools, collaborative features, and workflows. This can include using Open Author for creating, remixing, and publishing shared curriculum.

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How to Search OER Commons

View all How-to videos

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OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.

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This website offers lesson plans, professional development, and instructional strategies for core-subjects teachers from lower elementary to high school.

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Go beyond PD day with comprehensive professional learning programs that work. Connected professional learning supports every educator, every day with the tools and resources they need to help all students succeed.
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Create Student-Centered Classrooms with Personalized Professional Learning

We know that students don't all learn the same way or on the same day, so why do we expect educators to? Support both teachers and leaders with a professional learning program that's built from differentiated learning experiences throughout the school year to create meaningful changes for students in every classroom.

Layered Experiences to Support Continuous Learning

Creating district-wide change requires buy-in from all stakeholders, differentiated support for educators, and a clear plan to continuously build upon pedagogical knowledge and practice.

Layering distinct phases into your professional learning plan provides educators with continued support throughout the school year. Educators will engage in in-person, virtual, group, and individual learning experiences that are all designed to help them make the jump from theory to ongoing changes in practice.
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Achieve Meaningful Outcomes With Research-Backed PD

Professional learning experiences should end with clear next steps for educators to take. Every BetterLesson learning experience is tied to a measurable outcome that gives educators actionable goals and a clear way to measure progress. Educators will work towards their chosen outcomes throughout the school year as they continually try new strategies, measure the results for students, and use that data to build the next stage of their plan.
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Begin building your new professional learning program by identifying what challenges you'd like to solve in your district. We'll work with you to craft a personalized professional learning plan that's built from the focus areas that align with your district's goals and are key for creating student-centered classrooms.

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Improve instruction and learning for teachers and students by building your skills as an instructional leader.

Leading Through Change Lead the improvement of teaching, learning, and overall school climate to enhance student achievement and success. Learn More

Instructional Leadership Focus Areas

Improve instruction and learning for teachers and students by building your skills as an instructional leader.

Leading Through Change Lead the improvement of teaching, learning, and overall school climate to enhance student achievement and success. Learn More

Access Learning Opportunities When They're Needed the Most

Empower educators to achieve meaningful student outcomes in concrete, practical ways by offering job-embedded learning experiences that are paced throughout the school year and can be applied in the classroom the next day. Combining in-person, virtual, collaborative, and self-directed learning opportunities, we seamlessly personalize our learning session to meet the needs of each teacher, instructional specialist, and district leader. This immersive approach to professional development leads to sustainable change in practice that accelerates outcomes, turning district goals into student growth.
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The BL Lab Platform

The BL Lab is at the center of your professional learning program. When all your high-quality learning resources are centralized in one easy to access platform for educators, leaders, and administrators, you close the implementation gap and ensure that district-level innovation truly translates to changes in teacher practice and results for learners.

Educators access learning, engage with their coach, track progress toward their outcomes, and measure their confidence to enact those outcomes in the classroom. Administrators have a complete view of their professional learning programs and dashboards to examine learning progress across individual groups of educators.
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Personalized PD to Support Student-Centered Special Education

In the 2019-2020 school year, the Watervliet City School District identified special education as an area of focus. Special education teachers had shared that general education professional development wasn't meeting their specific needs and did not feel actionable. The district partnered with BetterLesson to develop and implement personalized professional development for all special education teachers through a full year of 1:1, job-embedded, virtual Coaching with BetterLesson's expert educators.
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Professional Learning, Connected - BetterLesson

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Go beyond PD day with personalized professional learning that works. Connected professional learning supports every teacher, every day with the tools and resources they need to help all students succeed.

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This website contains many resources for teachers and educators about lesson plans, classroom tools, and much more!

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Web Sites - Teacher Resources

Smithsonian Education's Idealabs
Summer spirit is still in the air but it's getting closer to "that time of year" when students and parents prepare for 'Back to School' fun. Check out Smithsonian Education's Idealabs, a great online resource for student's families and educators online!
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Discovery Education Grades K-12
Discovery Education gives access to 400+ free classroom-ready lesson plans and activities, organized by grade level and subject for science, social studies, and literature. Choose from many topics including astronomy, animals, physical science, genetics, plants, weather, technology, U.S. history, ancient history, economics, and great books.

Holidays on the Net
"Your Source for Holiday Celebrations on the World Wide Web"

Theme Park Grades K-12
Find a tremendous amount of online resources for a variety of thematic units. Resources include: lesson plans, webquests, virtual field trips and more.
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Teacher Discounts Guide: The Ultimate List of Stores
Looking for great discounts for teachers? This list is pretty exhaustive. Save some money! Check it out.

Cando Career Coaching and Resume Writing
This is a comprehensive website that educates visitors on resume and cover letter writing; job search and interview techniques by providing them with informative content, top-notch samples, and articles.
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Don't forget to check-out the various web sites on the Librarians Page!!
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Teacher Resources - Web Sites for Teachers

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Smithsonian Education's Idealabs Summer spirit is still in the air but it's getting closer to "that time of year" when students and parents prepare for 'Back to School' fun. Check out Smithsonian Education's Idealabs, a great online resource for student's families and educators online!

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This website provides lesson plans, maps, and resources to help bring creativity to the classroom.

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Education Resources | National Geographic Society

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Inspire learners to explore National Geographic through interactive lesson plans, maps, storytelling and a wide variety of resources to illuminate their world.

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This website contains free standards for PK-12 instructional resources including lesson plans, videos, inter-actives and more.

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PBS LearningMedia | Teaching Resources For Students And Teachers

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Inspire your students with thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.

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This website has over 420,000 free lesson plans and activities including a curated collection for early childhood through high school. Lessons are organized by grade and topic.

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Created and maintained by the American Federation of Teachers, Share My Lesson is a community of teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, specialized instructional support personnel, higher education faculty, and parents and caregivers who contribute content, collaborate, and stay up to date on the issues that matter to students and educators everywhere.

Sign up to receive our newsletter.

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Share My Lesson | Free Lesson Plans & Teacher Resources

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Share My Lesson is a community of teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, specialized instructional support personnel, higher education faculty, and parents and caregivers who contribute content, collaborate, and stay up to date on the issues that matter to students and educators everywhere.

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This website provides free instructional videos and practice exercises that cover different subjects including math, chemistry, physics, science, arts, and much more.

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A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

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This website provides educators STEM content that includes lessons, activities, study guides, and practice exercises.

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This website gives lesson plans for educators as well as mini books from different collections.

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Scholastic Teachables - browse all worksheets, resources, printables, and more for the classroom! Save hours of prep time with our online treasure trove of ready-to-go lessons, printables, and activities for every grade, subject, and skill level.

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This website lets instructors post instructional videos for different grade levels.

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Since launching on March 6, 2007, our goal at TeacherTube has been to provide an online community for sharing instructional and education videos for college students, high school students, middle school students and elementary school students. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, students, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. It is also a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

On September 1, 2017, TeacherTube.com was acquired by Salem Web Network. Salem's goal is to continue the growth of TeacherTube and support innovative ideas for education.

Most importantly, TeacherTube 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. TeacherTube staff review flagged sites and will remove any inappropriate posts. With more collegial commentary and discussion through messaging and responses, the quality of this resource will only increase.

The service is free for everyone. We always encourage our users to Contact Us with thoughts, suggestions, or other feedback. We do have a vision for TeacherTube to truly be a better alternative to other video storage sites. With the community's help, it can become more interactive and engaging for all teachers and learners.

Science videos are one of the key subjects that students are taught in school. Science is present from the early years of grade school up to the highest levels of academic achievement. As students move up the ranks, their study of science tends to get more specialized into one specific field only, like chemistry, biology, or physics. We have educational videos for all of these courses.

TeacherTube.com's section on science educational videos has content of interest to all learning levels. We have topics as varied as educational songs for elementary school students, up to chemical engineering for college students.

Mathematics is one of the fundamental 3Rs of early education. Known as "arithmetic" in those levels, it involves counting and the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As kids advance through the grade levels, they progressively deal with more complex mathematical problems. Also, more new concepts get introduced as they progress.

Math is crucial for almost any business career. Accounting, budgeting, and projecting sales all require some level of competence in math. Many resources for these topics can be found here on TeacherTube.

Even everyday situations benefit a lot from math skills. Managing one's finances, for instance, obviously requires math, as with anything involving money. Cooking also involves math: proportions of ingredients, for example, as well as measurements.

TeacherTube.com's section on math education videos covers everything from fractions and measurements to money management. We also cover more complicated subjects such as trigonometry, and well as probability and statistics.

History is a very valuable subject, but not just because it is useful for preventing future wars. The lessons from history can also teach people to build a better future. What people have done right in the past should be continued and improved upon in the present.

The subject of history covers a wide range of timelines and locations. There's ancient history and modern history. There is also Asian history, US history, Latin American history, and European history. Each one is unique, reflecting the cultures of the people involved.

If there's one thing common to all history classes, it's usually names, dates, and places. This is also the part that many kids hate the most. They do not see the point of memorizing so many random facts that appear purposeless. Well, that is the wrong way to teach history.

TeacherTube's history education videos section makes the past come alive with a sterling array of videos and tutorials that cover subjects as varied as our prehistory, ancient history, the civil war, and the study of world civilizations.

The purpose of social studies, based on the US National Council for the Social Studies, is to promote "civic competence" among students. In other words, the subject equips students to become better citizens of a country. This is done by exploring history, geography, current events, and governments, among others. Middle school social studies usually deal with one of each of these fields per grade level.

With this knowledge, students gain the ability to become more socially aware and to be actively involved citizens of their country. Through analyzing current events, students will also learn how to predict the consequences of the things happening around them. With that, they can be good influences on their communities.

It is with this goal in mind that TeacherTube offers a wide variety of learning video materials for both students and enthusiasts.

We have videos on everything from strengthening your knowledge of economics terminology to the nuances of various world cultures.

Language arts, as the name suggests, equips students with a wide range of ways to use language. It comprises both speaking and writing skills. In addition to the basics, the subject also deals with the artistic side of language, infusing creativity in the ways students communicate.

There are four basic aspects to understanding a language: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Language arts classes aim to enhance those skills at each year level. At first, it covers basic topics like grammar, sentence construction, and paragraphs. Exercises in language arts become progressively more complex as students move up the ranks, and usually, in higher grades, more emphasis is put on creativity and persuasiveness.

With the noble goal of harnessing the power of words to effect change in the world in mind, TeacherTube is proud to offer videos on everything from general communications to speaking and even videos on strengthening your studying skills.

Not all kids want to go through lectures. Some of them may not have the attention span or the patience to endure long hours just sitting down and listening to someone talk in front. No, that doesn't mean these kids are lazy. It just means they learn differently.

Some kids are auditory learners. In other words, they learn best when they listen to sounds and music. For this type of student, educational songs will certainly be a big helping hand. Even the most complex of concepts, when taught through songs, will be very easy for them to understand and remember. Even kids who are not so much inclined to auditory learning may like this method.

Educational song vidoes are available in a wide variety of subjects. English, math, social studies, science, and everything in between, there's bound to be a song for every subject. For example, on the website Teachertube.com, there are science topic songs, reading songs, skip counting songs, reading phonics songs, and even quadratic formula songs.

The advantage of using educational song videos is that it accomplishes two things at once. First, these songs are entertaining, and second, they also teach a concept. They facilitate learning a lot better than plain lectures simply because of the entertainment part. When a lesson is made fun of, kids will want to learn them. In fact, it could even be the kids themselves, on their own, who will play the songs repeatedly.

TeacherTube offers education songs on topics as varied as the circulatory system to math songs about polynomials and even videos on St. Patrick's Day.

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TeacherTube Educational Videos for the School Classroom and Home - Including Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos and Math Videos

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A free community for sharing instructional videos, Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos, Math Videos, and other content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home schoolers to access educational for the classroom and home learning.

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This website gives an innovative way to enhance lessons and tailor learning for individual needs.

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This website contains lessons, videos, and saves teacher prep about teaching the Constitution, current events, and other civic lessons.

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Why is all this free?

AnnenbergClassroom.org is a project of the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan program of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands.

Our founder, Leonore Annenberg, believed that engaged and well-informed citizens are vital to making our government work at the local, state and federal levels. AnnenbergClassroom.org strives to help develop citizens who demand and support a functioning democracy, realizing Mrs. Annenberg's vision of generations who will go out and fulfill their civic calling.

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Annenberg Classroom's free resources include over 65 videos on constitutional concepts and Supreme Court cases as well as games, lesson plans, timelines, downloadable books, a glossary, and a Constitution guide.

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This website gives lesson plans and classroom ideas with thousands of printable's and advice for teachers (for career, life, well-being and deals).

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We Are Teachers - Ideas and inspiration for reaching the next generation

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We Are Teachers is a proud community of K-12 educators, sharing ideas, resources, and awesome freebies and giveaways.

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This is a learning website that supports creative expression and civic engagement, and problem solving by means of multimedia, digital devices and much more. It also features noteworthy articles about Arts, Science, Post-Secondary ESL, and news and civics.

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San Francisco Homelessness Up 7% Despite Decline in Street Camping

The one-night snapshot in San Francisco found that the number of people sleeping in tents and on sidewalks has decreased while the number of unhoused people increased.

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KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California

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KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We're the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California.

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This is an educational and political blog website which is open to collaboration with other authors and guests who are passionate about politics/policies and policies in the broad field of education.

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For Bellwether some good 2020 news was that we didn't have to let anyone go as our work was disrupted by Covid. But we also hit pause on growth. A result of that is that in 2021 we're going to have a lot of positions open.

Below are roles open now, all but Talent Manager are new roles on our 60-person full-time team of professionals. More coming so watch the space, as they say.

Bellwether has an office in Washington, D.C. and smaller office space elsewhere, but even pre-Covid much of our team works remotely from where they live all around the country - flexibility and the ability to live your life as you want and have a meaningful professional career is one of our Core Values. In other words, please apply from wherever you call home.
Digital Marketing Associate Editorial Manager Grants Manager Talent Manager Senior Associate Partner - Early Childhood Education Senior Associate Partner - Academic Program & Strategy Bellwether Education Partners is committed to providing equal opportunities and building a genuinely diverse team. It is our policy to ensure that all individuals with whom we are in contact are not discriminated against on the basis of age, race, ethnicity, color, disability, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran's status.

Literacy is power and opportunity, so great to see this from NSVF.

But that's not what I want to post about today.

There is a lot of important discussion and action on the school - police issue. The Times was on it this week with a big look at changes in LA. As with most things in education it's important to bear in mind it's a broad country and lots of places are not making changes. But, it's clearly a live issue.

This part of the Times story stood out to me for a couple of reasons,

Last summer's moves by school districts across the country to eliminate or shrink their school police forces were celebrated by activists, who argued that having officers in schools endangered and intimidated students.

But because most of the districts that made these changes have been teaching remotely for much of this school year, they have not yet had an opportunity to see how schools will change in the absence of the police. And some are grappling with what staff and programs should replace the officers.

Minneapolis, where Mr. Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, was among the first districts to take action, with the Board of Education moving quickly to terminate its contract with the city's police department to provide school resource officers.

To replace them, the district decided to hire roughly the same number of what it calls Emergency Management Safety & Security specialists. After the district posted a job listing asking for candidates with law enforcement backgrounds - it later said this was an error - it ultimately hired a number of candidates who had experience as former police, security or corrections officers, according to reporting by the education news outlet The74.

This prompted some activists to complain that the district was not really eliminating police officers from schools - it was just changing their titles.

First, the activists are right and it highlighted some great reporting by Mark Keieleber about this issue for The 74. Second, it points up an important question here: Should reformers be focused on changing the people doing security work in schools or should they be focused on changing the culture? Or both?

The evidence is pretty clear that Black students experience the presence of police in schools differently than white students. And Cami Anderson makes a compelling point that there is something about having the formal force of law attached to a person that makes any relationship fraught within schools.

Yet the issues are not cut and dry in a lot of places. For instance, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, hardly a conservative or reactionary, notes bluntly,

"Yeah we're not gonna do that," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during a Friday morning press conference when asked if she would consider canceling CPS' existing contract with the Chicago Police Department. "Unfortunately, we need security in our schools."

Back in June I wrote about the rearranging the deck chair risk here, which is a risk anyone who has worked around government hiring and contracting appreciates,

...while counselors are not security guards, they can help with the work of changing the in-school culture that should be the cornerstone of any security approach. Bringing in counselors as police move out can minimize the risk that school districts will simply turn instead to education's bustling private security business.

Which is why at the end of the day I think we still fundamentally have a culture problem we don't talk about enough,

If your go-to discipline move is to call the police on young children, then focusing on whether the cops are school-based or a phone call away misses the broader problem: the absence of quality discipline strategies and a mindset that treats kids as if they were criminals.

In education it's pretty common to conflate and confuse culture with the forms of the solution. For instance, we argue endlessly about accountability policies but don't talk candidly enough about an education culture that doesn't have similarly high expectations for all kids. Accountability policy matters, just as school - police policy does, but whatever practices end up in place will reflect those underlying belief systems.

Posted on Feb 19, 2021 @ 12:09pm

Some interesting data in this Carnegie Corporation* survey on work, education, training, and Covid. For instance, the school data point here:

*BW funder, we were not involved in this work.

New Research: Kicking off @AEI's new Place-Based Philanthropy series, @JulietSquire of @bellwethered offers five lessons for successful #placebasedphilanthropy in rural communities. https://t.co/ykVbNrmWXU

- AEI Education (@AEIeducation) February 18, 2021

We talk a lot about school choice around here, various ways parents can choose schools from public school choice, public charters to vouchers, home schooling, and tax credits. Tradeoffs with all of those various policies and a hot set of politics around them.

But the most common way, and really the quietist, that parents choose schools is by choosing where they live. It's not, however, an opportunity that everyone has. Here's a new report on some of the structural issues there around that home ownership. Related, see this analysis from Urban.

The school choice landscape and school choice politics look different depending on your initial assumptions about who is choosing now.

Verbatim:

Lori Lightfoot talks with the Times about Chicago reopening lessons. And San Fransisco School Board Chair Gabriela López talks about why they are renaming schools there.

NCTQ on teacher preparation programs - selection and diversity:

Unfortunately, diversity and academic aptitude, both important, are often seen as conflicting goals. In contrast to that line of thought, a 2017 report from the Center for American Progress found states that increased admissions standards to teacher preparation programs saw increased diversity of undergraduate education majors. Beyond expanding diversity, greater selectivity helps raise the status of the teaching profession, supports the push for higher salaries, and, most importantly, provides students with access to the highest quality teachers.

Research shows an increase in admissions standards for teacher preparation programs was consistent with an increase in the racial diversity of undergraduate education majors.
In a unique undertaking, this study examines this important intersection between programs' admissions standards with their goals to achieve greater diversity and highlights programs that have successfully achieved both.

Uncommon Schools has a new blog, check it out.

Eduwonk and operator Sarah Silverman has co-launched a new firm, Outside Angle, focusing on organizational change, leadership, and DEI. Learn more.
The kids are alright?

The President flew to the Midwest last night, did a town hall meeting, flew back to the White House. How refreshingly normal. There was some news on education front. A clarification on the, still vague, reopening goal.

"I think we'll be close to that at the end of the first 100 days," Biden said during a Milwaukee town hall hosted by CNN. "We have had a significant percentage of them being able to be opened."

Worth noting that a significant percentage are open now. But seems like another sign the gears are turning and the extent of public angst is having an impact.

Also targeted student loan forgiveness still seems like a likelier play out of the administration. The President said $50k is not happening on his watch.

The Parkland school shooting was three years ago today.

One parent of a student killed that day, Alex Schachter's father, Max, created a non-profit to disseminate best practices about school safety. They're launching a database of school safety incidents in Florida - School Incident Report to increase transparency and support for schools to do better.

An unfortunate byproduct fo the politicized debate about school discipline and guns following Parkland was insufficient attention to just how much more could have been done to prevent this from happening in the first place. Lessons with enormous downstream consequences.

New Covid and schools guidance on the way - some grumbling about the distancing guidelines.

Times Magazine look at school reopening for live instruction (mentions Anthony Carnevale Elementary). In other Anthony Carnevale news, this Medium essay is worth your time.

Yglesias says the exam school debate misses the point ($).

Fordham on charter schools and district finances. "...in most states, an increase in the percentage of students attending independent charter schools was associated with a significant increase in their host districts." And for those of you who prefer to argue by author rather than evidence, well just read it. Important context on a pretty crazy debate.

ICYMI - here are some ideas from Bellwether on genuinely building back better and what's needed across a range of issues. And Bellwether checks back in with some education leaders during Covid.

Coming attractions: At the World Education Summit in March, Jeb Bush, John King, and I will discuss the politics and policy of building back better. And in a different keynote session Baltimore's Sonja Santelises and Philadelphia's Bill Hite and I will discuss the practice implications of building back better post-Covid.

It's hard to talk about schools these days.

Just as humans, ecological fallacies are hard for us. The idea that what's true of a group is not true of individuals, and the inverse can be vexing. Seems like that's on full display with the debate about school reopening, and schools and Covid more generally, in a host of ways. For instance,

- In general more affluent kids are far better off than other kids in terms of ability to weather this, but that doesn't mean they're all doing fine or this experience is without costs for kids in that demographic.

- Virtual learning isn't working for most kids, but there are some who are thriving, even reluctant to give it up.

- And of course on question with highest stakes: Overall the odds of getting sick or dying of Covid because of live school are very low, but it can happen and is obviously catastrophic when it does.

Yet on all of these questions, and others, Sweeping generalizations and broad claims seem to characterize the debate more than texture? Especially on social media?

Certainly could be wrong about this, but I'm really starting to think Twitter isn't a great medium to discuss complicated public health issues.

- Andrew Rotherham (@arotherham) February 10, 2021

New publication from a variety of team members at Bellwether full of big ideas for the next few years.

From Pandemic to Progress: Eight Education Pathways for COVID-19 Recovery highlights a host of ambitious but achievable ways for the sector to re-engage in complex policy questions, rebuild education, and focus on equity as the country begins to emerge from the pandemic. Drawing on the breadth of Bellwether's unique expertise - we work in national policy, in schools, and everywhere in between - and the diversity of viewpoints on our team, these are important ideas about how to provide students with the high-quality education and supports they deserve.

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For Bellwether some good 2020 news was that we didn't have to let anyone go as our work was disrupted by Covid. But we also hit pause on growth. A result of that is that in 2021 we're going to have a lot of positions open.

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This website was made to create opportunities based on how it can be and should be. Created by the author Kelly Tenkey, she lets readers take part in her tips on integrating technology in the classroom for a more effective education.

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What it is: Recently, the good people at SAM Labs sent me an Alpha Kit to play with and review. You guys, this is such a cool product! I love that as soon as students open it up, it puts them in charge of the learning. Best of all, it encourages the learning to happen through playful trial and error. Each SAM Labs Kit comes with clever little blocks that each does something specific (think switches, light sensors, temperature sensors, DC motors, etc.). These little blocks interact with the SAM Labs app and empower students to become the inventors of great ideas. Through these 17 blocks (the Alpha Kit comes with 4 of the 17 blocks), students get a front row learning experience to delve into programming, logic, and analytical skills while they express themselves creatively and become problem solvers. The uses of the blocks are seriously endless, paired with the app they can do anything from composing music, to creating a remote controlled car, to exploring temperature, to auto-tweeting or post to Facebook. You can play with these little blocks all day long and keep coming up with new combinations of things to do with them (in fact, I did!). I'm imagining all of the new directions SAM Labs could take our inquiry blocks this year!

How to integrate SAM Labs into the classroom: SAM Labs boasts itself as a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) tool. And it is. But SAM blocks are so flexible, that I think that they reach beyond these few subjects. When I look at the blocks, I see endless inquiry possibilities. Yes, students will learn programming basics, how motors and light sensors work, how to use logic to build if/then type scenarios. But students will see more possibilities with these open-ended blocks. SAM Labs has a great collection of lesson plans to get you and your students started if you like, but like Legos, I like to see what the students come up with BEFORE they get the prescriptive input from the adults. They will come up with things we wouldn't have dreamed of and then we can let the iteration begin! Speaking of Legos, the SAM Labs components snap together seamlessly with Legos. I'm telling you, the sky is the limit with these! I adore tools that are flexible for any classroom, capitalize on student ingenuity and imagination, and give students the power to dream big. Using the SAM Labs blocks students can explore light and temperature, compose songs, experiment with resistance and friction, monitor plant life, create "smart" devices, test out properties of matter, begin to understand programming and patterns and learn about circuits.

I think Anastasis students are going to find some pretty unique ways to hack these little blocks into something that hasn't yet been imagined for an inquiry project or experiment!

Tips: The Alpha Kit that SAM Labs sent me to play with is impressive even with a limited number of bricks. For a classroom setting, I'll definitely be purchasing more. These will be a hot commodity for student creations...no need to cause unnecessary arguments over whose turn it is to use them! (Top tip: we solve those kinds of arguments with dance-offs!)
Have you played with the SAM Labs blocks? What have your students dreamed up with them?

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What it is: Recently, the good people at SAM Labs sent me an Alpha Kit to play with and review. You guys, this is such a cool product! I love that as soon as students open it up, it puts them in charge of the learning.

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This website is a multi-functional website containing useful books, writing, reading, math, science, technology and much more. This blog is a great resource for new teachers going into preschool and elementary levels.

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Playful Learning

What is playful learning? It's learning through play to make learning STICK! Find activities, games, lessons, and more to encourage playful learning in all subject areas, including writing, reading, math, and science.

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Imagination Soup | Children's Books & Learning Activities

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Find the best children's books for kids to read! Parents, librarians, and teachers will find good books, resources, and ideas.

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This is a teacher resource website that mainly consists of teacher hacks, fun activities for kids, professional development insights, student engagement, making connections, and other noteworthy stuff! Laura Candler, is the author and a teacher based in North Carolina.

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If you were a past follower my Corkboard Connections blog, you might not have known that I also had a website called Teaching Resources. The two were formerly on separate platforms, so I'm super excited that they're now together here on LauraCandler.com! My original Corkboard Connections posts were moved over to this site, and visitors to my old blog are redirected to the same post here. In fact, that might be exactly how you found this post and the Teaching Resources website!

How to Navigate the New Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources was redesigned earlier this year with the goal of integrating my blog and website into one mobile-friendly site. As you can imagine, it was a massive task and the new Teaching Resources is huge! To make it easier to find what you need, I organized the content into categories and added a navigation menu. Here's what you'll find in each category:

Home: Clicking the Home link from anywhere on the site will take you back to the main page at www.lauracandler.com.

Blog: This is where you'll find blog posts that were originally published on Corkboard Connections as well as new blog posts. To keep things simple, I've dropped the name Corkboard Connections, and I'm just calling it Laura's Blog.

Resources: This category is where you'll find my virtual File Cabinet with hundreds of resources organized by subject area. My professional development pages can also be found here.

TpT Store: If you're looking for one of my teacher products, click this link to go directly to my TpT store.

Freebies: Click the Freebies menu link and sign up for my Candler's Classroom Connections newsletter. You'll get access to over 75 of my very best freebies for teachers!

Quick Links to a Dozen Popular Posts

To make it easier to find my most popular Corkboard Connections posts, I compiled a list of a dozen top posts from the last few years. Click the titles below to find these articles on here on my new blog:

If you're looking something else, just use the category tags in the blog sidebar or the search box at the bottom of the site to search for it.

I want to thank the folks at SonicSEO for creating my awesome new website! I'm thrilled with the mobile-friendly features and the way the blog and website were integrated seamlessly into one WordPress site. They worked incredibly hard to transfer hundreds of pages and thousands of images from my blog and website over to the new platform, and I love the results!

There are still a few broken links and bugs on the new site, but I'm doing my best to correct those errors as I find them. If you do experience a problem, I would be grateful if you would report it on this Google Doc form so that I can look into the issue. Thanks!

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Corkboard Connections Now on Teaching Resources

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If you were a past follower my Corkboard Connections blog, you might not have known that I also had a website called Teaching Resources. The two were formerly on separate platforms, so I'm super excited that they're now together here on LauraCandler.com!

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This website is easy and well-organized access to thousands of quality science activities is a valuable teacher source.

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Welcome to howtosmile

Search over 4,000 of the very best STEM activities on the web. Find handpicked activities from your favorite science museums, public television stations, universities, and other educational organizations. All activities are available to anyone, free of charge. Start searching now and filter by age, material costs, and learning time to find exactly what you need for your educational program, class, or family.

After launching in 2010, and serving millions of web visitors, howtosmile has become the largest and longest running online collection of STEM activities for educators and learners from all over the world. Let us know what you think and send any suggestions for new resources by emailing us at questions@howtosmile.org.

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Search over 4,000 of the very best STEM activities on the web. Find handpicked activities from your favorite science museums, public television stations, universities, and other educational organizations. All activities are available to anyone, free of charge. Start searching now and filter by age, material costs, and learning time to find exactly what you need for your educational program, class, or family.