Contributed by Lindsay Shugerman, Catalogs.com Top 10 Guru
Between shrinking budgets and your hectic schedule as a high school teacher, finding new, affordable and engaging lesson plans and teaching resources can be challenging. But we’ve done some of the searching for you, and gathered our own list of the top 10 high school teacher resources online.
10. Freezeray interactive whiteboard materials for the sciences
If your school is using interactive white boards (https://www.freezeray.com/index.html) in the sciences, this site can help you bring them to life. Sponsored by the Great Barr School, a science school in the UK, these easy to access and easy to use animations will keep your students interested and learning.
9. Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
Another great science teacher resource site the HHMI offers high school teachers and homeschoolers access to videos, lectures, virtual labs and more. Their free high school teacher resources online will take your students where ordinary textbooks never could.
8.Algebra lessons, interactives and tutorials for teachers and students alike
Sometimes, the examples in a textbook aren’t enough to help your students master algebra. Homeschoolmath.net can help. With dozens of links to algebra problems, lessons and examples, there’s sure to be a tool to help take high school math from mystery to mastery.
7. Inspire your students to think like writers
Reports show that writing skills have been declining year after year. But getting your students to think of themselves as writers might just be the key to reversing that trend.
Warren-Wilson College offers writing prompts, editing advice and even resources to help students find places to get their work published.
6. The history of the theatre comes to life
High school teachers looking for resources focused on English, history or theatre will find new and exciting resources in the Library of Congress’ American Variety Stage collection. The site includes scripts, playbills and video of classic performances in English and Yiddish from the heyday of variety theatre.
5. The best historical resources out there come to you
The University of Idaho has gathered an incredible collection of links to primary historical resources in the U.S. and the rest of the world. This unimposing website can instantly connect you to multimedia presentations in Alabama, African journals online (https://www.ajol.info/), or the digital archives of Japan (https://www.archives.go.jp/english/index.html)
4. K-12 African American studies lesson plans, resources and projects
Make this year’s African American studies units dynamic with ideas from this multi-subject guide to online and offline resources. The site offers dozens of teacher resources to bring the history, culture, science, politics, arts and literature of African Americans to your students.
3. If it’s history, it’s here
There is not a social studies or history textbook on the planet that could contain even a fraction of the material on Mr. Neal’s Virtual Classroom
From video and audio, to interactives and project guides, this monster site makes teaching almost any social studies or history topic easier and more effective.
2. An educational link supersite for the information you need
When you need to find information on the latest developments and research in education, this educational clearinghouse is the right place to go. With links to the major educational research sites, you’ll find the facts high school teachers need from designing curriculums and dealing with diversity to creating gender-includive math and science programs.
1. MIT for free?
With over 2,000 classes offered in every field of study, the free online class program at MIT is one of the best high school teacher resources online. No, you won’t get the lectures with most of the classes. But you will get the syllabus, the list of materials, the assignments and links to every resource used in the class, from books to films.
Use the classes to study on your own, to open doors for your students, or as a springboard for lesson plans of your own.