PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
The links below will help you navigate your way through the web searching for curriculum ideas, teaching suggestions, and lesson plans.
Professional Development Lending Library
Highlights some of the professional resources available to borrowed from the lending library.
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Web Site
A treasure trove of book reviews, excerpts, teaching ideas, and suggestions for in-class activities. Organized by curriculum areas with ideas for themes and projects.
FunBrain.com
Games and quizzes in a variety of subject areas for grades K-8. Teachers can create customized quizzes for students to take on-line or choose from an archive of quizzes already designed by educators.
Puzzlemaker
www.discoveryschool.com/puzzlemaker
Create customized word searches, crosswords, cryptograms, mazes, and math puzzles.
The Idea Box
Seasonal activities to use with young children. Includes recipes, crafts, games, music, and songs.
KidBibs
Provides lists of exceptional children's books and language arts teaching ideas to go with them.
Literature Circles.com
http://www.literaturecircles.com/
Explains literature circles, identifies the roles of group members, and makes suggestions for classroom adaptations.
Auntie Math
http://www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org/aunty/
This is a great site for word problem practice. "Aunty" posts a new math challenge every two weeks. Designed for elementary-level students.
Teachnet.com
Lesson plan ideas and teaching tricks and tips make this a very practical site to visit.
TeachersFirst
This site contains Classroom Resources, which includes a matrix of lesson plans and Web links in 25 categories, Hot Topics, which includes relevant topical material, and Professional Resources, which includes a matrix of teaching strategies.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
This is a goldmine. If you explore no other site on the Web, don't miss this one! Schrock provides a categorized list of sites to enhance the curriculum and professional growth. The site is continually updated and lists the best sites for teaching and learning.
Hands-on Science Lesson Plans
http://7thfloormedia.com/projects/safari/3DTouchTank/3dlib/tank.html
The lesson plans collected here use hands-on materials and cover the science gamut - ranging from introductory science to biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics.
Aims Educational Foundation
There are a variety of resources available here including curriculum ideas, standards correlations, monthly puzzles, and a kid interactive zone.
Cyberbee
The creators of this site begin with curriculum ideas, but they take teachers beyond that, including web evaluation tools, links to web quests, and tutorials so that users can easily integrate the Internet into their teaching.
USGS Lesson Plans
http://interactive2.usgs.gov/learningweb/teachers/lesson_plans.htm
Lesson plans are organized into life sciences, geography, and earth sciences. Includes units on caves, fossils, and volcanoes. Resource guides are available on this site, as is a Water Jeopardy Game for kids to play.
Kindergarten Kafe
This is an ideal resource for early childhood educators. Five on-line newsletters issues are published each year and cover everything from themes to field trip suggestions. A link is provided to Good Neighbor Classroom, where teachers can download free reproducible activity sheets.
Dewey Browse
This web site is arranged by subject like an old-fashioned card catalog. In addition to the ten Dewey categories, creator Gail Grainger, a NH school librarian, has added biographies and teacher resources.
Patricia Collins, Media Specialist
http://www.pollardschool.com/library/coverpage.htm
This web site includes components of the the media specialist's professional portfolio.