EdTech Resource: Education World

EdTech Resource: Education World 

This one is new to me. So I played around their webpage for a while to get the feeling for it - and it looks like  great place for Educational Content.

If you or a colleague use Education World - Please feel free to comment on how useful you find it. I would be glad to post a guest author's views of this resource.

Here is what Education World says about itself:

Education World is a complete online resource that teachers, administrators and school staff can visit each day to find high-quality and in-depth original content. We update the site daily, offering:

• Carefully curated news briefs on topics that matter to educators;
• Lesson plans, printables, worksheets and thousands of other classroom-ready resources;
• EdTech tips and ideas as well as reviews of apps, websites and tech products; and
• A huge library of professional development articles and columns.

- See more at: http://www.educationworld.com/help/about.shtml#sthash.gBdtJX7z.dpuf

This webpage does to require users to maintain an account, which is nice change of pace. No need to remember a username and password. 

While Education World offers information on lesson plans; where it is different is on how it connects Educators. 

On its main page, Education World has links to News, Blogs, Teachers, Lessons, and Tech. It even offers advice to Substitute Teachers. This is an added bonus. I am only a few years out of Substitute Work, still working on LTOs until I become Permanent, but additional Substitute Teaching lesson plans and ideas are great to have on hand; especially when the teacher instructions don't fill the entire period. 

As this blog is dedicated to Professional Development, I especially like the "PD Tips" that Education World has to offer. It has everything from: Strategies that work, Classroom Management, Student Motivation, and Bulletin Board Ideas. 

Education World seems to be a great resource for any teacher to have saved in their "Favorites" tool bar. 

EdTech Resource: The Times Educational Supplement (TES)

Have you already heard of TES? 

No? Perhaps you know it under its former name: The Times Educational Supplement. 

Originally published weekly in The Times newspaper starting in 1910 - it became so popular by 1914 it became its own publication.

It was originally aimed at school teachers in the United Kingdom; the publication now manages a webpage dedicated to teachers around the world; with some 7+ million registered users. TES still publishes an edition every Friday in the UK, with an average weekly readership of around 263,000.

Here is TES' mission statement:

"TES is dedicated to supporting the world’s teachers. Our mission is to enable great teaching by helping educators find the tools and technology they need to excel, supporting them throughout their career and professional development. We’re home to the world’s largest online community of teachers with 7.3 million registered users and this network is one of the fastest growing of any profession globally, helping support, guide and inspire educators around the world.

We host a dynamic marketplace in which educators can discover, share, and sell original teaching materials; Blendspace, a lesson-building product where those resources can be freely integrated and implemented; and Wikispaces, an open classroom management platform that facilitates student-teacher communication and collaboration. In the UK, we provide a range of professional development opportunities for teachers, host the leading teacher jobs market and provide supply teaching solutions to schools.

We’re proud to be part of TES Global, a fast-growing digital education company that’s been supporting educators worldwide for over 100 years."

Getting Started 

So yes, unfortunately like many other services out there - you need an account. TES is for the most part FREE. There are some lesson plans that are considered "premium" which can cost a few dollars ($$)  to download. I personally have never considered paying for anything. 

The beauty with TES' sign up, is you can link it to your google account. Does your school board use Gmail too? Makes life easy when you can sign up with your work email instead of your private email. 

TES does sent out semi-regular email blasts - so unless you remember to pre-filter your incoming emails - I would suggest unchecking the 'receive news and updates from TES' box. 

Once you are logged in, you can explore all that TES has to offer. They have divided resources by subject.

Subjects available are: 

• Common Core 
• English Language Arts (ELA)
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• World Languages 

TES also saves everything you download to your "My resources" folder. Why is this great you ask? Have you ever had one of those moments when you can't locate the original of your handout? Never again! 

TES allows you to share lessons that worked with the world, and find lessons that other teachers are using. This is especially helpful when you are assigned a new class the day before the semester starts, and you have never taught that subject/level before.