Thursday, January 3, 2013

10 Ways to Find and Share Lesson Plans Online

One of the great aspects of the Internet, the Web 2.0 craze, and collaboration is the ability to find and share lesson plans through various methods.  Teachers all over the country are doing great things in their classroom and are making these great things available on the Internet for anyway to download.  Some are free, some might cost you a little cash, but in the end, why reinvent the wheel, especially when that wheel has experienced success?

1.) Share My Lesson is a source I have previously written about and provides lessons for all grade levels and subject matter.  There is even a special section for special education teachers.  Create an account and easily find lesson plans or start sharing some of your own.

2.) Google Apps for Education has a lesson plan search option where you can choose what you are looking for, the subject matter and the grade level.  The lesson plans often require the use of Google Apps, but can be modified if necessary for your classroom if you are not able to access Google Apps for Education.

3.) Teachers Pay Teachers is a site that allows users to upload and download lesson plans and other activities created by teachers for teachers.  The prices are often on the low end and there is also an abundance of free lesson plans and resources as well.  There are also complete units available, but those do come at a higher price.  Create an account and upload your own, then you can make money off of the successful lesson plans that you are doing in your classroom.

4.) Federal Resources for Educational Excellence is a lesson plan homepage created by the federal government that has lesson plans by subject matter and grade level.  The lessons are often broken down into subtopics as well that make it easier to find the lesson plans to meet a teachers need.

5.) Better Lesson is an option for finding lesson plans from a data base of over 300,000 resources.  You can search by grade level and subject matter and also view featured lessons for each day/week.  You can also upload your own lessons to share while also getting feedback from other educators on how to improve and build on a lesson. 

6.) Claco is a newer option, formally Class Connect, that allows teachers to join what is basically a social network for teachers.  Through this social network, teachers can upload an share lessons and collaborate with other educators as they discuss improvements and successes of those lessons.  To join you must request an invite, but that is just to verify you are an educator and because they are currently in Beta.  I have heard good things about this site.

7.) Read Write Think has a large database of lesson plans that teachers can download and use in their classroom.  You can find lesson plans by grade level and subject matter and it provides the total number for each as well making it easy to know what you are getting into when looking for lesson plans. 

8.) Microsoft in Education has a lesson plan and teacher resource database that teachers can look through by selecting age range, subject matter, and even length in time.  Several of the lessons involve the use of technology as well, but could most likely be adapted if necessary.  You might also be interested in the free products for educators that is offered by Microsoft. 

9.) The HP Teacher Experience Exchange is another option for teachers looking for lesson plans.  At the same time, it also provides a place for teachers to collaborate and connect with other teachers.  There is currently a large database of lesson plans and resources for teachers to search through.  You can locate by grade level and subject matter as well.

10.) TeachHub, Scholastic, and Edutopia also provide great options for locating lesson plans.  Many of the lessons on these sites are teacher submitted as well.  Like the other options you can also search by grade level and subject matter.  All these sites also offer many other opportunities and resources that teachers would be interested in taking the time to examine and look through.

Hope that you find a lesson plan of good use.  If you decide to upload your own lesson plans, just remember honesty and copyright and ensure that you are not uploading a lesson that you created using information and activities from other resources you have been provided previously. 

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