As every teacher knows, the motto "beg, borrow, and steal" is one to live by. More and more I have felt frustrated with all of the sites that claim to have great teaching resources but don't. More than once have I found the seemingly perfect lesson plan only to have my excitement squelched by a request for $29.99 and a credit card number. The motto is "beg, borrow, and steal", not "spend fun money on a maybe great resource." So when I come across a GREAT website that actually has FREE stuff, it is like finding a real gold nugget in a sea of pyrite. One reason I started this blog is to archive my resources. A fringe benefit is that any of you who also happen to be of the nerdy-English-teacher variety will benefit as well.
So....Gold Nugget Number One.
Read Write Think. The good people who give us thousands of free rubrics also give us hundreds of free lesson plans! You can search by grade level, lesson plan type, theme, or learning objective. Possibly the coolest thing about this site is that they have resources for grades 9-12. I don't know about you, but I think elementary teachers have an easier time finding resources online. It seems that most sites are geared toward grade k-6 and maybe, if we are lucky, have a few 9-12 plans that sneaked in under the cloak of darkness. Thanks, Read Write Think for recognizing that we need some help too!
Gold Nugget Number Two:
That's right, ladies and gentleman, two gold nuggets in ONE day. It feels like Christmas. Now, I have to point out that this site does a lot of redirecting to Read Write Think, but some of their links guide you other places too. I haven't done a lot of exploring here, but it does have a great search tool and lessons for grades 9-12. It also has a Professional Development tab which may be helpful down the road.
One unique element of this site is their "Today in History" section. It contains a calender with things that happened on each day in history throughout the year. Want to know why it is really cool? Click on the event and it takes you to a collection of lessons and activities relating to that event.
There they are. Two helpful resources with FREE stuff! If you have gotten this far, you are probably of the nerdy-English-teacher variety too, and I am glad we can share in this excitement together.
