Lesson Plans and Resources

The Web is a bonanza of lesson plans, ideas, resources, and information for teachers. Things that used to take "eons" to plan, research and implement now can be had with a click of your mouse.

Web Resources From the NEA

Get On The Information Highway

CARBONITE -- A must for teachers. this inexpensive online backup means you'll never lose another lesson plan or document.

PAGEFLAKES or GOOGLE START -- Make your own customized Internet start page (the first page that appears when you start your browser). Free!

GOOGLE PAGES -- Create your own website in minutes for FREE.

PICASA -- Free photo/image editing software better than programs for which you'd pay hundreds of dollars.

KEEP TOOLKIT -- From the Carnegie Foundation, tools to generate, organize and assess web-based teaching materials and lesson plans.

MUSEUM OF HUMOR -- Great plans to help you inject humor into your lessons.

NEA TEACHER TOOLKIT -- Applications to help with curricular decisions.

EDUCATOR’S REFERENCE DESK -- The Educator's Reference Desk brings you 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses.

KID’S SONGS – Music and lyrics to a variety of popular songs for children. Sing along!

CYBER SAFE – Teaches kids how to be safe on the Internet. Shows parents the laws and their rights.

The WWW Virtual Library is a prime place to do any research.

TeacherWebsite.com offers a simple way for teachers to build and post a website. Then students can go on ClassHomework.com and pick up their assignments.

Having trouble with your computer? Go to the site that tries to save you from PC HELL. For "Real help for regular people," go to John Frazzini Talks Computers.

If you want to be on the Web, but don't know (or want to know) coding, go to SCHOOLNOTES.

BOOK MARK SYNC -- Free, real-time automatic sync service that allows you to access your bookmarks/favorites from any computer.

SCAMBUSTERS pokes holes in all those Internet myths and legends you've heard.

If you want to keep all the software on your computer updated, go to UPDATES.COM. It will search your system, figure our what updates you need, show you a list, and let you download the updates. You'll never have outdated programs again -- and it's free.

CNET HELP will give you answers for all of your tech questions: software, hardware, Internet, web building and more. Another good resource (for plain English answers) is FREE ANSWERS. To foil those who would snoop on you, use the online spyware scanner from ACTIVE X.

MICROSOFT OFFICE 2000 TUTORIALS will teach you how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and FrontPage.

SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY BUYER'S GUIDE will help you make decisions about technology purchases for your classroom and school.

Learn how to surf, e-mail, search, and everything else.

Lesson Plan Sites and Resources

-- New site for NEA members. Features lesson plans, discussion boards, professional development, and more.

-- One of the most useful new sites for teachers. Chat rooms, lesson plans, and even a web page builder.

-- Connect educators with online mentors, so now you can network with learned peers.

-- Links to literally thousands of sites for teachers. if you can't find it here it's not on the Net.

-- This site has 58,185 sets of flashcards, something for every subject and grade level.

- Searchable database for thousands of lesson plans.

-- LearnPort is a joint effort of the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual University to create a statewide professional development portal for Michigan educators. There are sections for teachers, new teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators.

PLAGIARISM STOPPERS -- How to identify and prevent plagiarism.

HIPPOCAMPUS -- Free multimedia content for high school subjects.

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK -- Lyrics and videos for the popular television series.

TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS -- Like e-bay for lesson plans. buy what you need and sell yours for profit.

EDUCATION ATLAS -- Comprehensive guide to 8,000 education websites.

CLASSROOM RESOURCES -- Lessons and web resources in 14 subject areas.

TEACHABLE MOMENT -- Timely teaching ideas for issues of the day.

MI CLIMB -- Clarifications for each Michigan benchmark.

PICS4LEARNING -- Copyright-friendly images for education.

LESSON PLAN CENTRAL -- Free plans, webquests, worksheets, and clip art.

BEST WEBQUESTS -- Database of webquests organized by grade level and subject.

FREEPLAY MUSIC -- Royalty -free music for use on classroom projects.

MIDDLE SCHOOL NET -- Everything from lesson plans to advice.

TEACHER XPRESS -- Prepare to be amazed because this site is the most massive collection of teaching resources on the Web. And it's updated daily!

TEACHERS FIRST -- Free lesson plans for every subject and teaching style.

RUBISTAR -- Tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics but does not have the time to develop them from scratch.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT HELP -- Resources from Michigan Teacher Network.

A GUIDE TO GETTING ALONG -- Exercises dealing with conflict resolution.

eTHEMES -- Database of child-friendly resources organized around 500 themes, sortable by grade level and complete with standards.

CALENDAR -- Guide to locating events for each day of the year.

GATEWAY TO EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS -- Thousands of resources.

M.I.T. COURSEWARE -- M.I.T. has put syllabus, lecture notes, exams, and answers online for over 35 of their courses. Free for teachers to use.

MARCO POLO -- Standards-based Internet content for K-12 teachers.

THE SOLUTION SITE -- Database of unit plans searchable by grade level, subject area, standards, or keywords.

ABC TEACH -- Free printables for use at home and school.

PUZZLE CHOICE -- 20 different types of printable crosswords, word searches, and number challenges.

AWESOME CLIP ART FOR KIDS -- Really awesome are the online puzzle and worksheet makers for teachers.

FIELD TRIPS -- Field-Trips.org has trips you can take with your class without leaving your room. Cool!

netLIBRARY -- New in April from the Michigan Electronic Library. Check out 3,500+ titles online.

FBI for KIDS -- Two rescue dogs show kids how the FBI works.

THE LEARNING NETWORK -- By the New York Times, this site has everything: lesson plans, lesson archives, crossword puzzles, quote of the day, and much more.

NICKELODOEN TEACHERS SITE -- All the cool things on Nick are now linked to a teachers site with classroom resources.

SPORTS PARENTING -- The Center for Sports Parenting is a great resource to help parents and teachers deal with children who love sports.

AMERICA LINKS UP: A KIDS ONLINE TEACH-IN -- Formerly Parents.net, this site has tools and online safety tips for parents and teachers.

STATE STANDARDS -- State education standards for your lesson plans.

SURF SWELL ISLAND -- Teaches online safety by using Disney characters.

CHILD-SAFE SURFING -- Strategies and methods for safe computer usage.

ENCHANTED LEARNING -- Scores of activities and resources for every elementary school subject.

BRAIN POP -- Delightful cartoons show your students how things work. Movies on 80 different subjects.

CYBER PILOT'S LICENSE -- A complete course in navigating the Internet. Help your students earn their CyberPilot's License.

THE LEARNING PAGE -- Free units and worksheets for kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades.

CLASSROOM.COM -- 100 activities for the online classroom.

HIPBONE -- Pilot a "group surf." You control the surfing for up to 10 people (they go where you go).

eBOARD -- Your own "virtual cork board" where you can post messages, assignments, and even pictures for all to see. Perfect for busy teachers because it's fast and no html coding is required. $39 per year.

EVERYBOOK -- The future of reading. Download texts off the Net.

Ever wonder if your students are using the Net to cheat? Read Digital Deception, an article from Electronic School. The article even includes links to all the most popular "cheating sites" on the Net. Then, go to PLAGIARISM.ORG, a site that lets you check students' papers for plagiarism -- online.

Education World, the Educator's Complete Resource Guide to the Internet, offers education professionals, parents, students, and administrators a place where they can start each day to find the lesson plans and research materials they are looking for. This site is updated daily with fresh new lesson plans and curriculum ideas, articles on issues that are of interest to educators, parents, and students, and much more.

Michigan Teacher Network provides easy access to K-12 education related Web resources that have been carefully evaluated for quality, relevance, and effectiveness. MTN describes thousands of high quality resources that can be effectively used with students in the classroom, for professional development, or for educational planning and problem solving. Curriculum resources described in MTN are correlated to the Michigan Curriculum Framework content standards.

TEACH-NOLOGY -- Over 100,000 lesson plans on a searchable database. Free puzzles, games, and tech tools, too.

TEACH TOLERANCE -- Teaching resources for fighting hate and promoting tolerance.

USA TODAY COLLEGIATE PROGRAM -- Meant for college educators, but useful for high school teachers as well.

KINDERSTART -- Wonderful site for parents and teachers of children 1-7 years old. Kid safe search engine and e-mail included.

PRINT-A-POSTER -- Free colorful printables to spice up your classroom.

MAKE STUFF -- Hands-on projects using everyday materials.

TEACHNET -- Lesson plans and articles for K-12 teachers.

CYBERSMART -- Standard-based lesson plans for a K-8 curriculum.

ED TECH RESOURCES -- Education technology planning tools for teachers and administrators.

HOMEROOM TEACHER -- Activity planners, lesson plans, free educator clip art.

CNNfyi -- News for students and resources for teachers. Free lesson plans that relate to daily news.

THE LESSON PLANS PAGE -- Home to over 1,000 free lesson plans on a variety of subjects.

CLIFFS NOTES -- Actually has some good resources teachers can use in the classroom.

KATHY SCHROCK'S GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS -- Categorized list of sites for curriculum and professional growth.

EDUWEB ADVENTURES -- Online adventures exploring Art, Art History, Science, Nature, History, and Geography.

ENC ONLINE -- Eisenhower National Clearinghouse provides K-12 teachers with information about teaching materials and professional development.

Have fun with your students at eMODE. the site has scores of fun tests, everything from "Are you looney?" to "If you were a dog what breed would you be?"

Ever wonder how to do "whatever?" Check out LEARN 2, which explains how to do just about everything.

TOOLS FOR TEACHERS has lesson plans, activities with graphics and procedures, articles. You may never have to make up your own lessons again.

Want to share and share alike. Go to THE LESSON EXCHANGE. You can post your lesson plans and get plans from other teachers.

TEACHER SOURCE. More than 1,000 free lesson plans from PBS.

NET SCHOOL. A comprehensive Web service for K-12 teachers offering lesson plans, online workshops, and training for beginners.

CYBERBEE. In addition to curriculum treasures, Cyberbee has a page creator that you can use to build your own web page.

FEDERAL RESOURCES FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE. Hundreds of teaching and learning resources from more than 30 federal agencies.

COOL FACT OF THE DAY -- Good for K-6 teachers. Be sure to visit the playground. From the Learning Kingdom.

KIDS CONNECT -- This site is run by the American Association of School Librarians and is staffed by volunteer librarians. They promise to answer homework questions within 48 hours (via e-mail). And it's FREE!

THE HOMEWORK SPOT -- Great homework helper for students at every level.

HOMEWORK ONLINE. The most awesome collection of study guides, student resources, search engines, and information sources on the Web.

HOW STUFF WORKS. Seem much smarter than you really are by using this site. It tells how everything works (engines, cell phones, your toaster...everything).

TECHNOLOGY & LEARNING. Hundreds of projects, tools, lesson plans and success stories from Technology & Learning magazine. Also, "Teachers' Choice" websites and software reviews.

KIDS ALMANAC -- Wow your students with "kid-related" facts, words-of-the-day, and this-day-in-history tidbits.

LANDMARKS FOR SCHOOLS -- Provides raw information to use in lessons.

PRESCHOOL EXPRESS -- Activities for a wide range of topics and skills.

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH -- Rich resource for teachers and parents.