Finding Educational Resources On-line

When you moved overseas you left behind your store of resources and now you need ideas for your classroom. Where do you go? We are fortunate to live in the digital age, and most of us have access to that wonderful resource of all resources—the internet. But where do you even start in your quest for that perfect lesson plan, classroom organisation idea, or curricular tool? Here are a few suggestions:

Educational Blogs:
Blogs can be a great resource for finding ideas.  Some of our favourites include:

• Voices 4 Christian Ed: sponsored by Christian Schools International, this blog offers insightful articles and case-studies that challenge readers to discern how to walk out their professional lives in a manner consistent to their biblical understanding of the world
• Cult of Pedagogy: “an online magazine for anyone who teaches anything — that means high school geometry teachers, elementary school special ed. teachers, golf instructors, homeschoolers, corporate trainers, English tutors, preschool teachers, medical school instructors”
• Teach 4 the Heart: offers a wealth of resources about all aspects of education
• Teach Preschool: great for those working in early childhood education
• The Source: a newsletter/blog from Independent School Management that offers excellent insights into the running of private-independent schools. If you are in school leadership, this blog’s for you.

And speaking of blogs, do you know that you can access the archives of OnPractice though the TeachBeyond website? Issues are organised chronologically, or you can find what you are looking for by searching the tags.

Transforming Teachers:
This website, curated by TeachBeyond’s Harold Klassen, houses an extensive collection of resources on Biblical worldview and transformational education.

How It’s Best Used: Search the site by topic or category to find articles, books, and other resources—often in multiple languages. Consider this your go to library for understanding the worldview and philosophy behind transformational education.

Yammer:
Yammer is an internal (to TeachBeyond) discussion board. All you need to access this resource is a TeachBeyond e-mail address.

How It’s Best Used: If you are looking for a specific resource, have a question, or simply would like to get feedback on an idea, Yammer is a great place to start. You will find groups such as Early Childhood Education, TEFL Idea Exchange, Science & Math Teachers and Educational Technology which exist to encourage TeachBeyond members to share ideas, resources and expertise. If there isn’t already a group for your subject or specialty, feel free to start one.

Pinterest:
If you already use this social media site, you’ll be happy to know that TeachBeyond has over 20 different boards covering a wide range of educational themes.

How It’s Best Used: Essentially on on-line bulletin board, Pinterest is a place to find and catalogue ideas. The communications and education services teams have curated several collections of teaching resources for your use. We also recommend boards by Kim and Michael Essenburg (Okinawa Christian School), Cult of Pedagogy, and Jessica Weaver (TeachBeyond TEFL).

If you have developed an idea or resource that you’d like us to pin, just let us know.

Compfight:
Looking for non-copyrighted images to use in presentations? Compfight “is an image search engine tailored to efficiently locate images for blogs, comps, inspiration, and research.”

How It’s Best Used: Type in a keyword or two and let this search engine look for pictures for you. You can refine your search to ensure that you are only finding images that are registered under the creative commons license and thus are free to use (with or without alterations).

For other open source image banks, check out this article by the global digital citizen foundation. (The article can also be found in the Educational Technology group in Yammer.)

Where else do you go to find resources?  We’d love to hear from you. Shoot us an e-mail, or post your suggestion on Yammer. The more we share, the more our students benefit!
Becky Hunsberger, M.Ed.
Coordinator of Teacher Education Services
TeachBeyond