The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt turned teaching junior and senior high school into a unique form of chaos. Almost overnight, teachers had to re-think how they’d been educating students and adapt to a “new normal” that involved a reliance on remote or hybrid teaching models.
Teachers who had never taught a remote class suddenly found themselves scrambling for engaging content, while at the same time learning the ropes of online and remote instruction. Fortunately, there’s plenty of good content out there that can make the job a little easier – along with plenty of sub-par material to be wary of. Here, we’ve collected a handful of websites that offer superior digital content for teachers. Using the resources provided on these sites, teachers can put together lessons that entertain while they enlighten, so students can grasp virtually any concept much more quickly.
The College Board’s AP Central website is the go-to resource for free practice activities, daily videos, and exam prep materials for students in Advanced Placement® courses. From the site, teachers can order exams, access tools to help administer them, and access scores and reports. What’s more, the site also includes career and professional development resources for AP teachers who are looking for extra support. The site itself is extremely easy to navigate, with all the links and information provided front and center – no hunting required.
Over the years, Khan Academy has built a reputation for providing high-quality, free content that teachers around the world rely on. And for good reason: the educational resources on this site are stellar, with standards-aligned content created by experts in science, history, grammar, and other areas. The videos include well-produced visuals and break down difficult subjects for students, allowing them to get up to speed on any subject before tackling more advanced concepts. The site is well-organized and easily searchable by topic.
Immersing students in a topic – from artificial intelligence to world history – is easy with The Crash Course. Through a varied AP high school curriculum, the videos offer students an entertaining (but thorough) tour of virtually any subject. The hosts in the videos are engaging, and the subject matter is perfectly on-level for high school students looking to take a deep dive into math, science, social studies, and much more.
When it comes to teaching in the sciences, it’s sometimes better to show, rather than tell. And that’s just what the University of Colorado Boulder’s PhET site does. Here, you’ll find excellent interactive science demos, helping students to visualize concepts and practice with variables. Learning comes alive through simulations in chemistry, physics, math, earth science, and biology. Teachers can find tips and resources for these simulations, along with thousands of teacher-submitted lessons.
The Stride Learning Hub is loaded with research-based, curriculum-aligned content that can easily be adopted and used in virtually any classroom. With more than 200,000 assets searchable by grade level and content, the resources on this site can be easily integrated into lesson plans. Teachers particularly like the assessment builder. The Hub makes it simple to add a resource directly to a specific area of a course and bookmark it so that students can recognize that it is meant for additional support. The eBooks, games, and other resources are top-notch, and teachers can even add their own content to share with other teachers.
The good news here is that these sites aren’t just for “pandemic emergencies.” The educational resources they provide can support your teaching at any time, whether in-person or online. Whether you’re looking to get students up to speed or challenge those high achievers, there are plenty of options here.
Katy Jacobson is an experienced science teacher and instructor. As an educational content developer at Stride, Katy creates digital learning solutions, specializing in instructional design, education technology, and curriculum development. To learn more visitstridelearning.com/learning-solutions.
To learn more visit www.stridelearning.com/learning-solutions.html
