TeachersFirst's Open Educational Resources (OER)
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Open educational resources (OER) are tools/resources that are available to use freely, with open licenses to media, images, text, and more. OER could include readings, videos, audio clips, textbooks, exams, online courses, lesson plans, and more that are openly licensed. An open license means that you can use these tools at no-cost and access, use, adapt or redistribute to others. These tools are useful for research, learning, teaching, and assessing. View our collection to find a tool for your classroom.
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Be Internet Awesome - Google
Grades
2 to 6
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Be Internet Awesome is a series of resources from Google to teach digital safety. Resources include Interland, reviewed here, an online interactive...more
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Be Internet Awesome is a series of resources from Google to teach digital safety. Resources include Interland, reviewed here, an online interactive that offers participants the opportunity to practice skills to combat phishers, hackers, and cyber bullies. The free curriculum, available for download, is best suited for grades 3-5; however, it is easily adaptable to other grade levels. Click the Educator tab on the top menu bar and find a teacher curriculum, ready to teach Google Slides, an Internet safety poster, certificates and badges for students, plus a lot more. All features of this site align to ISTE Standards.
In the Classroom
Discover the many free resources for teaching digital safety offered on this site. Share a link on your class website for parents. Include the interactive game as part of a computer center during Internet safety lessons. Use the free lesson plan to teach digital safety either as a one-time unit or as mini-units throughout the school year. Enhance learning by having cooperative learning groups create podcasts discussing digital safety information. Use a site such as Buzzsprout, reviewed here to create the podcasts.
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OpenStax - Rice University
Grades
9 to 12
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OpenStax offers free access to high-quality textbooks in core subject areas. View resources by subject, including humanities and AP options. View books online or download in PDF format....more
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OpenStax offers free access to high-quality textbooks in core subject areas. View resources by subject, including humanities and AP options. View books online or download in PDF format. The search options in the online viewer allow users to locate content easily in the digital format.
In the Classroom
Use OpenStax textbooks to dig deeper into core subjects such as math, science, and social studies. Use materials to differentiate instruction based on student abilities and interests. If your current textbooks are older, find newer books on OpenStax and adopt them for your curriculum. Take advantage of the search feature of online books to find supplemental material for your current instruction. Find teaching materials for gifted students using OpenStax textbooks.
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FreeTechBooks - FreeTechBooks
Grades
6 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Expand your technology library for free at Free Tech Books! Find a variety of ebooks with topics such as computer science, math, operating systems, programming, scripting, web design,...more
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Expand your technology library for free at Free Tech Books! Find a variety of ebooks with topics such as computer science, math, operating systems, programming, scripting, web design, electrical circuits, and engineering. Join the RSS feed to keep up with the latest new additions. Although this site is plain vanilla in appearance, it is full of "sprinkles" of information!
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In the Classroom
In a middle or high school program dig deeply into math, science, or engineering. Find materials to supplement in-depth studies. Challenge gifted or advanced students. Use this as a way to check the validity of your source, whether it is a textbook or another Internet resource. Challenge students to write their own ebooks on their topic of interest in groups collaboratively or individually. Have students use a tool such as Ourboox, reviewed here. Ourboox creates beautiful page-flipping digital books in minutes, and you can embed video, music, animation, games, maps and more.
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Reading and Writing Project Resources - Teachers College Columbia University
Grades
1 to 8
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Provide the best literacy program for your students by implementing ideas and assessments from Reading and Writing Resources Project. Find high quality, research-based reading and writing...more
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Provide the best literacy program for your students by implementing ideas and assessments from Reading and Writing Resources Project. Find high quality, research-based reading and writing resources developed by a Teachers College, Columbia University and Lucy Caulkins. Assessment information includes running records, the concept of print, letter/sound information, high-frequency words, and independent reading benchmarks. Additional Assessments include Independent Reading Books, Comprehension Proficiency, and Monitor Reading Volume and Stamina with book logs and daily reading examples. Under Book Lists find units of study for teen readers with titles and authors categorized by genre with quality literature suggestions. Many videos depict classes in action discovering Narrative, Informative/Explanatory, and Opinion/Argument writing. One video series shows Danielson's Framework for Teaching evaluations, with classroom teachers being observed using reading/writing workshop. This includes PDF's with the notes and scoring. Find a baseline of excellent student writing sorted by grade level using Readers' Notebook and student writing samples. Nonfiction text sets give examples or resources for you to use in the classroom. Find text examples to use with your students featuring health and consumer science topics.
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In the Classroom
Use the free resources recommended by Teachers College, Columbia University to fine tune your reading and writing assessments. Assessments are ready to go and use, and videos help demonstrate quality teaching and learning. Use examples of student work on your interactive whiteboard for your class. Sharpening your literacy classroom increases your effectiveness. Share the professional development videos or resources with your colleagues. Use materials from this tool in your next presentation. Use at Open Houses or with curriculum chats with parents so they have a better understanding of grade level expectations. Be sure to document your professional growth for your teacher evaluations.
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edX - Anant Agarwal
Grades
8 to 12
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0 Comments
edX offers access to many of the best courses offered at top learning institutions - for FREE! Institutions include MIT, Harvard, and Berkley. Classes are available to complete for...more
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edX offers access to many of the best courses offered at top learning institutions - for FREE! Institutions include MIT, Harvard, and Berkley. Classes are available to complete for a Certificate of Achievement or as an audit. Choose from courses with topics in many areas including computers, literature, and humanities. Each course listing offers a short description of the course, details about the university offering the course, estimated time involved, course staff, and available options for taking the course. Start any course at any time. Take the edX Demo course to get a good idea of how courses work and find out about the online learning experience.
In the Classroom
Share with students on your interactive whiteboard and take the demo course together. This is perfect for use with gifted and advanced students as an option for college level courses and enrichment. Allow gifted students to enroll in courses that interest them or that provide enrichment beyond classroom content. Share with others, in your building, as a resource for professional development. Explore the topics yourself for some new, engaging topics to round out your own expertise. Allow students to enroll in a course that would fit into their career goals as an exploratory opportunity in that field.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Duolingo - Duolingo
Grades
1 to 12
2 Favorites
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Duolingo is a free, online language learning class. Sign up with email. Make a selection from Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, and many others. Earn points on...more
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Duolingo is a free, online language learning class. Sign up with email. Make a selection from Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, and many others. Earn points on different levels as you work towards mastery. Practice provides both seeing and hearing the words. Your responses require choosing the English translation and also spelling the words in the "new" language. Put your knowledge to work in the immersion section and translate a document or even upload a document of your own. Check the vocabulary you have learned and your progress toward mastery. Track your weekly progress. The discussion section answers individual questions. Duolingo is free for schools. There are free iOS and Android apps for Duolingo.
In the Classroom
Use Duolingo in your world language classes as another form of practice and enrichment. Have students sign up to compete against each other in a fun game of language mastery. Have world language students use the immersion tool to help read and translate authentic text. For an ENL/ELL classroom, provide extra, specific practice in beginning English. ENL/ELL students can also use the immersion section to check their own written documents and connect with other ENL/ELL students. Offer this site as a supplement when you study cultures from around the world. Gifted students are sure to enjoy the challenge of learning some language phrases. Is your class remote learning? Duolingo has a guide just for that! Scroll down the home page and find Duolingo for Schools, then click Bring Duolingo to Your Classroom. Find the Guide for using Duolingo at home at the top right of the page.
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WISC-Online - Wisconsin Technical College System
Grades
7 to 12
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Looking for review materials for a variety of classes? Use for a wide range of curriculum topics. (A "learning object" is any kind of interactive activity, animation, video, ...more
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Looking for review materials for a variety of classes? Use for a wide range of curriculum topics. (A "learning object" is any kind of interactive activity, animation, video, audio file, etc, that can be used for learning.) This site is great for introductory, reinforcement, or review materials. Find most of the relevant topics by using the search bar. Choose from many subjects such as biology, biochemistry, chemistry, math, sociology, world languages, and written communication, among others. Gifted students or those who learn well independently can study Chinese and other topics not easily available in their school using WISC-Onkine.
In the Classroom
Find a variety of topics for each subject area. For example, use WISC-Online in biology topics: How to use a Microscope, Life Cycles of Animals and Plants, and Cell Division. Choose from many others. Use as an introduction to a new unit. Additionally, these topics can be used for reinforcement or as a review. Under the Written Communication subject you will find 50 activities from parts of speech, commonly confused words, to how to summarize, brainstorm, and many others. Share direct URLs to specific review activities to help students who need extra practice or as links on a class web page or wiki for all students to access outside of class. Encourage students to comment on your wiki about the activities they found most helpful in explaining tough concepts (use the discussion tab).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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GreenLearning - GreenLearning
Grades
4 to 12
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Promote environmental citizenship through this site's "green learning" units. The curriculum ranges from examining how electricity works, understanding the balance of ecosystems, to...more
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Promote environmental citizenship through this site's "green learning" units. The curriculum ranges from examining how electricity works, understanding the balance of ecosystems, to a high school unit on sustainable futures. Enjoy the interactive wind turbine and carbon calculator. The animation for grades 4 - 7 is engaging, and the video presentations for high school students on sustainability is powerful. Green Learning provides educators with an array of hands-on activities, online learning opportunities, printable materials, assessment tools, and valuable resources such as environmental experts to contact. Each environmental concept taught provides opportunities for real world learning, encourages social action, and advocacy. Teacher friendly planning tools can help meet instructional time constraints, students learning styles, and promote cross-curricular connections. The site is free but requires registration. Membership provides access to additional educational materials and a monthly newsletter. This program comes to us from Canada.
In the Classroom
The e-Card project series (found under Programs) invites students to research a topic, write a persuasive letter to an individual they believe makes decisions that effect environment, then design and create an e-Card. Have your students share their work on the e-Cards website and view what other students have created.There is a range of lessons and activities here, some more complex than others. You may want to choose a few that fit your curricular needs and then allow small groups of students to investigate one together. Have student groups make an online Blabberize, reviewed here, of things they discover about their topic, and later rearrange the items to "explain" their topic to classmates visually. Blabberize is a photo editing tool that creates talking animations from a photo or other image.
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Khan Academy - Sal Khan
Grades
4 to 12
9 Favorites
1 Comments
There are plenty of helpful sites to learn content. What makes this so special? Created by an uncle wanting to help his nieces learn material, Khan Academy has grown into ...more
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There are plenty of helpful sites to learn content. What makes this so special? Created by an uncle wanting to help his nieces learn material, Khan Academy has grown into a Creative Commons attributed site for helping all students. What information is available? Maybe one should ask: What are you looking for? View a vast array of videos on many topics: SAT prep, Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Biology, History, Trigonometry, Calculus, Economics, Brain Teasers, Banking and Money, Statistics, Finance, Physics, and more....Whew! The only problem? The videos are hosted on You Tube. If your district blocks You Tube, then they may not be viewable. Ed note: An alternative is to access Khan Academy through iTunes U FREE downloads, assuming you can load and access iTunes!
In the Classroom
Share the site with your students in order to access at home for homework help. List this link on your class website. If you are unable to view this site on student computers but You Tube is unblocked for teachers, consider using a projector or interactive whiteboard to show to the whole class. Use your google account to log in once you click on the exercises link. From there, find access to exercises that students can complete that are related to each video. Encourage students to share links to specific videos they find helpful on a "Video Reviews" (yes, that is a pun) page of your class wiki. For a very real challenge, have students create their own simple review videos in the Khan Academy style using FlexClip, reviewed here. FlexClip is designed to allow you to create short animated or explainer videos to share on YouTube and other social media sites, then, upload to SchoolTube, TeacherTube, or YouTube, whichever works best in your school. Embed them on your class wiki for a year-to-year student-made study guide!Comments
Linda R., , Grades: 0 - 12
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Modern Languages - Learning Space Open University
Grades
8 to 12
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This site offers free courses with a great deal of depth on topics featuring modern European languages and English. It is a not a site for beginning language learners or ...more
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This site offers free courses with a great deal of depth on topics featuring modern European languages and English. It is a not a site for beginning language learners or low-level ESL and ELL students. Courses explore language topics, mostly with textual readings. Some of the featured units follow language textbooks. In addition to language topics, there are several offerings in business English. Students can choose what to study in a variety of ways: by topic, time of course, and course number or code. You can put this in your RSS reader.
In the Classroom
Introduce your AP language and world culture students to the materials on this site. Gifted students or those seeking independent language study could also use these courses.Older ENL and ELL students interested in business careers may also find it useful.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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HippoCampus - Monterey Institute for Technology and Education
Grades
9 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Find multimedia content and lessons ready to go, and customizable by your preferences on this incredible, free, online learning site. Whether you need a comprehensive curriculum for...more
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Find multimedia content and lessons ready to go, and customizable by your preferences on this incredible, free, online learning site. Whether you need a comprehensive curriculum for selected high school courses, a way to differentiate instruction, or materials to reinforce challenging topics, this site has it. The current subjects include Algebra, American Government, Biology, Calculus, Environmental Science, Physics, English, Religion, Economics, U.S. History, among others. The subjects extend through high school and into AP and college level material. Open a course at the left and browse the topics, especially the multimedia offerings. A free instructor account allows you to select the modules you want your students to see and share them via a unique URL for assignments or at-home review. Since the content is offered collaboratively from multiple sources, the courses each have their own "look." The ones our review team explored all included audio-- a real plus for ENL/ELL or low level readers.
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In the Classroom
Explore the curriculum topics for your subject area and select some options for students to use in class or for review. This is also an excellent option for leaving plans for a substitute who may have no expertise in your subject area! Many of the multimedia modules are well-suited for interactive whiteboard or projector (or for students to navigate at an individual pace on laptops). Have gifted students? Allow them to "compact" new content and extend into higher levels using this site. Be sure to share a link from your teacher web page for students who need an alternate presentation of material or for absentees. Share this site at the beginning of the school year for students wanting more of a challenge.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Visionlearning - Visionlearning, Inc
Grades
6 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Complete a free online registration and begin to explore an impressive collection of learning modules that address chemistry, general science, physics, math in science, process of science,...more
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Complete a free online registration and begin to explore an impressive collection of learning modules that address chemistry, general science, physics, math in science, process of science, earth science, and scientists and research. Many modules contain interactive animations, a glossary, related current events, practice exercises, and biographic information about scientists who worked with that particular concept. Members can personalize each module with comments, links, or notes.
In the Classroom
Include this site to supplement your current grade 6-12 science curriculum. Use the resources to differentiate instruction for gifted students in lower grades or as remediation for struggling students in older grades. Use the student materials for differentiating instruction or as homework. Have students share their learning or understanding of a topic with video explanations using a tool like Flip, reviewed here. Flip is an augmentation tool for video responses to a question along with comments from peers. Transform technology use in your classroom and take student learning a step further by asking them to create and share their own multimeda presentation along with suggestions for learning about their topic of interest. Use a tool like Sway, reviewed here. Sway is a presentation tool that offers multimedia options including text, video, and images.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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