Teachers looking for lesson plans on anything from fractions to the French Revolution now have a free online service offered by the American Federation of Teachers.
"Teachers are expected to do so much, often with very little support, and they are thirsty for the tools they need to improve instruction," said AFT President Randi Weingarten. "We know that when teachers share and collaborate — whether it is about the content of their lessons, or their strategies for reaching students — students benefit."
The AFT teamed up with Britain's TES Connect to create "Share My Lesson," a new digital platform for U.S. educators to share teaching resources, especially ideas to help educators implement the new Common Core State Standards. The site, www.sharemylesson.com, is live and teachers are already registering and sharing their best ideas with colleagues around the country.
Teachers looking for lesson ideas online often find that a search might pull up thousands of sites. It is time-consuming to wade through them and many are of questionable quality or have hidden costs.
Share My Lesson already has more than 180,000 resources, and that collection will grow rapidly as more educators add to it.
Any educator, from preschool to college, can register and start using the site immediately. The site also allows users to review and rate resources.
The content will be supplemented by tens of thousands of resources from hundreds of content partners, including Sesame Street, Oxfam, GreenTV and the Encyclopedia Britannica.