5 DIGITAL TOOLS PROVIDING LESSON PLANS
Until you’ve been a teacher, live with a teacher or know a teacher well, explaining their role is almost impossible. The complexities of their job are greater than any layperson can understand. They wear many hats and change these more in a day than we can comprehend. Planning, assessing, mentoring, explaining, caregiving, administration, first aid, counselling – the list goes on. Teaching is more than a job. It’s a craft, a way of life.
It’s time that we let go of our preconceived ideas on what teaching is and instead find supports to assist in any way, shape or form to make the lives of teachers a little less overwhelming. We need to overcome the stigma that teachers should plan and create everything from the ground up. There are so many resources out there that provide high-quality lesson plans and units, making the lives of teachers’ just that little bit easier.
We have found five quality resources, all linked to the Australian Curriculum, that include lesson plans and resources that will alleviate at least one stress from a teacher’s day.
Teach Starter
Teach Starter is a great all-rounder, covering all content areas across all levels of the primary curriculum. There are many unit plans available in all content areas – writing, mathematics, inquiry, science. You name it, they’ve got it. Plus, it’s so easy to integrate with other digital resources. You can easily download activities or worksheets and upload to apps such as Seesaw or Google Classroom. Teach Starter has so much to offer and saves so much time!
Wingaru
Including Aboriginal perspectives in the classroom is beneficial to all. However, delivering culturally safe and inclusive Aboriginal education to primary school classes can be daunting. Are you sourcing the correct resources? Are you using the right language? Are you teaching the culture in a non-offensive manner? Wingaru Kids ensures you are including authentic content and ticking all the right boxes; complete with a comprehensive lesson plan, videos, digital activities for students and printable resources for teachers. Wingaru Kids includes cross-curricular links which make it easy to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives across all areas of learning.
Scootle
Scootle is an Australian platform that has thousands of educational resources to assist in teaching and learning. The resources align with the Australian curriculum and include digital content and lessons. The other great feature of Scootle is that teachers can create personalised learning paths. Teachers can organise the digital curriculum materials into a learning sequence targeted to individual students, student groups or to meet specific learning needs. These materials can be easily selected, organised and annotated with teachers’ own comments and descriptions.
Twinkl
Twinkl has a lot to offer! Not only does it include unit plans, lesson plans, assessment resources, classroom displays and individual worksheets and activities, it also has many other fantastic add-ons including Twinkl Create and Twinkl Originals. Twinkl Create allows you to make your own classroom materials using their editing tool, allowing you to get the exact resource you need. Twinkl Originals are engaging and inspiring story books, available to download as Flipbooks, PDFs or PowerPoints that include teaching and learning resources. Twinkl definitely makes planning and assessing that little bit easier!
ABC Education
ABC Education includes many free educational resources for primary and secondary students. It includes videos, games and educational resources which align to the Australian curriculum in English, maths, science, geography, the arts, technologies and economics & business. With the search bar, it is easy to find exactly what you need and for free, too!
It’s time to remove the stigma that teachers need to create everything to effectually meet the needs of the learners in the classroom. There are so many digital tools providing quality lesson plans that ensure the curriculum is being met and that make differentiation easier. Let’s remember all the other hats of a teacher and be thankful for their flexibility, adaptability and willingness to devote their lives to the job.
