22 Things We Found on Share My Lesson That We Just Love!

This blog post by Marlana Martinelli originally appeared on We Are Teachers.

Teachers are “sharers” by nature, but with all the great classroom resources out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by—or even lost in—what can seem like endless Google and Pinterest search results. That’s why you need to bookmark Share My Lesson, a totally free website developed by the American Federation of Teachers and TES Connect.

We have to admit we hadn’t spent much time on Share My Lesson, but once we really delved into its resources, we realized we’d been missing out. Once you sign up, you can get your hands on literally hundreds of thousands of lesson plans, printables, tips and tricks—all created for teachers by teachers and educational partners. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg: This website also has a ton of extras you won’t want to miss, like contests and webinars.

Here are 22 of our favorites.

Classroom Foundations & Back-to-School Live Webinars

Congratulations! You landed your first teaching job. Now what? Share My Lesson has several live webinars happening that will set you up for success, with topics ranging from connecting with students to game-based teaching strategies. Bonus: You get professional development credit for attending the sessions!

Random Acts of Kindness On-Demand Webinar

OK, so we’re betting PD isn’t at the top of your list of fun things to do this summer, but what if it were a cool topic like the Random Acts of Kindness Seminar on Classroom Culture? And what if you could do it on-demand in the comfort of your own home (read: by the pool!) for free and get credit for attending the session? Now, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Check out more of Share My Lesson’s on-demand webinars here.

Teacher-Parent Learning Log

Why try to reinvent the wheel? Check out this printable learning log that a Share My Lesson member developed and fine-tuned to improve school-home communication. Students reflect on their learning by filling out the log on a weekly basis. The teacher checks the log before kids bring it home on Friday, and parents add their feedback and send it back to school on Monday.

Race Around the Clock Multiplication Tables

This worksheet makes quizzing multiplication facts fun! First, students write the multiplication table they’re practicing inside the star. Then they race around the clock to multiply that number by each of the numbers on the outside of the track and write their answers on the inside of the track.

Points to Ponder Blog

Check out Share My Lesson’s Points to Ponder Blog, where you’ll find articles like “Eight Ways to Help Students Remember That Books Are Fabulous” and “Creating Balance Between Your Professional and Personal Lives.” Have something you want to share? You can submit your own blog posts for consideration.

Choosing the Right College

Provide this printable workbook to students and their families when it’s time to apply for college. It has recommendations on how to start searching for and comparing schools, a list of sample questions to ask during campus visits, and templates to help organize info about each school.

Bullying Role-Play Cards

Establish your classroom as an anti-bullying zone from day one! During the first week of school, let your students actually practice how to recognize and respond to bullying with these printable role-play cards. Each card includes a scenario for students to act out and make a choice about how to respond.

Classroom Icebreakers

Need some new ideas to help your students get to know one another at the beginning of the school year? This list of icebreakers includes nice simple activities like “Truth or Not,” where students write down two true statements and one false statement on a note card and then ask others to guess which of the three is not true.

Ten Apples Up on Top! Counting Activity

You can use this interactive PowerPoint presentation as a supplement to the Dr. Seuss classic Ten Apples Up on Top! Students learn the concept of one more and one less by dragging the apples onto the number line and clicking the correct answer.

Weekly Contests

Share My Lesson is giving away tons of cool prizes to members every Wednesday from now until August 5. Take just a minute to enter and you could walk away with gift certificates to places like Amazon, AMC Theatres and Starbucks. Sweet!

Peer Reviews

One of the very best things about Share My Lesson is that teachers review all of the resources, so the strongest resources are pooled to the top of your search results. It’s almost like buying something on Amazon—you can check out all the ratings and comments before actually deciding which one you want.

Summer Words Activities

This compilation of four different interactive online activities about summer-related words is perfect for your tutoring sessions. Games range from letter and word recognition to rhyming and syllable counting.

10-Minute Writing Exercises

Use these slides, which contain 14 literacy and 14 numeracy questions with colorful photos, as writing prompts for students. Sample questions include “How would you describe an elephant to someone who has never seen one before?” and “Imagine you are yesterday’s newspaper. What is going to happen to you?”

Reading Journals

You can use these printable reading journals for summer reading or for literature circles during the school year. Students find evidence from the text to explain the meaning or significance of that passage. Students can complete one side at home and then work with a group to complete the right side when they arrive in class.

“Our Ever-Changing Earth” Anchor Chart

This colorful anchor chart helps students understand both fast and slow changes to the earth, like earthquakes and erosion. You can use it as a classroom poster or reduce the size for student journals or notebooks.

ELL Starter Kit for Educators

Share My Lesson has lots of starter kits that are jam-packed with resources for special interests. The ELL Starter Kit includes forms for monitoring oral fluency and comprehension skills. It even has a list of bilingual Spanish books, and there are reading tips for parents available in 11 languages.

“Firework” Song Lyrics Teach Figurative Language

Use pop culture and music to teach your students to identify figurative language in Katy Perry’s hit song “Firework.” The resource includes a student worksheet and teacher’s guide.

The What if …? Box of Questions

Develop students’ critical- and creative-thinking skills with this animated PowerPoint. Students click on one of the colored dots that’s flying out of a box in order to bring up one of 168 “What if …” questions, such as “What if there had been no American Revolution?” or “What if humans could fly?”

Exit Ticket Ideas

This PowerPoint includes 50 slides, each with a different writing prompt that can be used as an exit ticket. The resource was created for a visual arts class, but many of the questions can be used or adapted for any subject. Sample questions include “Recall three things discussed in class today and rank them in importance from most relevant to least relevant” and “Explain the steps for completing this project.”

Today’s News, Tomorrow’s Lesson

Teaching current events is super-easy with Today’s News Tomorrow’s Lesson. These lesson plans seek to help educators find explore differrnt ways to break down and discuss sensitive breaking news.

Want more ideas from Share My Lesson? Visit their website to check out their new blog article “How to Avoid the Summer Slide” and explore even more resources!