Resources for Teachers

COVID19 SURVIVAL

Students who Thrived under Lockdown – references

Best Maths and English resources for teachers working remotely – free, comprehensive, from kindergarten to Year 13

Maths by remote learning – all ages, from fractions to calculus

Chemicool – based around the periodic table, all elements well explained

Huge video collection for all Sciences and STEM subjects

Science Projects at Home – lots of easy safe experiments for home

Science Toys – simple Science experiments that students can do at home

Physics Central – excellent resources for teachers and students on all major physics topics

Google Applied Digital Skills – free lessons in practical digital skills for teachers and students

2000 Museums to visit virtually

25 Best Websites for teachers for preparing remote learning lessons

Huge free Junior School resource base for remote learning – lots of videos, links and other interactive resources

Best Social Studies links museum tours and virtual field trips for remote learning

Best History links and resources for remote learning

Critical Thinking Web – huge resource base of lesson plans for teaching all aspects of critical thinking – available in English and Chinese

Teach Thought – 25 apps for teaching critical thinking

Tim Cavey – the primacy of thinking and learning skills over knowledge in a post-Covid19 world

Teaching Strategies of award-winning online instructors

Harvard Project Zero – thinking strategies for remote learning

Ramsey Musallam – great resources for teaching Science remotely

Free guide and resources for teaching about climate change

Teaching Maths remotely – Mathigon interactive, personalised textbook

Free online learning – huge database of links to free university level remote learning courses – many suitable for school

Kate Pechacek – practical strategies for assessment in the remote classroom plus Andrew Millerwith more

TEDEd Earth School – 30 earth-based, well resourced projects to do at home

Laura Lee – 7 guiding principles to pass on to parents teaching at home

Nora Fleming – meeting students SEL needs remotely

Edutopia video on keeping students engaged in virtual settings

OTHER LINKS FOR TEACHERS

Science Notes – lots of activities and experiments for children

Teachers Pay Teachers – great idea, great site for teachers to buy and sell lessons, all levels, all subjects

Maths Is Fun – from fractions to calculus, good site for teaching maths

Scientific American – good resources for many Science topics

Best sites for teaching the Sciences – Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Physics

Google Arts and Culture – amazing collection of resources and links

Web English Teacher – teaching English, English Literature & ESL, a huge lesson plan resource base plus paid tutorial service

Developing Understanding by Design – backwards design for teaching by Wiggins and McTighe

Thinking Skills Activities – for Grades 3-6

81 Thinking Skills Activities – worksheets provided

25 Resource links for Teaching Critical Thinking – from  TeachThought

Teaching Critical Thinking  – Glen Dewar’s tips for the deliberate teaching of critical thinking at all ages

100 Best Science Sites for Teachers –  the best science sites to find resources to design lessons around.

Teaching English –  a good UK site for the teaching of English, lots of lesson planners, exercises etc.

Busy Teacher – an English teaching site where teachers share their printable worksheets, lesson plans and lesson activities with colleagues for free, especially good for ESL.

ESL Cafe – Dave Sperling’s site for ESL and EFL teachers and learners – particularly good for games to play.

Freeology – Resources for teaching reading, grammar, numbers. These will suit Junior teachers mostly although has some great graphic organisers for higher level English.

Science Videos – Ten great science video sites.

Feedback from teachers in Lance’s most recent workshops in schools in Doha, Dubai, Jakarta, Tokyo, Cebu & Nanjing (3):

  • Beneficial and gave me a great insight to how skills can be taught
  • Awesome, very knowledgeable on the subject very much involved in the IB
  • Well worth the time. Very useful information was shared
  • I found Lance to be engaging and thoughtful. Clearly extremely knowledgeable and experienced working with learners and educators.
  • He is a very good facilitator. He catered to all the questions with candor and ease. He knows what he is talking about.
  • The presenter is very engaging and encouraging towards the attendees
  • Very knowledgeable and shared practical examples of how to implement ATLs also shared good links
  • Persuasive, emotional, good public speaker
  • Great, he was very clear & precise also engaging & motivating! Very glad I attended this session.
  • Presented ATL as part of our tools to help our students learn

Feedback from teachers in Lance’s most recent workshops in schools in Doha, Dubai, Jakarta, Tokyo, Cebu & Nanjing (2):

  • Knowledgeable, friendly and listened to people’s comments
  • Very knowledgeable, asked interesting questions, thought provoking
  • Knowledgeable, had insightful input, able to show real examples and interact with participants
  • A unique and a great opportunity to learn more about ATL skills
  • Better than I expected and one of the best workshops I’ve attended
  • Very useful to me, I will transfer many strategies and information I have got to my school
  • Excellent and worth my weekend
  • Awesome and knowledgeable
  • Very knowledgeable and answered all questions
  • Knowledgeable, adaptable, engaging, helpful towards MYP & DP

Feedback from teachers in Lance’s most recent workshops in schools in Doha, Dubai, Jakarta, Tokyo, Cebu & Nanjing (1):

  • Worth giving up a weekend for, I have much to bring to my lesson planning and to share with my department
  • Full of teaching skills, a person who can inspire my teaching
  • Dynamic and made lessons attractive
  • Excellent presenter – good pace and level of understanding
  • Insightful and courageous – open questions with no fear
  • Clear and gave me good thoughts to consider and discuss with my school
  • Very knowledgeable and good at animating discussions
  • Enthusiastic and passionate
  • I definitely would recommend it to others
  • Absolutely amazing!

Feedback from teachers in Lance’s most recent workshops in schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Norway, England, India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan (3):

  • Excellent, above and beyond my expectations
  • Thorough, knowledgeable, approachable, helpful
  • Very clear and objective, providing a great balance between descriptive lecture and interactive exercises
  • Very professional, very advanced, utterly experienced, efficient, structured, balanced
  • Perfect!
  • Engaging, motivating, knowledgeable, pleasant to listen to, clear, inspiring
  • Dynamic, energetic, respectful, professional, knowledgeable. I appreciated the multifaceted use of technology to inform
  • An excellent investment of time and resources
  • Very knowledgeable. Accommodating to participants needs. High number of practical applications.

From Margy and John (New Zealand parents):

“xxxx hasn’t stopped talking about it (this morning and after school) and I believe Lance has instilled into her some fabulous tips for being a great learner. John and I got lots out of his presentation to the parents and we also haven’t stopped talking about it. At dinner tonight the four of us had fantastic discussions on “learning” – not the usual topic of conversation!.”

From Sue (a New Zealand parent):

“Yesterday you spoke to my daughter xxxx’s, Year 10 class at xxxx College.  She moaned about having to attend this while she was at home at breakfast day, thinking it would be one of those ‘find your learning styles’ things yet again…

HOWEVER…!  When I picked her up at the end of the day I had a different child.  She was so animated and excited about life.  She is keen to go on a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam but didn’t have the get up and go to fund-raise.  She came home, knew how she could do it, and promptly started on her plans.  She said she knows why she can be a little negative at times, what her weaknesses are etc and that she now understands how to turn these around to make positives.

xxxx has told me she feels like a new person!  I have heard about it ever since I picked her up yesterday!

Anyway, the main point of this email was just to say how impressed we all are and to say THANK YOU for your efforts.”

From a Hong Kong parent:

“My 15 year old daughter xxxx attended your seminar at xxxx this spring and she came home as a different person. She was beaming and didn’t stop talking about what she had learned from your seminar. She sat her little sister down and told her everything she had learned from you. xxxx felt she had learned something that day that would make her a better student and something she felt she could use for her whole life. Thank you for that, Lance! That was a real gift you gave her.”

From Bauyrzhan Serikov – General Director, Tamos Education, Almaty, Kazakhstan:

“On behalf of Tamos Education, I wanted to extend our deepest gratitude for taking the time to join us and conduct the world-class IB workshop. Your expertise and insights into the International Baccalaureate program have been invaluable, and the feedback from our faculty and staff has been overwhelmingly positive.

The dedication you demonstrated in imparting knowledge and best practices of teaching 21-st century skills to our educators will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on the quality of our curriculum and, most importantly, the learning experience for our students. It’s rare to find someone who can present such intricate material with clarity and passion, and we feel privileged to have had you lead this workshop.

I’d also like to take a moment to appreciate the professional and approachable manner with which you addressed every question and concern. Your willingness to engage with our team, understand our unique challenges, and tailor your guidance accordingly was truly commendable.

I look forward to any future opportunities for collaboration and would be honoured to welcome you back to Tamos Education anytime.”

Feedback from teachers in Lance’s most recent workshops in schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Norway, England, India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan (1):

  • Clear, knowledgeable and engaging, easy to listen to and to follow
  • Energetic, knowledgeable and enthusiastic
  • Very well organized and worthwhile professional development
  • Absolutely brilliant and delivered the course in a very efficient and productive manner
  • Well worth it, rewarding and very informative
  • Really a positive course. Well spent time
  • Very clear, structured, a great listener with very valuable feedback to what was said by the teachers – challenging and keeping us engaged the whole time.
  • Excellent, very knowledgeable and good at listening/responding to the audience
  • Amazing!!
  • Excellent! Lance was entertaining, knowledgeable in his field and able to answer all questions and confirm our areas of concern as appropriate, personably and professionally.

Feedback from teachers in Lance’s most recent workshops in schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Norway, England, India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan (2):

  • Some of the best PD I have been on in years
  • Engaging, dynamic, confident and experienced
  • Excellent, one of the best bits of PD I’ve done in 13 years of teaching
  • Outstanding, truly an expert in his field. He had a very engaging easy way of making me understanding ideas that are new to me
  • Today was indeed very productive, enlightening and enriching
  • Useful and inspiring to see clear ways of helping my school move forward in this area
  • Very interesting and thought provoking, made me make connections between my department PYP, MYP and DP
  • Entertaining, thought provoking, engaging, interesting. Inspirational, transforming
  • Interesting, relevant, informative and supported by evidence

From Lies Goodchild, ex-Head of Learning Support, Kings College School, London:

“The pupils explore and work through a number of skills, which they need to be successful at
learning. In that process they raise their self-esteem and confidence and they learn the importance of being resilient. The impact is immediate and amazing.
A follow up workshop for staff and a separate workshop for parents complement this programme, thus ensuring that all parties in the “pupil, parent, teacher partnership” are aware of the strategies and the level of support which are required to make learning successful. That is where the strength of this programme lies. It allows for a whole school approach to learning, which is clearly set out, well understood and most importantly easy and fun to use.

Without any hesitation, I recommend this programme to any educational establishment.”

From John Rolfe, ex-Director of Studies, Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok, Thailand:

“Lance spent the whole day with all of our Year 11 pupils, the majority of whom were second language learners. In the time I spent with Lance and the pupils I saw that they were really interested in what he had to say, as I was myself. Talking to them afterwards their enthusiasm for the course was overwhelming; they were unanimous in their opinions of how useful and interesting it was, but also how much they enjoyed it. Much of this is to do with the friendly and approachable nature of Lance who seems to draw the pupils out of themselves.

Lance is friendly adaptable and utterly professional. He will adapt courses that he has to the needs of the school and the pupils; he also runs courses for parents and teachers. I would thoroughly recommend his organisation to other international schools.”