Research Guides: Education: Teaching & Learning Tools

Teaching & Learning Tools

This page has been curated by Kendra Tyson, the librarian at The Georgiou Library and Resource Center for Children and Literature. For Children's Literature Resources, Standards and Assessment, please refer to the Curriculum Materials page in this guide.

Useful Resources for Finding Tools

Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning
American Association of School Librarians annually compiles "Best of" lists for educational apps and websites.

CTREX (Children’s Technology Review Exchange) This link opens in a new window
Children’s Technology Review Exchange (CTREX) reviews commercial interactive products marketed toward children birth to 15, including apps, video games, web sites, hardware and software. Ratings are given by educators who have achieved inter-rater reliability on the same review instrument.

Lesson Planning Sources

A selected list of websites (chosen among a wealth of resources) to aid lesson planning and curriculum building activities. These are free and do not require subscriptions (with the exception of TeachingBooks.net, which NYU Libraries subscribes to).

Anti-Defamation League Curriculum Connections
This collection of K-12 curricula includes lesson plans and multi-grade units that promote critical thinking and assist educators in teaching current events topics through the lens of diversity, bias and social justice.
EDSITEment
National Endowment of the Humanities offers lesson plans by grade level and subject area.
EFL/ESL Lessons and Lesson Plans
From the Internet TESL Journal.
EngageNY CCSS Library
Common Core Standards, curriculum and instructional resources, bilingual resources, performance tasks and assessment guidelines and materials developed by New York State Education Department (NYSED) and partners.
Kimball Art Center: Lesson Plans
Offered by the Center's Elementary Visual Arts Program, lesson plans are archived online and align with state and national core curriculum requirements.
Learner.org
From Annenberg Media, a collection of teaching materials on a variety of subject areas. Online textbooks, professional development materials, interactive lessons and videos are all searchable by subject and grade level.
Library of Congress: Teachers
Offers teaching tips, activities and lesson plans about history & culture that utilize over 100 American Memory collections -- primary source materials such as photographs, audio files, maps and other historical documents.
MERLOT: Learning Materials
Peer reviewed web resources to support teaching and curriculum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Lesson Plans
Provides online teacher resources that cover subjects such as ancient Egypt, Indian carpets, and Byzantine life and art, with ideas for art, math, science, language-arts, and social-studies curricular links.
The National Gallery of Art: Lessons & Activities
Art-focused lessons packed with interactive student activities, printable worksheets, glossaries, biographies, and other related resources.
National Geographic Classroom Resources
Educational resources for Grades Pre-K–12, from brief activity ideas to rich multimedia lessons and units.
OER Commons
A freely accessible online library that allows teachers and others to search and discover open educational resources and other freely available instructional materials.
PBS Learning
Free videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.
Read, Write, Think
Provides educators with access to high-quality practices in reading and language arts instruction through free materials.
Scientific American: Education
With subtopics in the categories of basic science, space, medicine, energy, evolution and more, this website offers many resources for learning and teaching science.
Smithsonian Learning Lab
Lesson plans, resources, state standards and more from across the Smithsonian's museums and research institutions.

TeachingBooks.net This link opens in a new window
A database of K-12 resources aimed at helping teachers integrate quality children's literature in their classroom instruction.

Teaching Tolerance: Classroom Resources
Free resources to educators with emphasis on social justice and anti-bias for use as curriculum supplements, to inform practices and create civil and inclusive school communities.

Selected Online Learning Resources for K-12 Instruction

Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. Topics include math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more.
epic! Reading
Online resource for a wealth of children's books, videos, and quizzes to support reading and writing in schools and the home.
Flocabulary
A library of songs, videos and activities for K-12 online learning.
Studies Weekly
A standards-based online textbook that takes students deeper through primary sources paired with a robust online platform.
Newsela
News content from authoritative sources turned into classroom-ready learning materials.