Our Favorite Resources for New Teachers

At Opportunity Education, we work closely with teachers in our growing school network. Some of our teachers bring years of classroom experience while others are first-year teachers still finding their way. Many of our newer teachers come to us with similar challenges.

For new teachers, backward design and unit planning can seem overwhelming. Creating daily objectives and strong summative assessments that align with a unit plan is difficult. And on top of all of that, they are trying to make sure each day is engaging, with opportunities for students to invest in their learning through active learning strategies and effective feedback cycles.

The support these teachers need isn’t a fun mug, a jeans day, or tips for self care. What they actually need is a mentor. The best case scenario is to find a subject matter expert who can share unit plans with strong summative assessments and success criteria. Daily lesson planning is overwhelming without a strong unit plan as a foundation. Having colleagues who can share their knowledge is a huge help.

While we aren’t in the classroom next door to the teachers we work with, we share what we’ve learned over the years through our resources. We support teachers by providing customizable lesson planning and professional development resources that engage students in active, meaningful learning. Here are a few of our favorite resources for new teachers who are just starting out:

• Our Active Learning Daily Lesson Plan resource provides a template and some inspiration to help teachers include the essential elements of active learning that drive student engagement.
• Student Choice Boards and Student Choice Menus provide options for the pacing of the activity or the activity itself. Using these to provide students with choices not only makes it easier to differentiate, but also helps students own and drive their learning as they engage more deeply in it.
• Our Make Groups Work resource includes three strategies for planning and facilitating structured group activities with students: group work roles, rules, and sentence starters. It’s a helpful resource for helping students develop their collaboration skills.
• Our Assessment Of, For, and As Learning infographic is a great way to develop and implement the three different types of assessments. It will also help bring these assessments into the feedback cycle. To dive deeper into this topic, check out the 4 Strategies to Support Assessment for Learning blog post.

Having the right tools makes lesson planning easier and helps improve learning outcomes. Visit our resources page for additional lesson planning and professional learning resources.