Resources

During my first placement experience, I have found that teachers can turn to one another for ideas for entire projects, jumping off points for projects, classroom management and so on. The team of teachers I am working with look to one another for project ideas, and willingly exchange new ideas that they think of, come across as they research, and so on. This is a great resource because you although you are jumping off from someone else's idea, you can tweak project ideas to make your own. The project may even evolve in to something completely different.

I have also found, as I'm sure everyone has, that internet sites are an incredible resource for teachers. In my school, we are unable to use YouTube videos. This site is blocked to protect students from getting on and searching for inappropriate or harmful subjects, but my teachers and I found a way that we could still show our demos using You Tube. I have heard of a couple of different sites, such as TubeSocks and ImTooYouTube. These sites allow you to download videos at home and show them at school. I find that it is a really valuable resource for my lessons, because the students not only see me doing a demo in front of them, but also are able to see videos of other techniques. A lot of the videos I have found help to explain how lessons relate to other cultures and so on. I definitely would recommend looking into it if you haven't already stumbled across it.

The Art Department meetings have been focused around the use of SMART Boards. What I think is so neat about SMART Boards is that you can use the sites through the program, Notebook, to supplement your lessons. I thought that you had to buy the SMART Board in order to be able to access these, but I was told yesterday at the meeting that you can download the Notebook program and use it with a LCD projector. Some of the sites, like one that was shown yesterday explaining perspective, could really be valuable for lessons and would help to break down information and concepts for students into easier understanding.

I have been lucky enough to have resources passed down to me from the teachers I am working with. Artists, books, videos, websites, templates, rubric ideas, assessments, project ideas, you name it. I have binders full of information that I know I will use in my own classroom in the future. I think that beyond this however, you can use almost anything as a resource if you are creative enough. Just flipping through magazines, or paying attention to what you observe when you are outside of school can spark an idea for a project.