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You might have to have the nine lives of a cat to gather all the teacher resources from libraries and bookstores and read all those teacher resources. That is, if you were on your own, had no useful materials from grad school and teacher networking, and if you had no internet access ever. But this reverse hypothetical is not anywhere near happening right now, thanks to the www.

One has access to all sorts of resources just sitting in front of one’s computer at home. The World Web has proved to be such a bonus for educators! As a matter of fact, many sites have been developed by qualified experts and contain information contributed by fellow teachers. Since the web sites are designed by teachers and the articles are also written by teachers, it is beneficial to get acquainted with the different approaches to teaching presented on them and develop professionally too. The Net even encourages virtual classroom learning. Concepts, methodologies, skills and strategies–just ask and it is all there!

Being a teacher of English as well as helping to develop online courses, I have managed to hunt out and put together a list of the most valuable sites for a teacher. These deal with education also, but mostly teaching. There are all sorts of resources available for persons dealing with the literary aspects of language or linguistics or a rhetorical discipline. If you have not yet made any discovery yourself, then let me help you out by introducing you to some lesser known sites, some teaching ideas and strategies, or a database where information can be had at the click of a button. So you see, extra prayers for more lives are not required!

For starters, online teacher communities offer premium teacher resources. Such gatherings as Pro-teacher Community; Teachers.net; and Tolerance.org feature lesson exchanges for K-3, 4-8, Math, Science, Technology, and gifted students; theme studies materials (for teaching tolerance, for example); live chat; job and classifieds boards; web exclusives; grant information; and submission/publication information and guidelines (where applicable).

The teacher resources I found most helpful for developing online courses were those set up as databases and offering interactive lesson plans and materials. These premier sites are, among the many, Teacher Oz’s Kingdom of History, a WWII database developed by Tracy Osborn; Web English Teacher, ambitiously compiled by the remarkable Carla Beard; ESL Resources at OWL (Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab, offering handouts, resources, and exercises); a sometimes hard to load links site (keep refreshing) called Just for Teachers, wherein Sheboygan Falls teacher Dawn Hogue offers advice, syllabi, book lists, and links for AP English teachers; and ReadWriteThink–lesson plans, web resources, student materials, and academic standards.

These are not all; there are plenty more! I have just introduced you to a few resources to start you on your journey! All sorts of databases, exchanges and handouts are available on the Net. It is my sincere hope that these websites provide you with more creative approaches to learning and educating, thus benefitting self and students alike!