Creating a syllabus is an essential tool for a teacher at any level. First and foremost, the syllabus serves to introduce teachers to their students. In addition, the syllabus is an important record of the course, offering specific information on course content and expectations, teaching methodology, learning goals and outcomes, and grading and evaluation. Outstanding instruction and student appreciation are tied directly to how much detail a syllabus contains.
Writing a Syllabus
The authors explore the literature on syllabi and suggest what information might be included on a syllabus. This resource features an in-depth discussion of the major content areas to consider for a course syllabus.
Electronic Syllabus Workshop at Brown University
A thorough handbook on the topic of course construction, with a special emphasis on syllabus preparation. Includes practical exercises to help develop your course outline and goals, as well as samples of completed syllabi.
Current trends are to make learning environments more interactive, to integrate technology into the classroom, and to use collaborative learning strategies whenever possible.
An overview of different teaching strategies, including lecture, case method, discussion, cooperative and discovery based teaching.
There are a variety of ways that teachers evaluate students. An important piece in any kind of formal assessment is the rubric. Rubrics help students, teachers (and parents) define quality expectations, identify criteria, and convey grading procedures. It is recommended to provide rubrics and go over them with students at the start of any essay, project, or assignment.
Assessment Rubrics
Sample rubrics for a wide variety of subjects and courses and emotional and social development as well.
Poetry Memorization and Performance Rubric
Sample rubric for an oral commentary, poetry explication or performance.
Guide to Rating Critical and Integrative Thinking
A detailed and specific rubric which offers an insightful way of evaluating critically and integrative thought.
A positive, stable and safe learning environment is one that every educator strives to maintain. However, even the best of teachers need to be cognizant that not every class will smoothly. It is crucial for teachers to develop effective classroom management strategies in order to be prepared for when students disrupt the class or misbehave.
National Education Association
A series of articles on a variety of real classroom management problems and solutions from the National Education Association.
Classroom Management Resources
Effective classroom managers must consider how they will respond when students misbehave. This website provides a variety of resources teachers can download to support them in managing their classrooms.
All teachers face the challenge of assisting students with varying degrees of background knowledge, ability, and interest to master academic concepts. Differentiated instructional practices provide strategies that teachers can use to better support the variety of learners present in their classrooms
A Look at Differentiating Instruction
A comprehensive and detailed overview on defining differentiation and incorporating strategies into the classroom.
Differentiation of Curriculum and Instruction
An article produced by the National Association for Gifted Children, which defines differentiation, describes its significance, and provides a series of related articles and websites of for a variety of educators and classroom settings.
Parent Teacher Conferences
This document provides practical tips for preparing for and navigating the process of parent teacher conferences.
How to Deal with Angry Parents
This is an insightful article from the National Education Association which provides specific techniques for dealing with problematic parents and effectively diffusing heated situations.
Teaching is an especially stressful profession. Lack of administrative support, a heavy course load, overcrowding, salary inequities, misbehaving students, and problematic parents all contribute to teacher stress. It is essential for teachers to develop successful strategies for coping with stress not only during school hours, but beyond the academic day as well.
Institute of Heart Math
An organization dedicated to developing programs, practices, tools and technologies that help students and teachers build emotional flexibility and resilience, which promotes improved learner readiness, relationships, academic performance, classroom climate and more.
101 Ways to Cope with Teaching Stress
A list of over 100 different ways teachers can relax and become centered, whether they are in the middle of a lecture or already home and trying to decompress.
Effective teachers help create great students. Research continues to show that an inspiring and informed teacher is the single most important academic-related factor influencing student achievement; therefore it is critical for new and veteran teachers to receive professional development opportunities and training.
PBS TeacherLine
Browse a list of graduate-level courses offering PreK-12 educators online professional development in convenient, collaborative, and flexible online format.
American Institutes for Research
Learning Point Associates produces a variety of products, publications, and multimedia tools for educators and policymakers. Browse featured publications and find out more about professional development opportunities.
