Teaching Resources Aren’t All Created Equal

Picture this: You've just finished teaching classes for the day, and you have half an hour to focus on lesson plans for the following day. You pick up your notebook and begin to think through the student-centric objectives you'd like to accomplish. You remember the second step of the Backwards Design lesson planning process, and you start to brainstorm what type of activities will help you achieve your goal(s) while satisfying state requirements. You take a look at the clock and realize that there just isn't enough time in the day. This is a common occurrence for many educators. Though there are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon, we'd love to unpack this issue and show you a few resources that can help.

Limited Time to Find Teaching Tools Online

Outside of actively teaching in the classroom, it is no secret that an educator's work is still not done. Leading up to the day's lesson, lesson planning is an absolutely crucial process that determines the quality of student education. Unfortunately, there's quite a limit on time to carry out such a task. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), elementary teachers in the United States spend, on average, about 32 hours per week in the classroom with students and are paid to work 38 hours weekly on average^¹ (NCES, 2012). This figure alone is quite telling, as it demonstrates that there is very little time to accomplish the many tasks that influence activity in the classroom. If we break this down even further, the National Council On Teacher Quality reports that most teachers have around 45 minutes of planning time per day within their contract hours, with elementary teachers experiencing around 12 to 80 minutes and secondary teachers experiencing anywhere from 30 to 96 minutes of planning time^² (NCTQ, 2012). But is this enough time to meet differentiated student needs while ensuring the utmost quality of education? This often results in teachers working, on average, 52 hours per week (NCES, 2012) and can contribute to the burnout that some educators are experiencing.

Questioning the Quality of Educational Resources

Is planning time truly spent only on lesson planning? Unfortunately, that isn’t the case either. Uninterrupted planning time merely exists in an ideal scenario, as planning time is often spent making phone calls to parents, attending meetings with fellow staff, helping students one-on-one, making copies, grading assignments, etc. With this lack of time, it can feel impossible to lesson plan, and even more impossible to:

• Ensure lessons are engaging
• Carefully read and provide feedback on student assignments
• Create better quality lesson plans
• Reflect on how previous lesson plans went to structure the following day

Given the lack of time to carry out these activities, educators often find themselves searching the web for help, as many simply do not have the time to create their own resources from scratch. From teacher resources to lesson plans and everything in between, most educators are no strangers to Google, Pinterest, Facebook groups, and other search engines. Regardless of whether you have lessons planned for the following day or not, there's always a plethora of teaching resources available, but are they of quality? Will they save you time and make your instruction more effective? When searching for teaching resources with limited time on their hands, educators should look for the following characteristics to evaluate both efficacy and quality:

• Accuracy: A quality teaching resource needs to not only be factually accurate but also consistent in its references. For example, there may be many different models or formulas to get to the same result, but a quality resource is consistent in its references to be clear and avoid creating any confusion.
• Guidance for Teachers: Outside of being clear and easy to understand, quality resources should provide a map, so-to-speak, of potential misconceptions and how to clear them up for students as well as expected learning outcomes. This characteristic alone demonstrates that this particular resource was put together with the modern-day educator in mind and is truly intended to assist them in instruction.
• Efficiency: As we know, an educator’s time is always limited. Any resource that educators use needs to be something that is mindful of their time (i.e. doesn’t require preparation for hours on end) and is easy for them to see the benefits, the results it will help them achieve, and who it is intended for easily.
• Relevance: When examining a resource, it is important to ensure that the resource in question is not only relevant to the curriculum, but it is also crucial that it is apparent how this resource will build upon other resources and upcoming lessons. This will help educators plan out future lessons and how they transition methodically.
• Credibility: What is the source of the resource? Ensure that the source is credible not only in the education space but in the specific subject or topic you are wanting to instruct. This will enable you to feel confident in the potential positive contribution this resource will provide to your instruction.

Educational Materials You Can Trust

As you take inventory of your time and remaining tasks, keep these tips in mind when selecting the next teacher resources to guide your instruction. Each resource you use is a key building block to build upon its predecessor to form the learning journey you take your classroom on. To aid in this process, we have a plethora of resources available! Based on the Science of Reading, our research-based resources act as trusted solutions to help you and your classroom achieve your goals. Whether your goal is to reinforce foundational skills or enhance literacy instruction, we have solutions to meet your needs. Here are just a few of our award-winning products that can help you meet the challenges of literacy instruction in today’s modern world.

• Reading A-Z: Named the #1 teacher website for K-5 in an independent survey of 18,000+ educators, this blended learning platform combines teacher-led instruction with technology-enabled resources for personalized reading practice. Intended for both small-groups and whole-classes, Reading A-Z includes thousands of resources to enhance instruction and strengthen students’ reading skills, such as guided lesson plans, worksheets, assessments, and much more.
• Science A-Z: This award-winning curriculum resource blends science and literacy into one captivating K-6 curriculum. This product delivers thousands of resources in Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science, Engineering, and Process Science. Utilizing storyline resources that make it easy for K-5 teachers to adopt a scope and sequence for standards-aligned instruction, Science A-Z delivers engaging, hands-on activities that allow students to think like scientists.
• Foundations A-Z: Built on the Science of Reading, Foundations A-Z delivers resources to ease the transition to systemic instruction while providing embedded professional development to instill the confidence needed for educators to teach foundational skills.