Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Teaching News

Teaching News

Resource Site of the Week: Teaching Ideas

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT

There are so many great educational resource sites online now, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to start when you’re looking for content for your classroom. So, I’m going to start a new weekly series of posts to share some of the best ones and to give some background information about the site and their creator(s). Our first resource site of the week is… Teaching Ideas.

I first started Teaching Ideas in 1998 when I was at university, training to be a teacher. I was bored during the long summer holiday and I bought a magazine about the Internet that had a tutorial about making websites. So, I decided to make a website to share some of the lesson ideas and resources that I had created during my teaching placements. The site was very small initially but it received a great response from the teachers who visited, which encouraged me to continue working on it!


Teaching Ideas in the first few years

Over the years the site has grown enormously and this wouldn’t have been possible without the many great contributions from others. Teachers from all around the world have sent their ideas and resources and allowed me to share these on the site. I have also had lots of wonderful comments and suggestions which have enabled me to improve the site over the years. I must also thank Gareth Pitchford, Tim McShane, RM (who host the site), my family and everyone else who has been so supportive with my work on the site over the years.

Teaching Ideas in 2008

I’m now teaching three days per week, which enables me to work on Teaching Ideas (and the other Teaching Websites which have since been developed) on the other days. My wife is also a great help and she draws lots of the wonderful cartoons that appear on many of the resources.

Teaching Ideas today

Teaching Ideas also has thriving social communities on Facebook / Twitter and comments from our followers are often the source of inspiration for new resources. I’ve recently added a new Feedback option to the site, allowing visitors to suggest resources and to vote on the suggestions already there.

Working on the site (and the many others!) takes up lots of my free time, but I love thinking of new ideas, making educational resources and sharing these with teachers around the world. Teaching is such a busy job and I hope that my work makes life a little easier for everyone who uses my sites.