TOP 10 REASONS TO USE CURRIKI

By Guest Contributor Kathy Duhl, lead reviewer at Curriki

I wanted to share with you my top 10 reasons for using Curriki. Join the OER movement (and make your job easier) by becoming a Curriki member today!

Kathy Duhl

1. It’s FREE!  FREE to join, FREE to take excellent curriculum, FREE to post your best material.
2.  Join the OER movement and be recognized as a forward thinking educator.
3.  Build collections from our repository that you can add to, modify and adapt to the needs of your students.
4.  Help other educators around the world gain access to resources they could not otherwise afford by submitting curriculum you have developed.
5.  Get your curriculum reviewed by content experts.
6.  Start a group at your school or district to collaborate on topics, develop curriculum or document important policies and meetings for future reference.
7.  Engage with other educational groups who have similar interests as you.
8.  Peruse the site and get inspired by amazing units, videos, and full courses. Share the content you find with your colleagues so easily.
9.  Get your collections ready to show future employers your skill and knowledge in implementing 21^st century tools for schools. They will be impressed by how you can save them money!
10.  Don’t have enough STEM material in your classroom?  Run out of new ideas to teach the same content?  Learn from others the value of sharing and being part of a growing community that is committed to equalizing the education divide… one lesson at a time.

Please share this with a colleague and tell us how you use Curriki.

One Stop Shopping for Educators/Parents

Need to know where to go to find resources that will help you plan, research, and execute amazing lessons?  Well, yes that’s Curriki, but even better this new collection at Curriki recently submitted by Anna Batchelder.  With help from “Digital Tools for Homework Help”, Anna has put together a collection of resources that will save any teacher, or parent hours of looking and searching on Google.

Need to know where to publish kid’s writing? Or maybe how to use web tools to communicate with your students and families? Want to take a virtual field trip to Africa with your students? Or maybe you need exemplary language arts lesson from Read, Write, Think or science lessons from NASA.  Everything you thought could be possible in creating a dynamic classroom is gathered here in this wonderful new collection. It will take some time to scroll through all that is included, but every educator, new or very experienced, will benefit.  This collection is definitely something you will want to pass onto to your colleagues.

Kathy Duhl

Lead Content Reviewer

Curriki.org

New and Notable: High School Literature Courses Made Easy

Finding current and relevant literature for high school students can sometimes be problematic. Thanks to Nassau BOCES, Curriculum Area Project (CAP)and Sue Costagliola, this collection of high school literature courses are now available for your immediate use.  

Each unit carefully outlines and includes some background information, chapter questions, weblinks to support the unit, quizzes, and New York State Learning Standards.  The unit on Writing Collaboration gives countless ideas of writing prompts, lesson plans, and a reasonable timeline to follow in order to publish student’s final draft.  All in all, this collection is organized and thoughtfully designed to reach a variety of high school students.  If you don’t teach middle or high school English, make sure you pass this on to your colleagues as an excellent new and notable resource from Curriki.

Kathy Duhl

Lead Content Reviewer

www.Curriki.org

New and Notable: You’re A Grand Old…

In many schools, saying the Pledge of Allegiance is a common everyday occurrence.  But what do your students know about the history of the flag and the use of symbols in their everyday life?  This week Curriki member, Andrew Doyle has submitted a lesson plan designed to give K-3 students an opportunity to explore the meaning of symbols, background information about the American Flag and a chance to create a symbolic group flag.

This lesson also includes many resource books, a rubric to gauge student’s success, and alignment to national standards.  Most of all, this lesson will surely deepen your students understanding of how symbols are an important part of their everyday life.

Kathy Duhl

Lead Content Reviewer

www.Curriki.org

Chocolate Anyone? (Highlights from the Repository)

Leave it to Curriki contributors to submit such a thorough, integrated unit on chocolate! Geared for 5-6^th graders, this unit can be modified to intrigue many grade levels. A Matter of Chocolate exposes students to the history and science behind chocolate.  Teachers will be grateful to have ready made worksheets that outline the history of chocolate, and webquests that further knowledge.  Students will enjoy tasting chocolate from different countries, and trying out recipes for chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate covered popcorn. Of course, this is all has a scientific basis outlined in experiments of physical and chemical changes.  No matter what, you can’t go wrong enticing students to savor the delicacies of chocolate while having them embark on the scientific process.

Kathy Duhl

Lead Reviewer

www.Curriki.org

Note: The image above was created by André Karwath and was originally posted on Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 2.5 License.