JoinTips for new teachers
By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2009-08-09
It’s hard to believe that in a short time, the students will be back in school, ready to start a new year. In the August 2009 edition of NSTA’s Science Class electronic newsletter, there were lots of suggestions for new (and not-so-new) teachers, including web-based resources such as 100 Helpful Websites for New Teachers. There are many good websites here on topics such as technology applications, ideas for classroom activities, and downloadable documents. I suspect that a new teacher might be overwhelmed at first by all of these resources, so I would also suggest “One Essential Website for New Teachers” — the NSTA website with a treasure chest of resources specifically for science:
- Access to the current journals and to the journal archives, including ones from previous years and at other grade levels (which are great to skim, given the wide variety of interests and backgrounds in our classes).
- The opportunity to explore and join online groups in the NSTA Communities, including one specifically for new teachers where they can share topics of interest, questions, frustrations, and success stories. They’ll also have access to the NSTA listserves, in which veteran members can provide information and suggestions on an as-needed basis.
- Access to podcasts on content topics, NSTA Reports, Science Class (with editions for elementary, middle, and high school), online books and book chapters from NSTA publications.
- Access to resources, such as Science Objects, from the NSTA Learning Center, which are great if a teacher needs some background information to brush up on science content.
Many of the resources on the NSTA site require an NSTA membership. New teachers can join at a reduced rate (see the NSTA website for the guidelines). Membership would also give the teacher access to SciLinks to find related websites to supplement or enhance their instruction (and keep your eyes open for the updates to the site this month!).
So perhaps a membership would make a great welcome gift for a new science teacher in your school!