Classroom Resources: For Everyone

TeachingBooks is provided at no cost to all districts in the WSWHE region via WSWHE BOCES SLS. Teachers can create their own logins (including via Google SSO) to curate content that can be shared with students. This incredible resource has lesson plans, read-alouds, author recordings, and so much more, as well as curated lists of resources.

• Teaching Ideas

  Explore jumping-off points that deepen discussions, inspire reading interest, and support connections to books and authors. Easily share and include in your instructional plans, newsletters, and social media.

• Monthly Lesson Ideas

  Choose from these K-8 ready-to-use library and classroom lesson ideas.

• Literacy & Standards Connections

  Teaching ideas and suggested resources by standard, type, and theme. Deepen and extend existing practices with materials that support your literacy instruction.

• Diverse Book Toolkit

  As you infuse diverse, inclusive, and culturally relevant materials into fiction and nonfiction reading experiences, this toolkit helps analyze collections, identify and bring to life diverse texts, and encourage reflection on cultural representation.

NewsBank is provided at no cost to all districts in the WSWHE region via WSWHE BOCES SLS (new in 2023). They maintain a fantastic lesson plan archive that ties into headlines surrounding world topics and events.

Using NoodleTools with your students? NoodleTools is provided at no cost to all districts in WSWHE via WSWHE SLS. Click to see their huge collection of ready-to-use tutorials on every aspect of the platform, from teaching citations to notecards to managing assignments.

If you haven't checked our Rosen interactive ebooks lately, you must. WSWHE SLS has purchased many ebooks for access by all users in the WSWHE region. Many of these ebooks are Spotlight collections, which are chock full of lessons, maps, timelines, and more.

Collections include: American History, Ancient Civilizations, Civics, Ecology, Animals, Global Issues, Spotlight on NY, Bullying Prevention, Social Emotional Learning, CyberSmarts.

The PowerKnowledge Science Suite of instructional databases (Life Science, Earth Science, and Earth & Space) is available at no cost to all schools in WSWHE, geared towards grades 3-8. Each contains built in lesson plans and other curricular materials!

Rosen's Teen Health & Wellness, and Digital Literacy ,also available to our WSWHE schools and geared more to middle and high schoolers, have lessons and other content for teachers and librarians.

If you haven't yet checked out this free resource, you MUST. Free for all NY educators, PBS has a large and updated collection of classroom resources PreK-12, including standards-aligned videos, lesson plans and activities. You can search by keyword or browse by subject, grade, and resource type, and find resources curated together.

Looking for Media Literacy resources? Project Look Sharp has so much to offer, including lessons, handouts, and other media.

"The New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools (CES) is devoted to making all of the Library’s resources accessible and useful for educators. You’ll find programs and services tailored for the educator community, such as book lists, credit-bearing workshops, special access to exhibitions, tips on teaching with primary source materials from our vast research collections, and much more."

Check out New York Heritage's "For Educators" section to discover lesson plans, a citation guide, and resources for inquiry-based learning, utilizing digitized collections on people, places, and events about New York State. Resources include maps, journals, video, and even yearbooks!

NOVELny resources are available to all New Yorkers. 

Gale instructional databases via NOVELny include Educator's Reference Complete, as well as a vast collection of lesson plans, scavenger hunts, and more within some Gale databases (scroll to the bottom of a Gale database page to look for "Educator Resources" and curriculum tools)

Britannica instructional databases include an "educators' section, which includes lesson plans, tutorials, curriculum standards, and support. If you need help with your login, contact libraryservices@wswheboces.org.

Looking for no-cost alternatives for career database resources? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains an Occupational Outlook Handbook, as well as all kinds of classroom resources such as lessons, games, quizzes, career exploration tools, and more.

The Library of Congress maintains a vast repository of classroom materials, lesson plans, primary source sets, and presentations. They even have professional development workshops. Check out this AMAZING, free resource. LOC says, "Created by teachers for teachers, these ready-to-use materials provide easy ways to incorporate the Library's unparalleled primary sources into instruction."

Consider the Source Online: Teaching With Historical Records

is a FREE online community that connects educators across New York State to the valuable primary sources materials found in the churches, museums, historical organizations, libraries, and state and local governments with a series of highly-engaging learning activities designed to guide and encourage students at all grade levels to make discoveries using critical thinking skills.