Study.com: A Practical Resource For Enhancing Curriculum

Imagine a classroom of engaged students. One where students participate in discussions, ask questions, dig deeper into content, and engage in higher-order thinking. A teacher’s dream, huh? I’m always looking for ways to teach smarter, not harder. I had the opportunity to check out Study.com’s Teacher Edition first hand and let me tell you, I’m impressed with the vast selection of tools, resources, and materials. Study.com’s Teacher Edition offers 10,000 teacher resources including 50,000 high-quality videos worksheets, lesson plans, activities, games, project ideas, flashcards, and assessments. You can search for just about any subject on a variety of grade levels. The brief videos (avg: 8 minutes) are just the right length for introducing a topic, providing supplemental material to any lesson to reinforce concepts and reach the many different learning styles in your classroom. Like many students, I need to hear it, see it, and apply the knowledge to get the most out of the learning experience. And I always keep in mind that technology is a tool, not a substitution for good instruction. Supplementing your instruction with high-quality content is teaching smarter, not harder. Check out how one teacher uses study.com in her classroom here.

The User Experience

It’s pretty easy to use this platform. Once you get into your dashboard you can create your virtual classroom or get this, you can even sync it to your Google Classroom. I LOVE this perk! You could even create courses with up to 50 lessons in each. Once you create your classroom you invite students by email or classroom code. Then it’s time to create your assignments. You can search for lessons and chapters that match your curriculum and objectives, set a due date, and give instructions. Then finally you can share the assignments with your whole class or with individual students. Sharing with individual students allows for differentiation, another perk! You could assign remedial content for additional support or assign more challenging, in-depth material for students who are ready for more.

The Search Is On

I thought about the topics and units of study I taught in elementary and searched study.com to see what I could find to supplement my instruction. I taught a unit of study in 3rd grade on Ancient Egypt. I found 107 lessons that could easily support my instruction with videos, lesson plans, and assessments. I taught life cycles in second grade and found a wide variety of teaching kids about butterflies (my favorite!) which included hands-on activities, coloring pages, egg carton caterpillar projects, and vocabulary activities. I taught rocks and minerals and found videos and lessons comparing and contrasting rocks and minerals and other interesting topics within the unit of study I’d love to expose my students to. As you can see I found a variety of resources to support what I already teach that will engage and assess my students. A win-win!

I also really like the option of printing lessons and quizzes. After taking quizzes, scores are generated and there are retake options. You can check student work by going to the Classroom tab—student class—student name, to see all the work each student completed as well as the overall grade. If you go to the Assignment tab, select a specific assignment and see class-wide scores. There are detailed reports on each student as far as their site usage and quiz scores.

Ever thought of a flipped classroom? You can get the most out of your classroom time by assigning videos to your students to watch at home. By doing this your students can come to class prepared to engage in discussion and better understand the topic in advance.

But wait…there’s more!!

In addition to classroom resources, study.com offers teacher certification programs and prep courses which are perfect for both prospective teachers working toward their credentials and current teachers looking to expand their certifications to new subjects and/or grade levels. Study.com offers prep materials for National exams like Praxis, as well as state-level exams like TExES, FTCE, NYCTE, MTEL, and CSET.

There are also a ton of professional development courses to support your growth and success whether you are a new or veteran teacher.

This all sounds terrific doesn’t it?  Let’s get down to some of the other details. The Teacher’s Edition subscription is $60 per month. This may be too high for many school districts to foot the bill. Fortunately, there is a school plan that helps create an affordable solution. Another thing to consider is that sadly, even though study.com could be used on all devices, including Chromebooks, phones, and projectors, not all schools have access to such. I only had a projector in my classroom so I could utilize the videos and lessons for whole group, and I could print out the lessons and quizzes, but when it comes down to students each having their device to work on class and individual assignments or courses, that would not be feasible in my situation. Also, I love the idea of a flipped classroom, but again, some students do not have access to devices or support at home to watch the videos to be able to come to school prepared for class discussions and other planned activities.

But as schools evolve in getting more and more technology, study.com offers a wide variety of tools and resources to support teachers in delivering and differentiating effective instruction to engage students and enhance learning.

If you think that this is something that you and your school would benefit from, it’s worth educating your admin about it. Some districts invest in quite a few pricey curriculum programs and supplemental resources, but perhaps study.com could be the ONE they invest in the long term. Use this link to get 25% off the first month!

What are your thoughts about this platform for enhancing curriculum?

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