We're back for a third installment of great courses and units from members of the BetterLesson community. The inaugural post post pulled together courses for middle school math teachers and the most recent collected resources for middle school ELA teachers. If this is your first time viewing one of these posts, we built these based on feedback from you. Teachers have bookmarked these courses and units, shared them with others, and told us how helpful they have been to their own teaching. So we are putting them all in one place. We'll be updating these posts periodically with new additions and bringing back courses and units that we've featured in the past. Look forward to collections across the core content areas in elementary school and high school too. Enjoy!

5th Grade Science by Lorin King. This course includes the following units: Earth Science, Physical Science, and Experimeint / Investigation Methods.

6th Grade Science by David Kujawski. This course includes the following units: Scientific Inquiry;Energy; Technology and Engineering; Environmental Science; Miscellaneous Lessons; Meteorology; and Geology. 

6th Grade Earth Science by Renee Belisle. This course includes the following units: Scientific Methodology; Rocks, Gems, Minerals; Earth's Movements; Weathering and Erosion; Earthly Time, Fuels, and Energy; Fresh Water; Oceans; Atmosphere; Weather; and Astronomy.

7th Grade Science by Daniel Randolph. This course includes the following units: Intro to Science; Human Biology; Rocks and Minerals; Dynamic Earth; and Matter and Energy.

7th Grade Earth Science by Cristina Lopez. This course includes the following units: Earth Structure; Plate Tectonics; Mineralogy; and Petrology.

8th Grade Life Science by Rachel Ryland. This course includes the following units: Scientific Method and Characteristics of Living Things; Cells; Human Body Systems; Cell Cycle and Division; Heredity and Genetics; and Evolution.

Year 8 Physics (8th Grade in the U.S.) by Katherine Richard. This course includes the following units: Atomic Theory, Pressure, Heat Energy Transfer, Static Electricity, Magnetism, Sound, Earth and Space, Revision Material, and Exam Material.

Let us know what you think of this and future collections by commenting below, posting to our Facebook page, or tweeting at us. You can also always find us atfeedback@betterlesson.com.

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We've launched a new feature that offers recommendations for similar resources based on the resources you're viewing.  You'll notice a "Similar Files" widget in the right column of any file resource you're viewing.

Let us know what you think of this feature and if you're finding additional helpful resources from the "Similar Files" recommendations!

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If you have the Townsend Press Bluford Series book "Brothers in Arms" in your ELA class, check out these featured lessons by teachers in the BetterLesson community:

Brothers in Arms unit by Elizabeth Deornaelis, including the following lessons:

Chapter 1: Characterization, Chapter 2: Characterization cont'd, Chapter 3: Setting, Chapter 4: Context Clues, and more!

Brothers in Arms unit by Christina Livingstone, including the following lessons:

Brothers in Arms: I Need a Good Book (Book Jacket Project)!, Brothers in Arms: Sentence Pattern I, Brothers in Arms: Varying Sentence Length, Brothers in Arms: Sentence Pattern II Direct Address. 

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BetterLesson has become the best place for educators to discover and share high quality lessons. We are looking for an experienced UX/UI Designer to craft a top notch product experience as we continue to work to reshape K-12 education.

An ideal candidate has:

• A strong portfolio of shipped products, with examples engaged communities, complex interaction/tools, visual creativity, brand definition, customer funnel engagement
• A passion for making users' lives easier, and leveraging user research and usability studies to do so
• The ability to deliver detailed pixel-level comps, redlines, and static assets optimized for web delivery
• A strong understanding of both the potential and limitation of standard and evolving web technologies (HTML/CSS/JavaScript).  Coding not required, but a definite plus.
• Experience designing mobile applications a plus
• Excitement around our goal of making a substantial and enduring difference to teaching and learning

The Senior UX/UI Designer will:

• Work closely with the VP Product to define feature hypotheses, iterate on white-board/wireframes, IA flows, specifications, perform usability studies, and take action based on results
• Work closely with the development team to deliver detailed visual/interaction specifications, and ensure fit and finish of the shipping product
• Define and manage brand identity and style guide across all BetterLesson products and publications

This position includes a competitive compensation package and a substantial equity stake in the company.

Our office is located in Cambridge near Davis Square. We will consider remote candidates who are willing to travel to Cambridge ~twice/month.

More information about BetterLesson:

Founded by Teach For America corps members, BetterLesson has become the best place for educators to connect and share the highest-quality lessons.  We are excited to bring lesson planning into the digital age and empower educators around the world to collaborate and "share what works."

BetterLesson is financially backed by NewSchools Venture Fund, top VCs and experienced angel investors.  Our paying customers include many of the most innovative educational organizations in the country, such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools and Achievement First. We have been recently featured in the New York Times, CNet, Scholastic and others.

Please send a statement of interest and work samples to matt.sly@betterlesson.com

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With the new "My Curriculum" dropdown, access all your courses, files, and bookmarks no matter where you've ventured on BetterLesson.

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Three words/phrases that describe your teaching persona

Constructive, supportive, positive

 Why teach? Or, how did you become a teacher?

Both my mother and father are elementary teachers . . . consequently I guess you could say I was born to be a teacher. Everyday I enjoy being at work and while most people work with co-workers who act like seven-year olds, my co-workers are seven-year olds. Their positivity, passion to learn, and fascination with everything drives my instruction everyday. The workplace of a teacher is just so rewarding and working the extra hours and putting in the extra time is worth every second when you consider the results and the children you affect.

 What would you be if not a teacher?

I would work in a non-profit abroad.

What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?

I integrate their lives and do read alouds. I give student surveys and also pay close attention to what they write in writer's workshop and then will include names, events, and popular activities in my lesson. It's never 5 cubes vs. 3 cubes, it's 5 Bakugan toys vs 3 Bakugan toys. I also like to take my read-aloud and spread it through the day. If the read-aloud is on pigs, then our math problem of the day may be about a pig eating apples.

Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?

Caffeine-free

Describe your classroom management style (including a few best practices) in a few sentences.

My classroom management style is calm respect. I never raise my voice and never get angry, ever. I always use a very low and slow tone and if when reprimanding I also talk very close to the student and will usually kneel down to their eye-level. If I have an especially "energetic" student I spend a lot of one on one time with them at the beginning of the year. I inundate them with positive messages, and the fact that I am trying to help them be the best and that I truly respect them, their behavior is not them when they do something "wrong;" they are just making a bad choice. They are not the problem, the bad choice is the problem; they just need to make a better choice. This is the key for me because if a child feels as if they are just a "bad student," how are they going to change who they are? It's a lot easier to frame misbehavior as "bad choices." Choices are easy to make and easy to change.

Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher

Ms. Frizzle

Favorite Book (to read or to teach)

Mars Needs Moms

Is teaching a science or art? Explain.

Art. It has scientific features in that there are certain concrete steps you can take to be an effective teacher. But how you choose those, implement them, and present them is completely an art. When you watch a good teacher you don't see good teaching, you feel it, in their instruction and the looks on the student's faces. When I see amazing teaching it is so ethereal and I get the same feeling I feel when listening to a gripping song or intense movie, just this thought of wow, this is awesome, and I have no idea where this magic comes from. Great teaching is an art.

Describe your process of preparing a lesson.

I do two things. First I think about my own concept of the objective: how did I learn it, how do I comprehend it. Then I think about the steps it takes to do it in my mind. Next I start thinking of my students' background knowledge and also how they learn. I then will usually look for resources on ways to teach it and compare them with my and my students' usual thought processes. Coming from this angle — of first understanding how I grasp the concept, then how my students would grasp the concept or have grasped the background knowledge — allows me to more clearly look through best practices of teaching a new concept.

How do you fit differentiation into your lessons?

Through small group instruction. I create accountable and rigorous small group activities and then rotate through groups giving small group differentiation to other kids. Also on a lot of class problems I will give multiple choice (harder/easier words and harder/easier numbers). Joan had 5/12/68 zhu zhu pets and lost 3/5/48 of them, how many does he have left? Students are then allowed to choose the numbers that work best for them we go through how to choose numbers and they are matched up a/b/c and a/b/c, the a's go together, the b's go together, the c's go together. This way a student doesn't end up with 12-48, although that could be a very strong teachable moment . . .

Who was your favorite teacher as a student? Why?

Ms. Bauer, 5th grade. I learned about tangrams and haikus in her class and didn't hear of them again until junior year of high school, and still remembered them from her class. Ingraining tangrams and haikus into a 5th graders mind, for life . . . that's teaching.

Which teacher do you admire most and what makes him/her a great teacher?

My father. He has such an amazing passion for teaching. He is 72, teaching 4th grade in the same classroom he was teaching it in 30 years ago. He just got an aquarium in his room for his kids to explore water life. Installing a new aquarium in your room, after 40 years of teaching, at the age of 72, to find something new and engaging for your students. I can only hope to keep my fire ablaze that bright and that long.

What makes a teacher effective?

Their ability to make students respect them. If a student respects you (not necessarily "likes" you, but respects you) they will: A. listen to what you have to say, B. gain self-esteem each minute they're in your class, and C. remember what you say.

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Welcome to our first blog post featuring great courses and units from members of the BetterLesson community. Teachers have bookmarked these courses, shared them with others, and told us how helpful they have been to their own teaching. Same with units. So we are putting them all in one place. We'll be both updating this post periodically with new additions and bringing back courses and units that we've featured in the past. Look forward to collections across the core content aras in elementary, middle, and high school. Enjoy!

5th Grade Math Problem Solving by Kurt Sarsfield. This course includes the following units: Geometry, Number Sense, Percents, Whole Number Operations, Probability, and Decimals.

6th Grade Math Procedures by Jason Armstrong. This course includes the following units: Whole Numbers, Decimals, Fractions, Percents, Geometry, Extensions and Review, Assessments, and Daily Activity. 

6th Grade Math by Tamara Shear. This course includes the following units: Smooth Operators (Integers/Order of Operations), What does the data say? (Data analysis, Data Representation, and Graphs), Fractions and Decimals, and Proportions and Probability.

6th Grade Math by Kaiulani Ivory. This course includes the following units: Orders of Operations, Exponents, Rounding, Integers, Data Analysis/Statistics, Number Theory, Fractions, Decimals, and Percents, Fraction Computation, Decimal Computation, Percent Computation, Linear Relationships, Finding the Unknown, Geometry, and Probability.

7th Grade Pre-Algebra by Betsy Peterson. This course includes the following units: Number Sense, Algebraic Concepts, Geometry, Functions, Algebra Preview, and a Monument Project.

7th Grade Math by Jennifer Wells. This course includes the following units: Working with Percents, Solving 1-Variable Equations, Probability, Ratios and Proportions, Number Sense, Geometry, Linear Equations, Graphs and Statistics, Computation, Solving Inequalities, and Systems of Equations.

7th Grade Pre-Algebra by Kristin Squires. This course includes the following units: Integers and Algebraic Expressions, Writing and Solving One-Step Equations, Factors, Estimation, Measurement, Fractions, Percents, Proportional Reasoning, Multi-Step Equations and Probability, Geometry and Data Analysis, Triangle Geometry, Linear Equations, and Polynomials.

8th Grade Math: Algebra by Ryan Hall. This course includes the following units: Unit Language and Tools of Algebra, Unit Angle Relationships, Solving Equations, Functions and Patterns, Analyzing Linear Functions, Systems of Equations, Inequalities, Polynomials, Factoring, Quadratics, and Statistics and Probability.

Let us know what you think of this and future collections by commenting below, posting to our Facebook page, or tweeting at us.  You can also always find us at feedback@betterlesson.com. Have a great mid-semester break, whatever you celebrate and whatever you do.

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'Twas truly an honor to hear US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan mention BetterLesson last week in DC. He was introducing the Learning Registry, a pretty neat initiative by the DOE and DOD to help get the best digital learning resources in the hands of teachers. BetterLesson is contributing nearly 100,000 teacher-created learning resources to the project. It's humbling and awe-inspiring to think of the incredible generosity and dedication of the teachers who're making this possible, sharing their innnovative lessons with teachers around the world! Click here to read more. Or check out a video of Arne's speech here.

Watch a video recording of Arne Ducan at the Learning Registry unveiling:

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Two words/phrases that describe your teaching persona

crafty, out of the box 

Why teach? Or, how did you become a teacher?

I started my journey to become a teacher by majoring in biology education.  After a semester I decided that I wanted to pursue social studies education, and then audition for music ed.  The summer after my sophomore year, I worked at a summer day camp in Virginia Beach and then decided that I really enjoyed working with elementary-aged children and haven't looked back since!

What would you be if not a teacher?

Chef

What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?

Creating and using games in my instruction is really important.  Any time that I can get my kids to learn without thinking they are learning is a huge success for my students and myself.

Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?

Coffee, but prefer diet soda

Describe your classroom management style (including a few best practices) in a few sentences.

In order to manage my classroom, I first and foremost make sure to build positive rapport with my students.  This is key in order to earn their trust and respect.  I'm a firm believer in the 3:1 ratio of positive to negative interaction (Safe and Civil Schools).  For every negative interaction (correction) teachers must incorporate 3 positive interactions for every student. 

Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher

Jack Sparrow

Favorite Book (to read or to teach)

The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick

Is teaching a science or art?  Explain.

Teaching is a science and an art.  Science: teachers need to keep updated on new best practices and pedagogy in teaching.  Art: Not everyone can be a teacher, truly awesome teachers have a knack for it.

Describe your process of preparing a lesson.

When planning lessons, I take a lot into account: ability level of my students, making sure to include literacy across the curriculum, including multi-sensory instructional strategies, and aligning my instruction to state standards.  It is also important that I differentiate my instruction so that all my students can access what is being taught.

It is also important that the lessons I create are very fun and engaging.  Including games in my instruction is something I really strive for with my students with special needs.

How do you fit differentiation into your lessons?

As a Special Education teacher, it is imperative to differentiate each lesson.  Every student must be able to access a lesson on some level.

Which teacher do you admire most and what makes him/her a great teacher?

My professor in college; Laurie Deyo was probably one of the most influential teachers in my life.  She taught a class that I really wasn't interested in, but she made it engaging for me and helped me to see the importance of it.  She made it real for me.  She also became a mentor for me as I went through college and grad school at Syracuse University.  To this day, we email back and forth talking about decisions I should make in order to further my teaching career.

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As a teachers within a premium network on BetterLesson, you can now collaborate on full courses with other teachers on BetterLesson.

To begin collaborating, create a new course, then add a collaborator from among your colleagues within the Course Create/Edit page.

Once collaborators have been added, all collaborators have access to the course from their Profile and My Curriculum pages.  All collaborators can Edit and contribute to the course.

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Sharing resources with a network? Now network members can access your curriculum from your profile page.

If you only share curriculum on a network, your profile used to look like this:

Now we link your network courses to your profile page so that it's easier for network members to find them:

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If you use the Bluford or King Series for your literacy lessons, we have an opportunity for you: share your best lesson plans in exchange for $35 DonorsChoose gift cards (up to 10).  Here are the details (from DonorsChoose): 

What’s available? Townsend Press is offering DonorsChoose.org gift card funding to teachers who share their best literary lesson plans incorporating passages from the Bluford or King Series.  These lesson plans will be posted on BetterLesson.org and will be vetted to ensure they accurately incorporate the Bluford or King Series books.   

Am I eligible? If you plan to use Bluford or King Series books by Townsend Press to teach characterization, setting, reading comprehension strategies, or related topics, you can qualify for this funding.

 How do I participate?

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We've recently moved external links into to the "Resources" section of the Lesson Page so that they're more prominent and grouped into the same class with all file resources:

To add a link to a lesson, go to the Edit Lesson page and click "Link" next to Add Resources:

Please send any feedback our way!

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Do you write your lesson plans in Microsoft Word, Excel, or other kind of file template?  If so, you can now embed that file into the "Lesson Plan" area of the lesson page.  It will end up looking like this:

From the Lesson Edit page, upload any files that are a part of the lesson, including the lesson plan file.

Once your files are uploaded, click on the link "Choose a file for the lesson plan."

Select the appropriate file:

Enjoy!  Please send us any feedback you have on this new feature.

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This fall, one of our main goals is to make it easier for you to create and organize your lessons.  Our first enhancement: You can now pull resources into your lessons with the new "My Files" browser.

From the Edit Lesson page, you can add files in one of two ways: using the "Upload" link (browse from your computer) or the "My Files" (pull from your curriculum).

Once you try out the new "My Files" browser, you'll notice that we've also enhanced the uploading process on the Edit Lesson page.  You can now quickly upload files with an inline uploader.

Let us know what you think!

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When we started BetterLesson, we had a very simple mission: to provide a clean, simple way for educators to connect and share their high-quality lessons.

We were teachers.  We were tired of “reinventing the wheel” each night. We were tired of all the lesson plan sites that offered a jumble of bland, outdated content. We were tired of seeing our colleagues’ incredible, original lessons disappear in folders and hard drives.

We set out to build an open, social alternative to aggregate the best teacher-generated content. 

And we’ve made some exciting progress:

We have built a vibrant community of tens of thousands of educators from across the world.  We have collected hundreds of thousands of K-12 resources from many of the highest-performing teachers.  And we have emerged as one of the best spots on the web to create and share effective K-12 lessons.

This past school year, we’ve also had the privilege to work with and learn from an amazing group of customers.  Last summer, KIPP, the prominent 112-school charter network, signed up as a customer and helped us develop a suite of premium features for school networks.  In fewer than 12 months, our paying customer base has grown to include a dozen school networks (with over 200 paying schools), including Uncommon Schools, Rocketship Public Schools, Achievement First and Friendship Public Charter Schools.

Each step of the way we’ve been supported by our founding investor, NewSchools Venture Fund.  And today, we’re very excited to announce a new group of investors who are joining the BetterLesson family.  We recently closed a $1.6M funding round from Highland Capital Partners, General Catalyst, New Markets Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund, and a talented group of angel investors: Steve Kaufer (Trip Advisor), Matt Greenfield (Stonework Capital), Jon Sackler (North Bay Associates), Shawn and Jennifer Carolan (Menlo Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund), Zach Zeitlin (ZZ Ventures), and Don Kendall (Kendall Family Foundation).

This new round of financing enables us to grow our team and continue to work hard to equip all teachers with the kind of inspiring lessons and practices that will dramatically improve student achievement (and happiness!).  This new financing also allows us to leverage the deep knowledge and creativity of these investment partners who bring decades of experience in building compelling products and communities.

The past couple years have been a truly wild ride, and we continue to be overwhelmed by the awesome dedication and creativity of teachers at every turn.

We’re excited to continue working together to shape the direction of the product and provide every educator in the world with access to the highest quality lessons.

We’re fired up and ready to go.

Thanks so much,

The BetterLesson Team

Want to join us as we transform education? We’re looking for a UI/UX Designer and Developers!

And, as always, drop us a line if you want to get involved: erin.osborn@betterlesson.com

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Founded by Teach for America corps members, BetterLesson has become the best place for educators to connect and share the highest-quality lessons.  We are excited to bring lesson planning into the digital age and empower educators around the world to collaborate and "share what works."

We're hiring for several developer positions. If you have proven web development skills - or even if you are just out of school, have coding skills and just want to learn about startups - we could use your help in our work to support teachers and make education more enjoyable and efficient for everyone.

 Please send:

• code sample, or point to sites you've worked on with a description of what you did
• portfolio, resume (or LinkedIn profile)
• something about why you'd like to work with us, and at least one question for us
• references, if possible

Tech specific skills can be anywhere in our stack:

• some system administration  
• front-end development
• application development

We currently are on a LAMP stack with SOLR on Amazon but are working on a new design, new features, and new technologies. In the works at BetterLesson:

• Scala
• Javascript frameworks (only needs JSON)
• MongoDB
• Git

This position includes a highly competitive compensation package and an equity stake in the company.

Our office is located in Cambridge near Davis Square. We will consider remote candidates who are willing to travel to Cambridge ~2x/month.

BetterLesson is financially backed by NewSchools Venture Fund, several top venture capital firms (soon to be announced), and experienced angel investors.  Our paying customers include many of the most innovative educational organizations in the country, such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, and Achievement First. We have been recently featured in the New York Times, CNet, Scholastic and others.

Please send a statement of interest and work samples to jonathan.hendler@betterlesson.com.

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Last year, your "Measuring Mass" lab lesson went well.  But there are a few things you'll tweak when you teach the lesson again this year.  As you improve upon your lesson materials, you can replace your old files on BetterLesson with their newest versions by using the "Upload New Version" feature.

Send us your feedback.  Let us know if you're using this feature and how we can improve upon it.  Please email us at feedback@betterlesson.com.

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