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The Training Ground

Resources

The basics …

Why might Teachit be useful to me?

Whatever stage of your teaching career you're at, you'll find yourself in need of ideas for lessons and might appreciate a bit of help with teaching new or unfamiliar topics. And that's where we come in ...

Resources are our bread and butter. At Teachit we have over 160 key contributors – working classroom teachers who submit their tried and tested resources to us for publication. You'll notice that Teachit's resources come in all shapes and sizes and embrace a mixture of styles and approaches. This means that there really is something to suit everyone!

New resources are published every week, so it's well worth keeping your eye on the Latest additions page.

Resource library structure

Our resource libraries are arranged by key stage, with additional areas for Media Studies, Drama and Teaching Tools (an area containing teacher-facing as opposed to student-facing resources).

Finding a suitable resource

Firstly, what is a suitable resource? The short answer is: One that matches your learning objectives. No matter how good an idea, or how lovely a resource, if it doesn't tie in with what you want to teach and can't be tweaked to fit, then forget it!

Nowadays there's a lot of content in the Teachit libraries. Initially it's likely that you'll find the Search facility most helpful for locating likely-looking resources. However, it's also worth putting aside a bit of time to browse the resource libraries themselves as you're bound to find some hidden gems.

And even if you can't immediately see anything on the novel, play or poem you're going to be teaching, it's worth taking the time to browse because you may well find some transferable ideas to help get you started.

My Teachit

(N.B. In order to access My Teachit, you need to be a Teachit subscriber.)

My Teachit is your personal filing area for your favourite resources (whether Teachit's or your own). Once you've identified some useful resources, simply click on the folder and arrow icon (to the right hand side of the resource) and add them to My Teachit. If you store your resources here, you won't lose them! My Teachit also takes away the need for memory sticks and additional fiddle faddle. Simply log in to Teachit and off you go.

Adaptation and editability

The key thing to remember about Teachit's resources is that they're ripe for adaptation. Although you can become a Free Group member and access our resources in PDF format, this is far from ideal because you'll have no choice but to use the resources off-the-peg or as they stand.

It's far, far better to subscribe to either Teachit.plus or Teachit.works (and we don't just say this to be mercenary!), because that way you'll gain access to the resource file and will be able to save it, personalise it, edit it, adapt it, tweak it, differentiate it etc. As you'll know by now, there's no such thing as a standard class or standard pupil. A good resource is tailor-made to meet specific students needs and should tie in with a clear learning objective. So, it's all in the adaptation!