In California the budget crisis has truly hit home. The last I heard, my school district was ordered to make 17m in cuts. There just isn’t any money to work with in education. Gone are the days of three day weekend trainings where companies were paid millions to service entire districts in methods for teaching.
So what now?
Plain and simple, we need to always be teaching with less than the budget allows. When you get a teaching assignment, start assembling cheap or free, paperless if possible, methods of teaching the class. I am still writing my book “The Paperless Classroom,” and getting better ideas by the day
Teaching in this new time, which I assume will stretch to 2012 or more, requires doing more with less money … plain and simple. Can you think of a way to eliminate paper usage? Do you have ideas on how schools can save money?
4 Comments
I have many free resources in the side bar on my blog page, if you would care to look.
There are many online learning opportunities for kids that are free – such as Starfall.com for K-3 kids who are learning to read.
I’m not sure if classroom teachers use unit study-type lessons at all, but Amanda Bennett of unitstudy.com has some unit studies that actually require minimal printing – in fact, we have completed her unit study on horses, and the text of Black Beauty is even included to be read on the computer. There are clickable links (assuming the children have access to computers in a classroom that is trying to become paperless?).
Currclick.com has many options for downloadable materials, computer-based materials, and supplemental online classes.
At any rate, I hope you find something useful!
@Mia: Thank you Mia. I checked out your sidebar and you are correct, there are some excellent resources there. I appreciate you taking the time to share them here. The internet may be the recession’s saving grace for education.
I’m glad you found some things that may be useful! When I find out about new things that I think could help someone – even if I don’t use it myself – I will post it, so feel free to check back from time to time.
We have used Progressive Phonics ourselves a few years ago, though, and had great success with it. My daughter reads well. These books could be used in reading groups and/or sent home with the kids.
We have used Scott McQuerry’s science as well, which is very good -and it’s “secular” – so it could probably be used in a public classroom setting as well. (In fact, “Mr. Q” is a science teacher.)
We have used Home Education Resources for hands-on manipulatives and games (for math, language arts, science, and history) which are great fun. Their things are download and print as well, but they’re very inexpensive (as little as $1.50 or $2) and they’re downloads, so you can print as many as you need.
We have used many more of the resources on the list, but those are probably my favorite three.
Good luck with your budget crisis!
The budget cuts seem to be happening everywhere, not just in California. It is a shame that our society keeps lowering the value of education. Teachers are expected to do more and more with less resources. Thankfully, teachers are very resourceful and we can work together and pool our ideas!