Whether you’re starting your first year of teaching or your third decade, the following back-to-school resources selected by our educator experts will give you a wide range of new activities and ideas. 

Common Sense Education 

Common Sense Education—the education arm of Common Sense Media—works to provide free resources that can help students take a healthy, balanced approach to tech and screen use. Back-to-school topics include dealing with digital distractions and AI literacy for students and teachers. Check out the organization’s Back-to-School Hub for Grades K12. In addition to digital citizenship curriculum, Common Sense Education also offers professional development webinars and publishes a catalogue of education apps and websites—with reviews!  

Computer Science Teacher Association  

The Computer Science Teaching Association (CSTA) supports the needs of K–12 computer science educators through the sharing of best practices, professional development and a library of resources that includes filters for grade level, resource level, and teacher or student standards. The association provide a Resource Library for educators. (Note that some resources are available only to CSTA members.) 

Education Week 

Education Week is known for its news coverage of K-12 education. It also is a valuable source for opinions and advice on teaching and learning, such as this article: Advice for New Middle School Teachers From Four Veterans (Note that some content is gated, but there is a plethora that is not.) 

Edutopia 

An initiative of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Edutopia provides valuable information and strategies sitewide for learning and teaching in preK-12 education—including specific content for middle school educators. Check out Middle School Strategies: Classroom Management Tips. 

PBS LearningMedia 

As part of its mission, PBS LearningMedia and local PBS stations put together free, curriculum-aligned videos, games, activities and lesson plans. Many resources are also aligned to state and national standards. Check out their middle school lesson plans. 

Smithsonian Learning Lab 

Created by the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, the Smithsonian Learning Lab gives educators access to the Smithsonian’s wide range of digital images, recordings and texts. Using the online platform, teachers create their own collections of resources to engage learners, or freely adapt ones already made by Learning Lab users. Online resources for teachers also include professional development webinars.  

TeachingMadePractical.com 

This teacher’s blog provides practical resources for teaching upper elementary students. Recently she talked with hundreds of teachers and shares what she learned in her blog post Back to School Teacher Tips From Over 50 Teachers. 

Thinkport Education 

While Thinkport is Maryland Public Television's Education website for Maryland educators and families, anyone can take advantage of the free middle school teacher resources—including professional development video tutorials and short, self-paced modules on specific concepts in literacy.