“This is one more way the union can enhance the school environment for all of our students,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said. “It’s another tool teachers can use to learn from each other and improve their best practices by sharing tried-and-true methods.”
Share My Lesson, the fastest-growing free, digital collection of support materials for educators, was launched in 2012 by the AFT and TES Global and is now fully owned and operated by the AFT. The site has more than 300 content partners and offers more than 300,000 trusted resources for pre-K to 12th grade. It logs about 3.2 million visits annually, serving both new teachers looking for proven lesson plans and veteran educators looking for innovative ways to reach students.
“I’ve been sharing content there and I did a webinar,” said Ariel Sacks, a UFT member and English Language Arts teacher at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, Queens. “It’s exciting to see the union taking an interest in elevating teachers’ professional voices and sharing practices that are working and promising.” Sacks said the site “is connecting us around pedagogy. A lot of teachers are sharing great things.”
The online lesson sharing and professional development site fosters collaboration, bringing together teachers, paraprofessionals, other school-related personnel, parents and partners in the effort to provide an effective and high-quality education for all students.
Share My Lesson supports teachers and parents in every school community across the country. Its more than 900,000 registered users can take advantage of curated activities and materials as well as webinars and other resources — many designed to support teachers implementing the Common Core standards.
Through the website, said Joseph Usatch, the chapter leader at IS 311 in Brooklyn, “I was able to add supplemental material to my lessons, which enriched my classroom practice and supported student learning.” Usatch said he liked that the website allowed users to peer review lesson plans. “I promoted the program throughout my building and know the membership got a lot out of it,” he said.
Members can now access the UFT section, featuring content from partners like the Shanker Institute and Colorín Colorado. The site’s soft launch was scheduled for early August, with the official release planned for September, when educators return to school.