Online Resources for the Classroom with the Texas Gateway

The Texas Education Agency recently announced the opening of the Texas Gateway, a free website filled with classroom-ready instructional resources for students in grades K-12 and self-directed professional development opportunities for teachers. The Gateway includes material for ELA, reading, math, science, social studies, and ELPS (English Language Proficiency Standards). While the content is aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards, the resources can be used by teachers anywhere.

The site is organized extremely well with a very powerful search engine, allowing the user to find needed content by subject area, grade level, content type (resource, binder, or course), or strand. You can also search by keyword. If you register for a free account, then you can also save your favorite content and create your own resource lists in the Gateway Dashboard. This allows you to easily sequence activities for the whole class or create differentiated learning paths for your students: RtI, PBL, small group instruction, and IEP goals. You can also subscribe for updates to the content and new professional learning opportunities.

Much of the content can be assigned to students through sequenced binders of instruction. This can include videos, activities, interactive exercises, quizzes, PDF documents, and more, making this resource even more valuable. All of the materials are organized around the Five E’s instructional model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate), which makes it easy to incorporate the right activity into the most appropriate part of your lesson plan.

This portal is a tremendous tool for any teacher, whether from Texas or not. And parents may also find it helpful as they work with their children on difficult topics. So be sure to take a look at the Gateway today. There is an excellent Getting Started Guide to help you.