Lesson Plan Using Technology

In a lesson on writing for my English Language class, grade 5, I would use and allow my students to use technology as a research tool. I would instruct them in regards to proper writing and sentence structure. I would group them in twos and give each group a topic to research. There would not be extensive research needed for this project, just enough for three to four paragraphs of writing.

I would require that they type their papers in Word and I would also require that they access spell check and grammar check. Finally, I would require that they print it out and turn it in for a grade.

Reservations I would have in regards to is having 5th graders surfing the web is the possibility of them happening upon an inappropriate website. With that being said, I believe that school computer networks offer the highest monitoring system available and I would have to rely on that to keep my students safe.

The challenges that would be involved with the use of technology within my writing lesson plan include assisting 10-12 groups of students during a class period. Also, there may end up to be too many computer-related questions from the students so that the lesson that is supposed to be learned is getting lost in the mix.

Things that I would take into consideration when creating a writing lesson around technology is again, not allowing the lesson to get lost in the mix of computer inquiries. Also, I would have to take into consideration the diversity of computer skills among my students. This is not the way I would teach this type of lesson all the time because handwriting skills should be enhanced with this age group.

In a perfect world

My lesson is on painting. It will be for an elementary art class. I found a lesson online where children will mimick the image of Monet's Waterlilies through the use of watercolors and collage. I could use technology in this lesson in so many ways. I already used the internet to find the lesson itself. I could have students research Monet and other painters on the internet for the Unit that the Monet lesson would be a part of. They could write reports/research papers on Monet's life. I could set up a field trip to a museum through the use of the internet so that my kids could see some of Monet's work in person. I could set up "Miss Lucas' Class Website" so showcase my students work. Through this website I could solicit parental feedback, and feedback from other teachers and schools. My kids would be so excited to show off the fact that they were on the internet! They could each have their own pages that they update with class and personal goals. They could write artist statements on their pages explaining their inspiration for the work that they create. I would of course not let them include any real personal information. First names only and definitly no pictures of the kids. There are a lot of weirdos out there. We could also contact another school and have kids from across the country talk to each other. I could talk to the other teacher beforehand and we could both do the same lesson and have the kids talk about it. This might all be far far beyond what could ever be possible. In my year of subbing, I have yet to see an art room with a smart board. I have been in art rooms that have their own computers with internet access, but not many. Usually those computers are reserved for teacher use. It seems like the regular classrooms get the first dibs on the technology. I know that there are efforts to get computers into the schools, but many of these school districts don't even have money for books. We could go on and on about the depressing state of our schools. I really like my website idea though. In my ideal classroom the class website would be possible. Included in that ideal is me actually knowing how to set up a website for my kids. But it doesn't hurt to dream!

Geometry and Technology

For my 3^rd grade Math/Geometry lesson I would like to use Google Sketchup as a technological aspect of the lesson. Sketchup is a free 2D and 3D modeling software package developed by Google. It allows users to do things as easy as drawing 2D shapes (circles, triangles, squares) to as complicated as 3D architectural designs (skyscrapers, houses, bridges). At the beginning of the lesson I would like to start off using the interactive white board to draw 2D shapes such as triangles, circles and squares. Then I would use the “push up” tool in the program to transform each shape into a 3D one. There is also a tool that allows the shapes to be rotated so that every face of the object can be seen. The interactive white board will not only be used as a teacher demonstration tool, it will also be used by the students so that they can assist in making the 2D and 3D objects.

There is a geometric shape manipulation tool available online that is even easier than Sketchup. The tool shows several 3D images that can be rotated and resized. The number of faces of each image can be counted by clicking on them. Once a face has been clicked on it changes to a different color. The “counter” in the corner shows the number of faces that have been selected. The same can be done for the edges and vertices.

I have also found a number of Geometry WebQuests that could be used for my lesson. One WebQuest has students design a quilt that was described in Betsy Ross’s diary using geometric shapes. Another WebQuest is about triangles that include multiple tasks for the students to choose from. A variety of interactive math lessons can be found online as well as interactive games and flashcards.

One of the challenges I may face in using technology for this lesson might be that the district I am teaching at does not have the technology available. It would be difficult to implement the use of the WebQuests and interactive math lessons without a properly maintained computer lab. A reservation may be that the students might have a tendency to get off task and do other things especially if the internet is being used. Lab management software would be ideal so that this would not occur.

Technology and The Order of Operations

For my lesson plan, I will be instructing my students on the proper way to solve mathematical formulas using the Order of Operations. In order to move further into to study of Algebra, understanding the order of operations is a must. There are many approaches to take when teaching the order of operations such as the use of an overhead, Smartboard, breaking into groups and working on problems, etc. One can use technology to teach the order of operations through applications such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or even Paint.

Obviously the use of a Smartboard would be one way I'd incorporate technology into my lesson plan. Writing out the rules and completing sample problems can be done on the Smartboard. But the one specific plan I have for incorporating technology into my lesson plan is to have students work with Excel and Word to create their own individual posterboards explaining the order of operations. On their posterboards, students write out the acronym "PEMDAS - Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract). Using Word/Excel I will have them come up with and type out their own example formulas. Then they'd print them out and break each step down using each letter of the PEMDAS acronym. Example formula:

[(5+4)^2/(11-2)]+8*3

Once pasted onto the posterboard, students may add arrows from Paint, Word, or Excel to point out each step in the process of solving the formula. Additional math-related images from the web or clipart may be used to "spice up" the posterboard.

Technology with Measurements

It is so important for students to learn all measurements but this lesson plan would just address volume measurements. Our fun and exciting lesson plan would include a measurement power point project. I would provide the students with a sample and review the bibliography format with them as well. I would also give them a sample bibliography to take with them to the computer lab. My next step would be to schedule time over several days in the school's computer lab for my students to work on a three slide power point presentation. The first slide requirements would involve a list of ten measurements and one equivalent of each measurement. It would be required that this slide contain a clip art image. The second slide requirement would need to include an internet image and a short explanation of why measurements are important. The third slide would contain the bibliography.
This lesson plan could be used for grades four to six. The students would not be expected to complete it all in one day. The students would learn measurements and computer skills at the same time. All of these lessons could be used almost on a daily basis.
The lesson encompasses:
*Measurements
*Power point
*Clip Art
*Internet imagery
*Bibliography skills

I would allow time in our schedule to briefly view these power points. After watching the power points presentations the measurements should be reinforced in the students mind.

technology in grammar lesson

In every classroom it is important to incorporate technology. Technology is growing rapidly and it is more than likely that your students know more about technology than you do. It is important to keep kids interested and technology is one way of doing that. Technology isn’t the only way of teaching kids and it should not take the place of a teacher, but it is still very important. It is important for kids to get familiar with technology, there may be some kids in your class that don’t have access to a computer at home or maybe even a television. School may be the place that some students can get technology experience that they will need later in life. In the world we live in today, it is important that everyone knows how to use a computer or is at least semi familiar with it and what it can do. As I mentioned before as important as technology is, it should never take the place of a teacher and the teacher shouldn’t let technology be the entire lesson.
There are a few ways I have come up with to incorporate technology into a grammar lesson. First I could show one of the videos of “School House Rock” which would be on a TV or on a projector. More specifically I could make up a power point for the kids about synonyms and antonyms (what my lesson is about) instead of them just listening to me and taking notes. I could use clip art and other various pictures to try to make it more interesting. Another form of technology that I could use would be different websites. There are different websites that kids can go to that have interactive games with different grammar lesson. I know there is a game on funbrain.com that has to do with grammar and synonyms and antonyms. Unless a class had access to a computer lab, maybe only a few students could do this at a time. This could also be a station in a workshop type setting if a computer lab is unavailable. If more games are wanted if you type in grammar games into google you can find thousands. It is important to keep up with technology and incorporate into your classroom, luckily in the world we live in today, it isn’t too hard.

Technology and lesson plan working together...

Technology provides an opportunity to transform traditional lectures into an interactive experience, making a simple lesson very exciting. My lesson plan is Spanish K-4, Calendar Unit which introduces the concepts of months, numbers, days of the week and basic questions related with the mentioned concepts. Much of foreign language is practicing linguistic fundamentals consider by many students to not be exciting.

As a technology immigrant educator, I can enhance a mundane unit with interactive instruction.

Through high speed Internet, classroom smart boards and inexpensive web cams the class will conduct a live classroom session with an English language class in Mexico. Once a week we will have an activity where students will ask each other questions such as: What day is today?/ Que dia es hoy?, What do you do on the weekends?/Que haces los fines de semana? . American students will use their Spanish and Mexican students will use their English. Exposing children to listening and speaking any language helps to develop their understanding and pronunciation in a foreign language.

Also utilizing available technology, students will visit the computer lab where they will create their own month of March. They will type in Spanish the activities that they perform during this month. This activity will improve their spelling and increase their vocabulary.
Not only we will embrace diversity but we also open children's eyes to another culture.

Technology in my lesson plan....

Figuring out how to incorporate technology into my lesson plan and future classroom is something I have been thinking about since day one of wanting to become a teacher. Being in the integrated business program, I will be certified to teach 4-12 and vocational. I will be able to teach many different business courses such as word processing, accounting, personal finance etc. When I first started my lesson plan planning, I came to realize there were no standards for business for K-12 by the state of Ohio, therefore I turned to national standards and Ohio standards for technology. These have been my guide thus far in prepping my lesson. To me being in the business world goes hand in hand with technology. When students take my courses, they will learn how technology comes to play in the business environment. They will learn more than just how to connect to the internet and make a power point, but rather other technological skills to assist and understand how business and technology play together.
My lesson plan is to introduce the marketing mix to 11th and 12th graders in a high school marketing course. The rest of the unit would be to dive deeper into each mix element. The marketing mix is made up of four components (price, product, place and promotion) on how a company launches a marketing plan for a product and/ or service. I could incorporate technology into this introduction lesson by having students pick their favorite brand name and product of that brand and conduct research on the internet through observing blogs, the company's website, consumer reviews etc. I could have the students identify the four components through their research on the internet. Another way to integrate technology into this lesson would be to have the ultimate goal at the end of the unit (after diving into each mix element) to be for the students to be in groups of 4 in which they will create their own product and a marketing plan for it. Each of the members of the group will have a responsibiity similiar to that of a real person in a marketing job function in which they will work hand in hand in creating this product and its launch plan. They will be paired up with a business member from the community who will be their mentor on the project. They will communicate with this mentor through email, web cams and blogs in which any meetings will be done this way and feedback given this way as well. My hopes would be to even have students particpate in teleconferencing with their mentor as well to see how their mentor uses technology on a day to day basis to get their job done!
You can see, I could go on and on about ways to incoporate technology in my classroom setting because the truth is, I have to incorporate it. The more I do, the better and more rounded my students will become with the way today's business world is. I will feel the pressure to incorporate at any and all times. To me the medium is the message in the sense that my concepts that I will be teaching will be easier and more effective with technology added in. Since children aren't in the business world to experience things for themselves, I need to utilize technology to make it as possible for them to experience and witness this world as possible for them to better understand the concepts and build vital skills to function in our business world today!

"The medium is the message"

I'm going to relate this quote to Web 2.0, a.k.a. "the participatory web." Marshall McCluhan would have us set aside the thoughts and ideas conveyed in the multitude of blogs, podcasts, and wiki's that exist all over the internet and instead asks us to examine the overall effect Web 2.0, as a medium, has on our society. After a few hours research, I'm most intrigued by this medium's propensity to become a living, breathing and ever-growing collective intelligence. I'm immediately reminded of movies like 'The Matrix' and 'The Terminator' where man has been overtaken by his own technology. I definitely agree that the information sharing put forth through this medium is invaluable. I admire the spirit of collaboration and cooperation it inspires in the academic arena. However, reflecting on Mr. McCluhan's quote has made me realize that, indeed, often times the medium ultimately has much more societal impact than the message. The advent of television has definitely proven this. Are we giving enough thought to all the possible ramifications that might come from the existence of such a dynamic, international, and interactive information network? By it's very nature this particular medium's growth can only be characterized as exponential. Will the tremendous educational benefits bestowed upon our society be nullified by the initiation of a paradigm shift that is incompatible with the human psyche? Can our finite biological intellect exist in a newly created digital environment that trancends the physical boundaries between mind, space, and time? I think Marshall McCluhan's quote, "the medium is the message" is more relevant today than ever. I don't think we can overestimate the potential consequences this medium may have on our society. In fact, is it not our duty to monitor this oh, so powerful medium? We should consider every possible theoretical permutation on how this thing might evolve. Yeah, I'm probably getting a little too 'science fiction-y' here, but does anybody think that television hasn't had a lot of negative impact on society? Television is child's play compared to the world wide web. Not since we first split the atom has anything so powerful been released.
Now to the more mundane task at hand. My lesson plan is about converting fractions into decimals and percentages. A specific way that I could use technology to enhance my instruction would be to incorporate one or two clever teacher generated videos found on http://www.teachertube.com/. Here's a specific video I like because the audio portion is spoken by a student while visually, a simple animation graphically illustrates the process. So what better way to engage your students than putting them "right at home" in a familiar You Tube-like environment combined with all the advantages of peer tutoring. Take a look if you like; http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=be6613daea643a7706a4

Reflection 6 - The three branches of government

Reflection # 6

The subject of social studies is a key to understanding our history on the national and international levels. As an intervention specialist I know that I will be teaching a variety of subjects, therefore I have chosen a lesson in social studies on government at the national level. I feel that being knowledgeable and comfortable in the subject of social studies is a key component to a well-rounded student. In my lesson I will focus on the three branches of government in the United States of America. The three branches of course, are legislative, judicial, and executive.
I feel that I can incorporate technology into my lesson in three interesting ways. The first way deals with the way I will present the material. By creating a powerpoint presentation, complete with facts, discussion questions, pictures, etc., I believe students will be more interested than if I just stand up at the front of the class, write the three branches of government on the chalkboard and talk about them. Powerpoint could possibly hold students’ attention better, and also be responsible for more interest in the subject material. I feel that presentation of the material has a lot to do with the excitement level and interest level of the students that you are teaching.
A second way in which I can incorporate technology into my lesson could be a video on the internet or just simply a DVD or VHS, that relates to the three branches of government. This video could be from a series that provides videos or DVD’s on education, for example, PBS. This video could also be from of an educational website, and viewed on a projector that is hooked up to the computer. After giving an initial lesson or some type of instruction, I feel that it sometimes helps to have students view and listen to the material from another source other than the teacher.
A third way in which I could incorporate technology into the classroom would be a sort of capstone assignment to end the lesson. For this assignment I would have my students find an example of the legislative branch, judicial branch, and executive branch in action. For example a student would get on the internet and look for an article about a criminal who was recently sentenced for their crime. This would be an example of the judicial branch. I feel that incorporating this final capstone assignment and third form of technology is beneficial for a students understanding of the entire process of our three branches of government.

Teaching Social Studies Topics using Technology

The basis for any serious discussion begins with and ends with what ideas, concepts or relationships are you as a teacher trying to relate? Implicit, explicit or null content and in which content area and by who's standards based curriculum and through which instructional strategy or combination are you trying to relay this knowledge to your students. Unless we specifically are teaching a course on technology in content area Geography and show changes in surveying equipment over time or more specifically are we training to locate our exact spot on the earth using a handheld Global Positioning Satellite device. Can we teach navigation of roads and roadways via a Garmen GPS system? This would be Direct Instruction on how to utilize the physical equipment.

But technology in the classroom is more that how to use a tool. It is how can you as an instructor use cutting edge technology to impart and impact learning. Will your lessons encourage classroom participation? Will your students understand the important matters. Example: A student can be taught how to utilize the latest and greatest technology but if they are never presented and learn the components of a compelling story they will never be a filmmaker regardless of how impressive the computer, the software, the number of pixels in the flat screen monitor are in their classroom. It is most important if you can use technology to convey the lessons you want to impart and then have technology: encourage student interest, hold the students attention, which then results in learning, thinking and retention.

Social Studies, American Government, High School students.
The Smart Board technology software suites allows for many different uses for layering of words and pictures. In Geography we would have learned the concept of a physical map and a political map. In Government we would have brainstormed as many different political subdivisions as we could come up with. Starting with national boundaries, state boundaries, then county's, townships, cities, villages, school districts, zip codes, political districts-state and federal, courts and representatives both. Utility service territory's would be examined as well. Students would create a list and then in diverse groups would research definitions, office holders and search for maps. The smart board allows teachers to ask questions and the handheld devices allow real time feedback of each students understanding of the information presented. The student would be asked for instance to rank the political districts from smallest number of people to largest. These maps would also be scanned and overlaid in PDF format so we could pinpoint our schools location and then create an X-marks the spot presentation to start small and build up or reverse starting with a world map and moving down. I believe this exercise would build research skills and understanding and prove to students the wider world in which others have inputs into our individual lives.

my lesson plan + technology pros and cons

I feel as if there is quite a bit of controversy throughout education on the usage of technology. There are many pros' and equally as many cons. Using telecommunications to connect with fellow teachers, family members or students, using tools such as PowerPoint’s, scanners, multimedia and real world simulations are all positive forms of using technology. On the other hand, technology has some negative features. I believe that technology shapes our student’s lives and education if used properly. If not and the amount used in negative ways can affect their language, penmanship, and spelling. Technology is freezing these important parts in today’s curriculum. Yes, I said I was a “native” in class but I feel that when I was a student technology was just up and coming and the practice was learned, on my own or by my parents, not in school. I believe as teachers we need to lead the students to technology, monitor their progress, and use it as a tool to support their rich and deep learning experiences.
Therefore, as far as the quote from class, it is not the way you use the medium its what is in the message that really counts. The message, I believe, is the content we as teachers are guiding the children in our curriculum to use technology to get that important message across to themselves and their fellow classmates. I am doing my lesson plan on weather, from a science lesson. The usage of technology will be helpful in many ways. The first way it can be used in my information that I give to my students like in a PowerPoint presentation. I feel as if students find looking at graphs, pictures, and animation more engaging then taking notes on a piece of plain notebook paper. The second way I would use the Internet is to let the students explore using “monitored” websites on weather around the world. Finally, the usage in technology in my class I would put up my web cam and talk with my Aunt or Cousin that live in Colorado and Hungary and have them show us what kind of weather is out there right then and there. These three ways are not the only ways I could incorporate technology in my classroom. I can have grades on the Internet for parents to look up. A teacher website for due dates and classroom activities, we could watch dvd’s or vhs tapes in class, and so on and so forth. My main point I would like to get across is to make sure those important lessons in curriculum like spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc do not get ignored or frozen because the usage of technology in the classroom.