In addition to my short-term goals, I established two long-term goals for me to hopefully reach by the end of my education here at Indiana University. Here are my two long-term goals:
- Be able to design technology-based learning activities
- Be able to take existing lesson plans and adapt them by incorporating technology tools
For my first goal, just by being a student in our W200:
Using Computers in Education class really has opened up my eyes to the infinite amount of possibilities the Internet provides for teachers. I have already determined that I will either create my own website and/or blog to keep both my students and their parents constantly up to date on what is going on in the classroom and what is expected of each student. I will either use Google to create my own website or Blogger to make my own blog. These online tools will help me stay in constant contact with my class, as well as upload potential class assignments, quizzes/tests, reminders for upcoming events, etc. They will also provide additional ways for my students and/or their parents to get in touch with me instead of just via email.
Another online tool that I learned about was Delicious. It is a tool I will also utilize in my future teaching. Delicious allows for me to bookmark any website (whether it be a learning tool for my students or an example lesson plan) to my account, where it will stay unless I delete it. Delicious also serves as a great learning tool for me as teacher to stay updated on the newest and best online tools by allowing me to access any other Delicious users' account. By visiting other accounts, I can pick and choose other bookmarks that I find relevant to my subject area.
I have not yet decided what specific online tools I will use for teaching the specific aspects of my subject area, such as writing, reading, etc., but I will continue to research these areas as the year progresses and bookmark them to my Delicious account. As I continue on my research, I will eventually be able to incorporate the online tools I find into creating multiple technology-based English activities for my future students.
In accomplishing my other long-term goal, I have began to search online for lesson plans that other teachers have posted. It is so interesting to me how much is available to me online! I have found an abundance of lesson plans, although I will note that I am not interested in using a lot of them. I will provide either screen shots or links to lesson plans that I found were interesting and would be useful in my future teaching below.
This screen shot is a picture of an example lesson plan that Google apps provided. A major reason why I chose it as one of my favorite lesson plans is because it already incorporates technology into it (in my long-term goal, I wanted to find lesson plans and incorporate technology into them to make them just as successful). This lesson plan on Greek mythology has students research 12 different Greek Gods and Goddesses and requires them to use Google Docs to create a presentation of their research. Seriously, what does Google not offer?! I never knew how developed of a network Google was until recently, and it blows my mind that Google offers so many different tools for anyone to access.
Another lesson plan that I found was through the Curriki site, which you can visit by clicking
here. This teacher offers numerous ways to evaluate English students, grades 6-8, on their grammar skills. He posted multiple games, projects, quizzes/tests, and other grammar activities. I like how he shows different options on how to evaluate students on their grammar skills. After looking at a few of the examples, I was definitely able to see where I could incorporate technology into the activities. For instance, I could have my students use either Google Docs or Microsoft PowerPoint to create their grammar presentations.
The last website that I found lesson plans that I would be interested in potentially using in my classroom is called ReadWriteThink. It is affiliated with the National Council of Teaching English (NCTE), and the website provides dozens and dozens and dozens of lesson plans, concerning every element of English that one could possibly imagine. Here is an exhaustive list (and it still does not cover all of the topics offered) of some of the topics:
- Fluency
- Process Writing
- Comprehension
- Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation, and Vocabulary
- Collaborative Writing
- Research
- Technical Writing
- Drama
- Critiquing Texts
In other words, I will definitely be using this website in the future to help inspire me while creating my own lesson plans. If you are interested in viewing this website, click
here. Now, due to the enormous volume of the lesson plans offered via this NCTE website, I have not yet chosen which ones fascinate me the most. Therefore, I have also not decided what technological tools would be the most useful to incorporate into these lesson plans. But, I will keep on looking at this website, as well as others, to find more lesson plans and decide how I can reshape them to include technology as I continue in my education.
Lastly, because I am really fond of these lesson plan websites, I added them to my Delicious account. If you would like to access the websites through my account instead, click
here.