Our assignment this week has been to take all of the wonderful online applications we've explored for the last few weeks, and apply them to a teaching unit of our choice. I found this to be a bit daunting because the last time I had to set up a unit or a lesson plan was in 1983 before I graduated from college. I am blessed, however, to have an advantage I didn't have 20 years ago. I have the internet to help me create a unit. My hardest decision was to actually choose a grade and subject. My final choice was the American Revolution, grade 8. I chose it because I love history, I work in a middle school (so it may be useful information to have available0 and my daughter is in 7th grade this year. She may just be interested in this information in the near future. (I was reminded we have 56 more days of school for this school year, yikes!)
The lesson plans examples are as infinite as the internet. http://www.lessonplans4teachers.com/templates.php offered excellent choices for lesson plan templates. I spent one afternoon with my best friend, who also happens to be a 3rd grade teacher,showing her the applications and lesson plan templates. I shared my technology knowledge with her while she shared her classroom knowledge with me; an excellent collaboration. My son helped with my Voki example on the classroom blog example http://mannshistorylesson.blogspot.com/. Although the assignment was time consuming, it did emphasize how easy it is to enhance any lesson plans with the infinite applications available today.
