Post #3

I would like to teach the fifth grade, and I find American history to be particularly interesting, so I would enjoy creating a lesson plan about how the pilgrims came to America. I would use presentation software such as Powerpoint to aid me in my lesson. I would want my students to grasp the concept of what the pilgrims went through as they sailed across the ocean and eventually built their own settlement; I would put pictures of how the Mayflower would have looked in my powerpoint, and I would also include pictures of items like the clothes pilgrims wore and the tools they had to work with. This visual demonstration would help my students better connect with the subject. I would also include things like interesting fonts and color to help keep my students' attention.

Supervising students in a technology environment will certainly pose challenges. First of all, if the students are doing an assignment on a computer, it would be easy for them to become distracted with games, webpages, etc. that the internet offers rather than what they are supposed to be working on. Also, censorship is definitely an issue; I would have to make sure that my fifth grade studnets are not accessing information that is inappropriate for children their age, not to mention inappropriate for a school environment. I would also have to be certain that students who have limited access to computers outside of class are not falling behind the others who are more fortunate.

There are many web-based resources that teachers can use to enhance their lessons. For example, Spanish is a subject that many students begin learning when they are in elementary school. If I were introducing the Spanish language to a class of fourth or fifth graders, I would tell my students to explore http://wordreference.com/. At this web site, students can type in any English word and find its equivalent in many different languages, including Spanish. This would be a great tool to help students develop their curiosity for new languages and enjoy becoming more proficient in them.