Lesson Planning

The ability to create a lesson plan is an important skill for any teacher, and knowing how to incorporate technology in the 21st century classroom is also important. Writing a lesson plan is not too difficult, however, searching for appropriate grade level websites for certain topic areas can be a little challenging. My partner and I designed a lesson for 1st grade English Language Learners on the subject of shapes. We were able to find an online story for students to listen to about shapes, as well as some shape matching games for students to practice what they learned. In this ever increasing world of technology, it is important that our students know how to use computers, maneuver on the internet, etc. My question is: how much technology should teachers use with younger students? While the ability to do research on the internet is valuable, students should also be able to open a book and pick out the main ideas. I don't think technology is bad at all; it just needs to be used in moderation. Back to the lesson plans--it was a little difficult to plan a guidesheet for ELL's to use to help them find websites for research. When students have a limited English language proficiency, searching for things in English can be challenging. Maybe websites with other language options can be used as supplements for students whose first language is one other than English.