Lesson Plan Research and Review

is an online program that creates "word clouds" from words you type. The more you type the same word, the larger that word will be displayed in the word cloud. You do not need to register or submit an email address to use it. This could be a great marketing tool for adults or students could create wordles about characters they are reading about in books. The word cloud Wordle creates is cool but if you wanted to type a poem or sentences you cannot keep the words together in the cloud.  Other than that drawback, Wordle is a fun tool for kids and adults!

Here is a Wordle is about education.

source for photo

Prezi is a digital presentation tool. Prezi is a great way to show information in a fun, organized way that is more visually interesting than your basic Power Point presentation. To access Prezi, you do need to sign up for an account with your email address. Prezi is super easy to you. I would advise one to check out the Prezi video, "Getting Started" to see all the fun ways to use the program. This would be a great way to boost a company presentation or a class assignment.


Here is a screen shot of the Prezi I created for Digital Citizenship.

 Applying Technology to Lesson Plans

Lesson 1: A Bear of a Poem 

I would add technology to this lesson plan by using Wordle in session one. Students need to create a poem about the story they read. I would have my students enter in the most important words (nouns and verbs) more so they would be more eye-catching.

NETS Student Standard applied: 1. Creativity and Innovation (b) create original works as a means of personal or group expression. 

Lesson 2: A "Cay" ribbean Island Study 

I would add technology to this lesson plan by using Prezi for the final project. The students have to research a Caribbean Island (people, language, location, climate, vegetation, animal life, government/history, industry and tourism). I would have them choose an appropriate Prezi template to display the information. Hopefully they would find interesting videos and photos to include in some of the slides. 

NETS Student Standard applied: Research and Information Fluency (b) b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.