Reflection (week 8)

After taking this course, I have used the GAME plan, not only in developing future lesson plans, but also in everyday life skills. Being able to organize your thoughts and information gained is vital to create a path in achieving your goals. By mastering the organizing life skills, I will be able to use this strategy for lesson plans as well as passing this strategy to my students in creating more meaningful goals along with achieving them.

After exploring all the useful applications on Facebook for students to use for collaboration, I came to a realization that schools may not allow the usage of such social site. As the course moved on, I have discovered Ning.com that Vicki Davis (2009) suggested to use in its place. In the beginning of my GAME plan, I wanted to strengthen my lesson plans with more meaningful and authentic lessons for my students. In order to do this, I created a discussion with former colleagues to collaborate in creating authentic math lessons. Surfing the internet was another way since it is full of resourceful information on web 2.0 since we all want our students to be successful in their learning. Having the GAME plan provides more relevancies while creating my lesson plan. As for my second goal, implementing more technology into my lesson plan than just PowerPoint presentation or streaming, the resources provided in this course, inspired me to expand my horizons and experiment with what is out there on the internet and seek more tools to use in my lessons.

Immediate adjustments to my lesson plans would be incorporating technology to aid in memory retention rather than just utilizing technology because research states that more learning happens in a 21st century classroom. Technology should be used as an aid. After creating the lesson plan using storytelling, I find it intriguing of what students can do by using their creativity when given the chance.
This course was packed with information and resources to incorporate into the 21st century classroom, as well as a new way of organizing skills, setting goals, and planning on how to achieve them. I am looking forward to another course filled with this type of information to help my future students to become more successful.

Resourceful:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.