When looking back at my GAME plan that I created I see a lot of growth in both my students and myself. I have learned a lot of exciting information through this class and through the development of this lesson. The first lesson that I created worked with the students on creating a problem for their lesson and finding ways to solve it. This is the lesson that I completed with my students. They had $50 that they could spend to help any organization in the area that works with children. The students were to find an organization that they wanted, create a slide show or presentation that convinced others to want to choose the same organization, create a list of items they would like to buy and then use the Internet to determine the best place to buy the items that they like. The students loved this activity because they were really interested in helping another group of students in their area. They really felt that they were helping others and getting out into the community and making a difference. The second lesson that I created worked with online collaboration where the students were able to talk to some of the people that they were going to work with and then some that they were going to be able to help with their donations. The final lesson worked with digital story telling where the students were to create a story about what they have completed with the project. They would create something that they would show others later to describe what they did and how they helped.
I feel that the most important thing that my students learned while following my lesson was that there are others out there that are in need of our help. Many of the students in my district are well off with both parents and are able to afford anything that they need. Therefore many of them do not think about how other students in other districts around us do not have the benefits that we have. I feel that I did not just instruct them about math and calculating the best value; I also taught them about the community. When it comes to my learning and the impact it had on me as a teacher, I really learned a lot about how the students needed to learn. I learned about three different types of lessons that deeply impacted the way that I looked at teaching. Each of these lessons are something that I will complete with my students next year because they make the students thinking critically and help them think of others rather than themselves.
When I finished the first lesson with my students I feel that it went really well for them. I had a couple of students tell me that they really enjoyed helping others and that they would like to do more with these organizations in the future. As I mentioned above I am sure that I am going to use this lesson again with my students next year. One thing that I know I am going to do for my student though is to create more graphic organizers and rubrics for them to follow. I would also like to do other mini lessons that lead the students up to learning the information. With the lack of time that I had this year before school ended I was not able to do any mini-lessons but I feel that these would be very beneficial to my students. Through those lessons I will work with them based on how to use the technology and how to incorporate their thoughts.
