Becoming a Politician: A reflection on my creation of a multimedia lesson plan

From the moment that this assignment was given I knew that I would not only have to be creative myself but develop a way for the students to be as creative as the way I would present my lesson plan. Personally, I thought this assignment was one of the most interesting assignments of the course considering that we had to include at least one student that had a disability.
I believe that the first standard of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS*T) would apply to this assignment. In fact, I believe that this standard is basically what this lesson plan is all about. Standard one says to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. That is what I believe the students will be doing entirely throughout this assignment. It enables them to think critically about the issues that surround them as students in their school. After they think about that the lesson plan encourages them to think how can they gain the trust from their peers (using technology) to persuade them to believe that they are the best answer to the problems of their school.
I learned a great deal about planning lesson activities from this course. I learned that my lesson plans activities have to engage the students to learn. However, they also have to be fun because students generally tend to not try as hard if they do not find the assignment interesting. I believe that it all falls down to the question that would ask how interesting would the lesson plan activity be to the student. After all, techniques that work well in one situation may be useless in another (Clark & Starr, 2006). However, I know to my heart that this technique is perfect for the students because it enables them to do what they want the way that they want it.
I used a free website creator that the students will be going to when they log on to the internet on their computers. They will then be watching a video that I have loaded into the website that will inspire them for the assignment. I then required them to use at least two technological tools being Windows Movie Maker and a digital camera. The digital camera allows the students to film their commercial but Windows Movie Maker would enable them to do whatever it is they wish to do with their video.
What I liked most about this assignment was when I figured out what I wanted the students to do and how I wanted them to do it. It can be somewhat tedious to teachers to try and think how they can make what is just words in the book interesting to what the students can comprehend. I really enjoyed drafting this lesson plan because I know that it can be interesting for both the student and the teacher. This lesson plan lets the teacher know what it is that the students want changed in their schools. This lesson plan also lets the students feel like they are being respected by because this lesson plan allows the students to speak out.
I can not imagine anything that I did not like about this assignment other than the time that it took me to figure out that what it is I wanted the students to do. Once I figured that out it was all downhill from there. The lesson plan was so convenient that I had no trouble at all drafting how I would accommodate a student with a disability.

References

Clark, L. H., & Starr, I. S. (2006). Secondary and Middle School Teaching Methods. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.