Reflection on key concepts - Module 3

 

The initial journey was not without its challenges. This was my first time creating a year-long lesson plan, and I was trying to deal with the pressure of developing an excellent lesson plan. It was very challenging to structure a year's worth of learning experiences into a cohesive and engaging program because it is very necessary to focus on students' needs. Sometimes, it can be hard to do without enough experience in the high school environment. Additionally, I was still getting accustomed to dealing with the AI tools I learned about in the previous modules. To be honest, there were moments when I misunderstood aspects of the assignment, and my prompting skills needed some serious work. The results I got from the AI assistants were inconsistent at times, reflecting my inability to clearly communicate what I needed. For example, I might ask ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini to generate a lesson plan on Pre-A1, but the output lacked specific activities or assessments tailored to different learning styles. Likewise, it was very difficult to make AI give me the structure for the lesson plan I was asking for.

Instead of letting these problems beat me, I decided to take them as an opportunity to improve and gain a better grasp of effective lesson planning strategies, I reviewed previous online classes recorded by the course instructor. These sessions provided valuable insights into structuring a well-rounded lesson plan that supplies a year-long curriculum. They emphasized the importance of considering learning objectives, incorporating diverse catchy, and dynamic activities, and crafting assessments that accurately measure student understanding. Getting prepared with this knowledge, I started working in the unit that was assigned to me of the year-long lesson plan. This allowed me to focus on creating effective lesson plans for each class, ensuring to add significant activities to make sure students were going to fulfill their needs and improve their English skills, all aligned with the overall learning goals.

Whenever an aspect of the assignment remained unclear, my group and I didn't hesitate to reach out to the instructor. Asking for clarification on some things we were struggling with ensured we were on the right track and avoided wasting time. For instance, there was some initial confusion within my team about the specific role of each AI tool in the lesson-planning process. After a session with the instructor, it became clear that our problem was prompting appropriately and we were confused about the content of each activity. However, when we solved the doubts, we realized that the tools that we previously studied were taking significant importance to improve the activities that AI was giving us.

Finally, collaboration with my team also played a crucial role in the challenges this module introduced. We brainstormed ideas together, shared best practices when it came to prompting techniques, and offered support when someone was blocked. All of the team members struggled with using AI to craft catchy activities that suit to students' needs. By sharing our knowledge and experimenting collaboratively, we discovered that by combining AI suggestions with the help of tools like Brisk, Quizizz, Zuno, Magic School, Nearpod, and others, and using our teaching our teaching experience we were able to do a better job. In that way, this collaborative approach fostered a sense of shared responsibility and ensured that every member contributed meaningfully to the final assignment.