Grow a Game Day

Another memorable class of ours was the day we played Grow a Game. After getting into randomly assigned groups, we had to work together to create a game based off what we picked in the grow a game activity on the smartboard. This then led us to creating our own game for teachers to play that would help them create lesson plans. Originally, I wasn't sure what grow-a-game really had to do with lesson planning, but I soon realized that it is a great tool for teachers who are experiencing their own version of "writers block." I really enjoyed working in a smaller group to create a fun game that would help formulate aspects of a lesson for teachers who played the game because it showed me that there are places we can go to in order to start creating a lesson, rather than having a totally blank start. I realized that the actual ideas behind a lesson plan do not need to be over-thought, as long as your objectives are clear and useful to those students, at that time, in that place. The games we created showed us so many different ways to include culture/social events, new media, and even the post-modern principles in a lesson, and the culmination of all the games gave us even more potential for new and exciting lessons. Overall, a great activity on how to come up with fun, inventive, and modern lessons in a fun and interesting way!