Armando Gonzalez

Advisory
5/21/14

Lesson Plan & Podcast

Many students take teachers and teachers jobs very much for granted. I was one of those
students; I always thought being a teacher was beyond easy. In this semester of my junior year in
high school my English teacher Mr. Shoji put us to the test and assigned us to plan a lesson that
would be presented in class. When I was first given this assignment I thought it would be a
breeze or a walk through the park. I quickly realized there was a lot of factors that came to effect
in the process of actually planning a lesson. I had no idea how much you needed to familiarize
with what you where teaching I always thought you made it up as you went and you just used the
prior knowledge you had. The night before the assignment was due I spent a large amount of
time reading and rereading the article, until I was satisfied that I knew the article like the back of
my hand.
The next day we gave our lesson to some classmates and that was to most difficult part.
There were students that were disrespectful and ignorant. I felt bad for the teacher because they
try so hard to give a lesson they planned hard for but there is still students who talk over them or
interrupt the class for ridiculous reasons. After this assignment I was very much aware or what
teachers go through planning what they will teach us. I also feel more knowledgeable. I think its
a very important aspect of teaching and very important to know in life especially if you are
interested in being a teacher. Now I know the importance of planning ahead and I am also more
grateful to teachers for what they do.

As a Vaughn student we are required to be a Global Citizen and in my history class with
Ms. Fried that is exactly what we did. She had us do a podcast on the crises in Ukraine. Not only
did we have to research on a country we knew nothing about but we also had to learn about the
problems and protest. A lot of the problems with Ukraine were because of its ties with Russia and
Europe. The West part of Ukraine favors Europe and wants to be more affiliated with Europe.
The Eastern part of Ukraine such as Crimea wants to be more affiliated with Russia; this started
all of the rebellions and riots that happened in Ukraine. This project helped me learn about a
different culture and a different country. It also helped open my eyes to see that there is still even
today a lot of corruption that goes around in the world. I dont believe it is fair or just that the
people have to deal with a corrupt government or president. People should be allowed to live
with out fear of its own government. With this project I feel more involved because I am
informed of the issues and problems do go around not just in my neighborhood or country, but of
issues that are happening all around the world.