1. Lesson Plan Blitz Thomson 1
Jared Thomson
Dr. Price
EDCT 5654
December 11, 2009
Reflective Assignment
Promoting to Target Markets Lesson Plan
Any sort of reflection on the lesson plan blitz needs to start with a heavy sigh of relief
for finishing in time (read: heavy sigh). Now that that is complete, I have to say that the
experience was an eye-opening one. We were told not to complete any part of the les-
son plan before coming to class, with the exception of doing minimal research before-
hand. I wanted to simulate working on a complete lesson plan during my planning peri-
od, so I did not do any research before coming into the classroom. After saying this, I
do understand in the future I will be continually looking at material from different media
sources with a teacher’s eye for upcoming subjects. I started out the planning process
by going to the Virginia CTE Resource website to determine what I would need to cover
in my lesson. I looked at the definition, process/skill questions and related SOLs for my
tasks to begin thinking about my lesson. I determined that the entire lesson revolved
around these target markets, so I had each selected form of promotion relate back to
that topic. I started with a bare-bones outline of my lesson that included a definition of
each of these terms, and an activity to describe the different process/skill questions.
From here, I created a bell ringer activity that related to the time of year (the holidays) to
get the students interested in the topic. I used the student’s answers to the activity to
make connections to the new material throughout the lesson. This way the students
have ownership of the foundation of learning for the new terms and topics. I now had
an outline with full definitions and a number of activities. I knew this could be a com-
plete lesson, but I wanted to add more activities and facilitate learners from each kind of
domain. I expanded each of the slides to include additional activities and relevant

2. Lesson Plan Blitz Thomson 2
videos. I then went through the outline and created a notes handout that each of the
students could fill out throughout the lesson. I figured this would keep the students on
tasks, and would prevent me from having to answer what kind of notes the students
would have to take from what I was teaching. I created a review quiz based off of all of
the above that will allow the students to test their comprehension of the material. There
should be enough time for the students to finish the quiz in class, but I have allowed
them to take it home to finish if need be.
I have to be honest that the lesson plan blitz was rather stressful towards the end. I
felt clock slowly ticking down as we got closer to the two hour mark. I know that when I
am teaching next semester, I will have less than than was allotted in class, and most
likely I will have more distractions. I am a perfectionist with my lesson plans, so it was
stressful towards the end that I was not able to run through the material to check for
continuity and length of time. I wish that I would have been able to practice my lesson
plan in order to see what changes needed to be made. It was challenging to know that I
would not be able to continue working after the two hour mark (or so I thought). I had to
split my time between making sure that the material was thoroughly covered, and that I
was motivating the students to be involved with what was going on. I feel that if I do
thorough research into a subject, I will become interested in the topic. My goal is that
my interest in the subject matter will be projected on the students, and this will foster in-
trinsic motivation.
Even with all of the stress, I have to say that I am rather proud of the final result of
the lesson plan. I completed the full lesson plan outline, while incorporating SOLs, a
powerpoint, a notes handout, activities, videos and an assessment for the end of class.
I would be proud of myself if I could incorporate all of these items into all of my daily les-
son plans. This is not to say that it was perfect, but that is the benefit of hindsight.
My revised lesson plan had three major changes over the first lesson plan: adding
Emoments, including more pictures on my powerpoint and scripting more modifications.

3. Lesson Plan Blitz Thomson 3
I am a big proponent for using visual aids in any lesson. The Picasso Emoment has
students drawing a figure or icon to help remind them of any crucial items from the
notes. Even if these are silly drawings, the students will still be able to use them to re-
call important information at a later date. In this same idea, I want to incorporate more
visuals into my powerpoint to allow the students to have another visual key to remem-
ber. The final major change would be the addition of more modifications. As of now,
my modifications are vague because I do not know which sort of students with disabili-
ties are in my hypothetical classroom. Once I start in the Spring, I will know which types
of students will be in my classroom, and I can make modifications accordingly. In the
end, I kept the majority of the lesson plan the same. I am proud of my work.
I anticipate this sort of high-intensity lesson plan blitz will be on par with how my
planning period will go next semester. The differences being that I will have less time to
do the work, and possibly having more lessons to take care in one planning period.
There is also the fact that I will have students, teachers and administrators possibly
coming by during my planning period to take up part of my blitz time. I will need to stay
calm, and plan my time accordingly. I will always have the safety net of being able to
take my work home, rather than cramming everything into a two hour session. I also
need to keep in mind the resources that are available from my teacher, previous teach-
ers and online. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, when I can take the current
wheel design, soup it up, add some rims, and build a personalized wheel for myself
(read: a lesson plan).
If nothing else, the lesson plan blitz increased the confidence I have in my ability to
create lesson plans. The first lesson plan that I created in this class took me over five
hours to complete, and this took less than half that time for a better product. I need to
keep my head up during the first few weeks of student teaching to make sure that I keep
putting out solid lesson plans, even if they are taking me a good chunk of time. As I
keep being told, this will get easier with more experience. If I do get caught in a rut, I

4. Lesson Plan Blitz Thomson 4
need to be able to contact my cooperating teacher, and let her know that I am in need of
her assistance. I did not use the professional resources available to me during the les-
son plan blitz, but that does not mean that I should do the same next semester. There
is no ‘I’ in teacher.