Well when it comes to content, there really is no teacher creativity because they are standards set at the national and state level. But pedagogically and technology are where a teacher has total creativity. No two lessons have to be the same because their are an endless amount of options to choose from when taking a certain pedagogical approach with some piece of technology. When teaching a topic, you could use direct instruction or a student based learning project. You also have options like "Think-Pair-Share" and small group work. Technology has options like calculators, Smartboard's, and powerpoint. You also have Khan Academy, Study Island, and Kahoot/Quizziz. There are a multitude of apps that are available to you to use and most for free. The decisions I have made during the process is an example of a teacher being a designer because we are tailoring a lesson to be effective. Like I said earlier, not all lessons are done the same way and they shouldn't, so this is how teachers are designers. They create something different for the purposes of their learning. The lesson is novel because this should be the first time students are exposed to this topic and it uses Desmos which is not that commonly used among middle level schools. This lesson is effective because students learn how to calculate slope and graph basic equations. The lesson is whole because the topic is introduced, explained, and then students are showing they are proficient in it if they are getting the examples right.
