Those article groups though!

“So it’s come down to this huh?” “You knew where this was headed right from the start, friend?” “You lost that honor of friendship long ago!” “IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT” “HAVE AT YOU… what…” “….What?” “What is that?” “…My weapon of mass destruction?” “…Dave you taped copper wire around an extendable toy lightsaber and connected it to some AAs.” “NOW IT WILL ACTUALLY DO WHAT A LIGHT SABER IS SUPPOSED TO DO” “…..light tingling shocks?” “WHAT no.” “Do you know what light sabers actually do?” “………..yes” “Dave?” “I LEARNED A THING IN SCHOOL OKAY”

SO the groups were all fantastic. All the presentations and the activities that were linked with them were such a nice form of reconvening about ideas being put into practice. It just had an openness to it that was really relaxed yet incredibly intriguing. Just mulling around ideas and other forms of expression and teaching practices was really fascinating.

First off the adolescent group did a fantastic job of presenting social topics that I hadn’t thought about in a long time. It was just a really cool way of showing the complexity of personality building and how easily these forms of identity and expression can be easily bogged down by anxiety and unnecessary negativity from the authority of the classroom. I really enjoyed that we even had to ask ourselves these questions of what builds someone especially as we enter college, theoretically, building our own identity away from family and other influences that have been around for so long.

Next was the hip hop group which actually was one of the more interesting ones especially when we were shown examples of classes that use hip hop gaining attention from stars. It really was an interesting way to look at education and really made writing an essay look easy in comparison to writing a song that kept a specific rhythm. It was also really cool to see other variations of expression actually being treated seriously in an education sense and being used as a form of teaching.

There was, of course, the wonderful gaming group who did a wonderful job at showing how video games can teach a low risk educating environment and how, because of this environment, students are willing to take risks and try complex ideas without the overwhelming anxiety of failure if their experiment didn’t work out. They did smashing work, if I do say so myself, which I do.

Finally, there was of course the make hack play group. I owe a lot to this group, it’s ultimately because of their activity that I was inspired for my multimodal project in 431. I always ‘made’ and fiddled with things when I was younger. I also really got into wood working, but just have not had time, so their activity was the most soothing. It also showed that students really should just get down to the nitty gritty of things and figure out how stuff works. Even something as simple as the negative and positive charges on a battery are figured out through making things. Even experimenting with different kinds of batteries or adhesives really opens people’s eyes to a form of teaching not always tapped into. It was by far my favorite part of this project and has equally opened my mind to areas of hobbies, and new ways to creating things, that I haven’t tapped into in quite some time.

Welcome back reader!
*GASP its almost here. The end of our journey is on the horizon. The time of fire pits, good wine, Vince Guaraldi by golden halls and the smell of old cooking is around the corner. Students will convene with friends and family around the fire and the feast to take a reprieve in preparation for the two weeks of madness to come. It will be a time of peace and discussion about the future and reassurance of the path that we all walk, and perhaps (for those hopefuls out their) murmurs about the significant other brought to the gathering and whether or not they will be coming the years following, a scrunched warm smile is the only answer.
So I say unto you, and all those whose heart strings are played along the bass guitar of Guaraldi’s trio, have a wonderful Thanksgiving for there are a great many things to be thankful for, especially in these cold times.