back in the saddle

(That's one of my classrooms.) Got back on the horse today. That felt good. I think I've got my focus for the next few weeks. And class went really well, too. I used something I learned in graduate school. I put the students in groups of 5 or 6, which they usually hate, but I gave them some more specific things to do this time.

I turned them into "listening circles" and had them practice listening to one of their members at a time. Then, gave them a silly topic (What did you eat for lunch on Saturday?) and gave them 90 seconds for each person in their group. I expected it to work, but I didn't realize it would work so well. The quiet ones were using their time and talking to their group. The talkative ones were limited in how much they could dominate the process. Really nice balancing effect.

Then I gave them more serious topics, regarding their memory of rituals from their early childhood. They had 3 minutes per person this time and they handled it really well.

So I think we've made it over the hump. It feels like clear-sailing for awhile. And I've always known what I want the last few weeks of school to be about, so lesson plans should be easier from here on.

Like I said, this is "Spirit Week" at school. This is really pretty amazing. The amount of creativity that these kids have put into this is really quite something. I'll try and take some pictures on Thursday. No camera today.

And Corey and I got our Matrix: Revolutions tickets. Did you?

Posted: Tue - November 4, 2003 at 12:53 PM

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back in the saddle

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