Class on Friday was not what I expected. In fact, it didn't really feel much like an actual class at all. It began with an informal session during which the middle-schoolers visited and shared some highly valuable thoughts and perspectives. The messages that the students communicated us surprised me in that they aligned perfectly with our readings and the ideas we've been contemplating in our ED classes:  assigning manageable amounts of homework and creating a safe environment in which students are comfortable making their voices heard.  It's eye-opening to realize that these students are actually invaluable resources of knowledge, more so perhaps than our texts. This experience helped me to realize the importance of exchanging ideas with the students. They may be young, but they know what they want and need from a teacher or a classroom.

Our next activity had us form groups with our classmates of similar content areas in order to design a lesson around the NYC soda ban. The previous blog post was preparation for this activity but the result of my group's combined genius was outstanding! We designed a semester long project in which students become acquainted with all the workings of scientific investigation, from the literature review to experiment design to peer review of classmates' papers and a school-wide "conference" in which students convene and share their findings. I'm looking forward to using a similar project template in my classroom and letting students generate topic ideas. Fun fun fun. Oh and, of course, it was suggested that students maintain a reflection blog throughout the project and for the first time, I saw the benefit of this using this form of technology within a classroom. I guess I needed an external, real-world setting in which a blog could allow students to thrive, to think deeply about their work, to voice opinions that don't seem to fit within classroom walls, and to engage in student-led discourse amongst themselves. So yes, I admit that this course is accomplishing its goals despite my initial resistance. I never thought I'd say that I see some good in blogging... makes me wonder what else, technology-wise, is out there that I have yet to consider its application in my classroom.

Lastly, we made practice podcasts on a topic of our choosing. Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun doing it. And I now know how to make a podcast. And my boyfriend loves Aviary. He's been tinkering with the different tools all weekend. So thanks, tech class. You are revolutionizing my technology mentality.