3/15/11

Today 3/15 it is about the importance of dialogue. As I concentrate on the activity in English 103 I keep looking at the tiny details - where I stand, how the students move, and what they say. Today, I arrived and pulled up the bbc to talk about Japan and the earthquake. I asked them if they knew and I noticed that a lot more people are looking at news. So, I thought back and wondered about the difference between requiring them to look at the news on one hand and bringing the news to the classroom as a part of our conversation/interaction. Today, I asked if they knew and they did and then I asked why knowing was important to us - how are we connected - they brought up the economy and we shared our bits - I always tell them I'm not a scholar of the topic, but since I love to learn I read... Someone said that they read about the infrastructure - the buildings and we were able to compare it with Haiti. We connected the economy to the fact that they make things we buy and the dependence between - we talked about nuclear plants and they recalled Hiroshima and I brought up the bbc and photos of family - I asked if they knew who had nuclear plants and how many and they guessed the States because of power and then we looked up and saw the numbers per country - (this gives them a real understanding of who has power).... I pushed them through questions to make connections across borders and we talked about the ring of fire. This led into a sharing of bits of information about how islands are formed - Pangaea and ice age and constantly changing earth and our inhabiting of the planet. But it brought them to us and us to them to see the ring in color on screen.

DIALOGUE and Freire - We moved into the Why Women? project and I realized I'm always on the edge of a little worry. Have I given them too much? Are they getting the connections? And then I stop and look and for the most part (there is always the student (or two) who is sitting back and letting the others do the work while they chat - often the chat is about the project but they are not really working) students are in constant negotiation about the progress the words and the symbols; I realize that the more they call me to the group to ask a question, get advice, or get my okay... means that the learning is going on, that they are engaged, and that they are thinking. Today each call brought out a story from memory or in process that is an example of why women.

SEVEN INTELLIGENCES AND VYGOTSKY My observations of us in the class brings home to me something so obvious and at the same time so distant. This is because of training and the taken for granted notion of teacher as expert - as if somehow outside of the experience. It is now clear to me that the seven intelligences are the seven senses and that this concept is one that includes the teacher and all of his/her senses.