Thursday's exercises

I thought the exercises that we did on Thursday were really interesting....but also completely terrifying.  I was getting particularly frustrated with myself when we were completing the second exercises because I wrote a whole paragraph in my response explaining why I would not be an expert on this topic.  Part of me really wanted to resist justifying my response with a flimsy background story but the other part of me had too much anxiety about putting my opinions out there.  I got more and more comfortable as people started to read out their responses because it was clear that most people were just as concerned with sharing their opinions as I was.  But what this exercise made me realize is that I, and maybe others in the class, didn't feel like they could share their opinions in any discussion format without receiving some kind of a judgment.  It was helpful to hear Anne say that students don't have to have all of the answers, that's why we are students.  Still, why does it often seem like we all have something to prove in a classroom?