May 15, 2015 - 12:58
My contribution to my final teach-in did not go the way I had planned. My idea was for the class to collaborate in interconnected ways. I thought we were going to leave feeling surprised at how much we could read each other through our observations of what was in the room. My idea was that we had spent so much time in a place that many of us may have not really explored. I was hoping we were going to find something that illuminated or complicated our experience in some way.
I also felt like I was cut short and I had planned other activities, such as asking the class to create animal shapes with their bodies in a certain amount of time. The animals I chose live in the outskirts of Philadelphia. Just as Caleb reminded us of the importance of understanding the plants we coexist with and learn from, I wanted to share what I discovered about the animals around us.
At the same time, it is important for me to be aware of my surroundings, and I should have adapted my project, making it shorter. I also realize that I did not put up a full description of my teach-in till very late, which made it difficult for Nkechi to incorporate what I wanted to share. Also no one was particularly enthusiastic about my teach-in and so I’ve been thinking about how it could have been more intriguing. I am not a particularly effective facilitator and I wanted to challenge myself and the class to see where we would take the prompt together, but I should have paid more attention to where the class was at, rather than where I wanted to take my fellow explorers.