Day One

One of the things I forgot about team teaching is the luxury of stepping back on observing the class. The give and take between two different teachers with different ideas of the subject is a valuable asset for both students and teachers. Bob and I had mapped out the basic structure of the class – go over syllabus and projects and requirements. Hit on big ideas connected with the subject. Play an improve game with an unusual object to get the students up on their feet and their brains in gear. The on to the SSC material. A nice list of ideas emerged – although interesting to see the differences between the sections. Bob followed this up by asking about today’s concerns –which generated another wonderful list of ideas. This gives us – right up front – a kind of snapshot of where we are coming from and where we are headed. The content of the class is then the connective tissue that gets us from one list to the other. It is a great way to approach this class, one I undoubtedly will use in the future. Aside from the general day one intro stuff both classes seemed to respond to the material well – although we did loose a few from the 8:30 class that did not seem interested in this particular journey, but that did open up some space for interested students we initially had to turn away. So, all in all a good start to the term.