The following is a revised version of my reflection paper:
My coteacher and I had a great first class. The most suprising aspect of the class was how eager the students were to discuss the work and how sophisticated their comments were. There were a fair amount of kids who spoke up and others who were more shy. I hope that once the kids start working in the darkroom, a close, intimate environment, the shy students will feel more comfortable with everyone. As a whole, they seem very polite and respectful.
I was initially a little nervous about working with an inclusion specialist because it is new for me, but she seemed to blend in well. I think it will be helpful to have her in class to assist us.
We pretty much stuck to the script as we had envisioned it. We did well with our time management, for the most part. The technical stuff always seems to take longer than planned. My coteacher was concerned that the kids were getting bored with the technical stuff. I thought the students were engaged. Perhaps the more experienced ones were bored? I think next week we will use the experience of some of the students to help us out while keeping everyone engaged–they will help the other students roll and process film. I think it was a good idea to have us share the leading role. We bounced back and forth. I think this approach helped the students view us both equally as “teacher.” During the technical overview, my coteacher explained the material and we both went around to each student to have them explain their cameras to us . I led the slide discussion because, for me, this is more challenging than the technical stuff. I was stressed about how to get them to talk and reflect about photographs but they made it easy. I had back up questions that I used to keep the conversation moving smoothly.
Overall, I was amazed at how quickly 2.5 hours went by. I’m excited for day two.
