Well, this week really crawled by. And I think I'm getting sick, which definitely doesn't help things.

I thought TG used quite a bit of technology this week. Both days that I was at school, she used the overhead projector with her 9th graders to go over notes. She showed a video to her upper level Sociology class. And her International Relations students have been working on an internet research/Power Point project on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

I think it is so important to teach high schoolers about AIC. The IR kids are doing a jigsaw project where each small group of three is focusing on a specific part of time and creating a 15-slide Power Point project to teach the rest of the class about that portion of the conflict. I took some video on both Tuesday and Thursday, interviewing students about the assignment. I wanted to take video of the same group both days, but on Thursday 2 of the 3 kids were absent, so I chose another group. I LOVE projects like this, because they give students freedom to go in whatever direction they want (within reason), they offer opportunities for real creativity, and they create a sense of ownership on students' own learning and on the project itself. I love students teaching students, so I am really excited to see how this turns out in TG's class.

I did notice, however, that a lot of students don't really know how to properly do internet research. Because her students are upper level, TG didn't go through an internet research tutorial, she just told them that they couldn't cite wikipedia.org. Most kids figured it out on their own, and the groups worked together to come up with different resources (including... BOOKS! Woahhhhh, kids still know about those??). Observing this class on Tuesday and Thursday also taught me a lot about group projects for students, and how allowing students to choose their own partners can work out and can crash and burn. It'll be interesting to see the crash-and-burn groups present their material...

In other technological news, I left my phone at home today by accident (either that or I lost it, and then I will have to purchase a new phone for the 3rd time this year... let's hope this is not the case). I am in between stressed out beyond belief because I am without a phone and utterly relieved to not have it with me today. Perhaps the stress is coming more from the fact that I don't actually know where my phone is, instead of having made the cognizant choice to leave it at home. I should try this more often.