Fin

it's the end of the semester already. part of me is completely surprised and the other (sleep-deprived) part of me has been counting down the minutes to this day. all parts of me, however, have been taking stock of the classes i've had this semester, weighing the good against the bad and wondering what i would do better/again. 

of the three classes i had in the last 5 months, i definitely wished they had all been like this one. a necessary evil of the last semester has been finishing up the required classes and, while i've learned a lot in each of them, i feel like i never got to escape that dreaded banking method. learn this resource, the fields in this standard, etc. etc... you know, i pretty much blame this for my lack of sleep (what can i say? dewey keeps me up at night.) thankfully, 680 did not fit that structure. there was so much room for exploration, both in reading contemporary and classic texts and duking it out with their authors in class (i will continue to hold a grudge against postman). and, unlike most of my other classes to date, there was such a process of colaborative learning here! i tease out an idea, jessica rephrases because i just spoke gibberish in class, a classmate responds with an anecdote that really illustrates the point i was trying to make...*sigh * what a great learning experience.

speaking of anecdotes, here's one that illustrates exactly the opposite of the 680 educational lovefest.

prof.: can anyone name anything that seems like it should be included in this list? i will take any answer. just volunteer something aloud.

me: how about [answer]?

prof.: no. that's not right.

always a definitive idea of right and a wrong! no shades of grey. just memorize and spit out answers. those answers, that banked info, only sticks in my brain for so long. to the contrary, i can remember exactly who i stood between when we arranged ourselves in the "agree/disagree" exercise re: postman's statements.

so, thanks instructional technologies for moving me out of my comfort zone and teaching me that old dogs can have fun with new tricks. thanks classmates for remembering my blog posts and mentioning them in class, making me feel like i actually contributed something of value. and thanks jessica for being so attentive and willing to depart from the norm. that has made you a truly great professor (and will make you a great mom, too!)

see you guys, to borrow a phrase from emily, IRL (in real life).