Reflection 9/4/07

It was quite an interesting morning, one that did not line up with what I had imagined. I had no idea that I would have to have a special code to get into my classroom; that was a great start. I guess my imagination is geared in the wrong direction because though I was locked out of my classroom for a moment, I found that this 276 course is awesome. A class size of eight and a highly personalized atmosphere add good ambiance.

For starters today we had a fun activity to not only get to know one another a little better, but to also learn a little lesson. First of all we learned a little about networking. In this, each of us had the opportunity to write a few things about our self on the whiteboard and somehow make a connection to another person's list of qualities using a web-like diagram. In the end, there were many different words scattered across the board that represented each student and the teacher, with lines connecting anything in common. I think this was an excellent method of getting the jitter bugs out of the students and being able to who carried with them what qualities. By making connection among the students with simple circled words and lines, everyone was able to notice the similarities among all of us. I believe it made us feel more like a team working together in a classroom setting, rather than a number of students competing for position in the class. The great lesson behind all of this, I think, was that in the real world it is necessary to make connections with people, to make a network. In doing so it will be much easier to receive and give information and also expand in a career.

The next thing on the list today was another game involving sticks. There were twenty sticks drawn on the whiteboard and two players were to compete using the drawn lines. Each player had a turn to remove either one or two sticks at a time starting left to right. The player to remove the last stick won. It seemed to me that there was a certain strategy to this game, for the instructor was so adamant that he was going to win every time. Actually, he ended up loosing every time. Nonetheless, the strategy behind the game involved a method of breaking the precession of lines down into groups of three. By doing so, the player was able to dis guard his focus on a victory over the extent of the large line of sticks and narrow his aim to mini victories over each section of three lines. In this the player was able to have an unwaivered focus on the overall goal. Life is much like this stick game. Many times people tend to focus only on the immensity of a huge problem; something that seems almost too hard to attempt to overcome. In correlation to the game one may learn to redirect his focus off of the big problem and onto the little stepping stones, which are usually more easily conquerable, and one step at a time overcome the overall problem. This was a great game.

These exercises applied well to the three points of Dewey's Reflection that we learned about today in class. Dewey came up with a three point system of how to make a proper reflection. His three points include description, critique, and action. In order to remember one thing taught and make sure it is applied to life, one must make a note of what it is, analyze its content, and then come up with a way that pushes him to improvement. There must be action.