Thomas – 4/30/09 – Teach-In Reflection

I really enjoyed the Teach-In.  In the morning when we were setting up, it got pretty hectic and I started worrying about my group, but it all worked out.  We then started the day with the assembly.  We heard the band perform a song they wrote about Sustainability and it was really good, then they played our What We Did video.  Liam C., Nile, and I had made this 6 minute movie within 3 days and it turned out amazing.  We had a great photo montage at the beginning with good background music, good interviews with kids in our grade, and some ending photos of us setting up for the Teach-In.  We arranged it really nicely and we worked really well together.  After the video, there was a short explanation of how the day would go followed by everyone crazily piling out of the big room.  We each ran to our rooms and made some last adjustments before the kids arrived.  I helped my water group set up the last few things and then ran up to help Liam C. with his activity on green/renewable energy because he was all alone.  I also wanted to let some of the people in my group that hadn’t done much do something to help, since it was hard with a big group like ours.  I actually really enjoyed working with Liam on his activity.  I already had a really good understanding with the topic and knowledge about it because I’ve been studying it a lot as well, so I wasn’t just sitting around.  Me and Liam said equally the same amount of stuff and really got into it. We ran it well together, answered a lot of questions, gave the kids a good understanding of everything, showed them real examples, and then had them write a bill on what they would do as senators in one specific state.  I had taken a couple minutes to check on my group and make sure everything was okay, but I was pretty much with Liam for the whole time.  Once they were over we talked to Frank’s class about their feelings on how the activities went and there was a lot of positive feedback, which made us feel happy.  After that, we all went down to the auditorium for the last part of the Teach-In.  It started out with the What We Learned video, which was a little funny.  Then we watched a few clips from the film FLOW, which was administered by René.  Then there was an ending speech and it was all over.  We did so much work and took a lot of time for only a few ours of activities and presentations.  Wow.  However, I felt we learned a lot from this whole experience and it was good to do a project like this.  For me, the Teach-In turned out great.  I worked really hard getting ready for it and did a lot in my water group to set up, then helped Liam a lot during his actual activity.  I, as well as the rest of my group, was really worried about the Teach-In during the previous week, but it turned out a lot better than I planned.  I did a lot more work than I was supposed to and enjoyed it, let others in my group participate a lot, helped out a friend with his activity, and made an awesome What We Did video.  So, the whole day was a success.  Our award for doing such a great job was going out to get snacks, which was fun, followed by all cleaning up a park in Chinatown.  What a great day.