Danica Reflection

Wow. Yesterday was a lot of fun and extremely tiring. I thought the Social Justice Teach In was a success. The morning was a little stressful because of all the set-up we had to do and the weeks of preparation for it. it took me a while to find an organization I was interested in but once I did everything fell into place. Setting up visits was easy and very fun. Just being able to help the world with just one contribution. Also the time that was set aside in class devoted to the Teach-In was very helpful, but the day of was the most stressful part. It took a lot of work just to get ready before the kids get in. From having all the materials out to making sure that you are saying the correct information to your students. Teachers have it rough. They have to make the lesson interesting, educational and in this case powerful. Teaching is a very noble profession and I actually liked it a lot, even with all the stress. I had the rush of being in front of people and the satisfactory feeling of educating someone. My Teach-In helped kids express themselves and told them that by using their voice they can change the world. We made a huge Democracy Wall devoted to answering the question “What does freedom of expression mean to you?”. Two things that went extremely well was the activity and the learning process. Thank god the weather permitted us to go outside and create our democracy wall. All the kids picked a square and decorated it with positive words about what they thought freedom of expression meant to them. The final product looked amazing and is still outside for the world to see (well for New York to see). The entire teaching process went so well. Josh, Catherine, Nathaniel and I explained everything with ease and I felt like the kids actually learned something about freedom of expression and themselves. If anything, the only thing I would change is getting more sidewalk paint. We ran low by the second class, but that is all I would change. The lasting piece of knowledge that I know I will have for the rest of my life is that one voice can change the world and with this power I will change it. My set up group worked really well together and our tasks were finished efficiently. The kid were assigned to their groups and each kid got a workshop they really wanted. I thought the assemblies tied the Teach-In together well. They were interesting and kept the kids’ attention. I especially liked the music aspect, the writing was powerful (GO LENNY!) and it simply rocked. My only suggestion for next year is to have more time set aside for getting the assemblies organized and more time for the set up groups because those two things were down to the wire. Overall though, the Teach-In was great!