After taking a few Burning Questions, we got down to business:

Sharing of the “Which Object is Most Like My Life?” Poetry

To start, I read a copy of a poem I enjoy – Bill Bissett’s “Th Tomato Conspiracy Aint Worth a Whol Pome.”  You can find a copy of the pome, with its intentionally wonky spelling and punctuation, here.

Then, we sat in a circle-ish shape and each TC shared the poem they wrote about their life and how it relates to one of 5 objects – a broken clock, a dragon heat bag, a coffee mug, a wooden hippo, and an oyster shell.  There was great variety and much profundity in the poems.  It took a lot of guts on everyone’s behalf to share a piece of poetry on Day 2 with a group of people who you hardly know.  Good on ya!

Not a lot of profundity in this beat poem performed by Mike Myers from the comedy film “So I Married An Axe Murderer” but it’s good for a laugh:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETPRsJ-exZw[/youtube]

What You Want to Learn and How You Want to Learn T-Chart

In order that I may tailor the course to best meed your wants and needs, I asked you to let me know topics you were interested in having covered in class and teaching methods you would like me to use in the delivery of that content.  I used the info in the creation of the course outlines for EDUC 310 & 316.  I’ll also consider it as I plan my lessons over the course of the year.  Here’s the collated list:

What We Want to Learn & How – 2010/2011

Major Goals for the Year

It’s important to know what all the coursework you’re doing is working toward.  To that end, I shared a PPT with my thoughts on the learning intentions of the courses that I’ll be teaching you this year.  The big goals connect to 4 key variables related to effective teaching and learning in classrooms – content, instructional strategies, instructional skills, and classroom management.  Here’s the PPT slideshow:

Learning Intentions PPT – 2010/2011

Administrivia

Insert “laundry list” of items here.  I spoke about the following:

• Disability Letter
• Religious Observances Letter
• Getting your CWL account set up
• This blog and its URL (which you already have or you couldn’t read this :] )
• E-Coaching
• Factors That Influence How We Teach Due Date Reminder (It’s due on Monday, 13 September)
• Purchasing the EDUC 310 Reading Package at the bookstore

That was all for today’s class.

– Lawrence