It was a interesting class to say the least… I think it was a good class to reflect on ourselves, what our viewpoints are, and how to efficiently relay our thoughts to the class without putting emotion into our words. I don’t want to delve into the details, but their were some issues in this class to say the least.

Many times, when a hot topic is discussed in class, people have to be careful about leaving emotions out of the discussion. But, what if that hot topic is something that resonates with you? What if the topic is controversial, and there are very different views on the topic? How do you get students to debate and discuss a topic without delving into emotions? I think it’s a very difficult thing to do, especially with topics that directly influences the students such as drug use, cyber bullying, SOGI, etc.

I think each teacher needs to realize that there are many strategies on facilitating conversation in the classroom. Teachers should also realize that not all strategies work, and that it’s up to them to decide what strategy works the best for the majority of the classroom. Whatever strategy it may be, it’s not going to make everyone in the class comfortable; however, I think teachers can definitely facilitate debate in a way in which all ideas are respected no matter the viewpoint of the student.