Chris - Class Observation 2

I enjoyed my second class observation a lot because the teacher, Ms. Debbie Carretta, included me a lot and it was a great bunch of students. It was an intermediate level reading class. The question of the day was "How can we defeat voter apathy among college students?" Ms. Carretta had us look at a website called Political Sushi, which claimed to provide an unbiased, nonpartisan source of information for voters. We talked about how the main focus of the website seemed to be the online store, in which you could buy t-shirts and more. In small groups, we had to come up with 3 different methods of attacking voter apathy. It was funny to hear some of the results; a common one was "throw a party and have free beers." This led to a discussion on how you cannot actually consume alcohol at the polls, but an informational party beforehand would be OK.

I liked the way that Debbie controlled the classroom. The was one guy who did most of the talking, which she already knew, so she tried to get the rest of the class to get involved and offer some answers and suggestions. She also kept the atmosphere of the classroom light by telling jokes and relating to the students. For example, she went around the room and asked if there were elections in each one of the students' home countries. Interestingly enough, about a third of the room came from a country which didn't have elections. I thought it was great that the topic related directly to the demographic that I'm in, so they could ask me questions as a primary source. The fact that I didn't vote went on to prove the point of the topic, no matter how embarrassed I felt about it.

When I told her that I want to go teach in Argentina, Ms. Carretta told me that she had lived in Brasil for a long time (20 years, I believe). She told me how Argentinians sometimes think they are more European than South American, and if you want soccer, go to Brazil! I saw that if there's one thing people from all over the world (excpet maybe the U.S.A.) can relate to one another with, its Futbol.

These class observations are getting better and better. I'm excited about the next one.

Peace n Blessins