I enjoyed the EdCafe model more than a
Socrative Seminar. I felt more
comfortable saying my thoughts and opinions, since there was less pressure with
the small groups. In a large group, there are many awkward silences because
people do not know when exactly to talk, while in small groups, there are more
opportunities for students to express their ideas. Some students do not feel
comfortable talking in front of a large group. I also liked how we could pick
which topic to go to. This way, I was more encouraged to pay close attention
and take notes. Since students were able to pick which topic to go to, based on
what interests them, people took more out of the activity, instead of sitting
there bored and daydreaming. The EdCafe felt productive and comfortable for me.
When
presenting, I had many questions prepared so that I did not run out of things
to talk about. There were no awkward silences where I had to improve on what to
say. Even if one question did not spark a long conversation, there were plenty
of other questions to move on to. The attendees seemed to have many ideas to
say about my topic and questions. I used the Smart Board notebook so that
students had a visual. I wrote down what the attendees said, in order to allow
the attendees to know exactly what to take notes on. Next time I would change
my questions in order to make them more different from each other. At times, it
felt as though people were repeating the same ideas because my questions were
too similar to each other. For example, one of my questions was, “In such poor
conditions, what motivations did slaves have to keep on living through a life
of bondage?” Another question was, “What kept slaves from committing suicide?”
To answer both of these questions, people gave the ideas of family and the possibility
of becoming free. There was not much difference between these two questions,
which caused the group to say the same things when talking about each question.
When leading, I felt successful in terms of being prepared, although I would
like to improve on giving my questions more diversity.
As
an attendee, took notes on what the leaders wrote on the Smart Board. For each
station, I happened to be interested in the topics that were both at the Smart
Board station. Whenever another student, or myself, added to the conversation
or if anything was written on the Smart Board by the leader, I would write it
down. I contributed by giving the idea that slaves were physically harassed by
their masters and that slaves risked sacrificing their families by escaping
during the first station. I contributed my ideas to two out of the three
questions that were presented. During my second session of being an attendee, I
shared my thoughts for four out of the six questions that were asked. I
explained how slaves were whipped and abused by masters, how the slaves had to
make the decision of escaping or not and if they wanted to commit suicide or
not, that family motivated them to want to survive, and how Harriet Jacobs had
to make the decision of leaving her kids. I felt as though I helped the
discussions move along when being an attendee.
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