So I'm having to come up with activities on the fly since we didn't have any chance for planning before we got the class and I didn't want the students to just sit around and chat for 87 minutes. I am literally making things up as I go. On the first day I gave the students index cards and had them decorate one side with their name and answer a few questions on the back including their favorite movies and music and what colleges and majors they were considering. I wanted fodder for Pandora stations and going through their answers on colleges and majors gave me amazing perspective on how the students view higher education. Most of the students think SDSU is their only option and have no idea about majors. One student expressed her desire to be a veterinarian then said she wanted to major in English. I can see a lack of relating college to career options when I read things like that. Today I had them watch a Ted Talk that I had watched the day before for my literacy methods class, then had them summarize using a similar sentence frame to the one our professor modeled two weeks ago. I am looking forward to reading their responses. It's interesting to see how they perceive the same talk very different than my peers and I. I'm also getting a sense for their writing ability and where to focus when we are working on application essays.
Overall, what started off as something scary and unexpected looks to be a wonderful teaching and learning experience for me.