okay maybe its just me but in class on Tuesday, i am not sure what exactly it had to do with teaching. I felt like describing our "fantasy world" was a waste of time and it frustrated me. I am here to learn things to help me teach and what did it have to do with teaching?

I agree completely. I think it was good to see if anyone would have changed things for the better and maybe made education different, but you are right, we probably should not have spent that much time on that discussion. I think the same goes for the "Military" discussion. It kind of dealt with structure and how we will need to be apart of that structure when we enter the "business of education" but the whole Mai Lai video is stretch to tie into our educational development.

Yeah it seemed a long time to spend on the topic. In class we kind of came to the conclusion that we wanted a fantasy world where we would basically take out all the bad parts of our world. I think this is what most of us do in our lives just to get through. For me its playing music, that makes me forget about all the other stuff going on in the world. For others it could be going to beach or drinking with friends, whatever.

The tie I can make to teaching is that for our students, their fantasy world most likely does not include school. So everyday we will deal with some students who really do not want to be in our class. They instead will be daydreaming of their own fantasy world, and waiting for the bell to ring when we are explaining important concepts.

With Mai Lai we should recognize that people in our country could have family that had to withstand incredible hard ships such as Mai Lai, the Holocaust, or other horrific events. As teachers we should be sensitive to this and treat all of our students with equal respect. Sorry for the super long reply.

I agree with you all. Even though the discussion about the fantasy world was interesting, I really don't see how it had much to do with education. Now the discussion we had about people and following was more closely related because in a way that is how students act. Also, as teachers when we instruct our students on a particular subject, the kids will usually believe us and do as instructed without questioning. So I felt like it was an eye opener as to the power we as teachers wield. However, the My Lia video, I could have gone my whole life without seeing that. In no way will that ever help me with instruction of my students.

I would agree that some of the class discussions not only are off the beaten path but ultimately turn into personal arguments instead of intellectual debates. But i can see some what of what she is doing. This is a discussion class we have no tests per say and no real assignments besides reading and spilling our thoughts. I think Dr. Turner is smarter than we are giving her credit for and that she is opening our minds to deeper thought past what we see as the important tools of teaching. Though some of the subjects we have discussed were very hard for me to relate to teaching, they have forced me to listen to other teachers opinions, aka all of you, and they have further more required myself to look at what i really believe and not just what looks good on paper or sounds good with words. I think that in our experiences as teachers we will experience some uncomfortable and quite awkward experiences that we may not even be able to train for, but what are we doing in this class? It seems to me that she is raising questions for discussion that are the types of topics that result in many different opinions and discussion that you cant deny puts your stomach into knots. The whole army discussion though jarring made all of us feel uncomfortable to an extent, but how did you respond in the face of that feeling? Did you be quiet and not verbalize your feelings or did you speak out to share your opinion and possibly come to some kind of understanding of the others beliefs and thoughts? And with the perfect world did you see how many people started changing their minds as the class went on? I think she was and has been letting us teach ourselves how to understand situations and emotions we will deal with in the school real world because you can have all of the book knowledge and understanding of the content that you want, but if you dont have the street smarts and social skills i think you will get eaten alive especially in secondary education. Once again this is just an opinion but i think we must step back from the confusing discussion material and think why are we doing so much discussion which forces us to take a look at ourselves and the teaching styles/beliefs of others? hmmm i wonder why

I believe that we did have a class about freedom/fantasy world to become better teachers. I think that Dr. Turner wanted us to realize how we say we are "free" but, the reality is is that we need structured freedom. When I was much younger and my parents would tell me to do something, I use to tell them, "It's a free country. I can do whatever I want." They use to respond, "Well, it's not as free as you think it is." However, compared to some other cultures, we live in a structured society that allows people to speak their minds and create openly.

I also believe that Dr. Turner was showing that when we have our own classroom, not to dictate and power over our students. We should give our students the freedom to express his or herself through means of art, music, writing, discussion, etc. A strictly structured classroom will not enable students to learn and grow. It would hinder their endless potential to create, cripple their curiosity to discover, and dry their thirst for knowledge.

Dr. Turner's class is unique. However, just because her particular pedagogy stimulates emotions (good and bad), does that mean the topics we have covered thus far are not germane to teaching? Doubtful.
Without question, during class on Tuesday I kept asking myself, “who cares about a fantasy world and whether I would chose, ‘to go.’â€

First off, I am not going to deny the fact that I was kinda frustrated on Tuesday and kept thinking to myself, "why in the world is my decision to enter a fantasy world going to help me become a better teacher?!" It just didn't seem beneficial to me that we should have a discussion about personality traits and how we would control our own fantasy world.

However, in looking at the freedom aspect of the class, my opinion kinda changes. I agree with Elliott in the fact that as future teachers, we are going to have an endless amount of possibilities to impact children's (or adolescents') lives by the things we do. Our students are with us 180 days in a school year, so naturally they are going to look up to us for answers and guidance. Even though school systems set plenty of standards that require us to abide by, we need to remember that we have plenty of other freedoms that will allow us to do anything that is necessary in helping our students succeed. We just have to make sure we use the freedoms we are given in the best way possible and not get carried away.

I like the way the lesson went. By the time Dr. Turner got to the lecture we were all engaged, ready to here what she had to say about freedom. I was ready to hear the why behind the fantasy exercise. Many times teachers jump into lecture with no attempt to hook or bring you into it. I like the way Dr. Turner usually does something that wakes me up and gets me ready to listen. I think that its something that we need to remember as teachers, especially with high school and below. Not everybody is so eager to learn facts.

I haven't been surprised by the directions of our discussions. I feel like we are assigned a good deal of reading that is providing us with information on how to teach better, and more importantly, what we need to think about in order to teach well. Dr. Turner told us at the beginning of the course that she wanted to help us work through issues before we reach the classroom so that we will be able to live with the decisions we make. Hitting emotional issues is part of working these things out. What's nice about a seminar setup is that it's up to us to do the reading and take in what we will.

I have to agree with everyone. Some of these discussions have nothing to do with teaching and it always turns into an argument amongst our fellow classmates. She does keep us all engaged though.

I think that you have a good point molly! I was really engaged during the discussion, but I can understand what you are saying. Somthing that I got out of it was that I could use it in my classroom one day. I am going to teach Language Arts in middle school, and I could use this activity to prompt my students one day. I know everyone cannot use this, but I thought it would be helpful to me. I think alot of this class is just learning to debate and discuss things with each other without freaking out. One day we are going to have to work with other teachers and maybe this class will help us learn how to deal with our differences.

i agree jessica. sometimes we just have to go along for the ride and trust that Dr. Turner knows what she is doing. i do not enjoy all the discussions but am trying to learn how to use these prompts to teach my middle school classes one day. we may not see the benefit of these discussions now but we may use them one day. who knows? i'm just trying to keep an open mind with the teaching style and see what happens.

I started thinking more about that fantasy world and I came to the conclusion that I couldn't have it. I thought about how I could take anyone I wanted into this world with me and how selfish that is. Think about it, the world we create is what we want not want others want. By taking my friends and family and putting them into this world with me, I would be taking away their free will. Yes they could do whatever they wanted in my world but how can I say my fantasy world is their dream world.

Shannon I agree with you. I am constantly confused as to where we are going with things, but I am trying to keep an open mind about it all and take whatever I can from it. I think that is the best way to go about education, have an open mind and take what you personally can from it.