Things are hopping down under the Elting Room. I've started calling the basement "Down Under," a much nicer term, and more Continental moniker for a Languages building, if you ask me. This week we saw visits from:
- Our principal, who showed snippets of hobbits for his Lewis/Tolkien course
- Christine Robinson, whose students viewed and discussed Kandahar
- Johnny Griffith, who held a writing workshop in the lab and watched Macbeth in the classroom (see Teacher Comments post for more about this)
- Eimer Page's class--they conversed about a film
- Temple Jordan's class practiced writing, speaking, and recording in Japanese
- Becky Moore's English writing students did some Internet research and then wrote
- Mario Alvarez and his French and Spanish classes watched digital Internet video and DVDs
The teachers tell me there is significant value in having a Harkness table at the ready so they can quickly move from activity to discussion without losing precious class time, something I was grateful for in my Phelps Science classroom.
In addition, the lab functions as a work and writing space for students all throughout the day and into the evening until 10 pm. My only regret is that I regularly have to kick students out who are working during their free periods if a class has signed up. For some students, who call this their primary workplace, that has been difficult and goes against the grain of my educator's cloth, since we teach them to find and stick with a place where they can be productive. Perhaps we'll eventually have sufficient space for both classes and students who (wisely) choose to use their frees to get some work done. Of course, there are also a few who are watching YouTube episodes of Lost to relax for a few minutes!
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