Blog 7

I love the idea of I-Searching. It finally puts a name to what I and a number of other people do whenever we run into a roadblock- hit the internet or the streets to find an answer. It's an investigative report like you'd see on the news- except on paper. I think the hardest part of the assignment for me is going to be carving out the time to interview people; and I think that would be an issue for students as well. They'd also have the added complication of finding transportation to different places to speak to people about their topic. Another problem? Choosing a topic! Part of me wants to do something related to teaching, since there's plenty I don't know about it at this point. But on the other hand, why not learn more about something I'm interested in on a purely personal level? Decisions, decisions.

And that directly relates to this week's readings, doesn't it? The right to choosing a topic. Letting students pick their own topics, though they may find it hard to decide which one to do, could end up with some interesting papers that could teach all of us something as well. If we write what we know, the words flow more freely and are organized more easily than when we just regurgitate something that we could care less about. It allows us to dig deeper into a subject or even into ourselves, and pull out words we didn't even know we were there.

I enjoyed the essay "Scott's Gift." When I was in middle school, I'd spend my study halls in the learning-disabled classroom, working with the students there. I guess you could call that my very first field experience. :) (Gasp, an emoticon!) My mom and the teacher had worked together at some point, and that's why I was allowed to be in there. I think I learned more from her students than they ever learned from me, much like Scott's teacher. It was amazing, watching his writing and reading skills blossom in the essay, to see him become more than what people expected him to be.