25 And that’s a (W)rap
by Meghna Lohia
“If it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which they achieve significance as human beings” – Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch.3
I really struggled with deciding how I wanted to present my final project. After deliberating with my inner voice for quite a while, I decided the best way to explain the concept is to demonstrate what it might be like to put my idea into practice. Also, there is a rap at the end. Enjoy.
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Welcome to our mini baby trial workshop my lovely students, today we are going to look at x computer science problem:
*insert CS question here*
Sit with this problem for 5 minutes and read it over. Upon your initial glance, how does this question make you feel? Are you excited to solve it? Bored? Is it posed in a way that is confusing?
Close your eyes and take 2 more minutes to reflect on how your body is feeling in class. Do you feel different now than before? Is there a sense of anxiety that you feel? Are you at ease?
After sitting with the problem and yourself, feel free to write down your thoughts on a piece of paper that you will not be asked to share.
Before we finish the individual part of this baby workshop, everyone write down either a color or a question on these cue cards *hands out cue cards*. This is entirely anonymous and everyone will seem like they are writing something down, hence the color or question.
*I will go over these questions with everyone, giving a few hints about the problem and different ideas for approaches*
Now, in your small groups (five people) try to walk through the problem together. You’ll have approximately 5 minutes to do so. If you only read the question, that is ok. If you start to solve it that is also ok!
After 5 minutes, we will reconvene as a class and go over the problem.
*5 minutes later after I have explained the problem*
Alright, now that we have gone through the problem both on our own, with our peers, and with the whole class, take that piece of paper out again. How did it make you feel when you solved the problem alone? Did you enjoy that? What about with your peers?
How are you feeling now? Take a moment to close your eyes and reflect on your experience. Was that a terrible question? If so, why? Was that a great question? If so, why? Feel free to write down the answers to these questions, or simply sit with your thoughts. There is no need to share either way.
If you’d like to, hold on to it as a reminder of how you felt, both mentally and physically, when we had this workshop.
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This is just one part of a larger dialogue (the workshop only demonstrates the class time experience). My other idea is to include a check-in system with every student. The check ins will be a weekly time where I meet with each student individually to ask them how they are doing. There will be no formality, no important topic to cover (unless the student wants that)