Been awhile since I have gotten to this. Have been feeling a bit adrift. However, I must comment upon the student presentations and how successful those are as far as achieving the communication and discussion that is intended. The topics are stimulating for students and bring forth good information sharing and debate. The presentations themselves are uneven and this seems tied to a student's academic development level. They range from opinion pieces, generic reports, to substantive reports to original, creative thought making connections and sythesis.
My place within the class seems less secure to me. I'm not sure what I am offering does much for them. Some of this uncertainty rises from the new approach this semester to have themes to hang the course off of. However, I didn't bring an exploration of these in at the beginning of the semester and I should have.

Spring break has passed and now we are coasting downhill toward the end of the semester. In some ways, there is less work, or at least less pressure, on me for the rest of the journey. The ball is handed off to the students. They have much to do and for the most part they are rising to the occasion. I am hopeful for most of them and know that they will succeed. And that they learned things through the course that were worthwhile and relevant, that it was a challenging and fulfilling experience. I hope. Part of my work now is to reflect on what went right and what went wrong this semester. I tried a major revision of course design this time around, and now I have plans for another redesign for the next round (this summer). It's tricky, and sometimes it seems no matter what I do, it all comes down to the students. It's the students that determine the success of a course although I doubt they really realize this.

Anyway, we begin the next round of presentations, and this is one part of my redesigned plan that actually work out well. I like how they learn from each other in this situations.