Shout Out to Nathalie Ais, my favorite Smith Graduate Ever!, and her leadership role throughout the class. She prompted us with a great discussion about Freire. Everyone at my group had experiences and ideas which engaged the theories espoused by Freire thus making for a lively chat - as is typical when Jeff and Miranda are together ;)
Watching the documentary - It's Elementary - was also a wonderful thing. I am so glad that Nathalie engaged our class in the topic of the LGBTQI community as a it provided a new perspective (other than racism) to think about oppression in classrooms, schools and society. I think it's important to think about all of the 'isms' within our society and work as a group to deconstruct them within the learning communities that we'll be apart of in the future. Everyone in the class has their strengths and weaknesses in different contexts of oppression (or privilege), so to move beyond race and class - especially under the guise of Freire's work - was great...
(smooth transition into 8/2 reflection)
...like Ms. Aloe had mentioned in her reflection, I too feel that we should try to find time and space to continue these empowering, insightful, and exploratory discussions about race, gender, age, sexual-orientation, etc. I recently spoke with my aforementioned favorite Smith College Grad about setting up times in August to meet in safe environments to continue the dialogue that we just barely scratched the surface of in ED435. In addition to the continued conversations, I have heard rumblings about people sharing books, movies, etc. so as to continue the learning we've all just recently started with the Donovan Program.
The Final Presentations were amazing! I am so glad that we had the opportunity - and encouragement - to go beyond a written or power point formatted presentation. Mad-Kudos to those who stepped out of their comfort-zone to express themselves for the project. For me personally, there were a lot of ideas, experiences and hopes that I had wished to express in my collage, but ultimately, as I mentioned to my group, the take away from my art was in their eyes and interpretation. I know that I'll be reflecting on a lot of the readings, lectures, videos and discussions from this class for the next few weeks, before my brain gets crammed with other stuff, so to let out a bit of what I was thinking/feeling through this final project was a great opportunity for me. I hope to continue developing my artistic abilities through photography and other mediums of expression over the course of this next year.
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