UNCCWP SI Day 6 Reflection

Today began with some posing and freezing in one position around the topic of "Assessment."  We had to touch somebody in some way to signify our connection to each other in this community.  Prior to that we wrote into the day by looking at three inter-related concepts: teach as writer, teacher as inquirer, and teacher as professional.  I chose the strand of teacher and professional because I wanted to write about how teachers are often not considered professionals by the larger society. 
From the warm-up activitie we wnt into my demo presentation which focused on "Revolution: The Tipping Point."  In the demo I used Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point and specifically the concept of "The Power of Context."  Gladwell suggest that "The Power of context infers that epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur."  From this concept my demo looked at the revolutions that have and are occuring in the Middle East and North Africa over the last seven months.  To include technology in my presentation I used a great interactive website called Museum Box, which is a site that allows teachers and students to create a "box of artifacts, images, video clips, texts, songs" about an event, famous person, or etc.  I created a Museum Box aabout the "2011 Egyptian Revolution" as a model and allowed my peers to create their own Museum Box about the revolutions occuring in other countries in the the Middle East and North Africa.  I really appreciated all of the great feedback from my colleagues about my demo!
The rest of the day included Ashley and Megan's demos.  Both of them were great and led into inquiring about "Critical Literacy" as a way to inspire social advocacy and our identities as writers.  The presentations were great because they allowed us to work collaboratively with our peers to think, write, reflect, and dialogue about these very interesting topics.  Today I actually feel like I can see how all of the demos are giving great ideas of how I can incorporate writing, technology, and social change in my class.  I am excited to integrate some of tis wonderful stuff in my class!  Stay tuned for day 7 tomorrow!