welcome to technology!

Today was the first day of DeLeT class since the summer session ended, and while the whole video conferencing thing was bizarre and will take some getting used to, it was a really enjoyable day. It was also exhausting, but I’m hesitant to keep typing that word, because I feel it’ll lose all effectiveness. Maybe it’ll be my word of the week. Just for this week.

Class at TIOH (the second day of real class) was fun today; I was just there for the morning. 5th grade Language Arts was fine; we had a mock spelling test. A preview, if you will. In my 6th grade time, when we had the 6th graders talk about books they read over the summer. Before that, we had reassigned them seats. Yesterday, the first day, we let them pick seats – where ever they wanted. All of the girls sat at one table, and all of the boys at another. There are 8 girls and 9 boys, so of course, the girls sat at the table with 10 seats, and the boys sat at the table with 8 seats, leaving one boy to sit with his not-yet-testosterone-secreting-self amongst eight 11-year-old girls. It was funny. So today, we let them rechoose seats, asking that it be boy-girl-boy-girl, and they choose to sit near the front if they have vision problems. And then we moved a few of them around. But it was a funny, funny moment, when Jo said, “we want you to sit next to someone of the opposite sex,” and a muffled, titillating laughter rippled through the class, especially the girls. I almost rolled my eyes.

Delet class, then, was refreshingly adult and almost erudite, in comparison. Getting oriented to the video conferencing – how the Fellows in the Bay Area learn from the sessions – was strange. It will take some time. There were five of us, five fellows: 3 in LA and 2 in the Bay, but when we started, there was only one on the video screen. And then they explained that he had dropped out – after a week of teaching, he felt that it was not for him. We all had mixed emotions about it: sad we didn’t get to know him better, glad he was honest and open, a desire to wish him luck on his next endeavors etc. But I’m not sure any of us felt surprised. That was the weird part. It somehow… made sense.

Anyway, after that slightly awkward moment of not knowing what to say to the Delet director, we commenced with Parashat HaShavuah (Torah Portion of the Week) – except we’re a few weeks ahead, so we can teach the portion, if need be, when the correct week arrives. And then our second class was called “Meeting the Needs of All Learners,” and that was really interesting. It’s on teaching and relating to “exceptional” students (autism, ADHD, Learning disabilities, gifted kids, etc), focusing mainly on the kids we’ll find in Jewish Day School settings. And then we had two hours of Delet class, talking about our last few weeks. It was great, being able to talk to the other fellows, know that we’re going through the same thing, in different ways, and get advice from each other. They know what it’s like for me.

All through the afternoon, I wanted to turn to the TV screens. It's amazing technology. I love it! There are two set up; one showing us the room in SF, and the other showing us how we appear on the screen. But there were five of us in LA, and one in SF, so we looked really small compared to Brian in SF. He looked normal, and (I thought) we looked digitalized and pasty. I did wear a solid green shirt, but I realized I have weird posture when I sit, and the chairs in the video room are really big, comfy, executive chairs, so it’s easy to sink in and lose myself. I have to remember to drink coffee before we start class.