Success?

About an hour ago I walked out of a computer lab in my building feeling a combination of relief and wonder. I was definitely relieved that my students didn't balk at the idea of creating videos. In fact, once they got started I heard them sharing ideas, laughing and even saying things like, "this is going to be great!". Some of the other groups worked much more quietly but still seemed to be enjoying the process.

Viewing the footage also gave all of the students a chance to reflect on their experience with the kids. They were remembering what they did and sharing stories about the experience. It was good to hear that kind of talk as well.

There were, what I feared, some technical glitches. Unfortunately, the IT folks burned my footage on to DVDs in a format that was not suitable for editing. I knew that yesterday and scrambled to create CDs myself. However, in class we realized that I only put the footage from one day on the disc. This, of course, was disappointing and limited what they could do. About an hour or so into the class I had an idea and finally was able to produce one disc that had all of the footage. Three of the groups decided to incorporate the new footage, two of the groups had already made decisions about their project and didn't want to make changes, and two other groups left class still on the fence about whether they would use the additional footage.

And, one kind of strange and sort of embarrassing interaction occurred. I remarked how one of the students is my advisee and we would be together for the next four years. She responded by saying that she was even taking another class of mine next semester. To which I replied, "And, that's a real class". Another student overheard me and said, "You're dissin' your own class!". I was kind of embarrassed and I don't even remember exactly how I responded to him. Something lame like, "oh, I just meant she is taking a class with me that is closer to my expertise" -- I am not even sure.

I wish I could take it back. All semester I was concerned that students would consider this course a joke and not a real class. And, actually, none of them ever said anything to that affect. So, why would I hand this to them? Why would I say the thing that I didn't want them to say? Is it what I really believe about the class? Or, am I pre-empting the possibility of them rejecting me by rejecting myself first? And -- how pathetic is that?