Watching a democracy

 This has turned out to be a short week. 

On Monday, we began the new semester. It was a normal day time wise, but so far, that is the only day that was. Tuesday was a two hour, early dismissal—the first I can remember in my 19 years at Park. I guess with the prediction of snow that was to begin around noon, (and it did) the county administration wanted to get the kids home and off the highways before things got bad. (and they did, and it was)

Yesterday we were closed and today we are on a two hour delay, so all the classes will be shortened again, not a great framework for class productivity, but one of the pipers that must be paid when no one in a  consolidated school lives within walking distance. 

Due to the new semester scheduling for the game design courses and the students in them, we have had some major upheaval in our game design teams. My first period Game Design class was moved to second period, but my period seven class stayed put. Due to scheduling conflicts, nine students  have been moved into first period from period seven and nine students moved to seventh period.  Of the period one, original four teams, each with four members, two teams have only one remaining member, one has two members and fourth has three members. 

I have opted to let the class decide how to reconfigure the teams and we spent the short time we had today debating the pros and cons of a variety of methods. It was interesting to watch this mini-democracy in action. Some were strong advocates for their positions, some were passive and non-committal. Some were peacemakers and some were vocal in their opposition or support of a particular method.

It was illuminating to know their personalities and then put their positions and responses in that context as the debate continued. Odds are we will be on a two hour delay tomorrow, so we'll hopefully we'll get the teams reconfigured by tomorrow. I anticipate the same situation will occur in my 7th period class this afternoon.