Class Aim/Objective/Theme: talk about elections, teaching editing Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did : Monday Rachel had them do the Primary lesson plan, where they talked about Dems and Republicans, discussed a platform, and wrote their campaign speeches and platforms. Wednesday, we had them deliver their campaign speeches, which went well. We had the other students (everyone not giving the speech at that moment) act as the "press corps" and ask questions to clarify their peers' platforms. Then we watched the Will.i.am Obama video, and talked about oratorical style, the use of music, layering sound, things like that. It was frustrating because we had the big projection screen set up and speakers, but then we realized that we can only use the wireless in Rachel's classroom with the DOE computers, not her laptop, but that we can't access YouTube from the DOE computers, so we had to watch in the staff room and we were all crowded around her screen without speakers. Anyway. Then we used that as a transition into some basic editing practice. That was a little challenging because they didn't have sound loaded onto their computers so we were just playing with the pre-set multitrack that advertizes Audition. I also gave them chocolate bc it was the day before Valentines Day. What worked well? The speeches were good, and I think using the Obama video was good, except for the technical difficulties. Next Time I'd... Class Concerns and Questions:The incorporation of the new students remains challenging. They are testing my personal boundaries and limits, in a way that the rest of the class did at the start of the year, and I feel frustrated having to repeat that.