Social issues class

So the whole, "Take a picture with my phone and upload it to the blog immediately, which will make me head to the blog and write a post actually talking about what is in the picture" idea hasn't been working lately (as evidenced by the previous two posts which sport pictures but no real text. Unless, of course, I retcon and go edit them.)

This is my Social Issues class plus a couple of auditors. It's a rambunctious group that not only likes to discuss stuff, but likes to challenge how I grade things and why I do things the way I do them. I welcome the challenges. I find the hardest thing is not to let them (or me) go off on tangents, and not to let the whole class degrade into a bunch of smaller conversations.

Overall they're a good group. Even the guy who talks all the time knows he's talking all the time and doesn't begrudge it when I ignore his raised hand to call on some other people who haven't spoken yet.

Actually, the hardest part is guiding the discussion so it actually reveals something about the text or subject being discussed. I think we all enjoy the discussion, but I'm not always convinced that any real learning happens until we all walk away and think about some of the things that've come up.