I thought that teaching at the middle school was a very interesting experience because the challenges of teaching and the challenges of conveying the ideas behind digital media. The teaching portion was more challenging than I expected. I was certianly grateful for the opportunity to work with the education class prior to our lesson because they pushed me to put more and more detail into my lesson, which helped a lot. When first thinking about teaching the lesson, it seems like it will be an easier thing to do than in reality. I found that getting the class going and brining them into the lesson was more difficult than expected, but one the students were engaged the lesson improved.

I think one of my mistakes was overestimating the intellectual capabilities of my class. Middle school is definitely a tricky time to tell who is at what stage in their learning curve, which made things more difficult. I found that my assumption that the students would be able to grasp the term of digital media grammar was a bit of a reach, but I think they still ended up enjoying the lesson. Hopefully it at least got them thinking more critically about what is going on behind the scenes of the digital media they consume each day. Also, I felt that maybe because the students are so entrentched in digital media on a daily basis, it was more difficult for them to break into the idea that there were things going on behind the scenes.

Overall, I felt it was a very cool experience. I feel that I learned a lot about teaching from the experience. Also, by trying to break down the concept of digital media grammar, I feel that my own grasp on the subject has grown immensely.