I really felt like the common hour was not useful at all to really address diversity on campus.  The premise was that people would get together, and talk about diversity experiences and problems on campus, and then think of ways to solve the problems, and ways to improve diversity on the campus.  A facilitator led the discussion, and took notes on what answers people had.  The notes were going to be compiled to help create a 5-year plan to improve diversity.
     One of the biggest problems that came up is that there are not many students who don’t fit the Gettysburg mold, and so other students who don’t fit the mold don’t want to come, or don’t stay if they do.  The problem perpetuates itself.  I'’ not sure that a 5 year plan is going to fix the problem.  It would mean a huge change in attitudes on campus, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, sadly.
     It makes me realize why diversity is such an issue in schools.  Attitudes are hard to change.  I realize that I have to open and sensitive to so many different things.  The task seems huge.

     I attended Laurie Rubio’s Senior Recital.  She played the violin, and was accompanied on the piano.  He playing was beautiful.  She played a variety of music, classical and some modern.  It makes me think of relating music to history by learning about how the times that composers lived affected the type of music they made.  For example, what instruments were available to play when they wrote?  This would affect what they wrote.
 

     I attended the James Rouvelle exhibit, “Endangered Species of the 21st Century.”  I absolutely loved this exhibit.  It was interactive.  There were all types of things to do.  There was a sound maker that changed sound as you touched it.  There were towers that were motion sensitive, and lights blinked on and off depending on how you moved.  There were also these little white balls that wiggled and moved around on the floor.  You could touch them, kick them, and interact with them.  I think they were the best part of the exhibit.
     I would this that this exhibit would work well to bring a science class to.  All the exhibits had some type of mechanical or electrical devices to make them interactive.  I would have the students maybe talk to the artist if possible, to learn how he made the exhibits work.  Then I would have students create their own interactive art from what they learned.

    I went Yo Shelley Miller's senior recital.  She played the harpsichord, the forte piano, and the piano.  I found that I really liked the piano but wasn't really interested in the other two instraments.  I feel like it was a little history lesson on teh evolution of precussion instraments though.  It began with one of the earlier pieces, then moved to the more mordern.  It also showed how the music changed as the instruments changed.  One thing about the program, it gives the history of the composer and even a little about when teh piece was written.  This could be used to look at how music developed and changed in history.

    I went to Ryan Bartosiewezc's senior recital.  He played the piano.  One thing that he did differently fromother students was to talk about the history of the pieces he played, and why he played them.  One thing that came up a few times was the political circumstances that existed that incited the writing.  For instance, he talks about how Chopin was writing about his home country which he could not return to for fear of being conscripted.  He then explains how this circumstance causes the music to be very heroic and yet very nostalgic.  I think that a recital that is given in this way would be good for students to learn how history, like politics and social events, can effect other areas of life like music.

    I went to the senior art show in Schmucker art Gallery on the opening night.  There was a big variety in the exhibits there.  One person had done pictures in photo realism, by trying to exactly replicate black and white photographs with pencil and paper.  Another student was into archetecture, and actually built a structure in the gallery.  There were full sized sculptures of people, and some amazing work with metal and light.  One thing there that I spent some time looking at was the artist's statements about their works.  I think that if I was going to use the exhibit for a class I would want then to do two things while there.  I would first want them to identify the different forms of art that were there.  I would then want them to look at the artist statements and try to understand them and to decide for themselves if the artists had achieved the stated goals.  This would be a challenging assinment, but I think it might work.

    I was really struck at Megan's presentation by the differences she described between American and English schools.  The ideals, methods, and attitudes seemed to be different in many ways.  It makes me wonder, if a country that we have so much in common with is so different with education, then how much more different will educucation be in a completely different culture?  How much will that difference affect how a student coming into my classroom from another culture can perform.  For example, I know that student teaching in Gettysburg means that I will probably have Latino students in my class.  I know from the schools that I visited in Mexico that the classes are very different.  That means I have to make sure that I help my students adjust to a totally different way of having classes.  It is a challenge that I will face in almost any classroom, that I need to be especially aware of.