3rd blog of the week/discussion reflection

I mean all of this in the nicest way possible, just wanted to say that up front.

I am sort of unsure and confused about the goal of these discussions. Maybe the goal is to simply evaluate peoples' participation, but I think you should approach that in a different way. Overall, I am not a fan of these discussions which is why I did not participate yesterday. I think that there are already people in our classroom who do not feel particularly open or have the confidence to participate in a regular class discussion, and this type of assignment only makes that pressure increase. I would not say I am the most shy in our class, but I could definitely feel that struggle and inability to find the right time to talk, and I can only imagine how other introverted students must have felt. I think that often students want to chime in and say what they are feeling, but it is truly hard to do that. I am not just saying these things because I did not participate today or because I wasn't the one in the group who talked the most. Im saying these things because I truly think them, and also think we should not have these discussions anymore. I'm also telling you because you are the teacher and you are not the one in the conversation, so I wanted to give you an honest student perspective. Once again I am not sure what the point of these discussions is; what does it reflect or represent in real life? I think we can have a regular class discussion about the topic you gave us or at least just go around in a circle so everyone gets to say something because I'm sure each and every student had an idea or a question in their head that they were eager to say and release, but did not find the perfect second to say it or were not confident enough. I understand you want us to be able to participate in uncomfortable settings and not everything is supposed to be easy. I understand we must fail and discover difficulty in order to overcome our fears and weaknesses. However, this type of discussion can be degrading and uncomfortable for us. Both times we have done this, there were three or four people who talked back and forth and did not give other people a chance. Also, the discussions got extremely off topic and rarely straight-up answered your initial question. I think when you said the comment before we started the discussion that you are keeping track of the conversation, it scared a lot of people, which was probably your intention and you were trying to motivate us, but I think it put more pressure on people. Personally speaking, I definitely felt lots of anger and unease during the conversation today (and a few weeks ago) because I had so many things I wanted to say and I would formulate them perfectly in my head, but before I could open my mouth someone else that had already spoken, spoke again, or I was too nervous. I think that it is unfair that you graded us on these conversations because I was engaged with my body language, eye contact, and internal thinking, I just never had the chance to express all of it.

(Sorry for the negativity :))