The writing class

no one could film this class with sound for the sound is overwhelming as the students who are really kids talk and chatter and laugh at their keyboards clicking as the fans whirr as the water drips from the pipe overhead which it should not be doing should it and the teacher raises her voice just for a moment or two just until attention focuses and she can laugh and mark out the instruction the key to doing the next part of the assignment and the key to noticing who is stuck at the keyboard and cannot get to the screen with the example some of them notice that the teacher has exuberance and patience at the same time a combination that surprises them briefly and then they go back to facebook and pictures of african safaris and parties and wondering how they will get to work and get school done and see boyfriends and girlfriends the teacher does not wonder because she is focused on letting them learn that all of it is communication the clicking and chatter the assignment and the listening she does not wonder because she is busy answering nudging shifting perspective and letting them know that stress is okay when necessary but it is not necessary here because this room is a safe place because real communication requires that moment of getting in touch with thought and experience and the person across the divide when it is safe people laugh more when it is safe then eyes meet and lips curl in a smile and it is suddenly quieter although all around the keys click and the fans whirr and the voices are raised in laughter and talk

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