Today started out okay. Roman awoke about 6:20am on his own, but was in a good mood. Doug took him to daycare so I could get gas in the car and make it on time to class. Today was Water Day at daycare and Roman tells us he had fun. Miss Jenny told us that he "made everyone's day" because he laughed so much and had so much fun.

I arrived to find the air conditioner working today at the school. Yay! Our morning lecture was a bit cerebral on the Harlem Renaissance; specifically jazz, the 12-bar blues, and a democratic culture. Yeah, you try linking those together in a 1 hour, 45 min. lecture.

Breakout session was very nice to us - instead of discussing readings (we will tomorrow), Marty and Tom gave us background on the 1863 Detroit (draft?) Riot as they felt it was unfair for us to create a project based in no knowledge, when the high school teachers have lots of pre-existing knowledge of their topic (Riot of 1967).

Lunch of pork tenderloin, rice, salad, and custard cups. Yummy. Then a briefer lecture on using images as evidence, which was a lot of fun. We initially had to form an opinion just using our prior knowledge; then she would feed us little facts until it changed the whole idea we had. Good demonstration on how necessary it is to have context information if possible. This is where my irritation arrived, however; sitting next to two female teachers who had a comment about everything. Talked through the introduction, giggled and had comments about every photo, conducted conversations with others around them... rude, really. They finally got quieter when I leaned toward the person next to me and said, "I hope you don't mind me getting closer, but I can't concentrate because of the TALKING."

Afternoon breakout was working with our group. We had a half hour of some crazy chaotic interrupting-each-other discussions. Then a couple went to the copy room, one went to go type up something, and I could finally concentrate.

Tomorrow we report to the Henry Ford Academy for discussion of 1950s, then tour of a couple buildings there and how to use physical evidence. Afternoon we have to work on our project, to be presented to our peers and museum staff on Friday. Oh, did I mention that our projects will be on display for a month at the museum? Yikes!