In Judith Richards' ethnically diverse third and fourth grade classroom, the morning meeting is a time for discussion. The functions these discussions serve range from sharing personal news to talking about problem-solving strategies. During these meetings, the teacher has a polyphonic role. She participates, moderates, and sometimes writes students' contributions on a chalkboard. She thus creates an orchestration of voices in which children respond both to other children and to what is written on the board. In this paper, the teacher gives the in-front-of-the-camera perspective, describing how she brings diverse voices into contact and what effects her organization of discussion has on children's discourse skills. The behind-the-camera perspective focuses on turn taking behavior that takes place during morning meeting. Specifically, the observer draws on methods from conversational analysis to show the placement of one instance of classroom discussion on a continuum with other speech-exchange systems. The paper concludes with an analysis of the conventions employed by the teacher which appear to influence classroom turn-taking organization according to the "cognitive apprenticeship" model of teaching. (Author/LL)