Complexity Thinking
So much of the work I do with students goes beyond a single lesson. In the STEAM Acadmy our focus is on project based learning which has ties to community and is itnerdisciplinary. We're still working on the nuts and bolts of this program, but there have been some amazing successes, and instances of students really getting into the projects that they're doing for, with and in the community. For that reason I choose to do my photos essay on some of the community based work that students have done in the past month or so. Some of the work you see is not art based. The Langford TEAM photos particularly is something that I did with students this year that was new to me, but was a valuable experience for me and my students. Stepping outside of the art box and into the realm of the world of buisiness was an interesting change for me especially.
The topic of this photo essay was to look at teaching through a new lense, and I definitely feel like I've been trying to do that. My goal this year is to promote the students and their work through social media. I still need to work on it, I seem to have a lot of photos that never quite make it to the internet. Ideally- with technology kinks worked out- we'd like students to develop working portfolios of the process and the product of all of their projects and be responsible for their own documentation.
What should we teach in our classrooms? Um, skills that will help students be positive members of their communities. By the time they graduate, hopefully they will leave us with all of the tools they need to be curious, intrinsically motivated human beings- life long learners of whatever it is that makes them happy and successful. Of course as art teachers we hope to teach them skills to be creative and be able communicate with and be skilled at opening themselves up to other human beings through self-expression and empathy. Right?
Gosh, there is so much that I would like to inject my students with. It sometimes overwhelms me the responsibilities I feel toward helping my students prepare for the real world that lies beyond high school. I used to want to help students discover the joys of art making, whether it was to move to an AP art class, studying art after high school or simply to enjoy art making as a therapeutic hobby.
When I started teaching at Metro, my purpose shifted toward helping students successfully interact with other human beings in a socially acceptable way. I spend a lot of time encouraging students to try things that are outside of their comfort zone, and build their self-esteem. I want students to learn how to express themselves creatively, and to give them another way to communicate their feelings to the world. I want students to feel like they matter. I want them to learn that they have a voice, and what they have to say is important.
Don’t get me wrong, I am passionate about art making and learning, but I am okay with the art product sitting in the back seat and occasionally having a pretty dismal looking display cabinet. Students need a well-rounded education, and they need teachers who look at them as human beings. Students often come to Metro because no one at the traditional schools saw or cared who they really were, and they were not getting the education or support they really needed.
I believe my classroom is a complex system, where students are interacting with each other and feeding off of each other, each class creating it’s own culture of productivity, themes and inspiration. I have seen classes rise up together, getting excited to work and sometimes creating worlds and rules of their own in the play of conversation and art making that can happen in the best of times. I have also seen classes go down together, where negative social interaction and defiant work ethic destroys any fun or collaboration, when instead, the collaboration turns to self-destructive boredom. I’m thinking of the analogy of the flocks of birds, either creating beautiful pulsing dances in the sky, or instead, following each other into a pane glass window. Hmmm.
In the classroom, I am constantly balancing constraints and freedoms, and every student seems to need an adjustment to that balance. As a good teacher you have a million adaptations up your sleeves, and can be flexible in your teaching to encourage the most deep thinking, self reflection and dialogue for multiple situations. In the end, my goal is always to help a student find something they are passionate about and to guide them through an exploration until they are truly proud.
