| Teacher's Workshop : Photography and New Media Techniques

Explore the issues, problems, joys and concerns that art and media educators share.

Lindsay Pinchbeck and Nancy Harris Frohlich invite educators of all subjects and all levels Pre K – Graduate level to develop a practice of documentation in the classroom. Using photography and learning to listen carefully to the cues and clues of learners we will apply photography and the power of observation to reflect upon the learning taking place. The practice allows for reflection from the teachers and learners and has proven to support collaboration among the many stakeholders in the education system, from teachers, learners, parents and administrators by making learning visible.  By building a practice of documentation through photography and video, journaling and listening carefully to the learners we encourage teachers to share ideas, embrace inquiry based learning and trust the process of an emerging curriculum.

Overarching goals for the course are for participants to:

• • Immerse themselves in a simulated classroom context for connected teaching and learning
• • Adopt a research mindset and learn new techniques that will inform their teaching and understanding of student thinking
• Create a photographic record of the learning process, highlighting and narrating observable themes

Topics to be discussed and explored:

• The emerging curriculum and inquiry based learning
• Exercises in Listening and Observation
• Daily journaling and arts explorations
• Photography exercises and participant support as necessary
• Design work using Pages
• The role of the camera allowing teachers to shift to facilitator, letting the learners lead.
• Educational approaches and examples using documentation practices
• Authentic learning with transparency
• Dialogue and communication around collected documentation
• How to add documentation into a daily teaching practice

Over the course of the week workshop participants will photograph an active classroom environment, develop practices to collect the emerging learning, review documentation examples in order to build conversations about teaching and learning and discuss the merits of embracing this documentation practice. Participants will design their own project board with collected evidence through photographs, work samples, student quotes and teacher observations.

Teachers will develop a deeper understanding of their students’ as learners and students will have visual information from which to reflect on and expand their own thinking. Documentation offers teachers the opportunity to make positive change in their classrooms and feel confident about the process.