So one of the components of our community inquiry project is a poster presentation. Which is in about 4 hours actually. So while I was finishing up the paper I was thinking about and gathering materials for that.
I decided to divide my poster into three areas, left, center and right, and go with a different focus with each or them. In the center I had a copy of my paper abstract, a copy of the map from my walkthrough of Newark and a few graphs of information on substance use prevalence and the influence of risk and protective factors on substance use. So mostly pure information.
The right side I went with quotes from people I heard speak in AA meetings, along with a couple sets of song lyrics that have a lot of personal meaning to me with regards to substance use. I used multiple fonts and orientations when attaching them to mimic random conversation and make them seem more like they were coming from many different people. Which they do.
The left side I went with photos related to substance use. They start off at the top, well organized and depicting mostly "nice" casual scenes of substance use. As they descend down the poster the pictures get more serious. People passed out, police giving breathalyzers, addicts shooting up, etc. At the bottom is a body bag being led past a cop car (that pic is from Heath Ledger's OD, just to let you know). The pictures become progressively more skewed and chaotically arranged as you go down. My goal was to visually depict the continuum of substance use, starting with "normal" recreational use and proceeding through the descent addicts suffer, both in terms of visual consequences as well as the emotional and psychological consequences most people don't see.
At least that's what I was shooting for. I'll try to get a picture of it up later.
Showing posts with label artsy stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artsy stuff. Show all posts
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Culture Collage...
(Advance apologies for writing way too much yet again)
So for my urban education class last week we had to prepare and present a collage displaying our culture as a person and as an educator.
I really didn't enjoy this project.
Apparently several of my classmates didn't enjoy it either, they didn't want to think about or discuss the events that have shaped them or were disturbed by the feelings that arose in putting the collage together.
I didn't like it for a different reason: I *hate* doing "artsy" stuff. Give me a textbook, 700 pages of notes and 12 hours to study for a midterm and I'm as happy as a clam. I thrive under the "read, lecture, regurgitate" format of teaching that the current theory of education deplores. And I actually learn pretty well in that format, how else do you think I got my Ph.D? But I do accept that I'm a little unusual in that regard and I'm happy to adapt my style to whatever will work best for my students.
I found it very interesting how many different interpretations of culture my fellow students had. Some people focused on music/TV/movies that were important to them. Some people focused on things that are important in their lives now. I focused on the things in my life that have shaped my culture. Things that have helped determine my values and beliefs. Short version: my family (parents/siblings and wife/sons), my environment (being from Alaska), school (gee, I've only spent 90% of my life as a student of one kind or another) and AA (which plays a huge role in who I am now. Trust me, you don't want to know the guy I was prior to AA).
Talking about being a recovering alcoholic and being in AA was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm typically pretty open about my disease, because it does play a big role in my life and in who I am. But I struggle a lot with the expectation that people will react negatively when they find out I'm an alcoholic. There are a lot of negative characterizations of alcoholics out there, and I have had situations where I think people have reacted negatively when finding out I'm an alcoholic. And the people I'm in class with are people whose opinions I value and who I want to think I'm a good person. I put several weeks of thought into whether or not I'd talk about my disease in my classes. But in the end, I decided it would have been dishonest to not talk about something that is such a big part of who I am. I also decided that it would be helpful for me to work through my fears and try and become more comfortable with who and what I am. Let's face it, my fears about peoples reactions are really just a reflection of my own thinking and the discomfort I feel in being an alcoholic. For the most part, talking about it in class wasn't bad. The rough part was that both my professor and program director decided to hang out with my group when I talked about my collage, and I got very flustered when I got to the AA portion. But overall it went well. But enough of that...
There were actually several commonalities between the different collages presented. Family was definitely a major theme for most of us. Important activities were another. I had my participation in AA on my collage. Other people had music, several had various sports. But most people had an favorite activity or two appear on their collage.
As a future educator, I think collages like this can be a very useful tool. I would certainly try and carefully explain that nothing had to be put on there that the student wasn't comfortable with and really just put a lot of effort into making sure everyone was comfortable with the project. Doing the collage was useful to me in terms of evaluating my strengths and weaknesses as an educator. For example my culture as an educator is dominated by my extensive formal schooling. I have lots of experience as a student at every level of education. But I'm pretty weak on "real world" experience. In knowing this about myself I can better prepare as a teacher, focusing on my stregths and buttressing my weaknesses.
I think students can learn similar things about themselves by putting together a similar collage. But I really think aa teacher can learn a great deal about his class and how he or she relates to that class through this. Commonalities between the teacher and the students may suggest effective topics or strategies to teach. Commonalities between students may suggest topics the teacher could study up on to better relate to the students. One of my classmates who is currently teaching had students ask for "Hannah Montana" related material, a topic she knew nothing about. But by being willing to listen and adapt to the things her students are into, she can become a more effective teacher.
Okay, I'm shutting up now, sorry for yet another dissertation-length post!
So for my urban education class last week we had to prepare and present a collage displaying our culture as a person and as an educator.
I really didn't enjoy this project.
Apparently several of my classmates didn't enjoy it either, they didn't want to think about or discuss the events that have shaped them or were disturbed by the feelings that arose in putting the collage together.
I didn't like it for a different reason: I *hate* doing "artsy" stuff. Give me a textbook, 700 pages of notes and 12 hours to study for a midterm and I'm as happy as a clam. I thrive under the "read, lecture, regurgitate" format of teaching that the current theory of education deplores. And I actually learn pretty well in that format, how else do you think I got my Ph.D? But I do accept that I'm a little unusual in that regard and I'm happy to adapt my style to whatever will work best for my students.
I found it very interesting how many different interpretations of culture my fellow students had. Some people focused on music/TV/movies that were important to them. Some people focused on things that are important in their lives now. I focused on the things in my life that have shaped my culture. Things that have helped determine my values and beliefs. Short version: my family (parents/siblings and wife/sons), my environment (being from Alaska), school (gee, I've only spent 90% of my life as a student of one kind or another) and AA (which plays a huge role in who I am now. Trust me, you don't want to know the guy I was prior to AA).
Talking about being a recovering alcoholic and being in AA was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm typically pretty open about my disease, because it does play a big role in my life and in who I am. But I struggle a lot with the expectation that people will react negatively when they find out I'm an alcoholic. There are a lot of negative characterizations of alcoholics out there, and I have had situations where I think people have reacted negatively when finding out I'm an alcoholic. And the people I'm in class with are people whose opinions I value and who I want to think I'm a good person. I put several weeks of thought into whether or not I'd talk about my disease in my classes. But in the end, I decided it would have been dishonest to not talk about something that is such a big part of who I am. I also decided that it would be helpful for me to work through my fears and try and become more comfortable with who and what I am. Let's face it, my fears about peoples reactions are really just a reflection of my own thinking and the discomfort I feel in being an alcoholic. For the most part, talking about it in class wasn't bad. The rough part was that both my professor and program director decided to hang out with my group when I talked about my collage, and I got very flustered when I got to the AA portion. But overall it went well. But enough of that...
There were actually several commonalities between the different collages presented. Family was definitely a major theme for most of us. Important activities were another. I had my participation in AA on my collage. Other people had music, several had various sports. But most people had an favorite activity or two appear on their collage.
As a future educator, I think collages like this can be a very useful tool. I would certainly try and carefully explain that nothing had to be put on there that the student wasn't comfortable with and really just put a lot of effort into making sure everyone was comfortable with the project. Doing the collage was useful to me in terms of evaluating my strengths and weaknesses as an educator. For example my culture as an educator is dominated by my extensive formal schooling. I have lots of experience as a student at every level of education. But I'm pretty weak on "real world" experience. In knowing this about myself I can better prepare as a teacher, focusing on my stregths and buttressing my weaknesses.
I think students can learn similar things about themselves by putting together a similar collage. But I really think aa teacher can learn a great deal about his class and how he or she relates to that class through this. Commonalities between the teacher and the students may suggest effective topics or strategies to teach. Commonalities between students may suggest topics the teacher could study up on to better relate to the students. One of my classmates who is currently teaching had students ask for "Hannah Montana" related material, a topic she knew nothing about. But by being willing to listen and adapt to the things her students are into, she can become a more effective teacher.
Okay, I'm shutting up now, sorry for yet another dissertation-length post!
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