Creating And Engaging In Multitudes Of Dialogue

My stats for this blog at the most recent check.

It may only be 1000 views, a tiny number in typical blogging stats, but it still feels like a small milestone for me and this blog.

When I'm reading other people's blogs I'm often left feeling inferior, in my ability to organise my thoughts into words, sentences and paragraphs. They are often very well-constructed, insightful and original. I'm not the best editor of my own writing (let alone my thoughts) and I'm not professing to have brand-new ideas or thoughts, but this has been an interesting project for me so far and seeing that I have 1000 views is encouraging to know that somebody is reading my posts somewhere.

Here at ISB, we've been trying to host fairly regular 'Tech Tank' meetings, in which a group of faculty who are interested in blogging, social-networking, integration of tech in our teaching and personal development, get together over some nibbles and drinks and discuss what we've learned or tried or struggled with recently in regards to those topics.

When we get onto the subject of blogging there often tends to be feelings of fear or disinterest from some of the people at the group. And I admit to feeling my own fears in regards to blogging sometimes too. One of those concerns that's brought up is 'Who are my audience? I don't know who would want to read this? Should I have a specific audience I'm writing for?'

I'm discovering more about the answers to these questions as I go and although I think it's fine to write for a specific selective audience, I also feel like it's OK to be a bit more general throughout your blog. There are some audiences I have in mind when I'm writing my posts and a particular post might be more interesting to a certain group, but I hope that in general my blog might be read by a wide-range of people and that it may open up/continue dialogues about a range of topics.

I would like to think that at least one of those views is a colleague at ISB, so that they can know where I am in my head and my teaching.
That at least one is a parent of a student at ISB, so they can know the kinds of things I am interested in as a teacher.
That at least one is a student, so that they can know I exist beyond just being a teacher. That I have other thoughts/interested and that I'm learning too.
That at least one is someone who is not related to ISB or teaching at all, so that they may get a small insight in to education/drama/me.

Blogging, to me, is another way that I can express myself and also a way of creating and engaging in dialogues, with all of the different communities to which I belong: ISB, education, theatre, global and so on. I contain multitudes in my self, in my art, in my teaching and so I should contain multitudes in my blog.

So to encourage further dialogue, if you're reading this blog, I'd love to know who you are and what you think about this or any other post of mine... 

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Modern Teacher/Artist Profiles

Saw this blog post appear on my twitter feed from John Michael Mikton @jmikton, discussing a graphic from Reid Wilson @wayfaringpath  (-I'll be reading both their blogs from now on) and noticing the image first, I was reminded that it was promoting similar attitudes that are also promoted among the artist community, to which I belong, too.

Graphic from Reid Wilson http://www.wayfaringpath.com/ 

It's obvious of course, but replace the words teacher, students and colleagues with artist, audience and friends and you have all the same principles as The Profile of a Modern Artist. 

Starting my career as a theatre maker, specifically one who devises, I learned to enjoy delving into the unknown. I love making new connections by throwing unlikely material together and seeing what happens. 

Then immediately after my studies, jumping into some lecturing jobs forced me to be in another new situation, one where I had the extra responsibility of facilitating student's learning as well as my own. So I had to improvise. It wasn't enough to use the exercises I myself had been taught, those were either used up in the first couple of weeks or were not useful for the specific module I was teaching. I had to research new ones from books and DVDs of other artists, but more importantly I had to invent new ones.

And when I started improvising, in a very similar way to making theatre, I realized that I was alright, that nothing bad happened. In fact some of my improvisations have now become exercises that I call upon frequently in my teaching. If I didn't try to be an all knowing expert on theatre, but just someone with an experience that could be useful to others and a flexible and creative attitude towards problem solving, I felt liberated and I think that the students were able to connect with me easier as well. 

So I'm coming to the end of this quick blog post, and now I'm also thinking, if you replace co-learners with co-livers, their students with strangers, then you have The Profile of a (an ideal) Modern Human. These principles can guide you in so many aspects of your life.

It's something to strive for...

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Time Wise

On Wednesday I had my first session back after the Christmas break with one of my classes. They're a group that often arrive early before the class starts (it's first thing so it's OK) and they take that time to share stories, listen to music together and joke around. I'm often included too which is a nice way to bond with them.

Pretty much as soon as they arrived on Wednesday, one of the girls eagerly told me that a small group of them (including a student who has since left this school and moved to Paris but with whom that have maintained a connection with) had been working on a series of videos over Christmas and asked me if I wanted to see them. Absolutely, I wanted to! I'm always curious what these kids in particular get up to online, because they're not the type just to make funny vines or in-joke videos. These guys produce some pretty interesting stuff sometimes.

So, we pulled up their Youtube channel and what I saw really surprised me. Not only had they made a series of films, written, filmed and produced themselves, but they had actually done something of real value. A series of films, some a little bit abstract, some in a Film-Noir style, all really impressive. Especially when you consider that these students are only 15, this is the first time they've got their hands on a decent camera and most of the production skills they've got are self-taught.

And seeing their creative entrepreneurship was a reminder of my attitude when I was a similar age. I have always had a need to create, to produce things that I have in my head, and so often I have had to teach myself the relevant skills I needed. I was often making videos with my friend's old VHS camcorder (a huge piece of equipment, the fruits of which still exist somewhere on tape at my friend's house), and in my own time learning how to use Photoshop so I could make photos like this

(Yes, I really did have highlights in my hair at that age)

I managed to get myself to a fairly decent proficiency with the software, by reading online tutorials and following the steps, and by watching videos posted by other budding Photoshop amateurs and professionals. I taught myself how to use Final Cut, so I could edit videos and I learned some basic InDesign techniques, to arrange my posters. Now I'm at a stage where I can make posters which I can hang on my walls at home, like this

and I can make the posters I've needed for student performances.

 and I can edit and produce videos, (even if only to a fairly basic standard).


So as well as getting myself the skills I needed for my own creative outputs and without realising it at the time, I was giving myself invaluable skills that I would be able to use in my professional career later. In fact, I have actually managed to get myself jobs off the back of these skills (I worked as a secondary school drama technician for a while in which quite a bit of my time was spent video editing and photoshopping) and I continue to use these skills on a weekly basis.

For that group of students, they could have spent their time over the vacation doing something else, making stupid videos, or even not at all, but instead they chose to do something else...
As well as producing something of real artistic value, as well as developing their own styles and techniques, they are actually independently advancing their own learning and setting themselves up with skills that they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.

So, time wise, that's time wisely spent!

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