Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/the-art-of/5008745/
When asked to recall my favorite workshop, I quickly remembered the instructor who passed out cameras to our group of about 20 in-service teachers. We worked in threes; instructions were minimal:1. Try to capture images that have personal meaning from your childhood.
2. Be thoughtful about the composition of your photographs.
As the group erupted with questions about how to use the camera, where we should go, how many pictures we should take, how we would use the pictures, our instructor chased us out the door with instructions to be back in a couple of hours.
Upon our return, we learned how to develop the film. We were guided to begin analyzing the images and speculating about each other's intended messages and recollections. Then we had plenty of time to explain our own; even those of us whose pictures failed miserably had ample time to describe the nobility of our intentions.
Since this was a workshop on curriculum, not photography, we continued by generalizing our experience into a collective theory of curriculum development. The many ways in which this total experience grabbed us are transparent:
_ We made decisions.
_ We developed teamwork within our small groups.
_ We had a challenging and personal design task.
_ ...