S&S W8 Workshops, lessons, teaching
- HildeMaassen
- Jul 25, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 16, 2020
As a teacher I am used to give lessons and they don’t differ that much from a workshop but for some points. Where a lesson curriculum is set up for the complete studies, a les being one moment in the total a workshop happens to be much shorter. It can be some hours to a couple of days at max. Lessons can be also content more theory although my style for the practise lessons is more hands on, as one does with a workshop. There I have groups of 16 students.
I normally do a small looking back to tell what we have done and how and the reason why we take this further. I give a small explanation for the day with a bit of background explanation and than we start working, in smaller groups of 2 or 3 students most of the times. On the way the students encounter problems and I help finding solutions. When it is something important that has to be know to everybody I get the groups attention to show it. Most of the times I just have to help one group. My classes are very informal and students walk by, look by each other, and ask help and questions on how the other group did it.
Peer to peer explanations are different from me telling the group how to do something. Also explain to someone else what you just have learned yourselves is a way to better understand and remember. That is a technic I use in my classroom. It also creates a pleasant working atmosphere. Because I give the students a lot of room to try I myself often learn new things during my own lessons. When they show me another approach or come with another solution that I didn’t encounter before I share that with them. This is also smart to do because it teaches them that I don’t know everything and learn also every day. Problem solving is an important aspect of the job.
This way of teaching is not the way I did at the start. I was much tighter and needed to have much more control. It is something that grows with experience and having faith and being confident.
I sometimes do a workshop approach in between my lesson cycles. I tell my students that we don’t have a normal lesson but a workshop. I don’t grade. This works magic. It is as if the weight of the study is taken off the shoulders and that there is air to breathe and experiment. Ideal for teambuilding.
It might sound as if I don’t prepare my lessons on forehand but that is not the case. I do prepare them most of the times by making PowerPoint’s or Spark pages. When I have them already from before I always look them over, make them more accurate and up-to-date or add new examples. In the morning I walk the dog and during the walk I go over the lesson in my head again step by step. I know what the goal is for the day and for the year.
In the end it is all about the student who wants to learn a trade where I, as a teacher, want to prepare them as well as possible for the profession. The age category I am dealing with is very busy discovering their own identity and what they really want with their lives. It is nice to be able to help with this growth.
Studio 3 assignments first-years Feb-March https://indd.adobe.com/view/3778bb4d-1901-443d-8d38-0e9563f4b1b6
Studio 3 assignments first-years Mai-June https://indd.adobe.com/view/88f31232-a27d-4e61-a4fa-09546b924876
Two mails I got for this years lessons
(By a girl who leaves for another school and study):
Thank you, I will definitely let you know how it goes next year. Thanks for all the help, especially the last months. And thanks for the good studio lessons, that is where I learned the most and that partly ensured that this year was not for nothing. I wish you a nice summer and success in the new school year.
(By a boy who had a heavy year)
I wanted to write you a personal e-mail because I am very grateful for all the effort you put into me. I would also like to say that I think it is a great pity that you are no longer going to give studio lessons, your lessons were sincerely good in relation to all the information you provided with it. You taught us the things that would actually come in handy in the following year. You have given me many opportunities and I really hope that I can come to you with good results and can say that I have learned this from you. Thank you again for all your efforts and I hope to see you in the next year.
Workshop making cyanotypes (to do with my project)
Proportions Chemicals
Positive - positive or positive - negative
Water quality
Mixing chemicals
Prepare the paper
Lighting: artificial and sun
Exposure time and consequences
Experimentations
Using film or making contacts
Rinsing
Drying
Number of participants:
Two to seven because of the darkroom I have. It is preferable to dry the paper in time, and get more than one result per person.
The composition of the group can be as diverse as possible; all ages, man and woman, practised in photography or newbie. Cyanotype doesn’t require knowledge before and different people will come with differ approaches. I have no problem with activating people or coming up with alternatives to help them further.
People do communicate and help each other during the workshop that is the way I teach.
I will make a small document with the recept, things to keep in mind, places to buy, tips and tricks and common problems that can occur. I will provide pen and paper and the portfolio materials. If course it is okee to bring their own materials such as flowers, negatives, paper and brushes.
Points of attention:
Everybody is enjoying and gets equal attention
See what the others do and learn and get inspired
Start making and tell the more theoretical part during the time to wait or prepare some papers before so that we can experiment already
Have enough boxes / black sacks to take not used prepaid papers home
Workshops for educators
I have been asked to write and give a workshop for primary school teachers. the goal is to enhance them and show them that it is possible to let the students work with Adobe software without being experts themselves. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you have to close the software to start over is the message. We are very busy integrating 21- century skills in education and this software offers unprecedented opportunities. Think of learning how to work with software, collaboration, media literacy, storytelling and presenting. All this must take place in one afternoon, 3 hours with a break. the lessons must work in such a way that they try them out for themselves and can use them directly in their own class the next day. Regarding the assignments, there must be a structure in ages in 3 steps from 8 to 12 years. At the moment I have 2 handouts ready. You can download them here.
The Photoshop ones is for the smallest kids on how to draw in Photoshop and make mandelas. The "schoonheid" one is on beauty to show how easy it is to make someone make look better and smiling on an image to give a sense of knowledge on manipulations in media surrounding us.
The two briefings I made can be found through these links.
This year I am one of the tutors for 4 (put of a total of 44) courses on the Adobe Education Exchange page. We have a system like the one we use for this MA course with movies, references, text and tutorials. We also have 3 live classes a week (I do one of them). Some of the courses are two weeks and some 5. Photojournalism and Cinemagraph are both 2 weeks courses. It is planned to be 10 hours of work in total including two assignments. In October I am one of the 3 tutors for the 5 weeks Mobile photography course. I have to make two of the tuorial videos. One fr making a still life and the other for Landscpae photography.
We have 1500 to 2000 subscriptions for each course. which about 10 to 20% also reach the end. They receive a certificate and digital badge. The educators who do the course come from all over the world and when you consider that almost all of them are in front of the class and have between 15 and 30 students, the influence that we have is quite considerable.
Two of the tutorials for the assignments;
Because I am an Adobe education leader I ones a year have to share what I did with my students during the schoolyear. I made an online document to show them the results. This is the link. Most of the things I did with one group of first year students. The youngest is 16, the oldest 23. Some of them know already some things others come in without any knowledge and don't have a camera. I am very proud of what they archived in one year. (The order is not chronologically sorry) https://spark.adobe.com/page/jfuXSd4aeyFzn
In the forum we had to write down our strenghts and limitations:
Strengths:
Analogue Alternative processing - Cyanotypes, Gom bichromate, Heliogravures, Kalitype, Polaroid image transfers
Analogue photography and processing colour and black and white 35mm, medium and large format up to 8x10
Experimenting
Digital photography; also big format and infrared
Video
Editing: Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor for Lightroom, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Muse
Experienced in running classes, courses, presentations, trainings and photography workshops for students and educators (23 years on daily basis)
Studio and location
Light
Limitations
Writing
Remembering names
Selling my work
Social networking
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