“Shouldn’t a school fail to function without urgent and divergent thinking? Shouldn’t a classroom fall flat on its face when it’s not there? The way education is currently designed, the answer is no. We reteach, intervene, and remediate.”
www.teachthought.com article by Terry Heike
I meant to write this sooner but as is the way with life in education we are swept along by the next task without the real chance to stop and reflect. Carrying out the Lesson(in)Action on Tuesday 1st April was not, in itself, outside of the realms of my normal teaching. This is not to say I do not plan or spend a lot of time considering what I intend to teach or perhaps more importantly what I hope my students can learn.
What it does mean is that I am always keen to let the flow of a lesson take over and not be rigid in my control/role as 'the teacher'. My lessons are always described as good or outstanding when being observed, so letting my lessons flow is certainly not to be mistaken for out of control but could be considered as organic. I want my students to enjoy their experiences in my classroom, remember the social engagement and energy of the lessons. I am not naive enough to think my one or two hours a week are so important that they will come running and then leave with wisdom that sees every other subject pale into insignificance but I do intend to allow each student space to be themselves and feel comfortable when working with me on any given project. But I digress from the analysis of my Lesson(in)Action. As I mentioned the action in itself was not too daunting an approach but I deliberately selected a topic that was more off the beaten track - mobile phone photography. This is something I have been exploring personally for a couple of years and I see massive value in it, both for my own photographic practice and as a possibility as a learning tool, but to carry it out with a group as the only activity, within a school where mobiles are banned, was new.
Firstly I asked them (them being a year 10 photography class) all to take their phones out of their bags, pockets etc. this was met with mass suspicion. After considerable assurances that I would not be confiscating them we had an array of smart phones on the table - every student had one. The whole class had a working smart phone or iPod. This in itself was quite interesting as I had not prepared a back up activity for anyone that may not have had the ‘correct’ equipment and I had offered no prior warning regarding the lesson. I teach in a standard secondary comprehensive with a mixed catchment but perhaps this just shows how far the digital/mobile culture has come.
A conversation ensued about how we use our phones. Texting and online social media were the two main agreements between us all. The dialogue developed onto talking about the camera and social apps such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat and whether they would ever consider photographs taken on their phone to become part of their Photography GCSE coursework. The answer was a resounding no! I shared with the class that I had an Instagram account (remaining nameless…) and saw massive value in using the phone to record any given moment, particularly with a quick edit on one or two of my 17 photo apps. We discussed which apps I, and then they, use and found a slight overlap including Snapseed, Retrica and Camera Awesome. All of a sudden we had more in common as equal users of technology than we have ever had in our more conventional roles as teacher and students:
“You look for a process through which you can learn… we had to learn from each other. We all learned together”
(M. Horton 1990 p41)
I already deliver an experimental photography course that takes in a wide variety of analogue approaches as well as more conventional digital skills but here was an opening that had never presented itself in such an intrinsic way before. There was no prior learning to the activity from any scheme of work but the vast amount of knowledge that they could bring to the discussion, particularly through showing and sharing examples and processes was remarkable. It begs the question – can we ever actually remove prior learning form a lesson? I would answer this by stating… Yes; If we the teacher remove the opportunity for it to be shared by the learner, which sadly is all too often the case as we try to cram in all of the information we want them to ‘learn’ in a time frame that does not allow deviation from an exam syllabus thus enforcing ‘prior learning’ as rote.
By now the discussion had run on far longer than I would normally allow but the lack of pressure due to no particular objective or to ensure an outcome was at least under way was refreshing and the students were more or less dictating the pace of the lesson. This is one time I missed using my interactive whiteboard – a tool forced upon my department despite our protests and requests for the money instead to develop something more particular to us. This was the first time where I felt it would be of particular use to share a variety of visual evidence to support my input into the discussion (the one difficulty in opting for learning using virtual and digital processes when choosing to follow a manifesto!)
The task I had prepared was simple. Using a list of free apps I had written out and the school wifi (including the sharing of the password despite the email 24 hours earlier telling staff that the school “have taken the decision to block mobile phones until I can expand our network range”), students would download apps and go and take photographs in and around the school, return to the class and edit them using the software. The one given rule was that they had to note down each stage of the process and share the before and after images with their colleagues so they then had access to the same set of skills if they chose to use them. The focus of the students was great for the duration of the lesson and even in moments of drift the dialogue across the room was in keeping with the activity. At the lesson end students claimed they found the content of the session ‘more appropriate to them than normal’.
Personally I came away with a significant framework for activities that, with some refinement, would lead to more developed and challenging lessons. I will be able to learn more about a subject I am personally keen in exploring whilst the students can hopefully continue to engage with some classroom practice within their usual routines, and increase value in how they photograph when using the mobile phone.
I found the exercise useful. It reminded me of why I came into teaching. To share and to engage with young people.
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