Last week I started a new course at Simon Fraser University, called Exploring Arts for Social Change taught by Judith Marcuse and Dr. Lynn Fels.
I remember upon leaving the class last Wednesday that my thoughts were, “God, this is different!” I said that apprehensively but also with curiosity. If feels to me that there is nothing traditional about this course and it is a real test in one’s capability in being open-minded. We (thirty of us + the two teachers) sit in a circle, we make sounds, moves, and sometimes have to touch another body– re-position it into an image in our mind. There were a lot of performance-based exercises last week which for me was at times difficult. But “I survived, I did it.” is what I told myself at the end of it. I may be an introvert but I did it and it wasn’t so bad after all.
One of our weekly assignments is to write an e-postcard to both teachers that records and reflects on a stop moment of your experiences and learning in each class. Both of the teachers read the cards, and one of them replies.
I’m going to try and share these e-postcards for as long as is comfortable. I think this reflection exercise is a great way to learn about yourself and analyze your feelings about why you feel the way you do. It is a great process to practice as a teacher, one that I was introduced to when doing my certificate to teach English as a second language.
You will need to click the image to be able to read it.
Do you use this reflection method with your teaching? What do you think about it?
Josephine
October 9, 2012 11:56pm
All of the background designs for the postcards are interesting and with the black printing on top. I enjoyed reading them all. It’s like a discovery, for the reader also. I am interested on the process you used to create the postcards. I think you mentioned the process in your earlier post, which I can read again.
Laura
October 10, 2012 10:26am
Glad you’re finding these of interest. The process…I scanned work from my sketchbook / art journals and scanned in some postcard elements that I thought would give the piece the look of a postcard…the postage stamp and the Par Avion sticker. Then I used Photoshop to create the layered look. I played around with the transparency feature.
Josephine
October 15, 2012 10:54pm
The technique with the layering and transparency is interesting. Photoshop lets you do all kinds of nice things.