Emotional equity  

Well over a decade ago I reluctantly made the transition from film to digital image making; I made it work both personally & as an instructor. I traded the emotional equity developed through making a print in the darkroom for the instant gratification offered by a digital camera.

"Reluctantly", I've [recently] used that word often in my pedagogical reflections.

Currently [April 2022+]

With the pervasive acceptance, reliance, and desire to integrate screen-based delivery [and receiving] mechanisms, into contemporary learning systems, I feel lost & afraid. I once heard the phrase, "...embrace post-modern education", spoken in the context of replacing analog [musical] instruments for digital ones. Once a profound normalcy, the human quality embedded within learning environments is now a vintage style of classroom design. I aim to integrate unplugged experiences into my classrooms, an uphill battle.

No single time-preriod [in my development] fires a dominant influence - assuming ceteris paribus

With myriad styles of schools attended & teaching experiences, I [epistmically] hold a precarious confidence in transforming my beliefs with the ever increasing integration of technologies into the classroom. I aim to integrate unplugged experiences into my classroom (online or face-to-face), an uphill battle.  My salient solution for all classes: cultivating the photograph.          

Hands On  

I was able to satisfy my curiosities around the profundity of using CREATIVITY as the avenue to express the knowledge of intellectual tools (Physics, Algebra 2 / Trig, and Cultural Anthropology). Yes, I lectured at a white board. Yes, paper, pencil, and used textbooks were key tools for learning mathematics and physics.

Priviledge: Believing I have a Choice [August 2020+]

Abandoning the mainstream revolution of accepting teaching screens, I developed an art based curriculum for a student (My Son) interested in receiving a STEM based curriculum. IT WAS ALL ABOUT HANDS ON!! The Digital Camera, Infintity Box, Mig Welder, Plasma Cutter, Carpentry Tools, and Spray Paint were the primary tools. Several months prior to the installation of our curriculum, we designed and built (his studio) a woodshop with a welding area.

An Art Core based STEM curriculum uses publically accessible expressions as the highest form of achieving the SUCCCESS of [his] knowledge acquisition.

Taking Responsbility  

Triggering the belief, "If you're not going to contribute to a solution, then shut the hell up", I decided to create the ideal curriculum for my 9th grade son - most of which had been swirling around my head since 2007.

Education's COVID Response [March 2020+]

Whether a student went to a coat and tie school or a metal detector school, they sat in front of a screen receiving their lessons, unless alternatives were developed [by their parents or networks]. Most responded with anger, frustration, fear, and the general belief that online delivery systems suck. I was aligned with such a public sentiment, educational systems were not prepared for such an immediate, gross change.

I thought I could do it better; I tried doing it better.

Considering Light

All students experienced the darkroom, regardless of the course. When my film classes trasitioned into digital, students made pinhole photographs; art appreciation students made pinhole photograhps as part of their studio component. I didn't want to let the darkroom turn into an inferior space of history.

Engage The Greater World [January 2008+]

THE DARKROOM: Students walk off into their personal lands of exotica, and shoot a role of film. They return to spend time in a social space, revealing their efforts in a developing tray for the first time to both themselves and their peers. There was music jamming in the background. Unique qualities (can imply technical failure) result in spoken commentary, interest, and curiosity. What was once perceived a failure is now a whimsical success.

I learned the value of focusing on the arrival and articulation of students' ideas, final visual expressions taking a back seat.

BOOK PUBLISHING: I discovered lulu.com as a tool allowing me to receive closure for my decades worth of verse. Being dramatically moved by the outcome, ease, and cost of POD publishing, I made each student create their own chapter. Those chapters were then merged together to make a book.

My [current] Math students shoot 2-D content (shadows or reflections) - an introduction to seeing & considering the world as a combination of dimensional elements - seeing the world mathematically.

Considering Light

Yes, they fail to have value for the consumer and often are emotionally and intellectually inaccessible (both qualities of post-modern expressions).

Core Subject: Art [August 2005]

Why aren't English Papers posted on walls? Why aren't mathematical solutions in galleries? Why aren't science (social / physical) experiments exalted to the level of receiving their own rooms for display?

An educator should practice their language of expertise, daily; such living should be an evolution of play. I didn't [intentionally] play with mathematics; it wasn't part of my jam. Having my 8th grade Algebra students photograph 2-D, 3-D, or 2-D & 3-D content (with a film camera), was. I was a math teacher taking greater pride in the exhibition of their work [at a local coffee shop], verusus aligning their current problem solving strategies for those neededing to succeed on North Carolina's EOG (end of grade) exam. 100% of my students passed the exam - surprising my naivete

A re-evaluation of what the pedastal looks like for the expression of subjects so intellectually glorified, must be considered.

Results

In order for an individual to have access to their "Service Ethic", the following qualities need to be present:
1. Environment is perceived as a raw force.
2. Environment is perceived as all good.
3. Environment is perceived as all bad.
4. Experience individual reflection.
5. Experience collective reflection.
6. Exercise a work ethic.
7. Perceive the environment as a sensual entity.

Accessing A Service Ethic [May 2004]

QUESTION: Why does a wilderness expedition work? (EMICH - Thesis #2)

METHOD: Data set consisted pf 200 non-directed 35mm photographs taken while leading a 10 day canoe expedition with 6 adolescent males and one staff assistant. Similarities of visual content resulted in 7 categories. For each category I asked, "What's going on?"

The culture, challenges, and experiences of Camp Koochiching encapsulated my jam, for over a decade. I eventually decided to take one of my daydream questions, seriously.

"Why does a wilderness expedition so effortlessly work, it just works?"

A SERVICE ETHIC: A man is walking down the street early in the morning because he believes he will not encounter any other people; he is alone. He encounters a piece of trash on the sidewalk; he picks it up. It's the expression of the highest form of service, doing something for someone else when you believe no one is watching & no one will know. ...Accesing the altruistic self.

CREATIVE PREMISE:

Similar to an individual's 4 stages of ego identity development, an academic department can have a parallel set of identity stages - with equal meaning.

Making Waves, Building Bridges [May 2001]

CURIOSITY: What kind of person will I become as a result of participating in the, Social Foundations of Education Program? (EMICH - Thesis #1)

HYPOTHESIS: I will begin to transform into the stage of identity development that the Social Foundations of Education Program embodies via its program's pedagogical expressions.

Lesson: Don't assume your professors will complete an objective measurement you created as part of your "study" focusing on anthro-educational elements that they are fundamentally responsible for cultivating.

STAGES OF IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
-Diffusion: A person (or department) hasn’t made any commitments about expressing their mission not are them attempting or will to make a commitment to one.
-Foreclosure: A person (or deparment) is willing to make comitments about the expression of their mission, but their commitment is grounded upon another deparment’s identity. They didn’t reach conclusions based upon their own searching within the culure or cultures they want to serve.
-Moratorium: A person (or department) is exploring and experimenting with different expressions of their mission. They haven’t made commitments.
-Achievement: A person (or department) has made commitments after trying on what works and what doesn’t work, in the contenxt of expressing their mission.