Glocal is the mixture of globalizing influences mixed with local traditions and globalized local flavor (Ritzer 2015).
I am a geographer working on social issues, and I am always thinking about impact and scale. I'll be a facilitator in July 2017 for the GALACTIC GLOBAL INFUSION
@ BALFOUR PRE-COLLEGE ACADEMY at Indiana University Bloomington.
Global Arts Local Arts Culture Technology International Citizenship
We have to keep up with our students! If we unleash them to be truly creative, they will push past all the boundaries we imagined and surprise us with what they can do. That means we need to know about all tech tools, and media platforms, and creative techniques we can so that we can help them make their ideas reality. Their vision often outpaces their skill, but they're still at a stage when they don't let that fact limit them. But that puts us as instructors/facilitators in a position where we need to have the know-how or the quick thinking skills to give them options of creative expression before they fall back to the same basic things they've done.
One thing that I pushed for in our group of facilitators was that the students direct the kind of project they want to do. Yes, a student can express themselves a lot within the parameters of of a set project that everyone in the class is doing, but why not give them the freedom? Are there ways this doesn't work, sure. We only had 3 days to take these projects from instruction to conception to execution, but I'm excited to see tomorrow what our students have produced.
I learned early in my teaching career that you have to be seaweed: rooted, but flexible. So when we got our students later than expected, we just rolled with it! We started with some prompts:
What would happen if we allowed prejudice and stereotypes to govern us?
What would happen if we actively counteracted our biases and preconceived ideas?
What a great conversation! These kids are at a level where they are self-aware of the prejudices that they have and that they experience, and readily apply those to a context larger than their own experience.
We used this discussion to lead into a video that talks about how we as humans are really connected, and that the differences we feel are fairly insignificant. This is not to say that inequalities aren't there, but that we actually need to talk even MORE about issues of race, culture, gender, class, etc. to combat these toxic narratives. The video shows a Kurdish woman refugee who goes on a DNA Journey and finds her ancestry is quite mixed with groups she feels animosity toward. She also connects with a distant relative, who is also from a very unexpected ancestral group.
Before jumping to work on our final project, we took some time to step into the mindset of a Syrian refugee. We asked the students to write an "I Am" poem from the perspective of this refugee. This helped them really identify with who's stories they were trying to tell, and built on yesterday's 4 Corners activity dealing with how someone identifies versus how the world sees them, and eventually how they would like everyone else to see who they really are.
Today we were up and moving a lot more, which was great, and we had a lot of talking and getting to know each other. We've also been utilizing some small journals for quick writing responses, and that is working quite well.
The part of today's lesson really came from my research focus, though I had to speed through it a little bit. I showcased a few Storymaps about the refugee situation worldwide, resettlement in Indiana, and two different takes on the Syrian refugee crisis. If this was a full length course, I think I might do more with this technique. I shared the work of one of my favorite public artists, JR. I wanted to share his work because he works with the people from where he's working, and really tries to bring attention to issues of inequality and conflict by bringing out voices you don't normally hear. Hopefully this will inspire them in bringing light to Syrian refugee stories through art.
We started out thinking toward children's books and collections of short stories or poems. Some of the groups are onto the themes we though of, but a lot of the students are interested in doing collages or photo essays. I'm very excited to see what they come up with!
Normally the first thing you do in class is introduce yourself. Since we're dealing with the issue of stereotypes, we let the students give us their impressions of us. I think it was a great exercise, but I think it we could have had a greater discussion to emphasize WHY we did it.
To start off the work on our final project we had them brainstorm a bit, then give us a note with what artistic style they feel strongest with and project type they'd be interested in working on. We'll use this to match them into groups (although we gave them the option to work alone if they want).
I've always been interested in teaching. My mom and her mom were both teachers, and so was by grandpa. So I knew I wanted to go to college to get my teaching degree. I loved my time at college, and kept busy working at the art museum, performing with dance ensembles and theatre troupes, and taking advantage of the study abroad program. After getting my degree, I taught middle school and high school social studies for four years. I loved every minute of it, but I messed being on a university campus. I decided to specialize in Geography and get a graduate degree so I could teach in higher education. I moved to Indiana from New Mexico to study and teach here at IUB, and should be getting my PhD in a couple years. My research has covered everything from transportation, geopolitics, and landscapes to refugees, race, and immigration.
I like to think that everyone and everything is connected in a million different ways. I've been all over the place, and what I've found is that we're all more alike than we are different. Yet, the Midwest is as different from the Southwest as it is from another country! I've lived in ten states, and been to all but 5. I've also lived in Argentina and Spain for over two years. The more connected we are to other people, countries, and cultures the richer our life becomes. So I like to give as much of my own experience as I can when I teach, and I hope to learn all the stories that people bring.
Akkerman Fortress< Ukraine, Mar 2017
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
This is a test post. I shot these in a 3D format on my phone.
