Tanya Knudsen 11/14/23 Tanya Knudsen 11/14/23

Notes from Creativity Class

Drawing for learning matters

I do not know my community of students. They are new to me. I am new to them. We come from opposite sides of the world. In what ways might I provide content that is visually interesting and stimulating for students?

Put another way, what is the value of me sharing my visual world for their meaning making?

toward a collaborative approach

“Draw whatever you want,” was the instruction. One thing I do know about the student community, maybe even the communities in this part of the African world, is that people really love arts. That was enough to go on and take a risk.

With chalkboard, good quality chalk (my choice) and imagination, the students got right to work. I had no idea what would come.

As if the students knew exactly what to do, out came an explosion of imagery into another world.

The results: a stunningly bold, colorful, playful, collection of folk art. What little did I know...

-What might be the student’s world?
-In what ways could I learn from students?
-How could art making deepen learning?

and develop creativity

Also,

Not one person asked, “Is this good?”

Not one person said, “I’m not a very good artist.”

Not one person said, “I’m not very creative.”

Wow.

Wow because comments like these come up all the time among stateside students. Ten year old kids made exactly these comments to me, that’s how I know.

Drawings made by 18-25 year olds, an age group that might feel more intimated in the West did not flinch when given an open cavas. They were ready, hungry even.

Great art, great lesson on all sides -

First, a window though which to gain insight from my audience? That’s useful.

Second, a rich slide pack to use as content for learning? Novel indeed.

Third, student artwork used for classroom learning? How inclusive.

We all do our best work when the environment is open and encourages the community, whether student, employees or family members are encouraged to do what they can and want to do well.

These picture are bold, beautiful, visually interesting and absolutely something to stimulate English language learning.

Let’s face it, there’s enough white washed content used for learning. What if we invite local color, literally, from the community we want to engage and go for a rich, dynamic lesson and yes, collaborative education.

Learning is a multidirectional street.

Im chalking this one up to teaching creatively.

Fun while learning. Yep. Thanks students.

This blog documents an educational pilot in Madagascar at Wings of Change on teaching for Creativity.

Wings of Change is a vocational hospitality school and hotel social enterprise with the twin mission of lifting youth out of poverty through education and impacting the wider community.

More at Wings of Change

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Tanya Knudsen 10/6/23 Tanya Knudsen 10/6/23

Draw for Learning

Visual literacy.

If seeing is believing then how might seeing learning help?

Quite a lot actually. Consider 80% of sensory impressions are visual. We can take in some 10 million pieces of information in per second. So why write every thing?

Mind mapping is simply capturing information in a way that replicates nature to include how we think and perceive things, through association and by making connections.

Replace written learning with the five-branch flow of a mind map for visual clarity, ease and speed for comprehension. Whether teaching, learning or reviewing, Mind Maps conveniently also provide the Creative Thinking Skill of highlighting the essence of a topic.

In fact, Mind Maps put the information conveniently into hand. With the big idea in the palm, the five branches are easily numerated on the fingers. Great, right ?

Start with something familiar to students, like fish. If you live in a fishing village this makes sense. If fish is not top of mind, pick something else, fun and relatable before moving toward class lessons, whatever they are.

Mind Maps were made popular by psychologist Tony Buzan, though they date back centuries.

Mind Maps are playful and open-ended while following a clear structure, making them a perfect creative thinking tool for processing information.

Thought leaders around the world identify creativity as a crucial 21st century skill.

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Start Mind Maps with Familiar Topics - Like Fish

Tanya is currently in Madagascar at Wings of Change, a vocational hospital school and hotel social enterprise in the fishing village of Ambatozavavy.

www.wingsofchange.co

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