"[The act of watercoloring] made me wonder how this active demonstration would translate to mathematical problem solving and talking through worked out examples this way on a white board."
Sarah Carlson-Lier led an activity making paper circuits in the Waring Industrial Park. Anton Fleissner led an activity on ancient Latin and Greek. Rich Stomberg taught a workshop in the Greenhouse on cutting and re-planting existing plants, and Stéphanie Williams and Edith Fouser engaged a group in the Atelier on contour drawings and watercolor painting. The rest of the staff and faculty chose an activity to attend and played the role of student for those 45 minutes.
In the true spirit of experiential learning (rather than just hands-on learning) we not only experience, but we build off of and engage with that experience afterwards. Here are some reactions from the students in those classes -
From Maureen Gedney: "To be near Rich as he talks about plants is to be in the presence of someone who just shines with excitement about what he loves, and who explains with both simplicity and extreme knowledge what it takes to take care of or propagate plants. He spurts out unpronounceable names of plants as if they are all his best friends. There is a loving familiarity with how he touches each plant, how he masterfully yanks it out of a pot, pulls it apart without hesitation to reveal too you with a huge grin that you now have two plants! There is the amazing papyrus plant. You can make a cutting and simply plop it upside down in water, and the leaves will grow roots and create a new plant. And why is this, you ask? Because the papyrus is native to the Nile in Egypt. When the Nile floods each year and covers the plants with water and mud, it has to survive and so developed this unique way to propagate. Eight or so colleagues watched with rapt attention as Rich went from one plant to the other sharing it’s little secrets, then made our own cuttings and repottings before leaving with some of Rich's special glow of excitement on our faces."
From Graham Pearsall: "Rich is like a mad scientist in the greenhouse–bouncing from plant to plant, tearing off shoots, ripping apart roots, flinging soil and water everywhere. His enthusiasm for plants and teaching is obvious, and it was so much fun to be a part of his world for a short time."
From Landi Van Alen: "Rich's plant class was interesting and fun. We learned about splitting plants into cuttings and how to plant them. Rich is extremely knowledgeable and it was great to see his passion for plants shine through during this activity."
From Gallaudet Howard: "I had no idea Latin, when pronounced properly, sounded like Italian--but Anton opened up a whole world for me, with that and with his parsing of the Ancient Greek openings of The Iliad and The Odyssey."
From Francis Schaeffer: "Sarah led an activity on making paper circuits. It was a lot of fun to build the circuits and the activity resulted in Josh, and other teachers, saying that they would want to run an activity like this one as part of their writing classes. Josh also invited Sarah and I to come the humanities department meeting to present ideas for activities to the department. We just had that meeting, which went very well. I am hopeful that many more classes will be coming to the WIP to use the facilities."
From Jackie Cooper: "As an administrative person it was so nice to get into the WIP and learn about circuits/coding and be able to use the facilities in the lab. Our students are so lucky to have such an amazing facility available to them."
From Joan Sullivan: "The 45 minutes of "doing art" with Stephanie and Edith provided me with a wonderful brain break in the middle of meetings week, but also a window into how art is taught here at Waring. We drew and watercolored. I learned the power of using a pen and not to worry about making a "mistake." Stephanie's demonstration of blind contour drawings gave me much to think about regarding my own practice. She talked out loud as she did the exercise, explaining what she was thinking. What felt different from the sorts of "worked out examples" I do in my own teaching practice is that we students were all gathered around a table with her, leaning into her work to see and listen to what she was saying. It made me wonder how this active demonstration would translate to mathematical problem solving and talking through worked out examples this way on a white board. Similarly, Edith demonstrated observational drawing and journaling. Lots of possible connections, laughs, and learning."
In learning from their colleagues, our teachers were able not only to learn about a specific subject - plant re-potting or ancient Greek text - they were able to make connections to how they teach in their own classrooms, in some cases in very different subject areas. Having gone through the experience of learning from each other in a more formal way, our teachers will be able to enhance their practice - in and out of the classroom.