April 2022 October 2022

April 2022+

Currently

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 instruments for digital. Once a profound normalcy, the human quality embedded within learning environments is now a vintage style of classroom design.

With a myriad styles of schools attended & teaching experiences behind me, epistemically I held a confidence in transforming my beliefs with the ever increasing integration of technologies into the classroom. Relunctantly, I 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 digital means.

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

studentsofbingham.com Resume / CV

August 2020+

Priviledge: Believing I Have a Choice

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, 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.

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.

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

Our Progression

March 2020+

Education's COVID Response

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.

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.

studentsofbingham.com

January 2008+

Engage the Greater World

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.

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.

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 are then merged together to make a book. My 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.

studentsofbingham.com

May 2007+

Core Subject: Art

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?

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

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

studentsofbingham.com

May 2007+

Accessing a Service Ethic

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?"

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.

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 comes across a piece of trash on the sidewalk; he picks it up with the intentin of placing it into a trash receptica.

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 what you've done. It's about accesing and engaging our altruistic self.

studentsofbingham.com

May 2001+

Making Waves, Building Bridges

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

CREATIVE PREMISE: Similar to an individual's 4 stages of ego identity development, an academic department's identity can exercise a parallel set of identity stages. An academic department does have a [collective] ego.

HYPOTHESIS: My Ego will assume similarities to the department's Ego.

STAGES OF IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
-Diffusion: A person (or department) hasn’t made any commitments about expressing their mission; they are not attempting to seek one out. Individuals are floaters; academic departments have no solidarity.
-Foreclosure: A person (or deparment) is willing to make comitments about the expression of their mission, values, lessons, etc., but, their commitments are grounded within another's choices. They didn’t reach conclusions based upon their own searching within the culure or cultures they want to serve. Ideologies are often borrowed.
-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.

studentsofbingham.com