Childhood and Adulthood Learning Experiences

When I was a kid, I had a lot of learning experiences even outside of school. I remember one summer camp in particular when I did probably 90% of the craft projects I have done in my whole life. We rotated to different art classes including soldering and weaving. The soldering class' goal was to create pictures out of fragments of stained glass, held together by soldered metal. After that, I would go to weaving where we would make flat patterns as well as small baskets.

I remember, at probably 9 or 10 years old, being amazed how much we were allowed to talk in class. I had never had hours of art at a time and on top of that it was a summer program. Since we could talk, I remember kids helping each other a lot: watching another kid do something before I had to and getting new ideas from their strategies or patterns. I honestly don't remember any of the adults from that program. I'm sure they were wonderful, but I remember learning from written instructions and peers.

I am still going to summer programs! This summer I did a short program with San Diego Area Writer's Project dealing with peer editing and using mentor texts with students. I really appreciated that that particular program allowed us to try on new ideas as students before doing it as the teacher. I saw the value more easily that way and teach it more effectively now that I have seen both sides. They also balanced that with a good amount of resources that they shared with us that we could dig through. I love learning that way. Getting to practice as a student is invaluable, but then I got to dig like a teacher and find the pieces that work for me and my classroom and make it mine.

In both programs, I got to take action. I got to practice skills after minimal direct instruction. I always appreciate having written instructions or diagrams, as needed, but I don't learn well from auditory instructions, so the more written instructions and time to tinker I have, the better. I also ended both experiences with a product I was proud of - a craft or a piece of writing.