Sharing - That's Where the Joy Is

"What's the point of making something if you don't share it?  That's where the joy is!" 

In her video (below), Amy Burvall quotes her mother - an avid baker who enjoys sharing her creations with others. I too am an avid baker. I get it.  I mean, you don't bake 2 dozen football-themed cupcakes and not take them to a Superbowl party.  You could sit at home and eat them all until cream cheese comes out of your nose... but where's the joy in that?  The connection between baking and sharing is obvious.  Teaching and sharing? Well yes - obviously you are sharing your knowledge with your students. And there is joy in seeing your students' "Aha!" moments.  That's why a lot of people say teaching is worth it - and it gets them through the harder times. And then there's your colleagues, face-to-face, sharing successful ideas and swapping war stories. But when you share online with the anonymous hoards, is it rewarding? Is it really your "duty" as an educator to do so? Is it self-indulgent to say "Hey everyone! Listen/watch my great idea!! I'm a freaking genius!!" or "Look at the insightful connection I just made!" Besides complimentary or encouraging comments (if you're lucky enough to get any) is there a way to enjoy the "Aha!"s?  Or is the joy a more altruistic one of putting your ideas out for the world to see and hope they inspire a hapless stranger?

Jean Snyder's blog post,  On the Moral Obligations of Sharing , made an interesting point and I like the simple "equation": 

"Through this process, I have discovered what Lyn Hilt (@L_Hilt) has referred to as "Effort In = Reward Out." Along the way, I have benefited in real ways from the ideas, practices and insights shared by the amazing and thoughtful educators who are part of my PLN. Engaging with the work of others has nudged me to take risks, pushed me to think more deeply, and opened up new ideas for empowering students in their learning." 

OK, so taking risks... thinking deeply... staying open to ideas... those are all good things. And if this new world I'm entering of technological sharing and PLNs fosters these good things, I guess that's the point.  And Effort In = Reward Out makes a lot of sense.  Although sometimes, it seems the effort far outweighs the reward.  This is discouraging for teachers.

Among other interesting things, Dean Shareski's often cited video Sharing: The Moral Imperative talks about the task of educators filtering out the "best information" out there for the purpose of educating our students as opposed to exerting so much energy of starting from scratch and developing it ourselves. But someone had to do it... someone had to be the original, the person who actually was willing to delve into their own imaginations. This makes me think of Pintrest. For a creative person like me, it's addictive.  And for those who want to pretend to be creative - it's even better!

For my daughter's first birthday I went a little crazy.  And I blame Pintrest. I spent many late nights following step by step directions, or interpeting others' photos to duplicate their ideas - there were some I adapted or improved upon for my situation.  And I was super proud of the finished experience... my 6 year old cousin excitedly told me it was the "best party ever" and she felt like she was really in Oz.  

One of the games we 

played was "Melt the Witch".  

We threw water balloons at 

watercolor paintings I did 

of the witch.

   I made Lucy's "Dorothy" outfit from 

scratch (with a jumper pattern) 

My "Glenda" dress was a 

repurposed/hacked up/painted

Goodwill bridesmaid dress

 

I won't even tell you how many hours 

I spent stapling freaking construction 

paper rings together for this 

crowning achievement...

Remember how I said I liked to bake? I seriously made 

7 different themed cupcakes (one for each main character).

Then - and this was one of my original ideas - 

I used some dissected and reassembled lathed spindles 

to create an Emerald City with a felt Yellow Brick Road 

But afterwards, as I took time to reflect and scrape cupcake frosting off the back patio, I was thinking about how all the adults kept complimenting my "creativity." But truly - was there anything creative about this experience? Yes, I took the time to collect other's ideas and personalize them... but there was very little I came up with on my own. Why bother?  It was all already out there in cyberspace - ripe for the picking.  But in a way - especially as an artist - this sort of scares me. 

What will happen to creativity as a whole...? I mean, I know throughout history, artists have built upon the shoulders of their predecessors - either making direct copies as a means of studying technique or making specific stylistic deviations from the past to portray a cultural or personal statement (i.e. Impressionism as a reaction to more staged classical styles and Salon staples). But still, in this era of readily available inspiration at the click of a mouse, it's really tempting to just replicate what you see and reap the rewards and compliments.  And at that point, can you really call it art? 

As an art teacher, how do you foster independent creativity? If everyone is drawing the same still-life it's not necessarily an exercise in creativity as much as teaching the practical skills of drawing from life for developing shading and perspective. I suppose, with older students, more open ended, conceptual assignments - i.e. create a 2-D piece that illustrates "tricking the eye" or (one of my favorites from college) create a 3-D 'container' whose outsides belie the inner contents.  (I made a 3-tiered mock wedding cake that when you lifted each successive layer off it revealed a succession of dioramas depicting the breakdown of a marriage - hmmm... personal foreshadowing there, perhaps?) 

I formed and "frosted" cardboard round
boxes then dipped silk flowers in a Crock-pot
full of vanilla frosting scented wax to 
decorate it. I kid you not, that pretend
 cake smelled like real cake for 3 years!! 

 And each layer came off to tell the story.  

The top layer is a happy marriage - there are 2 little birds 

in a nest within a white picket fence, sweet sentimental text. 

The middle has a shirt collar with lipstick on it... 

a beer can... the one bird is perched precariously on the fence 

and the text ribbon has some accusatory phrases. 

And a man's wedding ring.  The last one has broken china 

and total chaos, a bird is missing, there are

2 rings nestled sadly in the eye of the storm

So, since I'm pretty sure I want to teach middle school - possibly high school art - I'll try to embrace age and ability appropriate open-ended assignments. But where do I come up with those.  Is it my duty to be original?  Or do I peruse the internet... consult my PLN... let others do the work for me and then I participate by handling logistics and making sure we have the necessary supplies and clear instructions?  Or is it an amalgamation of the two? That's what I'm going to go with.  Look for inspiration, not replication.  Tailor good ideas to my students' needs and interests.  

 "We all want credit for our contributions and the moment we focus on protecting our work we are in some ways the antithesis of a teacher." Shareski says.  

My cousin and fellow Pintrest-addict, Lexxi, (ironically, a kindergarten teacher) went nuts over my party. She was my documentarian/photographer. "Are you gonna put this on Pintrest!?" she asked me at least a dozen times - usually whenever we came upon a new element along my "Yellow Brick Road" trek with the kids through the woods. I considered this while cleaning up... Why bother? I thought. I got most of my ideas off there anyways... so how would I be contributing anything new? 

While throwing a kids party is different than teaching in a classroom (although Lexxi insisted it was more similar than I thought...), looking back now I see how perhaps sharing my party stuff could benefit someone else. I did come up with creative solutions to problems on my own, like the cupcake display... And there were things I had wished the posting contributors of the ideas I used had included... like reminding the reader to put the watercolor paintings on wood backing, not thick posterboard that disintegrates with the enthusiastic pummeling of water balloons!  So yes - in a small way I could contribute.  I could build on existing information.  

I liked Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's  3 Reasons Why You Should Share and 3 Things You Can Do to Start Sharing:

So here is my list: 3 Things Why You (as an Educator)  Should Share

1. The shift of a culture of consumers to producers is built on sharing and disseminating.
Our world, and in particular the world of our students, is build on the culture of sharing. Ex. Sharing your status on facebook, adding a book review on Amazon, leaving a comment on a product you purchased online, photos on Instagram and videos on Snapchat and YouTube. Educators need to acknowledge the shift outside of the classroom and take advantage of the shift for learning with our students.

2. Painting the picture of teaching and learning in your school
Too many other people (non-educators, policy makers, politicians, media, etc.) are painting a grim picture of the teaching profession, teaching in general, schools and student learning. It is time to become our own storytellers. Sharing student successes and teachers’ professional and continuous learning MUST overshadow and outnumber the negative press and reputation that has been building up.

3. The future of learning is social and build on and around Professional Learning Networks.
Networking is built on a concept of sharing. Networking is defined by the Merriam_Webster dictionary as “the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions”. In order for an exchange to take place, someone has to step up to SHARE. Without sharing there is no network. Someone has to give and someone has to take, without giving the machinery of how a network works will not function. In our Information Age, where information is being generated at exponential speed, we need to rely on a network to filter quality and relevant information for us. It is our responsibility to be the filter and curator for others as well.

So from 3 reasons WHY you should share… on to 3 Things you can do to start sharing…

3 Things What You (as an Educator) Can Do to Start Sharing

1. Stop resisting change
We need educators, in particular administrators, to stop resisting change, take a deeper look at the world around them and LEAD by modeling!  Sharing is and needs to be a method, a strategy and a technique to improve teaching and learning practices, benefiting an entire school  learning community.

2. Create a workflow to document teaching and learning
Great things are happening in your classroom and in your schools. Learn to embed documenting best practices, student learning and action research in a digital form to be able to easily disseminate via a blog, twitter, photo or video sharing site.

3. Start small.

Add a comment on a blog you read, share a resource, a link, a book or an article you have learned from on Twitter. Let students take over in documenting learning in their classroom. Use your cell phone to take photos of learning in action, write a descriptive comment under the photo and share on a blog, Instagram, a classroom site, blog,  Twitter or Facebook account. 

So OK - I may be resistant to technology and social media... but I can't argue with the obvious benefits of being more than a "lurker" online. You never know if you're holding information someone else could benefit from - who am I to decide what other people find interesting?  It's important to edit, to not supply so much information that the critical pieces get lost.  I mean, I have 257 pictures of Lucy's birthday party. I could have subjected you to every last one... but I didn't.  I picked the best ones, the ones that highlighted the points I was trying to make.  And as far as the formality of blogs and other sharing venues/public media - as long as they are legible and cohesive, what's the harm in letting a little colloquial swearing in or overzealous use of ... punctuation?  It's important to appear credible but sometimes super formal academic writing can be dry and hard to decipher... and, honestly, boring!  Engage your readers/viewers!  It's easier to read something that flows conversationally than a mess of statistics or jargon.  

Let's contribute! Let the world read my babbling and do what it will with it! Maybe someday there will be a mother struggling with how to create the perfect cupcake display for her kid's birthday party and she's just too damn tired to come up with something original. Hey - I can help with that...  And that - as a baker, (future) teacher, mommy, and artist - is the joy of sharing.