Eyja - Reflections on Teaching

I do drawing & stories with the boys. Involving them in the subject, making them interested in what we are doing & to feel responsible for the projects so that we don’t waste our time doing something half-heartedly. When drawing & making up stories I try to show them examples of how other people approach the subject & encourage them to make something new & their own. The exercises are often based on a theme where the boys nurture their own way of drawing instead of teaching them a “right” method. Once we had calligraphy & after the class we compared, mine was obviously a copy of something I had seen on postcards or blackboards outside of coffeehouses, but the boys did beautiful graffiti, because for them that was pretty writing. As for the stories we make up our own world. I thank my mother’s side for the inspiration from the many computer games & adventure movies. After some time has gone into making maps, creating religion, creatures & the stories within, we tell the rest of the family our stories. The boys & I make small notes that we can use to help us remember but are not allowed to read from a paper, bringing the story to life by telling it how we remember it & feel comfortable with the language we are using. I like not to think about time, if we are on a good roll we can take longer & if not we can switch to something else or quit early. Also when I feel that both I & the boys are getting tired we take a break, stretch out & have a tea or coffee, emptying our mind for a moment so that when we return to the same project we feel refreshed.

So this is how I like having my classes, but I also wanted to say a few words on the subjects that I chose. The short answer is that this is what I am interested in, which I think is crucial for every teacher. The other reason being that in school I missed creativity. Making up stories, understanding other stories (where you can get a lot of insight to the unfamiliar), drawing also because I think it nurtures another part of your brain (without having any scientific information about this) & also because my joy of drawing was crushed with tasks such as shading an apple instead of trying to get the image inside my head out on paper.