Finding the Agency We Need to Use as Teachers: An Adventure in Professional Learning
By ALFREDO GUZMAN
I am a high school art teacher and artist. I recently attended CWI’s Summer WEST Institute at Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles (I am also a graduate of Otis College’s MFA program). Over the course of the week, the most significant way in which my thinking changed because of my experience at CWI’s Institute is that education can and should be a collaborative process. It is also clear that being able to tie a state standard or teaching objective to something tangible and relevant to the everyday lives of my students enhances their learning.
In the past. I’ve invited guest speakers to my classes and actively sought community involvement in school projects. The most helpful new way of thinking that I immediately got from the training and planning work we did at CWI’s Institute was through the outline of a focused process for achieving high quality Place Based Service-Learning. This process included focusing on Academic Integrity, Student Voice, Reciprocity, Compelling Purpose, and Reflection.
First, a key learning objective is stated by the teacher, then the students and teacher collaboratively make a plan that achieves that learning objective. The students then propose ways to achieve the learning objective through projects that immerse them in community involvement. Finally, some kind of reciprocal community event or end cap project that demonstrates learning and positive community benefits finishes the process. My own version of this process relied too much on me as the teacher carrying the load with the students as passive participants. I also very rarely did any sort of end cap project. So, the importance of student voice, real reciprocity and having an audience became clear to me as crucial.
I’ve taught Beginning Art, Advanced Placement Portfolio Art, Graphic Design, Yearbook and Journalism for eleven years at Holtville High School in California. I am also the advisor for our school’s yearbook, and art club. The HHS journalism class has their work published bi-monthly at the local newspaper, The Holtville Tribune, during the school year.
Holtville High School is located twenty miles from the U.S/Mexico border. It is a Title 1 school with 600 students attending grades 9th-12th. The city of Holtville, California, where HHS is located, has a population of 6,500 and is part of the primarily agricultural/desert area of the Imperial Valley. Significant cultural events that happen throughout the year are the Holtville Carrot Festival, The California Mid-Winter Fair and various local farmers markets that occur throughout the year when the weather permits. These events allow a venue for artists to showcase their work to the community. The artists of Holtville High School regularly show their works at these events. The Museum of the Desert located in the city of Ocotillo which is 60 miles east of Holtville, has given workshops and lectures to HHS students on coil pot building and the history of the indigenous Kumeyaay people who would migrate from the coast to the desert of what is now the Imperial Valley. A major work of folk art, Salvation Mountain, is located 40 miles north of Holtville. The Juanita Salazar Lowe Art Gallery, located at Imperial Valley College, is 15 miles east of Holtville. HHS students often attend Imperial Valley College after graduation. The art gallery at Imperial Valley College has hosted works by high school students in the past and HHS students were among those whose works were exhibited.
The strategies on the first day of the CWI training helped me figure out a better strategy to incorporate Place Based Service-Learning, student lead learning, and hands on learning in my art classes. The fifth California Standard for the Visual Arts is Connections, Relationships and Applications of the visual arts. I think that Place Based Service-Learning ties right into this specific standard and can help students connect what they are learning in my classes to the wider world.
During our Collaborative Ethnography project, a street based practicum we did during the Institute, I was taken out of my comfort zone. While I was wandering around downtown Los Angeles working with a small group of Institute participants, I was also trying to figure out how to relate this type of experience to my students. How would I integrate this type of learning experience in my class, and in the small rural community of Holtville where I teach. My biggest take away over the course of our time doing ethnography assignment was how people on the street tend to react positively when they are approached and asked to share their story. Letting people feel important, honoring their story, by simply showing interest in who they are was an eye opening experience for me personally. I myself felt positively impacted by being able to help the people we interacted with to share their story.
Logistically there are of course big differences in what is allowable “in the street” for high school students and for adult professionals, as we were at The Institute. The community of Holtville is a rural agricultural setting while downtown Los Angeles is the exact opposite. But, looking closely at the community of people in a place and connecting with them is something that could be applied anywhere. If I were to do a version of this specific type of project at Holtville High School, I would first talk with my students about the community of Holtville and get their thoughts and move forward from there. My biggest take away from the our ethnography project at The Institute is that we all have agency that we are not aware of and don’t use.
I go to professional development workshops to learn what I can do to improve my high school arts program, and of course to steal ideas from other teaching artists and educators. The biggest challenge I’ve faced while trying to implement place based learning strategies at my high school has been the potential for creative professional stagnation due to being the only visual arts educator at Holtville. We artists steal. But teaching artists out on their own in the middle of the desert don’t have other working teaching artists easily available to steal from. I had the opportunity at the Institute to speak with K-16 teachers, some of whom were teaching artists, who had already been utilizing Place Based Service-Learning. I hope to steal their ideas and put them into practice. A strategy that I plan on using is collaborating with other teachers and their programs in my school so that we can enhance what we are doing in our classes. We already put up a Day of the Dead Altar at Holtville High School. This is a collaborative effort with the art and ELL class.
My biggest take away from our Collaborative Ethnography project at CWI’s Institute is that we all have agency that we are not aware of and don’t use. I would hope that doing a version of the ethnography project with my own students would make them aware of their power and the positive impact they can have on their community. I can also see CWI’s Place Based Service-Learning process being utilized in my own teaching practice based on the content and population I teach.
Our high school art club recently completed a glass tile mosaic that will be displayed in front of the school. Previously the HHS art club created a mural in the high school cafeteria and another mural in the art room. Artwork by HHS students is often used by local community groups such as the Holtville Chamber of Commerce and the Holtville Fire Department. Student artwork has also been shown in the HHS yearbook and various HHS sports and activities. I’ve also discussed Otis College of Art and Design’s Report on the Creative Economy with my students to show them what creative careers they could pursue if they choose to do so. Otis alum, Mayuka Thais, has given video conference lectures to my classes about her work as a teaching artist. And I’ve had working creative professionals from the Imperial Valley give lectures to his classes. A Day of the Dead Altar is set up in collaboration with the English Language Learner class every year. It is so important to tie the visual arts to culture that is relevant to the community and the population of students that are being served.
One of my big goals this year is to bring more positive attention to the art program at Holtsville High School. Vanessa, another Institute participant, gave me the idea by to create “pop up” art spaces that showcase student artwork. Vanessa suggested speaking with the ASB adviser and creating opportunities for students to use these “pop up” art spaces so students can take selfies and hashtag the pictures on social media. Vanessa also suggested creating a twitter account to document student artwork and to go through the whole CWI process of having a standard, student lead project, project completion and end cap. The big take away from the training I received at CWI’s Institute is that the process of having a learning objective, a process that achieves the learning objective, and integrated community component, and an end cap is kind of like the basic structure of a story. Hopefully that will make learning experiences more relevant to students.
About the Author
Alfredo Guzman recently attended CWI’s Summer WEST Institute and is a graduate of Otis College of Art and Design’s MFA program. He has taught Beginning Art, Advanced Placement Portfolio Art, Graphic Design, Yearbook and Journalism for eleven years at Holtville High School in California. Alfredo is also the school’s yearbook advisor and art club advisor. The HHS journalism class has their work published bi-monthly at the local newspaper, The Holtville Tribune, during the school year.
CWI Institutes are Transformative Professional Development learn more
© copyright 1995–2019, Community Works Institute (CWI)
All rights reserved. CWI is a non-profit educational organization dedicated
to engaging students and teachers with their local communities through integrated learning projects. We work with educators and schools across the U.S. and internationally. email us to bring a CWI event to your school or organization.
CONTENT USE POLICY All materials contained in this web site remain the sole and exclusive property of CWI, or the author as designated by arrangement. We strongly encourage re-publication, but we do ask that you properly credit, and then share your re-publication link with us directly. contact us
