Changing perspectives

Today I had the luxury of roaming around Milan for an hour and while to most that surely seems romantic and/or lucky, for me it was a bit boring.  You see, it is the same area I have walked around many Sunday mornings while waiting for my son.  Only today was full of sunshine which we haven't seen here for months and so off I went.  At the first corner I came to, I looked up.  Not sure why, but I  noticed a spire in the distance.  I carry my camera with me most days so I got closer and took a photo.  For the next 30 minutes I walked around looking up.  It was a whole new experience, both enjoyable and educational.

So what does that have to do with my educational journey blog?

I've been trying to put into words how my current studying towards the ECIS International Teaching Certificate is going.  I am doing the practical work with my middle school digital art students.  In this standard, teaching competencies for the international teacher, we are supposed to "explore ways of taking learning beyond the classroom to develop global perspectives."  For me, digital art has always been about an internal journey.  It seemed like a great idea to go global instead and the work has been rewarding but I have had to change my perspective and "look up" to feel comfortable.

So how is it going?  The students are learning, having fun, collaborating and creating. From this point of view, all is good.  I, however, have not gotten to know the students as well as I usually do by now (this is a 1/2 year course) and I'm finding that their work is not as diverse as usual.  I'm looking forward to combining our global piece, "Can art change the world?" with their passion piece and hoping I get comfortable with this new perspective.