Teamwork

Just before Jen left, she and I went to a dance with a friend who was one of our students during our residency here in 2006. It was held in an empty field lit by candles in glass bottles. There was food, drink and dj's. The crowds got thicker as the night wore on. Dancehall rhythms pumped into the wee hours and skilled dancers showed off for a roving camera with a ghastly bright light. Sadly, the event was for a "fallen soldier". There is much gun violence here and the man being honoured was one of the casualties of a silent war. The issues are complex. Unemployment is out of control. Nestled under the arm of the bustling city of Maypen, this region is one of the hardest hit. The Container provides a beacon of hope in a world where few choices exist.

Jim and I continue to teach at the Container. His team has dramatically improved their skills and are now building the container itself. Every day they astonish me by calculating exact numbers to build complex shapes and structures. I haven't yet played with Second Life but their enthusiasm is contagious and I find myself intrigued and excited by the possibilities in that virtual world.

One of the challenges of teaching in this community is that people come and go according to work and other obligations in their lives. Flexibility is important in this scenario. Jen and I decided that instead of teaching group classes, we would teach each person individually. It made life hectic for both of us but one of our philosophies is "each one teach one" and using this principle, we encouraged people to share their knowledge with each other. In the last couple of days especially, I've seen some great teamwork and collaborative learning take place. For instance, Roy, who is particularly skilled at photography, generously shared his photos with others in the group. Instead of teaching the participants how to make titles I asked Gregory, a young student in the group, to research title tutorials on the web. The whole team watched a video on Youtube and Gregory took the lead to figure out how to make the titles and together the group created titles for all 5 projects. The excitement of realizing that they are able to access information online to learn anything they want was palpable. I smiled as I listened to their plans for starting a video production company, starting with a piece by Cheryl, who took a music production workshop with Jacob, another Canadian artist who was in residence at the Container earlier this year.

I've finished teaching digital storytelling and now I will switch gears to teaching practical skills such as: DVD authoring and burning, web design and encoding videos for the web. My students and I will create a site for the "As we move" project.