I like the idea of a learner’s workshop. That’s what a classroom should be, I think. We talk a lot about making life long learners of our students, and yet we often treat them like open and dump containers: they open their head and we dump in our knowledge. Where is the learning in that? What is learning, really?

When I am learning something I lay in bed at night and think about it. I try things out in my mind and the next day I test them out. Once I learn it, I use it and build on it.

I have been learning a lot about using Photoshop and making clip art. I’ve been working pretty hard with it for over 6 months. I bought a book and used it as my teacher for a couple of months. Then I started working on my own projects. For a while I referred back to the book. Now I am so busy using what I’ve learned I don’t want to take the time to look it up so I just try stuff. Nearly every day I learn something new, at this point usually by accident.  Although I’m not happy with all my art work, it still looks amateurish to me (and it is!) , I am happy with my progress. I will keep getting better as I learn more and make more.

Learning is very personal, isn’t it?