Keystone Magazine Learning the Keystone Way 2015-2016 EN | Page 58

teacher talks
And so we decided to go global
in search of feedback. I con-
tacted a school in the UK. Stu-
dents in Birmingham, UK at the
Camp Hill School for Girls were
given the same homework task
as students at Keystone. Both
classes had to draw a building
that holds a special memory for
them, a structure they identi-
fied with. They were asked to
create a mixed-media piece re-
sponding to the work of one of
two artists Valery Koshlyakov or
John Piper who they have been
studying through the semester.
By collaborating with a school
thousands of miles away, the
unit grew not only to under-
stand the contrasts between
western and eastern architec-
ture, but also the construction
of identities. Obviously, by
swapping work with students
from a western culture, as ex-
pected we saw some contrast
in the architectural styles of the
buildings students chose to
draw. But I was also interested
to see a significant contrast
in the techniques, styles and
drawings of the students. And I
hoped that my students would
not only learn from the feed-
56
back they receive, but also from
their British peers’ works.
Though anxious and a tad bit
nervous at first, my students
produced their best work. This
is what one of my students,
Vincent Liu told me later, “When
I heard about the peer learning
project, I was at first nervous
but also quite excited. This is a
rare opportunity and I wanted
to share my best work with the
peer school. I was excited be-
cause I really wanted to see the
peer school’s work, and how
they would assess us, especially
because they are culturally dif-
ferent from us.”
When I look at the development
of the Keystone students’ work,
I think that this experience has
helped them to be braver. It
has helped them to experi-
ment with different materials
more. One of my students, Alice
Zhang, thinks so too: “I think I
need to be more confident in
experimenting. I think it’s the
way I have been taught to draw
before, where drawing meant
capturing the object I was
drawing exactly without impos-
ing my thoughts or opinions on
my artwork. I have always been
good at art, but it was only after
coming to Keystone that I start-
ed finding my own style. My
British peers helped me realize
that I need to be less conserva-
tive in my artwork. I hope I can
continue to build my friendship
with the peer school students.”
Personally, through this experi-
ence, I have learnt more about
my own students here at Key-
stone. I have learnt that they
have such a diverse range of ex-
periences to draw from, and that
they are willing to collaborate
and communicate with others.
Some students shared quite per-
sonal memories, and I think that
this will help them to connect
in more meaningful ways with
their work. It was encouraging
for me that my students were
open to new ideas from the UK,
and were equally thoughtful in
their advice to their new British
friends. They were also open
minded when reading their own
feedback. It would be interesting
to see how each school devel-
ops their work further. We are
looking forward to swapping im-
ages of the final outcomes from
these projects in the near future.