Summer of Learning

It has been a great summer of learning. I’ve watched my older son engage in a slew of new experiences, playing alongside friends and family while assimilating and constructing products and knowledge both independently and alongside new friends. I’ve watched my younger son learn to stand and learn to stay asleep at night (still working on that one). And I’ve learned a lot about myself, my learning style, and how much I value helping others learn as well.

I created a photo/video art project to highlight some of my observations this summer (embedded below). As I reminisced about this summer and everything we’ve done and all the adventures we’ve had, one of the things I noted is how much I value new experiences - on opportunities to try and experiment with new things, people, and ideas, and watching for opportunities to investigate new concepts to be practiced and mastered. These are all concepts embodied by the educational philosophy of contructionism.

I love giving my kids a chance to challenge themselves, working independently and alongside others; to observe their progress, and to step in to offer guidance, clarification, or assistance when obstacles become too frustrating to resolve.

And at once, I find myself in a personal constructionist experience. I am in a master’s program that embraces hands-on, practical making activities while also providing deliberate guidance and context for those activities. And at the same time I am able to apply these learning experiences to real-life scenarios in my workplace (which improves my contextualization and transfer of these concepts) by building learning experiences for students and promoting professional development with faculty.

I am so thankful to be on this journey with my colleagues, educational peers, my partner and my sons. We have learned so much - and have much more to learn.

References:

Elmer, S. (2022, July 10). Constructive Constructionism. The (Budget) IT Guy. https://elmerst2.wixsite.com/theitguy/post/constructive-constructionism

Elmer, S. (2022, August 16). Summer of Learning [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gIHT3Xv4rc