Interdisciplinary workshops Patchwork story
Instead of the traditional form of teaching which takes places at school desks, our students went for an educational and creative walk along Olza river and equipped with Instax cameras they were looking for places connected with ‘the border’, which they wanted to capture in a spontaneous photography. During the stroll we were discussing the matter of ‘border’ and ‘cross-border’, how it influences our surroundings and our functioning in it and how it influences interpersonal relations. The instantness and some unpredictability of Instax photography gave us a new perspective on apparently well-known places. We were working in small groups, everyone was engaged in team work and thanks to it, students created collage of photos which helped them to come up with visual-verbal stories they later worked on at school. One part of the workshops was also watching a movie based only on the photos from Google Maps, presenting American-Mexican border. The film initiated a discussion about human rights, especially about the right to move freely and also the problem of phoniness of political divisions.
The main aim of the workshops was to build proper interpersonal relations in the broadly understood context of physical and mental borders. The workshops made everyone aware of the importance of breaking stereotypical thinking and searching new ways of understanding and agreement. They enabled us to look in a different way at the notion of ‘borders’, the idea behind establishing them, and breaking human rights. Group cooperation allowed not only for integration but also for exchanging ideas, discussion, and also helped students to express themselves through photography and its interpretation while making collages.
The conducted workshops integrate well with the school normal activity and students environment. The location of our region, along the border, creates an endless number of interactions with the border in the broad sense what influences shaping the right attitudes of openness, tolerance and mutual understanding. The aim of our school is to instil theses values and participation in workshops of this kind helps to achieve this aim and highlights its importance. Moreover, students and teachers’ participation in these workshops incorporates well with other project activities and is consistent with the aims of the project.
