It was not long after finalizing my paperwork I took to worrying about my preparedness for teaching a class of 20 high school students. All my experience up to this point was either voluntary for younger students or as a teaching assistant. But in an odd paradox, I seemed to be the only one worried about how I was going to conduct class.
Besides a 5 hour 'preparation' session at the school, I found myself rushing to look through all available resources, needing to prepare and arrange the classroom set-up, and of course getting briefed on matters that applied to the general conduct of the 6 weeks I would be teaching.
I did hand in an outline.
(attached)
The outline is devoid of many details, and sort of open ended, but it captures a lot of my wishes for this class.
See I was given a mixture of architectural education virgins and some seasoned students that had a year with the architectural faculty on staff during the regular school year. Despite trying to discover the wealth of material covered, I realized that it would be impossible for me not to overlap if I were to take a more by the book approach.
I know like the previous teacher I should employ the all-mighty author Francis Ching's Form | Space | Order, who goes into all the rudiments of design theory and representation as it relates to space. But that is precisely what aforementioned faculty did. SO how do keep it fresh for all that come in. Scrap Ching for the first few days and take a close to home approach. In my teaching philosophy for architectural education I cover three points: confidence building, making all material relevant, and discussion of core theory instead of potentially obsolete or exhaustive details in methods.
(see attached)
I have 6 hours a day with my students to expose them to a wealth of perspective (not that kind where you need a horizon line, harhar). I want to show them that design is about knowing what you want, knowing what works, and having that fuel a better presentation and graphic method. I think too often the other way is the procedure...go through all the minutia of section, plans, elevation without even getting these high schoolers excited about design in the first place.
Obviously I have been taught at some point. Just as my mission statement said, I want to expose these students to ideas they may not have been exposed to before. I hate to say it, but any student with enough drive can learn how to draw appropriately and know what a t-square is...it is much harder outside of a classroom to get to the basis of what makes design work. That is what makes architects passionate. That is what I wish to strike in the hearts of my students, by helping them discover there own love for spatial design and learning how to look at the world around them to continue learning even while not in the class.
