05/01/2024
Most of the classes at Anana Prana are student-led and created fully by the children. But once in a while, on camps, birthday parties, and events, we do a teacher led painting project.
The benefits of a "I do, you do" project like this is building skill and confidence. Most of the time, at least one child in the group will look at the example and say "I can never paint that!".... but in the end they will have a final product they can be proud of.
Why not do teacher led projects all the time? Because it is limiting to creativity. And although I encourage kids to add, delete, and change things in the painting as we go along, they will end up with paintings that are mostly alike to each other.
All this to say: every instructional method has some advantages. As teachers we need to be able to bring those positive outcomes to our students while staying aware of any drawbacks. Balance is always key!
