When Chris got the Social Inclusion officer job at Arts Council he came straight round to our house to let me know. I was devastated that he would be leaving Action Factory, that we wouldn't be spending every day together putting the world to rights, dreaming big dreams and talking nonsense. I knew there was no way I could carry on working at Action Factory without him and spent the weekend sobbing, trying to imagine how I could possibly cope.

He left and I coped, and one of the reasons I was able to cope was because of Chris and his belief in me and my abilities. It was as if he had been preparing me for his departure. Work wasn't nearly as much fun or inspiring and I missed him terribly, but I stepped up and began to take on some of the tasks and roles he had previously carried out and I tried to channel a bit of Chris in my dealings with colleagues, partners and groups. I knew the difference it made when he believed in me and I tried my hardest to live those values and pass on that support to other people.

Chris died suddenly four weeks ago yesterday and we are all taking tentative steps into a world without him. One of the reasons we will cope is because of Chris, because of his belief in each of us and our abilities, and his passion for helping other people to shine. Life will be less interesting, less fun and we will miss him terribly but every day I encounter people who are taking inspiration from his life and his passion. I think those of us who knew him will always carry a little bit of Mr May's spirit with us, in our hearts and in our red socks. It is as if he had been preparing us for his departure.

On our way back from Italy: Me, Chloe, Chris and Kate. We laughed a lot, we learned a lot, we ate a lot.

Another great learning experience this evening courtesy of Curious Minds as agents and practitioners came together to learn the jargon, explore the purpose of and our role in pupil tracking and assessment.
Of course, as well as the facts and figures there was collaborative creative activity - Can you tell what it is yet?

Or.......stuff I have learned about photographic documentation.

I love taking photographs. I have no great skill and don't entirely understand how to use my camera (ok, don't understand at all once it's not on full auto) but some people tell me that I take good photos and I am always chuffed to see how many people have used shots I have taken of them as profile photos on facebook.

These photos were taken yesterday at a wonderful CPD session at Cedars Infants. Dominic Kelly, a storyteller from Lancaster, will be working with welfare staff, TAs, parents and teachers over the next two terms on a whole school storytelling project which we hope will inspire a love of story, a passion for language and will raise the confidence and self-esteem of both adults and children. Yesterday's 3hr session provided all the school staff with an opportunity to play with stories, learn a little about the techniques of storytelling and build their confidence in anticipation of the project.

I hope that the photos capture some of the fun and energy of the day and that they communicate the beginning of our storytelling adventure together. Someone said yesterday that they were an example of how easy it is to document activities, and they were right. If I can do it, anyone can.

So, here's what I know (inspired by the lists of @marcusromer) - please feel free to add to the list!

1. Be clear about the purpose of the photos. Yesterday was just about capturing the spirit of the day. If we had been using it as a tool for measuring progression, capturing a starting point, I probably would have taken video or looked for a wider range of images linked to verbal/written documentation (just thinking, maybe I should have done that) - OK, be clear before you start and remember when you didn't do that last time to do it next time (Cath)
2. Shoot from the hip, the shoulder, feet and the sky. I am quite a controlled person and recognised that lots of my photos ended up looking the same. Matt Gartside from Zumamedia told me to hold the camera in different places and not look through the viewfinder. It is more likely you will get an interesting shot and less likely that people will notice that you are taking photos and assume the 'cheese' position. He even recommended looking in the opposite direction to the one in which your camera is pointing (haven't quite got the hang of that yet)
3. Take loads and loads of pictures. I took about 150 shots yesterday and will probably show about 15 to any other human being - if I was being really tough I would probably show about 3. The more photos you take, the more chance you have of getting some good images.
4. Use what you've got - camera phones can be excellent and I am increasingly using the tools on my phone for documentation. Stills and video are pretty good and apps like hipstamatic and retro camera on smartphones can help make a quick shot into an engaging image (check out @documentally http://OurManInside.com for someone who makes great use of the tools on his phone for documenting.)
5. Get help! It's hard to participate/facilitate and take loads of photos. I am full of good intentions then get to the end of the session and notice my camera, still in its bag, unused. The 'shooting from the hip' technique helps here - I just carry the camera round with me whilst doing other stuff, or I duck out of participating for short periods of time (which I had to do yesterday), or I ask someone else to document as well (either a volunteer, participant, TA, teacher). Children and young people take some excellent photos and it's always useful to see the activity from their perspective.
6. Edit I'm not any better at taking pics than anyone else, I just don't show people the crap stuff. I was going to show you a collection of legs, noses and floor pics here, but there were deleted even before they left the camera. And there were a lot of them - an awful lot of them!
7. Crop, adjust, fettle (hang on, that could be the sequel to 'Eat, Pray, Love') I still use photoshop when appropriate, but mostly use the really simple (and free) tools in Picassa to crop images. Most images can be improved by cropping, adjusting light etc. I turned some of the images into black and white - there was so much colour in the room and I hadn't got my lighting right so it was hard to see what was actually happening. Switching to black and white helped draw focus to the action.
8. Share the pics and share them quick - Even if I haven't had chance to fettle them, I try to pick one or two out and get them sent to people - I'll either email them to teachers or participants, send links to picassa albums or get them on twitter/facebook/flickr (if I have permission) as soon as possible. Photos speak volumes, but they can't communicate if they sit in your camera or on your hard drive.
9. Have fun! If you have a digital camera, 300 shots will cost you nothing to take and share. Experiment, learn, play (it will never replace crop, adjust fettle though). I find that people really value the effort you put in and it's just another way of contributing a bit of creativity and spirit to the world.

There must be loads more - please, please add bits!

Oh, and I'll keep you up to date with the Storytelling Project. It's going to be a goodun!

 

A couple of weeks ago I spent a morning at a Creative Partnerships School of Creativity Hub meeting, practising my visual scribing techniques. Unfortunately a lot of people had to send their apologies, so the meeting followed a less structured yet still fascinating route and I ended up just sitting, listening, drawing and occasionally scribing. I really enjoyed the process though, learned a lot and will definitely do more, but next time - more usefulness and fewer twiddly bits.

Just got a copy of the Curious Minds Newsletter today and came over all unnecessary when I read what they had written about me.

'It has been wonderful to be reminded recently how our Creative Agents lead highly imaginative and creative lives beyond their involvement in Creative Partnerships. One of our long-established agents Cath Ford is undergoing something of a personal creative renaissance, having just launched her freelance 'solo career' after many years of employment with Action Factory Community Arts. The results of this can be viewed at Cath's website and at her blog. You'll find a rich mix of experiments in drawing combined with thoughtful reflections on the role of the Creative Agent. It's a real insight into how a creative life manifests itself and an example to us all about the power of social networking as a means of supporting your own development as well as sharing ideas with others.'

That's me they are talking about - how lovely is that?

 Working with Curious Minds has definitely played a significant role in my development both as a creative producer and as an artist over the past five years and it has been great to collaborate with them, other creative professionals, children and teachers to explore creative approaches to improving the lives and opportunities of children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Curious Minds website has some great examples of their work, blogs and news about creativity and young people and is worth a visit http://www.curiousminds.org.uk/

And this is why the drawing challenge began........

I have spent three days this week sitting in lessons at St Mary's in Blackpool drawing and photographing creativity in the classroom. The idea of the project is to explore, record and share creative teaching and learning in the school to inform the Creative Partnerships planning process for next year, an integral part of St Mary's vision for a creative future. It's been a fascinating process and I think will inform my practice as much as I hope it will contribute to St Mary's.

What's really moved me has been the response of both teachers and pupils to having their activities drawn. My presence has been welcomed and people seem appreciative of both that and my efforts. The feedback has been positive and people seem genuinely touched that someone has taken the time to come and draw their activities, and as I have sat and listened, observed and interpreted, my drawings have provided an opening for many conversations.

'What are you doing Miss?' 'Are you an artist, Miss?' 'Is that Miss, Miss?' 'Shannon, Miss has drawn you, come and look', 'Do you have to go to college to do your job, Miss?'.

Had I sat in a corner with a clipboard I am sure no-one would have voluntarily come and talked to me about their lessons and creativity, what they love to do and how their Aunty is a great artist, but sitting and drawing prompted curiosity and friendliness and I now have pupils chatting to me in the corridor and shouting 'Hello Miss' as I pass (generally lost in the corridors between technology and science).

I have chatted to some of the quietest children in the classes (particularly boys) who stand next to me and generally comment on the pens I am using before telling me how much they love to draw or teach me how to draw hands (I used to be quite good at hands, not any more) and we talk about art and anime and the best fineliner pens. I have really enjoyed our conversations and I hope they have too.

I also loved that, as I was leaving school yesterday, one of the louder girls shouted 'Hey, Miss, you should be an artist' and as I walked to the car I walked just that bit taller. and thought, 'Yeah, maybe I should be.'

On Tuesday this week Rob Howell @roberthowell and I spent a day with a group of 40 staff and students from St Mary's Catholic College http://www.st-mary.blackpool.sch.uk/ in Blackpool to look at creativity in school, how it contributes to and supports learning and the barriers to creativity. It was a wonderful day held at the Solaris Centre http://www.solariscentre.org/ which resulted in a wealth of information about how young people feel about the school and their hopes and ambitions for the future.

One of the activities during the day was 'Looking Back' with each group presented with a box of objects which would be discovered 100 years from now and which tell the story of how St Mary's became the most creative school in the country in 2014. The objects were random, some had a clear use others quite abstract and it was fascinating to see how the groups of young people coped with taking an abstract concept (imagining a truly creative school of the future, transporting themselves 100 years into the future and looking back) and then taking their ideas and exploring how objects could help communicate that story.

I was also really interested to see how this group of students managed working in a much more open, collaborative and exploratory way - with support and guidance from teachers, but working very much independently. Throughout the day they coped well and everyone found a way to contribute, but at times groups and individuals struggled and needed far more input from adults. I was really impressed by the way the teachers stepped back and assessed when they were needed and when they should let young people find the way themselves. This is a really valuable skill and the approach enabled young people to take risks and express themselves within a safe and supportive environment.

We aspire to create learning environments which provide space for exploration, curiosity and risk-taking, and sometimes it is a real challenge for both pupils and teachers to adapt to this way of working. I did reasonably well in school, and a contributing factor is that I worked well and felt comfortable in a traditional classroom environment. Had I been put in the environment the young people found themselves in on Tuesday, how would I have coped? Would I have sat quietly, worried about getting it wrong and feeling lost, or would I have contributed to the sessions? I hope I would have participated fully, and looking back I think the skills that I needed to do so would more likely have been developed outside the classroom (at Guides, at the local church youth club, from being in a community opera or the netball team) than sitting in the classroom, listening to information and being tested on my knowledge. I wonder what I would be doing now had I not had the opportunity to be part of these groups and had I not been fortunate enough to have parents who did everything they could to support my interests.

Changing how we teach and learn is not going to happen overnight. It is going to require hard work, imagination, resiliance, collaboration and support and I suspect will be an ever evolving process as the world changes and young people have to be ready to take on the challenges of adult life. You only have to watch shift happens http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNutcmyShW4 to see how different the world is now than when any of us left school (and this is a presentation which is a couple of years old now - who knows what has happened since).

I still have more time to spend with the school and will be sitting in on lessons, drawing, photographing and chatting and I will probably keep blogging about the process. I am really enjoying being part of the St Mary's story and am currently wondering what archaeologists might find on the site in the future and how they would interpret those objects.

I have an urge to plant something really obscure just to confuse them!

I was meeting with other Creative Agents a couple of weeks ago and Rob Howell, who had been at a National Agents conference, told us about a challenge which had been laid down for agents. The challenge is to spend an hour a day doing something for 100 days. Not everyone in the group saw this as positive and some found it hard to see the point of the challenge, but I immediately took it as permission for me to start drawing again, something I have been meaning to do but never manage to prioritise. It was empowering getting permission, even though that permission was all in my very own, slightly complex head, and as a result I have been drawing for at least an hour every day (I think I am on my 12th day now) including five days in Connemara sitting on the beach or outside the house looking at walls and cottages, people, animals, ferns and grasses.

It's great. I am remembering all sorts of things I had forgotten and discovering many new things, like

• drawing is as much about what you leave out as what you put in
• most of the time I think I am looking at the world but am really only glancing
• allowing myself to be still and empty my mind allows all sorts of exciting ideas to pop in where before there had been too much noise for them to be heard
• I connect with a place better when I draw it
• I am allowing myself to make mistakes and not give up if something doesn't work first time
• When I have my sketchbook with me I am never bored
• I get excited, motivated and engaged when I draw
• I enjoy it.

Thinking back now on the challenge set to agents and our role as Creative Agents in schools I breathe a slow sigh of recognition as it dawns on me that I am developing

• decision making and editing skills
• research and studying skills
• an ability to connect with my unconscious mind
• my imagination
• my understanding of and connection with the world around me
• resilience
• ability to take risks, try new approaches and learn from the process
• enjoyment and motivation to do something which I had not done for years
• ...................................I could continue

Oh yes, I get it now, these are a number of the outcomes that we would that hope that participants would achieve from taking part in a CP (or any other) creative project. Honestly, I am usually quicker on the uptake than this.

So, I have a long way to go before my drawing skills are honed - or maybe that's not the point. In fact I know that the pleasure of doing it and learning is enough for me right now.