YOUNG ARTISTS
Award Winning Teacher
immersive teaching:
Excellent photography and strong writing are linked by the primacy of powerful images. By combining these two art forms, students and teachers draw profound connections about the power of detail, the essence of composition, and the need to plan before execution and revise for perfection. When visual literacy is paired with verbal fluency, students - without exception - become highly motivated, eager to express who they are and what they think.
Workshops are tailored to complement curriculum, build skills with the media on hand, and foster experiential learning for each student. Most recently I presented on global storytelling through a local lens at UNC's Global Education Conference and I produced a 15-day documentary filmmaking program for high school journalism students via grants from The Pulitzer Center. I've created projects designed to trigger authentic expression, fostered by the idea that to write and photograph is to make meaning of the world. In addition, I teach documentary filmmaking as a way to dig deeper into topics from globalization to identity and students create vivid stories accurately reported and collaboratively made.
Quotes from other educators:
"Over the past two years, Diana Greene has truly become an invaluable pillar of Pulitzer Center's NewsArts program. She is an inspiring, visionary educator and filmmaker who has designed multimedia education programs that guide students in making authentic personal connections to pressing global and local issues, while also cultivating students' global competency, critical thinking and digital storytelling skills. Diana inspires students to use filmmaking skills to explore their local and global communities with a deep curiosity and compassion. Through interactive, rigorous hands-on programming, she also empowers students with the research and filmmaking skills to design professional-level films that powerfully articulate their voices as artists and journalists."
Fareed Mostoufi, Senior Education Manager, Pulitzer Center
"While my 4th graders dive into the work of portraying their inner selves through language and photography, I find myself wishing I were 9 years old again and doing the project right alongside them. She is a phenomenal artist, writer, and teacher."
Lenora Simpson, Teacher, Arts Based School
“I've had the pleasure to work with Diana on the organization of the Traces of Myself workshop for teens in Malta. Diana is highly organized and easily adapted her workshop to suit the requirements of our specific workshop. The teens enjoyed it so much they decided to stay on site even after the workshop had ended to keep experimenting. From a coordination point of view, Diana was a blast to work with. Made my job super easy as she was responsive, flexible and an overall great artist.”
Sabrina Calleja Jackson, Programme Coordinator, Spazju Kreattiv, Malta
"Students in our program come to the U.S from countries all over the world, speaking a panoply of languages. Diana was tirelessly inventive in the ways she found to teach the students about portraiture, language, and writing as well as about seeing, interpretation, and point-of-view. Students understood that the visual is indeed a language that can transcend our many different tongues."
Terri Dowell-Dennis, Associate Curator of Education, Weatherspoon Art Museum
quotes from students:
“When I didn't know you, I didn't know what writing was like. But now, because of you, I can truly write"
"Mrs. Greene has made writing easy. She's told us things about writing that teachers have never heard of.”
Collaboration is the art of working together. Two fourth graders explain how they teamed up to write a narrative text to go along with the illustrated book Tuesday.
My Inside/Outside Self is my signature project. Students study portraiture and create black and white self-portraits. Image in hand, they write a self-portrait narrative, detailing what lives inside them - their dreams and wonder, feelings and observations, family and memory.
Image from Artist in Residence in Malta.
Weaving Connections is the result of a month-long documentary filmmaking residency funded by the Pulitzer Center. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, high school journalism students explored the local history of textiles and its disappearance, which lead to understanding the post-industrial economy, migrations and transitions, resulting from globalization. Students documented field trips, interviewed industry leaders, exploring the rich local landscape with an eye on the dynamic past that lingers in the city where HanesBrands Inc. began. Our cityscape, its textile history from boom to bust, taps into a much larger story.
Writing workshops
Workshops & Presentations
Writing Vividly
Metaphor and Memory
Making a Scene
Writing as Discovery
Literacy through Photography
The Search for Wonder
Unexpected Beauty
For the past 20 years, Diana has taught workshop-style writing classes that cater to students interested in creativity. Each student, whether writing fiction or non-fiction, learns how to get started, the power of detail, and effective revision. She builds an encouraging and constructive classroom environment for readers and writers.
In addition to teaching private classes, Diana has also led workshops at:
“Diana's style is enormously encouraging and critical at the same time."