When the new school year started, I had every intention of blogging on at least a semi-regular basis. Alas, I have been lazy. Of course, things have been rather busy...
A lot of my school's PD this summer focused on differentiated teaching. For quite a while I had been playing with the idea of switching teaching styles and using what is called Teaching for Artistic Behavior, which is something that the other art teacher at my school uses and that other teachers have presented on at conference. However, it is so drastically different from traditional styles of teaching that it made me highly nervous. But as we sat through the PD, I decided I would just have to take the plunge. This was, of course, less than two weeks before school started. Did I have any idea what I was doing? Nope.
Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB for short), is otherwise known as choice-based art. The philosophy behind TAB regards the students as artists in their own right, and as such, they are given the freedom to make their own choices about art making (like content, media and complexity) with the art teacher acting as facilitator and general font of knowledge--which is not to say that the teacher does not teach. Mini lessons, as one might call them, are used to cover all your frameworks; the students either chose to do the teacher's lesson or are tasked with including something from the lesson (for example, including lines in their art if that's what the lesson was about).
Students are given the choice of several art centers such as painting, drawing, collage, and clay. They choose their center for the day and begin to create whatever sort of art they like. Students are then in charge of cleaning up whatever mess they make. Generally, if a center doesn't get cleaned up to my satisfaction, I close that center for a minimum of one class period. It's a pretty good deterrent!
So fast-forward to now, and I still don't really know what I'm doing. It is, however, getting better. I can pick my fellow teacher's brain, and I joined the TAB yahoo group which has a huge community full of useful tips, ideas, and encouragements. I also honestly feel less stressed out about things like classroom management this year, which is probably the biggest highlight of switching over; I kinda feel like I've found my inner Zen master (most days anyhow--last week my blood pressure skyrocketed I was so furious with my students!) It's still a little difficult to let go, but I'm working on it. Plus, the kids absolutely love it. As they get used to procedures and what they can do, it seems like most of them are really settling down and starting to create some fantastic art.
This week has been super busy because we're having a 1st and 2nd grade art show this week (it officially opens Thursday). I have 10 classes total to finish grading, mount on the black paper we're using and then hang in the designated hallway. Thankfully I am finally totally caught up with grading and can start mounting. There is a theme for this art show, which is "Fall".
I don't think I'm too keen on the idea of themes for art shows, but the younger ones do well focusing once they've done their brainstorming and practice sketching. I suppose that it's also kinda fun considering the time of year and all. Still, we should have done the older kids first (a bit of an "oops" moment that Other Art Teacher and I had the other month). They have more experience with both art in general and TAB specifically, so I really think we could have done more of a general art showcase with them and then done the same with the little ones during the spring. Oh well. This is the first art show we've done, so I guess it's good practice. At this point, I'll just be relieved to have everything hung and finished with.
A lot of my school's PD this summer focused on differentiated teaching. For quite a while I had been playing with the idea of switching teaching styles and using what is called Teaching for Artistic Behavior, which is something that the other art teacher at my school uses and that other teachers have presented on at conference. However, it is so drastically different from traditional styles of teaching that it made me highly nervous. But as we sat through the PD, I decided I would just have to take the plunge. This was, of course, less than two weeks before school started. Did I have any idea what I was doing? Nope.
Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB for short), is otherwise known as choice-based art. The philosophy behind TAB regards the students as artists in their own right, and as such, they are given the freedom to make their own choices about art making (like content, media and complexity) with the art teacher acting as facilitator and general font of knowledge--which is not to say that the teacher does not teach. Mini lessons, as one might call them, are used to cover all your frameworks; the students either chose to do the teacher's lesson or are tasked with including something from the lesson (for example, including lines in their art if that's what the lesson was about).
Students are given the choice of several art centers such as painting, drawing, collage, and clay. They choose their center for the day and begin to create whatever sort of art they like. Students are then in charge of cleaning up whatever mess they make. Generally, if a center doesn't get cleaned up to my satisfaction, I close that center for a minimum of one class period. It's a pretty good deterrent!
So fast-forward to now, and I still don't really know what I'm doing. It is, however, getting better. I can pick my fellow teacher's brain, and I joined the TAB yahoo group which has a huge community full of useful tips, ideas, and encouragements. I also honestly feel less stressed out about things like classroom management this year, which is probably the biggest highlight of switching over; I kinda feel like I've found my inner Zen master (most days anyhow--last week my blood pressure skyrocketed I was so furious with my students!) It's still a little difficult to let go, but I'm working on it. Plus, the kids absolutely love it. As they get used to procedures and what they can do, it seems like most of them are really settling down and starting to create some fantastic art.
This week has been super busy because we're having a 1st and 2nd grade art show this week (it officially opens Thursday). I have 10 classes total to finish grading, mount on the black paper we're using and then hang in the designated hallway. Thankfully I am finally totally caught up with grading and can start mounting. There is a theme for this art show, which is "Fall".
I don't think I'm too keen on the idea of themes for art shows, but the younger ones do well focusing once they've done their brainstorming and practice sketching. I suppose that it's also kinda fun considering the time of year and all. Still, we should have done the older kids first (a bit of an "oops" moment that Other Art Teacher and I had the other month). They have more experience with both art in general and TAB specifically, so I really think we could have done more of a general art showcase with them and then done the same with the little ones during the spring. Oh well. This is the first art show we've done, so I guess it's good practice. At this point, I'll just be relieved to have everything hung and finished with.
Props to you for trying something new! Keep us posted on how it goes. Also, keep in mind that there are tricks to getting your blogging in. I spend several hours on Sunday afternoons blogging for the whole week, and scheduling out the posts, so they post M, W, F or whenever I want. This way, It's hands off for me for the week except for answering comments and I enjoy the focus my Sunday afternoons give me! Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteJessica Balsley