I'm a firm believer that the tone we set in the first week of school can influence the whole course. When planning what that time period would look like in my room this year, I wanted to accomplish the following: - Create a culture of collaboration. - Foster a problem-solving mindset. - Intro my Design Process Thinking model. - Start a conversation about originality that will be revisited in every lesson. On day one I skip the rules and syllabus review. Instead, we played one of my favorite games - "What's in the Bag?". The task was to create an object that could shoot a projectile at least three feet. I love the moment I tell students we're doing this - I watch their eyes go from glazed over with boredom to alive and curious. It's a fun activity for kids but it's also an effective way to preview what the class will look like in terms of student responsibility for making decisions. The next day, we started a short assignment about re-purposing ideas. The task: each group remixed an old master painting. The big idea I wanted my kids to take away from this experience is that artists need to be collectors of ideas that they have on file to use and adapt. It's a big paradigm shift that needs to happen to get where I want them to go. Next week, it's on to Bootcamps. My goal is to fit more information in a shorter timespan by using a combo of flipping and google forms. Stay tuned!
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How can I remove the barriers that exist for my students? This question has been rolling around in my head for a week, after my superintendent, Dr. James Merrill, asked it during our South West Area Kickoff (which was some really excellent PD). There are three types of barriers I see for my students: social, personal and academic. I try to remove social barriers by being really intentional about making all students feel welcome in my classroom. I want my kids to feel safe and included from the moment they come through the door, so I make it a point to post images that represent different cultures and points of view. This continues every time select artists to share - we have to include the diverse contemporary artists of today if we want our content to be relevant and accessible to our kids. I also leave much of the walls empty. This is not a space I want to be a hommage to my art skills - it's for the community that we build together. I try to remove personal barriers by building a relationship with my students. I make it a point to get to know them individually, asking them questions and figuring out what's important to them. When I notice a student is resistant to following behavioral expectations I start by asking questions, not lecturing or punishing. "It seems like you're having trouble following the rules today. Is everything okay?" always gets me further than "I'll see you at lunch detention." I remove academic barriers by making content personal and relevant for my students. I teach them to use their own ideas, differentiating content and support individually to make sure that happens. Instead of planning what they'll make and showing them the steps I teach them to be the decision makers.
All these things work together to make a classroom culture that's student centered, positive and empowering. Ah, back to school. It's right around the corner and I'm getting excited about new courses and new ideas. You might be too. If you're an elementary teacher who's interested in TAB (what is TAB?) I've written some lesson plans for the Art of Education that might be helpful. Of course, TAB is a read-the book-kind of venture, so If you haven't had the chance, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Engaging Learners Through Artmaking. Joining groups of like-minded educators is also helpful. TAB has a great website, with lots of resources. Also, if you are on Facebook, make sure to join Mid West TAB-Choice Art Teachers. Happy TABing! TAB Lesson Plan LinksIt's gotten to the point where I dread seeing the news. Mass shootings, terrorist attacks and police brutality have filled this summer, all set against the backdrop of the most polarized, hate filled presidential campaign in memory. It's senseless and it makes me question the collective humanity of the world. But even more, it makes me want to take action. As teachers, I believe that we have the opportunity to help shape the lives we have the gift of being part of. We can teach tolerance and respect, both with the way we treat our students and how we expect them to interact with each other. This involves talking to students and getting to know them as unique individuals and setting expectations for the classroom environment. When you hear students using racist, sexist or homophobic language, address it by naming what happened and offering an alternative behavior. For example: "Tom, when you call something you don't like "gay" it sounds like you are saying that being gay is bad. Could you please pick a different word to use?" We can teach about diversity with the examples we use. The time where it's acceptable to mainly include white artists in your classroom is long since over. Make it a point to include a diverse group of artists in work you show students - not just during Black History Month, but all year long. You can easily find contemporary artists to highlight through resources like thisiscollossal or hifructose. We can teach kids to respect the opinions of others by opening our classrooms to the investigation of social and political issues. Your students know about what's going on in the world and they need a place to discuss it. I do this in projects like Artists Take a Stand and Artists Communicate, where students choose issues that are important to them to make art about. I've never had any issues with these projects because I teach the expectation that people and ideas are respected in my classroom. When kids fall short I address it. As work is planned and created, ask kids what they want to say and help them find imagery that communicates their idea and meets your expectations for content.
Providing a place for students to process the issues of our world and talk through ideas respectfully teaches them to be tolerant of one another. We need more tolerance, discussion and respect in our world, so include teaching them in your classroom. What would happen if we did? When should student work be censored? Last week Ian Sands and Andrew McCormick talked about this important subject on Art Ed Radio, and their conversation made me reflect on my own teaching. How should we balance fostering student voice with following a school's expectations for appropriate content? How do we create a classroom climate that celebrates and respects differences? These are issues I deal with quite a bit, because I teach students to use their own ideas and I value art that makes a point, so I plan and teach projects like Artists Communicate, where I ask my kids to make work about political or social issues that are important to them. When I work with my kids to make decisions about content I think of it as a series of decisions we make together. I give advice based on my experience but the final decision is up to the student. In my opinion, we don't need to censor as much as inform and support. It's not everyday you see one of your best students spelling "cunt" with letters cut from magazines, but when this happened I was totally fine with it. Her work was about the relationship that insults and self harm have with each other. When this work was in the planning stages it started with the hand and I asked if she'd considered something in the background. Text was one of the solutions she came up with, and adding it made this piece much more powerful, so I supported her. The challenge came when she wanted to enter in in a show. I was worried that the gallery might reject it. We talked about it and she decided to mat it in a way that cut off part of the text on the edges, making the language still present but more subtle. She decided that lowering the risk of the show rejecting it was worth a bit of editing. "Mrs. Purtee, I want to make artwork about drugs" was the statement that started this final portfolio collection. I was tempted to "just say no" but instead I asked her to tell me more. What we figured out through conversation over a few classes, was that she was inspired by psychedelic artwork, not drug use. We talked about surrealism, which inspired her. She ended up with a very strong body of work that avoided trite symbolism. Most importantly she was happy with it. A few more examples: Figuring out how to express challenging ideas visually is motivating and challenging at the same time - perfect fodder for the classroom. Conversation is the key when students are making art that could be controversial. When I talk to kids about their work I always try to respect their ideas and help them figure out how to say what they want while understanding the boundaries that are part of being a student. The other type of conversation that has to take place is with the whole class. From the first day on, I let my students know that my room is a place where ideas and opinions are respected. I model this in how I interact with kids and I remind them when they slip up. For example, when I hear racist or sexist language I always address it in a polite and direct way. I intentionally work to create an atmosphere where it's safe to express ideas. My students rise to the challenge - I remember one instance where there were works in progress at one table about religion, feminism, sexual assault, a pro-life view on abortion and trans rights. Everyone just rolled with it. Motivation is a slippery thing. Some students have it in spades, working outside of class, coming in at lunch and always challenging themselves. Others do the bare minimum, or decidedly less. How can we help unmotivated students find their passion? In a TAB classroom, one obstacle to motivation is the unknown. It makes sense - a student in our educational system's teach to the test culture can easily have almost no experience with generating and developing independent ideas. When we ask students to do this it's uncomfortable. It's so uncomfortable for some that they shut down instead of running the risk in investing in a task they perceive as hard. These students need a framework. The one I use is Artistic Thinking Process. I created Artistic Thinking Process, or ATP, to scaffold working through the creative process. I use it as the structure for all my lessons, building skills and independence incrementally. Early on in a course I teach the options under each category, later students decide what will work best for their creative needs and preferences. When students are stuck, which most often happens in the Inspiration and Design phases, I refer to ATP in conversations with them. We read through the options and talk through possible next steps. Using ATP makes the design process tangible and accessible instead of overwhelming. Emma, a student that I had in Art 2, is a good example of how ATP can be used to scaffold for creative independence. She was frequently stuck in class. I'd often find her not working. Instead, she was on her phone or doing homework, which looked like she was unmotivated. However, when we talked I realized she was stuck and had no idea going about making decisions. She had an idea - to make a watercolor painting for our sequence of events project - but she had never used watercolor and had no idea what to do next. After talking, we decided that she needed some new skills, so I did technique demo for her. Next, after talking it through with me, she decided to find resource images of sunsets, then experiment with technique. After lots of practice and support from me she ended up creating a successful painting. More importantly, she learned a process to make decisions with through our ATP conversations. By the end of Art 2 she was able to do this mostly on her own. Sometimes what looks like motivation is just having the right skill set.
I was tiptoeing around the subject, so I’m going to be clear here. Cookie cutter lessons are a waste of your time and do little for students. Consider why teachers use these projects - they produce good results. Is this a valid reason for teaching a lesson?
We shouldn’t be in the business of worrying about what looks good on the wall, but rather with making students who are independent artists. These sort of step-by-step projects often take weeks to produce and leave students with little more than the work itself. Other issues include:
I think that most teachers realize how empty cookie cutter projects are, but many do them anyway. We’re pressured to put on a show, to always have appealing work on display. However, just because it’s expected doesn’t mean it’s right. If a lesson of yours produces indistinguishable work, get rid of it. If it is all about the product, try something new. Try lessons that:
The most important thing when deciding what to teach is this: What do I want this experience to leave my students with? There is no one right answer to this question. It might be an understanding of art history, a love of painting, the ability to create independently or mastery of a specific skill. “Something pretty on the wall” is probably not your answer - don’t let it be your contribution. Myths of TAB: students aren't challenged. Fact........... Wait, why is this even a myth? The truth is that teaching varies from person to person, so one can't really make sweeping generalizations about other's teaching styles, but I'm going to anyway. The work of any art experience is in the planning, the research, the making choices.If you are doing this work for your students, how rigorous can your teaching be? In my Art 2 class, the final challenge consisted of this: 3 weeks to select a theme, created 3 high quality works of art and an artist statement - all to be displayed at our first annual Portfolio Day. I love art shows, but I wanted an event for kids that was attended by their peers and teachers during the school day. So we made food and sent out invitations. People came for the food and stayed for the art! It was a motivating, positive, community-building event. Everyone had work to display and everyone showed huge growth. The public accountability of this event provided an extra push that we all needed. I'm so proud of this class! *tears* Myths of TAB: Students don't learn skills or grow, they just do the same thing over and over. Fact: The choices made by students in a TAB classroom are very individualized, so each student has a unique experience. Second Fact: Doing the same thing over and over is how mastery is achieved! What success looked like in my classroom this week: Choosing to redo paintings created during the first weeks of school because they know they can do better being able to see how far they've come. Collaborating to make something that is beautiful and functional - and that you can bring home to shoot sparklers with over Memorial Day weekend!
Myth of TAB: it's a free-for all. Fact: Offering choice takes organization and planning, but when that foundation is in place students are empowered to create. It's taken us all year to get here, but my Art 1 students are flying solo. They are confident, ambitious and self-directed artists. Not just a few kids - everyone is able to find an idea and use Design Process Thinking to bring it to fruition. For the past two weeks. Art 1 has been working through "Artists Explore" - a self-directed, self paced unit, where kids are tasked with completing three of the following choices: - Learn new skills and use them to make art. - Re-visit a work of art you could improve on and recreate it. - Learn about an artist and make a work of art in their style. - Make art about a political or social issue that's important to you. - Work with a group to make a collaborative artwork. All of these pictures are from my classroom today. None of theses artworks were planned or organized by me. Instead, my students are generating ideas, planning to make them happen, then creating and revising. I'm conferencing with students, giving one on one demonstrations and just having a lot of fun watching everyone be so successful.
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Mrs. PurteeI'm interested in creating a student student centered space for my high school students through choice and abundant opportunity for self expression. I'm also a writer for SchoolArts co-author of The Open Art Room. Archives
December 2019
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