Open Studio and Evaluation/Grading

Some things have changed, for the better I think, in my art department. We have finally split the level by teacher instead of both of us teaching all levels. This is better for both the students and for us. It lessens the amount of preps for each of us, and it really makes sure that each student gets similar experiences after art 1, and the best each of us as teachers have to offer. Art students would have my partner for Art 2 and learn/practice lots of technique (that is his strength). Then when they come over to my room for Art 3, we would focus on the Artistic Process, finding their voices, and developing a studio practice. They return to him for Art 4 / AP, with the hopes that the year in my room really helps prepare them for the next level–especially creating a portfolio for AP. (Just as an aside, it did not lessen my preps this year, I have 7–one of which is AP. Such is life in a growing district with less than the ideal number of teachers. But I digress.)

I usually run my Art 3 like an Open Studio, where students follow their own interests in both subject matter and media. This year, I did find that many students do need help with the ATP (specifically ideation), so I brought in themes to help them. In previous years, it really was an open studio, but you have to adjust to the students you have if you want to be an effective teacher. I also use this studio format in my upper ceramics classes–Art 3: Ceramics still has themes where Art 4: Ceramics is fully student-led.

The biggest hurdle I have run into with these classes is how to evaluate my students and ultimately how to turn that into grading. I decided the main things to be evaluated should be the studio practice habits of each student. I evaluate them bi-weekly on their studio practices. It has taken a lot of trial and error to come up with a rubric that I feel works for what I want them to get from their time in my class. Evaluating their studio practices gives the students a lot of leeway on what and how they want to create.

Photo credit K. Douglas & C. Fralick

I based my rubric on the 7 Goals of Art Class from Katherine Douglas. I thought that while the goals were created those for elementary students, they apply to any studio practice. I created a rubric that is based on these studio habit goals that are incorporated into the ATP (Artistic Thinking Process) stages. Coming up with a point system was a not so easy task, but I ultimately decided that every habit is equally important. Engagement is the highest because that really reflects their attitudes and productivity during the studio time each week. I use this rubric to determine my bi-weekly major grade for my upper level classes. 

Studio Habits Bi-Weekly Grade

As time goes on and I reflect upon my students and my teaching, I keep tweaking the rubric to be a better reflection of what I hope they are learning and practicing as emerging artists. But so far, this has worked well and I think is an accurate reflection of my students’ studio habits and practices. 

It’s been a while.

It’s been over a year since I last published anything on this site. It’s not that I didn’t want to because I recall many times where I said to myself, “self, you should really write a new post!” But, I never listened to myself.

A lot has happened in the year and a half that I’ve been silent—good, bad, and sad. I was named Teacher of the Year in 2022. It was a major honor for me to be recognized for the hard work I put in. My favorite principal left to go to another district. (I keep hoping he’ll come back one day soon). A bond passed in my district. While it is very CTE heavy, there is the glimmer because it did include a Visual Arts Expansion. That means we are getting a 3rd art room, and possibly in the future a 3rd art teacher. And I published an article in School Arts.

But, probably the best thing that happened was I was asked to lead the high school cohort at the 2023 TAB Institute at MassArt. It was the first time back in person since the before times. I was shocked and completely honored that Melissa P and Jen R-Z had that much faith in me and my abilities to do it. It was so much fun, and I am pleased to say that the amazing group I worked with agreed to have me back.

I’m not sure there’s really a point to this post. I just wanted to say hi and let you know that I’m gonna try to write some more posts. I think it’s important to share my knowledge and my trials and tribulations of being a high school TAB teacher. While I have a partner, he’s not TAB, and I often feel like an island. I know there’s others of you like me out there, so I hope as I pick up the pen, so to say, to write about my experiences, I can help more people navigate the TAB philosophy and find what fits for you.

2 Philosophies, 1 Program

I wanted to take a moment to talk about my program. As many of you know, I am a TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) teacher and have been for the majority of my 15-year career. What I am not sure people know is that my partner is not a TAB teacher. Yes, he sometimes gives choices to his students, our students, but for the most part, he is a traditional art teacher who assigns whole-class projects.

We have been working together for 15 years, and it has taken us 14 of those years to finally get our act together and create a program that not only allows cohesiveness for our students, but also allows for each us to teach to our own philosophy and to our strengths.

What does this look like? We were fortunate to have had a principal who trusted us as experts and allowed us to choose which class levels we wanted to teach. We both teach Art 1 classes due to the sheer number of class sections we have. (Texas requires one fine art credit for graduation, and the majority of students pick art as that FA credit.) We split the Art 1 sections as evenly as we can. The experiences for the students in our respective classes is different, but we are okay with that. The students get to know us as teachers and people, they get to learn about our program, they get to make some art, they have fun, and for about half, they get that credit they need so they can move to the pathway they are really interested in.

It’s when the students decide to continue in the art pathway that things really start to make sense for how we have structured the Duck Art Program. We have split the remaining sections of courses by levels between us. My partner teaches all sections of art 2, I teach all art 3, then the seniors return to him for art 4 and AP Studio. He teaches both AP 2D sections. I teach AP 3D, but I am also the ceramics teacher, so that is what makes sense for us.

Splitting the classes this way works to our strengths. He is really good at teaching techniques and materials, so the art 2 students benefit from all having this shared experience where they get to focus on skills and learning new materials. They come to back to me in art 3. We focus more on the ATP (Artistic Thinking Process), studio habits, and creating original art. My class helps them to really consider content and finding what media they like to work with, what types of subjects they like, and what they want to explore. AND they really start to find and develop their voice. So…..when they return to Art 4/AP, they have a well-rounded background and can create amazing art. It was hard in the past to have kids that were all over the map because we taught the same level in totally different styles. I understand that as a TAB teacher, I always meet students where they are, but this isn’t about meeting students at their artistic level, this is about the students have a common base knowledge that allows both teachers to better meet the students needs.

It took us forever to learn to play together, and play together well, but better late than never I say. I am excited for this coming year because we will be able to really see how well this will benefit our students and our program. It was time to stop being an island in a department of 2 and instead come together as 1. It is possible to work with those that don’t follow a TAB philosophy like you do. You just need to check your ego and remember what is really important and the focus of your art program–the students and helping them in their journeys to becoming artists.

Meaningful Grading? An oxymoronic dilemma.

At the end of the year, I start to think about the next year. I like to have some ideas written down so I can leisurely work out details over the summer so I am ready for the year in August when I return. This coming year, one thing I really want to work on is my grading system. I have been using a “Level of Engagement” system for some years now, but I’ve become disillusioned with it because I feel it is too much like a participation grade and doesn’t really show any sort of progress towards mastery or whatever it is grades are “supposed” to show.

Before I go any further, I want to say that if you are reading this post with the anticipation of some kind of answer to the meaningful grading question, I’m not sure you’re going to find it. In fact, you might end up walking away with more questions. Also, I am writing with high school grading in mind, which is a huge beast that is often wrong in what it represents.

If you Google “purpose of grading in education”, you will find that basically grades are meant to communicate learning progress and achievements. But, as we all know, grades don’t really show that at all…meaning that final number doesn’t actually show progress in learning. Because, if you get a 70 in the first marking period because you are still developing a skill/studio habit, and then you get a 100 in the final marking period because you finally mastered the skill/studio habit, you won’t receive a 100 for the year. Your grade will appear as if you just were average or proficient, even though you did what the point of learning is–you progressed and eventually mastered. Who goes to look at all the grades over the course of the year to see that your grade steadily improved? Only that final number is looked at.

As I have written about in the past, and it has be talked about over and over, grading =/= assessment. And perhaps that is why grading becomes such the dilemma. Should we, under the system we have to use, try to have our grades match our assessments that show actual progress over time, or should we just give out grades for participation? I know this is my dilemma. It’s something I’ve dealt with for years of being a TAB teacher. When I was DBAE, I used rubrics and based grades on students’ artworks having certain elements and principles, depending upon the project, as well as “good” craftsmanship and effort. But now, those things are not as important to me because of the current purpose of my teaching. I am trying to teach my students a way of thinking, a way of behaving, and having a variety of lines in an artwork shouldn’t be up to me, but up to the students. I know that some students will understand the artistic process faster than others. I know that some will demonstrate Studio Habits of Mind easily and others will need more time to develop those habits. I know that all of my student will grow artistically, both in behaviors and skills from where they were when they stepped into the classroom. I know each journey is different. What I don’t know is how to show that in our society’s “beloved” grading hierarchy.

_{Image credit Katherine Douglas and Clark Fralick}

I feel like I am digressing a little here. I was talking about moving on from engagement grading to something more meaningful. I feel like I have figured out what I want to assess my non-first level students on this coming year and beyond. Katherine Douglas shared with me a poster about the things that artists can do in art class. I am in the process of creating an assessment chart for my artists based on this image. I know it was originally meant for elementary, but the behaviors truly span through to any artist at any stage/age. Where I get stuck is the grading part. The chart is easily used as a rubric for assessing students’ artistic thinking processes, but translating that to a numerical grade sucks. There is no other way to say that. I mean, I figured out a point system that makes sense and correlates to emerging, proficient, and mastery levels. But, it does not work well with our antiquated grading system. Their report card just shows some average number that doesn’t accurately show anything meaningful to their learning.

I know that some schools have changed their grading systems, but not mine. And mine isn’t going to change for the foreseeable future. And probably, most schools won’t either. So, in the end, how do we deal with this? How do we use our grading system to truly show growth? I am unsure if it is possible in a system where high school students rely on GPAs for things like scholarships and top % for automatic admission to state schools. Do I just give in and grade on participation, continue with engagement and add in conferences with each student to talk about their growth assessment?

I think this is the hardest part of being a teacher for me. And, the hardest part of being a TAB teacher since I am teaching a way of thinking and not just something that has right/wrong answers. I told you I wasn’t going to make things any clearer in this post. And, I didn’t get any closer to solving my dilemma of how to create a point system for my assessments of artistic growth, thinking, and understanding. But hopefully this post gave you something to think about and discuss. And perhaps, the more we discuss it with each other, the discussion will start to move to those above us teachers that make decisions and we can begin to change the face of education.

I thought I was done, but I think I want to add here that I wrote this post over a week ago, but haven’t published until now because I’ve been going over and over in my head what the purpose of my grading is, and grading in general. At my school, fine arts is a required class to graduate (1 credit worth), but it is not counted towards GPA–something I felt strongly against, but now am not so sure anymore if I want it to count towards GPA. Above you read what Google says the purpose is supposed to be, but that’s not reality. And after reading several posts/conversations this week in both TAB groups and non-TAB groups, the dilemma for me is even worse. I don’t want grades to be punitive. I want my grades to reflect learning and growth, but I can’t figure out a way to where they show growth that isn’t punitive. Assigning lower grade numbers for developing habits/skills and higher grades for mastered skills averages to some number that can seem “negative”. A student that grows over the course of the class should have a 100 for their final grade, right?

TAB: A Philosophy with a Choice Continuum

Lately, I’ve been seeing the phrase “I’m not full TAB”, or something similar to that.  And to be honest, at first I would kind of roll my eyes and move on. But then as I started to see it more and more, I thought that maybe some people don’t quite know or understand that TAB is a philosophy with a choice continuum. 

Signage from Clyde Gaw’s TAB classroom.

Over the years, there have been many conversations about TAB vs modified TAB / “not full TAB”. And, in the end, the same conclusion ensued–there isn’t really modified/not-full TAB. That would infer that not all 3 core tenets are followed when setting up the program. And asking, which one(s) are you leaving out?

What do I mean by that? Well, TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) is a philosophy that follows 3 core tenants. It asks What do artists do? It believes the child is the artist. And it believes the classroom is their studio.  To put it more simply, as Ian Sands would say, it’s about Making Artists.  The end goal should be helping/teaching our students to behave and think like artists. Obviously there is much more to it, I mean there are many books written about it and have been several theses written about TAB as well. But that would be a longer post for a different day.

How you achieve the end goal of “Making Artists” is the methodology.  And that is where the continuum comes in. TAB teachers offer levels of choice for this.  Good TAB teachers will vary the level of choice on a number of factors, including the individual needs of the students is one of those factors. In fact, there may be varying levels of choice within the same class period, and it can fluctuate over time going from more choice to less choice and back again.  TAB is student-centered after all. I wrote another blog post that includes some reasons why you would vary the level of choice. Below is an image that displays the continuum of choice that can be offered, and there is a time for each level, including teacher directed, although that should probably be employed the least in a TAB practice.

Douglas, K. and Jaquith, D., 2018. Engaging Learners Through Artmaking. 2nd ed. New York: Teachers College Press, p.21.

In the end, if you believe in the philosophy and you arrange your program with the goal of making artists/teaching to think and behave like artists, you are a TAB teacher. What you modify is the amount of choice. And that will change as you learn about your student population and their needs, and it will vary from class to class, and student to student. At some point, students will be 100% self-directed, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Classroom Protocols in the Time of Covid

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote. It’s been, well, it’s been a semester–interesting, frustrating, at times apathetic, and at other times guilt-ridden. I am sure most of you know what I’m talking about. I thought I would start off the new year with trying to look at the positives, with hopes that I can help some people. We spend 2/3 of the first semester doing both in-person and asynchronous. Like other in-person art teachers, I had to figure out material procedures that worked within restrictions handed down from on high–no group work, no sharing, single-use if possible.

I run my TAB studio in a very self-serve type of environment. Unfortunately this year, that wasn’t feasible and I didn’t set up the studio as normal. ::sad face:: Fitting the expectations set out for me to work into an open studio was frustrating, but over the 3+ months I’ve had students in my room, I’ve been able to come up with strategies to make it work. I do have less than half the students I would have normally in my room, and my largest class was 12 (half my normal cap BUT it was a ceramics class, so that made things interesting.) Fewer students does make some things easier, I will admit, however, I did need to order a bunch of supplies that I wouldn’t normally order–more new brushes, lots of extra tools, extra sets of some media, single-use condiment containers, mesh bags. But in the grand scheme of things, it will help out in the future as there are some things I think I will continue using and doing after we return to a more “normal” school life.

Let’s do this…

Time Out area:

• I got this idea from another Texas TAB teacher, Lori Wallace. Not sure if it was her idea or not, but it’s a super awesome idea.
• It’s an area on my counter that I marked out as the time out area with some tape. (A student thought we needed a fun zone too, so there is that section next to it labeled as such.)
• Students put all used tools and materials there, so at the end of the day I can sanitize spray them.

Clean Cups and Dirty Cups:

• In a few different places, I have 2 sets of plastic cups–some labeled clean, and some labeled dirty.
• Cleaned tools (pencils, sharpies, skinny paint brushes, etc) are in “clean” cups.
• After student use, they put the tool in a dirty cup (this includes hand sharpener and erasers).
• I wipe down the hand tools with the provided sanitizing wipes at the end of the day, and then put them back into the clean cup.

Mesh Bags:

• I bought these mesh bags with a local grant, about 80 or so of them. I use them for many things: sets of acrylic brushes, sets of watercolor brushes, ceramic students individual tools, sets of brush markers.
• What makes them nice is that after the students use whatever is in them, they can put the bag in the time out area, and I can just spray the bag, turn it over, and spray the other side. The bag is mesh and plastic, so it gets the inside contents and allows for drying.
• This will be something that continues next year…using the bags for sets of things.

Materials List/Paint Color List:

• I made a list of all the different media I had to offer and a swatch of all the acrylic paint colors I have. I then laminated them and taped them down–one on each desk
• Students can tell me what medium they would like and I can get it for them.
• Students can tell me what paint colors they need, and I get those too.
• This lessens the amount of hands touching things–I wear gloves to get the different media.
• I don’t have to worry about sanitizing the paint bottles after each use because I am the only one touching the bottles.
• I put a piece of copy paper on each paint tray (cafeteria type trays), squirt on the selected colors, and give the students their paint. They throw out the paper and put the tray in the time out area.

Individual Student Tool Sets:

• This is mostly for my ceramic classes. This was costly, but there wasn’t really any other way. Tool kits were made; some sent home (and they come back when kids come back), and some stayed for in-person.
• Each student has their own cubby where they keep their tool bag. I repurposed my cubby since I didn’t set up the studio as normal.
• Each kit has a needle tool, a serrated metal scraper, a wide paint brush, a home-made sgrafitto tool (that each student made themselves), and a piece of canvas. I also bought a ton of wooden dowels (which I cut down to size to save money) and those longer, thicker paint stirrers. This allows for all to be able to use at the same time or for some to sit for a few days without being touched. These purchases will help out in the future with full classes.

Damp Boxes:

• I have enough shoe box size to give each of my upper students their own box–both for in person and remote.
• I walk around with large, under the bed size or sweater size ones, for my beginning students. I just go down the line, with gloves on, and give out each project. I do the reverse for clean-up.

Single Use Condiment Containers with Lids:

• I originally bought these to send home underglaze to my ceramic students.
• They come in handy for passing out regular ceramic glazes.
• I took all my glaze tiles and put them on a tray. Kids can point to the color, and I then mark the cup with the glaze number in a sharpie, and then return the lidded glaze-filled cup to them. They also know what number glaze they had so they can ask for more.

A Zillion Washcloths:

• Washcloths really are the best way to clean-up clay tables and paint spills. Those school paper towels suck.
• I bought over 100 of them from Walmart.
• Each one is “single” use. Student take one from the clean pile and go clean-up their table.
• They then put the used washcloth in the bucket by the sink after they are done with it.
• At the end of each week I was the washcloths for next week. I am lucky that I don’t have to take them home–I was given a key to the washers/dryer in the girls athletic area.
• It’s a little more work, but it is actually cleaner than when we would share the rags–so many less cloudy tables because kids don’t understand to rinse and ring the towels first before wiping the table–because more than likely, the person before didn’t rinse it.

Gloves:

• The district does supplies me with gloves and I go through 10 pairs a day maybe.
• Gloves do help to pass out supplies and whatnot to the students…and you will need to pass out a lot. You’ll feel like a waiter, but it is what it is. Lol

I think that is all. I know this is long, but I hope it is helpful to those of you that struggled first semester with having an open studio or those going back to in-person for the first time. Like I mentioned, I sometimes feel like a waiter, and it is tiring many days. My kids like to remind me when I don’t hand out table wipes at the end of the day, and they laugh when I yell that I’m about to take my gloves off so it’s last call for supplies for a while. Undoubtedly, I get someone that needs something like a minute later. ::shrug::

Remote Asychronous TAB

On Thursday, I will start my 14th year of teaching. It is a bag of mixed emotions. It is one of the hardest starts to a school year to date. And, it appears as it will be one of the most complicated. My district, as many other districts in central Texas, has decided to start the year off remotely. We will definitely teach the first 4 weeks this way. At week 2, the board will meet, go over the data, and decide if we will continue all remotely at week 5 or if we will go to the option of both remote and in-person. In my mind, I’m not there yet. I want to concentrate on getting remote up and running, then I will think about how do deal with 2 types of learning. I assume (and yes I now what happens when we assume…) that we will have some kind of guidance about equity with in-person and remote simultaneously.

Speaking of equity, my school has decided that we will be 100% asynchronous. Our goal is to meet ALL students, not just most like we did in the spring. Our community is one where not all have internet and some are out in the country where a hot spot won’t work. I know some students have to work during the day to help with household budgets and other students need to watch younger siblings and help with their work. I have been told that some businesses in the local community are setting up ways for students to come in and do their school work using the business’ wifi, keeping local covid mandates in mind. So, asynchronous really does seem to be best for the community.

Now that I have given a bit of info about my teaching situation, I thought I would speak to what I am going to do in my remote teaching and with trying to stay true to the 3 guiding principals of TAB–What do artists do? The child is the artist. The classroom is their studio. And in this case, where they are is their studio. I am also trying to stay true as much as I can to the TAB program I have built over the years.

It may not seem like remote is the best for building relationships/community with our classes as a whole group, but that doesn’t mean teachers can’t build one-on-one relationships with their students through our LMS, Google Classroom. I plan on using flipgrid to help learn more about my students. I will include my face in all my videos–I’ve learned to float my video recording of me speaking over my screen recording using quicktime. Or I will use a program I discovered called Loom, it also allows the computer camera to hover in front of a screen record. (It’s not perfect, but my students will get to see all the fabulous facial gestures and hand waving I do as I talk–and that is such a huge part of who I am, lol.) I also plan on utilizing an “autobiographical artwork” activity that Melissa Purtee so graciously shared. Lastly, in the spring I found in the that replying or leaving comments with on students submissions is really helpful in growing and keeping relationships and communication.

This year I have 7 classes–art 1, art 2, art 3, art 4, beginning, intermediate, and advanced ceramics. Every year, my students in art 1, art 2, and beginning ceramics create sketchbooks together at the beginning of the year. I think this helps my students that can’t afford sketchbooks, and students tend to have more ownership of the sketchbook because they made it. This is an activity I am continuing. I have spent many hours building sketchbook kits that students can come pick up from school. I think it will also be good for them to have something hands-on to do for remote school and to have a place to continue with learning to think like an artist. And, when we hopefully return, all that wonderful information and inspiration they added to their sketchbooks will be easily found and not all over in google classroom and drive folders.

Once we finish the sketchbooks, we will start learning about the ATP (Artistic Thinking Process). This is also something I do at the start of each year. This will also help me to learn more about the students and their interests. Like in person, each stage of the process will be looked at individually to help the students really stop to think about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and various way how to be inspired and develop ideas. When we get to the create stage, the students will be limited to their sketchbook and a pencil (and any supplies they have at home), but I think that is okay because artists often have limitations. I plan on making clay kits for my intermediate and advanced students, so they can create small ceramic pieces at home. (I can write more about how my ceramic classes will work in another post at some point.)

I know this post isn’t covering everything I will be doing with all my classes. My art 3 and art 4 (which are stacked) will be doing a book study of “Steal Like an Artist” with lots of activities on how to get their ideas flowing (hopefully). I am excited about that. I was given a grant for a class set of the book. I love the book, and I think as the students in those 2 classes are trying to start finding their voices and their influences, the book study will be a good thing. Also, it gives them time away from the screen. I figured I would wait until after the book study to blog about it.

I know there are many more things I will have to deal with as the year goes on. I have “how to deal with in-person and social distancing and no sharing” in the back of my mind at all times. But, for now, I am comfortable in how I am translating my in-person TAB classes into virtual TAB classes. I feel that even though there may be limitations in materials and the sizes of artworks, I can still help my students to learn to think and behave like artists, and, as usual, I keep that at the forefront of my mind as I plan.

Corona and Remote Teaching

I see it has been over 2 months since my last post. And, quite frankly, I’m not surprised. I had some ideas in the works for new posts on the exciting stuff and things happening in the Duck Art Room since January, but then Corona hit, and my spirits plummeted.

I tried with all I had in me to look the “new normal” in the eye and take it on. And by new normal, I mean remote teaching or distance learning or “homeschooling” 🙄🙄🙄. (Don’t get me started on how none of this is homeschooling. I know people that homeschool for a living, and this is not it folks. But I digress.) It was hard. I wanted to be the best teacher I could be, but in truth, I wanted to just paint and drink coffee and play with clay. And I’ve done all that. In fact, by the end of this, I will have a full kiln load of just stuff I made.

One week away from school turned to two weeks; then to three weeks. And now, I’m pretty sure we won’t be back this school year. And at this point, while I want to see all my kids more than anything, I don’t know how we could make the switch one more time with 7 weeks (in my district anyway) of school left — 3 of which we are definitely out for Shelter-In-Place orders.

My district has been remote teaching/distance learning for 3 weeks now. I feel it has all been one big trial and error session. My district finally came to a decision about grading and GPA and class rank–which for those of you who teach high school know that these things are currently important in the world of education and higher education. I won’t go into everything, but we are going to a pass/fail system for the second marking period of the 2019-20 school year. Grades will be assigned with “prominent emphasis on completion and effort”. So, that sounds good right. It sounds as about as equitable as they can get. We are trying very hard to make sure we can meet accommodations and reach students without internet and give grace to those struggling with home issues (siblings, work, etc.) that affect them being able to do school work. Could more be done? Probably. But I know we are trying.

What does this all have to do with Art and Teaching for Artistic Behavior and Duck Art? A lot actually. I said that my spirits had plummeted, and that included my spirit for facilitating meaningful art making situations for my students. Instead, I assigned what I felt was going to be the easiest thing for me to do. Currently, I have about 50-65% participation from my students–some do all of it, most pick and choose and turn in a thing here or a thing there. It made me sad to say the least. I was missing seeing my kids make and create and all those other things that go with being artists.

Earlier this week, I was looking at Facebook, like all who are at home do, and I finally clicked on my friend Melissa Purtee’s post about what she was doing remotely with her kids, and it sparked something in me. I was then reminded of a post another friend had put in the main TAB Facebook group about not forgetting our purpose as TAB teachers–those 3 main tenets of the philosophy. I knew I had to change what I was doing. I couldn’t sustain it anyway. So, I borrowed from Melissa, as she so graciously lets us do, and made a new website for my students–all of my students, no matter the level or the class type. It gives them choice. It lets them decided how to spend their time during the week–instead of a daily assignment, they know what they need to do for the week on Monday and can plan their schedule to meet their needs. It makes them think and decide and research and plan and all those behaviors we have been talking and learning about for months or years. I have full belief in my students and I am hoping that it is what is right for them, and for their situations. I hope they can see art making not as a thing they have to do, but they want to do–because the freedom is in their hands now.

I’ll leave you with this. I’m not sure how I feel about our “New Normal”. I just hope I am bringing a sense of comfort to my students thru art and choice as we navigate this together.

Click image for website

Restoration of a Practice

As we enter the third week of the new semester, I thought I would update on my “restoration” of the school year. (Confused? See this post for some clarity.) I know it has been a short time, but I am starting to really feel like I am getting a hold of the school year. Maybe I should say it’s been a long time. I mean, it is January, and we’ve been in school for about 4 months already.

       I came into this semester in a different frame of mind. I realized in December that I needed to change what was happening in my art studio, what was happening with my students. I felt they weren’t getting the best out of our TAB studio. And, I knew it wasn’t really them, but it was me. I was doing what felt right last school year…what worked for last year’s students. I was doing what I thought I should be doing. I wasn’t really seeing what my kids were missing.

So, over winter break I sat down with notebooks and made lots of notes. I figured out what my students were needing, and got to planning.

We started off with an exploration of the human face. It was very teacher-led, but it was a good way to start off the new semester. It got them engaged because teens love drawing eyes and lips. It helped to build their skills, and it was a nice ease back into art after 2+ weeks of sitting around.

But, it was what I decided to do after that I think is really making the difference. In art 1, we had been working through “The 9”, packets designed by Ian Sands that offer a lot of choice, but on a more basic, general subject matter (landscape, nature, architecture, etc.) These have been helpful, but I felt my art 1 students

needed more. At one point in my TAB journey, we worked with themes. I felt it was time to incorporate themes again. What I ultimately decided was that students would have a choice of a new packet (this time portraits due to the exploration we did), any previous packet we have visited this year, and a theme. And, so far, so good. Students are much more engaged with the larger choice, and because everyone isn’t doing the same packet, there is much more delving into the ATP (Artistic Thinking Process). Also, the required student-teacher meeting between development and creation has really helped them as well.

I am finally fully engaged this school year, and all it took was some deep reflection and a few tweaks to restore my passion for TAB and teaching.

This is 20 20.

It’s a new year…like it started yesterday. And with the end of each old year, and the beginning of a new one, there always comes with it some reflection. Many people create goals or make resolutions for the new year. I like to choose a word that I keep with me throughout the year, having it on my mind as I make decisions and navigate life.

I recently wrote about the struggles I was having the first part of this school year. I have been reflecting on the struggles and how I can make a change to ‘better’ myself and my program. What the reflection has ultimately done was cause me to pause and remember why I teach and why I choose to follow the TAB philosophy.

So, I have decided to write a series of posts about TAB and my journey back to myself and back to my “truth”. I will post a link here with each new reading. The first being;

• “What’s So Tab…?”
• Restoration of a Practice

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my word is “Restore”.