I want to start by telling you why I started to move in a direction toward T.A.B., or Teaching for Artistic Behavior. When I was a K-12 student, I was creative. I had ideas, ideas I was waiting for the opportunity to bring to life. I sat through many art classes. Some classes were inspiring, and gave me new ideas, but I always felt limited, limited because I had to make a project based on what the Teacher liked, or what the Teacher had researched, or what the Teacher found interesting. Did the Teacher's project sometimes appeal to me? Did I sometimes make some incredible work? Yes! But there were more times where I was going through the motions, doing as I was told, waiting for the opportunity to create what was inside of me, what I had researched, what I found interesting and important. My story, my art, my ideas.
Even though I felt this way, I had not considered teaching art during my K-12 years, so I did not try to discover a better way to teach. I went on to college, and learned to teach art the traditional way, and my first two years teaching I was focused on being organized, ahead in the curriculum, and classroom management. I never gave a second thought to teaching a different way. I quickly observed some things that made me consider otherwise.
In elementary school I sometimes gave my students free choice time with certain materials, honestly, I did this times when I needed to meet with small groups, and didn't want students "messing up" a big project working for awhile without me. I set out materials, and they could make anything they wanted, following rules about size, and saftey, ect. I started to see great motivation, and amazing creativity in students where I had seen none, and the students who were motivated by my projects were equally self driven during this free choice time. Students who never turned in anything that was, "correct" had more artistic, creative genius than I could ever muster. I could not overlook this observation, so I gave "free choice time" a little more often.
With Middle Level Students I began to have, students who said, "I'm not creative". Often I found that they were not inspired by the projects the Teacher chose, so they assumed they were not good at art. I knew that many of these students had creative genius, but I needed to find a way to help them figure that out. Art has so many different avenues, that just because they are not great at drawing faces did not mean they were not an artist. I needed a way to change the train of thought for the students and myself.
I first started noticing this shift with the students who said they were not creative, when I started teaching at the Middle Level. There were almost no boys in my middle level art classes. I started asking the boys, "Why did you not choose to take art?" They almost always said, "I don't like to paint horses, and we had to paint horses." "I don't like watercolor with landscapes and flowers.""I only got to make one clay project in 2 years of art." The responses were all related to not enjoying the media or subject matter of their projects, and they equated this to mean they did not like art. I immediately knew that this could easily be changed! I just needed to teach them skills, but let them choose materials and subject matter..., but how?
I started small, and ran my classes the way I always had, but with students designing their own final project. The last 2-3 weeks of a course students researched, planned created, got feedback on, and adjusted, turning in a project that was all theirs. This was a big hit motivation wise, and did not skimp in the area of standards (we hit several standards and covered them well in a matter of weeks). Students would ask me constantly around registration time, "Mrs. Wiste, do we get to design our own final in Art 7?" Them registering for my course depended on the answer to this one question. At this point I had not heard of TAB, Genius Hour, or 20% time, it just felt right based on my observations.
I had a great mentor here at my school, who taught his classes very choice based. Dave Guenther had learned this method from a teacher before him, and though he does it a little different, everything being taught in the TAB method is what he creates in many of his classes. Seeing him work this choice based art in his classroom helped me to see how it could work in my own.
Around the same time I discovered twitter, and became well read in genius hour, 20% time, TAB, and found Lockie Chapman (A middle level art Instructor) through my Technology director. These events would change my teaching forever.....
Even though I felt this way, I had not considered teaching art during my K-12 years, so I did not try to discover a better way to teach. I went on to college, and learned to teach art the traditional way, and my first two years teaching I was focused on being organized, ahead in the curriculum, and classroom management. I never gave a second thought to teaching a different way. I quickly observed some things that made me consider otherwise.
In elementary school I sometimes gave my students free choice time with certain materials, honestly, I did this times when I needed to meet with small groups, and didn't want students "messing up" a big project working for awhile without me. I set out materials, and they could make anything they wanted, following rules about size, and saftey, ect. I started to see great motivation, and amazing creativity in students where I had seen none, and the students who were motivated by my projects were equally self driven during this free choice time. Students who never turned in anything that was, "correct" had more artistic, creative genius than I could ever muster. I could not overlook this observation, so I gave "free choice time" a little more often.
With Middle Level Students I began to have, students who said, "I'm not creative". Often I found that they were not inspired by the projects the Teacher chose, so they assumed they were not good at art. I knew that many of these students had creative genius, but I needed to find a way to help them figure that out. Art has so many different avenues, that just because they are not great at drawing faces did not mean they were not an artist. I needed a way to change the train of thought for the students and myself.
I first started noticing this shift with the students who said they were not creative, when I started teaching at the Middle Level. There were almost no boys in my middle level art classes. I started asking the boys, "Why did you not choose to take art?" They almost always said, "I don't like to paint horses, and we had to paint horses." "I don't like watercolor with landscapes and flowers.""I only got to make one clay project in 2 years of art." The responses were all related to not enjoying the media or subject matter of their projects, and they equated this to mean they did not like art. I immediately knew that this could easily be changed! I just needed to teach them skills, but let them choose materials and subject matter..., but how?
I started small, and ran my classes the way I always had, but with students designing their own final project. The last 2-3 weeks of a course students researched, planned created, got feedback on, and adjusted, turning in a project that was all theirs. This was a big hit motivation wise, and did not skimp in the area of standards (we hit several standards and covered them well in a matter of weeks). Students would ask me constantly around registration time, "Mrs. Wiste, do we get to design our own final in Art 7?" Them registering for my course depended on the answer to this one question. At this point I had not heard of TAB, Genius Hour, or 20% time, it just felt right based on my observations.
I had a great mentor here at my school, who taught his classes very choice based. Dave Guenther had learned this method from a teacher before him, and though he does it a little different, everything being taught in the TAB method is what he creates in many of his classes. Seeing him work this choice based art in his classroom helped me to see how it could work in my own.
Around the same time I discovered twitter, and became well read in genius hour, 20% time, TAB, and found Lockie Chapman (A middle level art Instructor) through my Technology director. These events would change my teaching forever.....
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