Tag Archives: teaching for artistic behavior

Sep18

Goal Setting

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School’s been in session for just a month now, so of course that means it’s time for me to decide on my yearly goal for my T-Tess. That’s the evaluation system my district in Texas uses. While I’m not sure that the system in general has helped me as a teacher, I did decide to actually take my goal seriously this year.

In the past, I wrote goals that seemed easy to achieve and collect data on so that I could easily check that box off and spend most of my time focusing on the fun part of my job. When we had to work on our goal during our PD earlier this month, I started off with the same attitude and just copied a goal from about 5-6 years ago. But as the month went on and I thought about it, something in my brain switched and I began to take the goal seriously and really figure out ways to help me learn from my goal.

This year’s goal falls under the professionalism domain, as I am going to work on reflecting on my practice. I normally reflect on my practice throughout the year. I make notes. I think about what worked, what didn’t work, and changes I can make. But after 17 years, I think that’s not enough.

I know they say if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to apply this year. This year has come with some changes that I didn’t anticipate, and I am struggling with finding my place in our system this year. I know I have been a strong and effective teacher for years, but something feels different this year. I feel I’ve been focusing so much on being a great TAB teacher and being true to the philosophy that I believe in so much, that I’m missing something else. I am hoping to figure what that is.

I have been working on gathering some strategies to really help me reflect on the different facets of being a TAB teacher. I hope to write more reflective posts this year, not just ones that give advice on technique or incorporating TAB. I really want to look closely at how I deliver information, at how I am communicating to students and colleagues, at how I scaffolding the important concepts as I lead my students towards understanding the artistic thinking process and ultimately independent thinking. I plan on watching other teachers teach, from a variety of disciplines. I am essentially an island, in more ways than the obvious. I think seeing how others approach their classrooms can shine many lights on what I do and choose not to do. I have contacted several teachers that I respect and asked if I could come and observe them. I received much enthusiasm and am excited to start. I will go to my first observation next week. I am pretty excited about it.

How do you choose your yearly goals? Is it part of your evaluation process? Do you take it seriously or do you do it to check the boxes? I have just written goals in the past that easily allowed me to look good. But, the longer I teach, I don’t want to get stagnant or stale and just do what has always worked. I am looking forward to learning more about teaching and myself through this process.

Aug2

Typical Days in the HS TAB Studio

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As we get closer and closer to the start of the year, many people are asking what a typical day in the high school TAB studio/classroom is like. And well, it’s anything but typical. Just kidding. TAB classrooms are just like any other art classroom, just there is more independent thinking happening and less teacher-led projects. But, other than that, it’s pretty normal. We have routines just like any other classroom.

I thought I would create a small post outlining my day and my week as a high school TAB teacher. I see my students daily, all year long. This year we are back up to 50 minute classes. Woo hoo!! I teach Art 1, Art 3, and beginning through advanced Ceramics. Sometimes I teach AP or an Art 4, but those are on case by case bases. Unless it’s AP 3D, then that’s definitely me.

I like to have a routine that my students get used to, so they are comfortable and there’s not huge chaos every day. I have a white board, which when my room is not under construction, the students pass by as they come into class and they are encouraged to read the board so they know what they need to get out.

Mondays start off with either Artist Monday or Style/Movement Monday, for all my classes. We come in, watch a video and then the students answers questions, either in their sketchbooks (art 1) or on a slide deck (everyone else). That generally takes about 15 minutes of class total. After that, we go into one of 2 things, we get back to notes/practice of skills or studio time. Every other Wednesday, in art 1, we have a drawing test. Then, similarly to Mondays, the students pick up where they left off the day before. In my upper classes (art 3 and ceramics 2 & 3), I designate a day (usually every other Friday) for digital portfolio time.

Beyond those few fixed things, I typically don’t like to take much of the time away from arting. Kids will ask me what are we doing, and I say to look at the board. At some point, whether they need their sketchbooks or not, art 1 students will come in and grab it before sitting down. It has become a habit. Sometimes I address the class right at the beginning to do some house keeping, like reminding students of who I still need to go over ideas and development or when the last studio day for a unit is. Other times, I just let them get to work and don’t address the whole class until about 7 minutes left when it’s time to come to a convenient stopping point to begin clean-up.

When we do need to learn new skills (composition, perspective, facial features, etc.), we sit and take notes in our sketchbooks. After there is usually a small assignment in their sketchbooks to practice the new skills. New media explorations take about a week, while other smaller skills assignments take between 2-3 days (notes and practice time together.) When I do demos, where we (students and I) aren’t doing them simultaneously, I try to keep them under 10 minutes. That way, they still have at least a half hour of arting time.

There you have it. The biggest difference in my experience between when I was a more “traditional” teacher and a TAB teacher is that there is much more independent art making and exploring time. I circle the room more and talk to students more. There is not magic secret or formula. This is what feels right for my students and for me. It’s relaxed and safe and successful.

Jul2

PoTAYto, PoTato, Semantics Sometimes Matter

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I will admit, I am a TAB purest and sometimes I get fired up when it comes to spreading the love for TAB and helping teachers understand the philosophy and ways to implement the intricacies of the philosophy into the classroom. Now, I am a high school teacher, so the way I TAB is not going to be the same as the way an elementary teacher TABs. Heck, it won’t be the same as another high school TAB teacher. But, at the heart of the matter, we all believe the core tenets, the guiding principles if you will, of the philosophy, and we build our programs around them.

One thing that I try to combat when I talk about TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) is the misconceptions about what the pedagogy is and isn’t. About 5 years ago, I wrote this post about TAB vs. Modified TAB. I wanted to revisit the meat of that post–TAB, Modified TAB and some of the in between. Again, TAB is a philosophy, meaning it’s an art eduction belief system and is at the heart of the decisions we make when figuring out how to run our curriculum and classes. The TAB philosophy is guided by 3 sentences:

  • What do Artists Do?
  • The Child is the Artist
  • The Classroom is their Studio

How a teacher runs their classroom and sets up their curriculum to help their students become artists (who think of their own ideas and can do all the things artists do) is called the Methodology. This typically comes in the form of choice. There are many levels to choice and why you would vary them. You can read here about the choice continuum. TAB teachers vary how much, when, and what types of choice dependent upon a variety of things. But, they don’t vary how much or how little they believe in the philosophy.

This is where semantics comes in. When someone says they are doing a “Modified TAB” classroom, I believe what they are really talking about is the level of choice they are offering–maybe opening centers slowly, or limiting materials. They are not talking about the philosophy and their only believing in 1 or 2 of the 3 core tenets. But, this becomes confusing to those just starting out as a TAB teacher or someone trying to learn a new way to continue to teach art so that they love their career again. Wording it this way also makes it seem like a Choice-Based classroom and a TAB classroom are one and the same. I like to tell my students that all thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs. I think this 100% applies here. All TAB classrooms are Choice-Based, but not all Choice-Based classrooms are TAB. Sometimes choice-based teachers are still doing a lot of the important decisions of art making, thus not really helping their students to become independent artists. So, the semantics do become important here.

I know that some people may think this is “gate keepery” or elitist, and it probably feeds into the stereotype of TAB teachers thinking they are “better” (which is not something we actually think.) I believe that one thing that makes TAB so wonderful is that the philosophy allows for many implementations. It is differentiation at its best. The goal remains the same for all TAB teachers–creating independent thinking artists. But we realize that every student is different, so how we get them to that point will look different for everybody. Therefore, as we spread the TAB love, let’s be sure to help people new to the philosophy understand the difference between being TAB and running a TAB classroom, and our choice of words does matter when it comes to understanding. In the end, it’s okay to have varying levels of choice, but the belief in all the guiding principles of TAB doesn’t vary.

Nov20

It’s been a while.

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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.

Mar15

TAB: A Philosophy with a Choice Continuum

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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. 

What do artists do? You are the artist. This room is your studio.
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.

continuum of choice chart by Diane Jaquith
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.

Apr10

Corona and Remote Teaching

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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.

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Click image for website

Jan24

Restoration of a Practice

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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.

img_20200123_183235_2816965594421370195777.jpg       img_20200122_110002_4556652781830567087963.jpgI 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.

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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

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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.

I20200116_1003544689872620955959336.jpg 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.

Aug19

TAB, Modified TAB, and Other TABby things

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TAB is a huge buzzword these days. I see it thrown around in many Facebook groups. But what is TAB exactly? TAB is an acronym for Teaching for Artistic Behavior. It is a philosophy that has three core values. It asks “What do Artists do?” It believes the child is the artist. And, it believes the art room is her/his studio. It is these three ideas that drive a TAB teacher’s curriculum…how they run their studio.

That brings me to my next topic, Modified TAB. This isn’t really a thing. A teacher either believes in the philosophy or doesn’t. They don’t really pick and choose which of the values they want to believe. What confuses people is the misunderstanding that being a TAB teacher means you are balls to the wall full choice, all day long. Like I said…this is a misconception of the philosophy. When running a TAB studio, no matter the level, there is a spectrum of choice. The amount of choice a teacher will allow has several variables.

  • Campus/district expectations
    • Some teachers are expected to do x, y, and z. And most of us do like to be in compliance.
  • How “on board” a principal is with the change in the art program.
  • Bootcamp vs studio time
    • bootcamps are short amounts of time where the full class will explore a specific topic such as acrylic paints and color theory or copyright. Bootcamps should last a few days to a week tops. Studio time is where the students create their artwork.
  • Needs of the child
    • Each child is different in their learning styles and how comfortable they are with freedom. TAB is differentiation at its best.
  • Have to’s
    • There are certain things that teachers believe every student needs to know. This could be doing an attachment test to be able to use the sculpture center or biweekly drawing tests that have kids focus on the eye/brain/hand connection.
  • Teacher comfortability with giving up control.

Basically, a TAB teacher utilitizes varying degrees of choice throughout the year, for various reasons. But, they don’t utilize varying degrees of the philosophy.

Teaching in a “TAB-like” way isn’t a thing, but using varying levels of choice is. You can offer choice without being TAB, but you can’t be TAB without offering choice. You are a TAB teacher or you are not. There is not a formula as to how to run a TAB studio. There are as many ways to run the studio as there are TAB teachers. That’s the beauty of it. Believe the philosophy and do what works for you, your population, and your admin…as long as you have student Artistic autonomy as a goal for your students.

For more information about Teaching for Artistic Behavior, visit teachingforartisticbehavior.org

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A High School TAB studio with multiple mediums being worked on at the same time.

Dec12

Artists Tackle Social Issues

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I have been wanting to have my art 2 students take their work to a deeper level–to really bring in their voices.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a couple of students that already do, but most still create artworks that haven’t quite broken the surface.  I’ve tried doing a unit on stereotypes before, but it seems that I get the usual suspects.  So, this year, I decided it was the year to “bring it on”, so to speak.  I decided to challenge my students with the tackling of social issues.

They first started by defining some “common” words… opinion, social issue, society, commentary, and parody.  I also asked them to consider why an artist would want to us social issues in their work.  That question seemed to be a hard one for them.  I asked them to watch either a video on Maxwell Rushton and his “Left Out” project or on Favianna Rodriguez, a Latina printmaker, and make connections between the what they watched and our unit idea of using social issues in art.  The final part of their research was to find artworks that used social issues.  And, they couldn’t show any that I showed them for our intro to the unit.

To help my students get warmed up for creating their own artwork, I gave them a challenge.  They had 2 choices.  Choice one: talk to 5 different people about some “hot topic issues” of today, and create a sketch of a possible artwork based on their “favorite” opinion.  Choice two: Pick a social issue that is hot today, create a slideshow of at least 5 different artworks around that issue (on either side), and present to the class.

These girls gave me permission to share the links to their slideshows.  I think they did some great work.

Gender Inequality

Islamophobia

The best part for me about this unit was how invested in their artwork the kids became.  I didn’t have to prod the kids to get going.  They quickly had a social issue they wanted to talk about and set off creating.  I am so impressed with their work, and their voices.

Apr21

TAB vs Choice

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As TAB (Teaching FOR Artistic Behavior ) and Choice both gain traction in art rooms across the country, I have been reading more and more posts on various Facebook Groups about teachers’ experiences, questions, queries, and various other complaints.  One thing that I have been noticing lately is that some people think TAB and Choice are one in the same and they are interchangeable…like tissue and Kleenex or Xerox and  a photocopier.  I am writing this post to say they are not the same.  I am going to be short and sweet, and get right to it.

While they have similarities and while there is much choice in a TAB classroom, just because a teacher offers choice in his/her classroom, it doesn’t make her or him a TAB teacher.

What makes TAB different from choice is the purpose of what is being taught.  It is not about letting students choose what materials to use in an artwork.  It is about teaching students how to think.  It is about teaching an understanding of the artistic process and the design process, AND about how to use them.  It is about letting the students be the artists, letting them make the decisions, and letting them fail and figure out how to grow/move on from there.

And, while sometimes a TAB teacher may set limitations such as theme or a big idea or what stations are open, the student is still the main artist.  The student is the one who interprets things, does the research, does the exploration, creates the artworks, reflects, revises, and then decides when it is finished, and even it is successful.

Offering your students some choices, but still not letting them actually drive the boat doesn’t mean you are TAB.  If you don’t have those thinking and behaving goals in mind for you students, you aren’t TAB, yet.

Now, this isn’t to say that you can’t become TAB.   And, I am not trying to exclude anyone who is TAB interested.  I think it would be wonderful to have as many TAB teachers as possible teaching and leading our students.  That would be, as they say, amazeballs.  But, I also feel that if the pedagogy is going to spread, what is and what isn’t TAB should be understood.  TAB is not something you can decide to do on a whim.  You need to do your research on it.  You need to do your homework.  And, the site I linked above, and again now (TAB) is a good place to start.  I also recommend the book Engaging Learners Through Artmaking by Katherine Douglas and Diane Jaquith, and the eBook  Choice without Chaos by Anne Bedrick.  These are great books.  Coming soon is a book called The Open Artroom by Melissa Purtee and Ian Sands (I think that is their title.)  This book will be geared towards secondary art TAB teachers.

I do hope you will join us on this wonderful journey of helping students navigate the road to becoming artists.  The more the merrier.