The New Plan

I have decided that full TAB is not my style. Although I have loved the deeper conversations the kids are having about their artistic decisions, the messy classroom and disrespectful behavior I was constantly battling has to go. So I have begun a project based class again, but with the intent to keep each project very open to allow for choice within the confines of the project. For example, second grade is making landscapes using warm and/or cool colors. I showed them an example using collage, drawing, and painting and they are required to show foreground, middle ground, and background.

For the third through fifth grade students, I have the luxury of being able to ask them to bring their Chromebooks and can use Google Classroom to push out content. Fifth grade's focus is contrast, emphasis, and value right now, so I created two different project options and pushed out a Google Slides presentation with step by step photos and a video for how to make each of the projects. Students are independently using the materials to teach themselves how to create one of the projects with me there to clear up any confusion or help when needed.  All four of my fifth grades have used this and although the first class had some technical difficulties, I can confidently say it worked better for all four than full DBAE or full TAB. I remembered to ask two of the classes to show me fist to five (fist being "I hated it" and five being "loved it, let's do it every time!") how they felt about being self guided and saw mostly fives, with a few fours thrown it. I am currently working on materials for three different fourth grade projects using value and mixing tints, tones, and shades as the main concepts.

Here are the projects and resources for the fifth grade projects. We looked at Op Art, and I gave this full class presentation about the movement. At the end of the presentation, I talk about the new structure of the class and how they will access the presentations and videos through their Google Classroom link. If the teacher uploads the resources as "materials" they will be listed under "classwork" and you can create a unit title and even decide what order they are listed in under the title. This worked very well. I gave the two projects a title too and made sure the students knew which project matched each title. Here are the projects fifth grade had to choose from:

LINE DESIGN:
I got this lesson from Art with Mr. E, and he created a great step by step, which is where I got the photos from for the presentation.

Here is the presentation for this project, and here is the video I created for this project. 

CONES & SPHERES: 

I don't know where I originally got this lesson, as it's one I have done off and on for over ten years. It's a classic, but the kids love it. 

Here is the presentation for this project, and here is the video I created for this project. 

Five Months of TAB

  Here we are, with five months of TAB under my belt. There are things that are going very well, some things that need to be tweaked, and some things that are a bit disastrous. As expected with a completely new teaching philosophy. Where to start; the good, the bad, or the ugly?

How about the good. My students are DEEP. Some of the things they write for their artist statements blow me away.  Take these examples:

Here is a splatter painting by a fourth grader.

I think that all people on earth of all different shapes, sizes and colors should come together in peace. Like how the dots of all different shapes, sizes and colors come together as one art peace.

Or this self portrait, also by a fourth grader.

This picture Is my wow work,self portrait,and foreground middle ground and Background I made this drawing because I love Christmas and winter.

Or this collaborative project by two fourth graders (my fourth graders are pretty awesome this year).

My friend Maeve and I wanted to do something for Halloween, but it ended up being almost thanksgiving! We added lots more ideas as we worked such as, the background foreground and middle ground, and the hills and halo for the Angel, the moon, graveyard, pitchfork, and the wolf. It's also about two people who have different life styles but still are friends.

How about one from a fifth grader.

My wow work is definitely considered a wow work because I didn't copy anything;sure I looked at a picture but that was to get an idea. I didn't use the picture to draw it. My work has texture in the main,and was left uncolored because I didn't want to ruin my lion.

Now, I'll admit these are some of the best artist statements. We are working in deepening these statements in the coming months. 

We are tweaking clean up. There are way too many students who seem to think it's okay to ignore me when I tell them it is clean up time. The younger the students, the worse this problem is. I am hoping to come up with a solid plan of action for this soon. Actually, this might belong in the things that are not going well part of this reflection. . . 

I think the biggest challenge for some of my students is coming up with their own ideas. A few weeks ago we discussed starting a creative "bank account" of ideas and students in second through fifth grades opened their own creative bank account and put in as many inspirational things as they could in their class time. 

My First Snag

Here I am, all set and determined to transition to TAB next year and I found out one of my schools is changing again. While this is totally fine with me, and was expected with our elementary boundaries changing, the school I am moving to the art room is shared with music, orchestra, and Chinese. I am still planning on implementing TAB, but now I need to figure out how to make my stations easy to set up and store each art day. Stay tuned, I am determined!

TAB Preparation

Today I continued my pursuit of being fully prepared to transition to TAB next year. I created a lesson plan template, revised from the one that I have been using for the past few years. It is very concise and to the point, which is what I like. I believe lesson plans should be one page. They should contain the information needed to completely think through the lesson before teaching it but not so long that it is cumbersome to write and hard to review in a few moments before class. It constantly amazes me how long the licensing department and universities think lesson plans should be!

Several years ago I came across an idea for "Monster Mediums" by Mini Matisse. It's one of those great ideas that has been in the back of my mind since I read it but I haven't taken the time to pursue it. Today I created a list of mediums that match the centers I plan to have in my classrooms next year so that I can create Monster Mediums for each station in addition to standard anchor charts. I'm not sure how well I will follow through, but I hope that I can get it rolling. I'm keeping in mind that I don't need to create them all in advance, I can make them as I need them and it's a little less overwhelming. If you are interested in Monster Mediums, you can Google it and find many blog posts by Mrs. Hahn at Mini Matisse.

Watercolor Monster Medium by Mrs. Hahn at Mini Matisse.

TAB

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I have posted here. Sorry about that, I got a new schedule with very little prep time. However, after a lot of thinking and research I am now convinced that I should transition to a TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) classroom and I thought that it might be nice to chronicle my journey from a DBAE (Discipline Based Art Educator) to a TAB teacher for any other art teachers out there that are considering this for their own classroom. At this time, I have done an extensive amount of research. I read every word and watched every video included in the ebook, Choice without Chaos (I highly recommend starting with this book if you are considering moving to a choice-based art room). I've perused through Studio Thinking from the Start and The Learner-Directed Classroom I also have Studio Thinking 2. I've dug into the Teaching for Artistic Behavior website and joined The Art of Education PRO to watch all of the PRO packs on TAB and choice-based art. I joined several TAB groups on Facebook (and actually asked questions) and searched for local TAB conferences/workshops. I've filled almost a whole notebook with notes and ideas. I even tried a few choice-based projects with my current students, who not only loved the freedom but were better behaved and more engaged than I've ever seen them.

I think I'm ready.

But I'm still nervous. I've taught DBAE for fifteen years. This is a totally different way of thinking about what is important for my students to learn while they are with me. My role will be completely different. The student expectations will be completely different. My classroom set up will be completely different.

My first hurdle is that I currently don't know where I will be teaching next year. Our district has redesigned the elementary attendance boundaries and we have not been assigned to schools based on the new enrollment numbers yet. It's very hard to plan when I don't know for sure which classrooms I will be in (but at least I know they all have classrooms for art!) I have created a running list of my plans for next year, including what centers I will always have and centers that will open for one trimester (clay, etc) to manage supplies. I've included what supplies will be at each center, how the projects are laid out, and how the class will run. I've even sketched out how my current classrooms would be laid out if I get to stay at either of these schools next year. My current principals are both very supportive of this change, which makes me optimistic about how well it can be done.

The second hurdle I am anticipating is getting the furniture I will need to make the transition to centers. I am lucky to work at a district that has our own in-house carpenter, and he is extremely talented. He recently created a display case in place of some lockers outside of one of my classrooms and the display case is beautiful. I also have money set aside from a donation that I can use for materials. However, if I'm not at those schools next year I might not have any money at all to use. . .

I will be sure to update as I have more to say, although that might not be until summertime depending on what schools I end up being assigned and if I can continue to prepare from my current buildings or if I have to wait until the current art teacher is done in her rooms to invade.