Over the past couple of years, my educational philosophy has evolved to a point I never would have anticipated. Having a firm foundation in a traditional art background, I have always believed that a student artist must "learn to walk before they can run." For my beginner art students, this has meant a heavy focus on the basics, especially drawing and shading, through a series of teacher-directed lessons and projects. The problem with this approach is that it can turn students off to art if they aren't interested in the assignments I am providing. I would spend a lot of time crafting my lessons and projects, but still some students were not interested. This past spring, I had the pleasure of welcoming a student-teacher into my classroom for the first time. This experience allowed me the opportunity to tackle a series of paintings I had been thinking about for years. I set myself up in a corner of the classroom and worked alongside the students. As I reflected on my own artistic process, I realized that I was not providing my Art I students in particular with an authentic art-making experience. I was doing the creative heavy-lifting instead of allowing them to make decisions about what type of art they want to make. Now don't get me wrong, there are still a set of skills that students need to learn, but I have come to believe that this can happen in a more student-led way. If a student is interested in making art related to one of their passions, won't they be more receptive to lessons on perspective or facial proportions? As I prepare for the upcoming school year, I plan to use a choice-based approach called TAB which stands for Teaching for Artistic Behavior. My ultimate goal for students, whether they plan to study art in college or not, is that they will grow to appreciate and understand art. I want students to be able to solve problems and create work with meaning. I want them to find their place in the art world, even if eventually that place is as a consumer of art and not a maker. I do hope that students will be able to find their niche, which could be sculpting or knitting or advertising. I want to help students broaden their definition of art and embrace their own talents while still stretching and exploring new possibilities. One of the participants at MassArt's TAB Institute this summer was tasked with "Designing a bumper sticker promoting TAB" during our Task Party.
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AuthorMrs. Taborda is the studio art teacher at Oxford High School in Oxford, MA. This blog will document her journey as an educator and share the happenings of the OHS art room. Archives
November 2018
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