Reflections on My Journey to Get Students Making Expressive Art
Ink on Paper
Spring 2016
As I started thinking backwards from my research question, I realized that my journey to finding and implementing TAB started when I began teaching. That first semester was a struggle, and none of the projects that I had used with other students in other schools with success were flopping HARD. I know now that is a common TAB story, that the old way worked until it just didn't anymore. The breaking point happened during finals week for first semester. I was struggling to find quality work to send in for Youth Art Month and I saw how much artwork went into the trash when we cleaned out drawers. What was missing was the heart and pride even if the technique was there. I wanted to get students off of Google images and get them to think and feel.
I spent the next two years reading and absorbing as much as I could about TAB and slowly changing the way I taught. The more I read blogs and books by Katherine Douglas, Ian Sands, Melissa Purtee, and others the more I knew I could never go back. Not everything I did worked perfectly, but the paradigm shift worked! Students were thinking, expressing, and they were PROUD of what they made. When the project didn't turn out the way they wanted, they were able to see and talk about what they learned even if the art object failed. The students had an epiphany at our Conference Art Show critique last year when they realized they could talk about what their artwork was about and why they made it, and many other students were unable to. I learned so much about my students' journeys and their art making process inspired my own work.
Grad school further cemented this direction the more I read. I found myself internally screaming "YES!" when I first read Gude. I saw so many connections to my developing teaching philosophy in our dives into Holistic Teaching and Critical Pedagogy. I was refreshing and empowering for my own voice to know that the questions I was thinking about were the same ones that experts in the field were questioning and challenging. I knew TAB was my research interest, but I was overwhelmed with the number of directions I could follow. The collage re-centered me to the heart of what I love about teaching art to kids - helping them find their voice. Rereading some of my writings from earlier classes and my Fall Conference presentation slides solidified my direction. After writing many so-so drafts of my research question, (What does the process of developing artistic voice look like in a HS TAB classroom?, In what ways do TAB strategies support creativity and voice?, etc.) I was thumbing through my sketchbook and found a question that I had written down at the beginning of the program: How do I get students engaged in authentic art experiences that allow them to create expressive art? It was better than any drafts that I had been working on so I tweaked it into my final research question.
"What strategies can be implemented to empower students in the secondary TAB art room to develop strong personal voice and engage in authentic art making?"
I spent the next two years reading and absorbing as much as I could about TAB and slowly changing the way I taught. The more I read blogs and books by Katherine Douglas, Ian Sands, Melissa Purtee, and others the more I knew I could never go back. Not everything I did worked perfectly, but the paradigm shift worked! Students were thinking, expressing, and they were PROUD of what they made. When the project didn't turn out the way they wanted, they were able to see and talk about what they learned even if the art object failed. The students had an epiphany at our Conference Art Show critique last year when they realized they could talk about what their artwork was about and why they made it, and many other students were unable to. I learned so much about my students' journeys and their art making process inspired my own work.
Grad school further cemented this direction the more I read. I found myself internally screaming "YES!" when I first read Gude. I saw so many connections to my developing teaching philosophy in our dives into Holistic Teaching and Critical Pedagogy. I was refreshing and empowering for my own voice to know that the questions I was thinking about were the same ones that experts in the field were questioning and challenging. I knew TAB was my research interest, but I was overwhelmed with the number of directions I could follow. The collage re-centered me to the heart of what I love about teaching art to kids - helping them find their voice. Rereading some of my writings from earlier classes and my Fall Conference presentation slides solidified my direction. After writing many so-so drafts of my research question, (What does the process of developing artistic voice look like in a HS TAB classroom?, In what ways do TAB strategies support creativity and voice?, etc.) I was thumbing through my sketchbook and found a question that I had written down at the beginning of the program: How do I get students engaged in authentic art experiences that allow them to create expressive art? It was better than any drafts that I had been working on so I tweaked it into my final research question.
"What strategies can be implemented to empower students in the secondary TAB art room to develop strong personal voice and engage in authentic art making?"
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Uncovering
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Small Moments
Photography
Spring 2016
This project was extra relevant because I was creating my purchase order for the grant I received to start our photography class for next year. I was thinking about how to balance teaching skills, choice, and allowing students to express their ideas through photography. I struggled at first to think of what to photograph because we were wrapping up the year and deep cleaning the room, so students weren't working and artwork had been taken home. It was tough with such a people and student centered topic to decide what things to photograph. I ended up thinking about what my students would have access to for their photos and decided to try to find those small everyday moments of beauty since most of my students will be photographing their day to day lives. I chose my favorites and decided to edit them to black and white so that the focus would be on the simple beauty and not the chaos of the color. However, after looking at them again, these are exactly the photos I don't want my students making in my photo class. I usually expect my students to tell me what their artwork is about and how it expresses what they want to say as an artist. My artwork is usually about identity, people, and the layers of experience, and while I used my formal knowledge composing the photos, I wasn't expressive with them. It has given me new perspective that I may have to give some instruction on photographic expression to get the results I want from students, so in their unfamiliarity with the medium, they don't take lifeless photos.