Teaching for Artistic Behaviors

I just received this month's issue of Arts & Activities magazine and right there on page 14 is an article all about choice-based art at the high school level.  I received an email a few months back from Nan Hathaway asking if I would contribute an article to the magazine. I knew right away what I wanted to write about, teaching Artistic Behavior units.

What's an Artistic Behavior unit you ask? Well, its a unit based on how artists think and work. When I first started teaching high school, I based my units on media (painting unit, printing unit, ceramics unit, etc). However, I quickly realized this was too limiting. Next, I created units based on the elements and principles of art. (i.e. instead of a painting lesson i would teach a unit on color theory.) This was better but it still was limiting. I needed some way to teach students not just to make art but to become artists. That's when Melissa Purtee and our Apex team spent a summer coming up with the idea of Artistic Behavior units.

An Artistic Behavior unit should be designed broad enough to encompasses many different ways of thinking and making art. In the article, I describe just a few of the units including Artists Observe, Artists Steal, Artists Solve Problems and Artists are Self Learners. Click on the link here to read the article online and learn more about Artistic Behavior units.

TAB Institute at MassArt Boston 2015

Ian just spent a week teaching Track Two students at the TAB Institute at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. This one-week Teaching for Artistic Behavior course offered intensive inquiry into the practice of choice-based art education and students could earn graduate credit, so how fun is that? So here is a look into some of the stuff we did...

Day One: Introducing The panel. These are the folks I worked with, from left to right: Katherine Douglas, Diane Jaquith, Clyde Gaw, and Julie Toole.

These are some of the students listening to the people on the panel above. I would list their names but as you can see, it was day one and they were wearing name tags. So you can just read their names.

One day, George Szekely came and spoke. Do you know George? He is the president elect for the NAEA.

Besides all the great presentations and break out session, we did take some time to explore the city a bit. Here we were visiting Fenway Studios and some of the local artists including Mae Chevrette.

We also had a docent led tour of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They had a Tara Donavan piece. That was fun.

It's summer, y'all must be sitting round the pool

Sure, it's summer and that gives everyone a chance to kick back and relax a bit. While we at Apex Art don't mind spending a day at the beach, we aren't about to dedicate our entire summer to slacking off. Instead, here are just a few of the summer events we are taking part in..


Southeast TAB Retreat
Ian Sands was asked to present at the Southeast Teaching for Artistic Behaviors Retreat in the mountains of NC. In June, Ian joined the group and presented, What is Assessment? It's Not What We Think. This was a great time to share ideas with this spontaneous professional development setting.


Art of Education Summer 2015 Conference
On July 16, Melissa Purtee and Ian will be presenting at the AOE Summer Conference. Our topic, “How to Share a Room and Collaborate Without Going Crazy!” is an in-depth look at the difficulties as well as the advantages of sharing a space and working together. We will explore the four stages of team work, (forming, storming, norming, performing) and provide real life examples of how two teachers that are paired together, can go from storming to performing.

Writing for AOE
From the Art of Education website, July 7th: Today we welcome AOE’s newest writer, Melissa Purtee. Melissa is a phenomenal writer that is passionate about student choice in the art room. Melissa will contribute three articles a month. Look for her articles here.

#AOELive
Speaking of AOE, did you catch Ian on AOE LIVE EP. 9 "Envisioning the Future of Art Education". You can listen to the podcast on iTunes or view the video on youTube.

TAB Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Ian will spend a week teaching Track Two students at the TAB Institute at Mass Art in Boston. This one-week Teaching for Artistic Behavior course offers intensive inquiry into the practice of choice-based art education for beginning and experienced TAB teachers. This is the only course exclusively offered by the founders of Teaching for Artistic Behavior. This course is available for graduate credit.

Experimentation and Exploration

In art education circles, it is not uncommon to assign students projects and expect they complete these tasks during a set period of time. Advocates for this method site "time on task" as a reason for the scheduling and there is truth in that. However, there is a part of the art making process that is ignored by this project-centric working.... experimentation and exploration.

I was discussing the concept of giving students time to workout ideas and struggle through the process of discovery with an art educational associate of mine. She mentioned another art educator who was also interested in this concept. she labeled it "incubation". OK, I'll run with that for now. Here are some works in the incubation stage.

Above: Cara started painting a representational work but became interested in the layering of the paint. She put her representational project aside and is currently exploring abstraction.

Above: This is a test of wire, joint compound and spray paint. This was only a test. I'm excited to see where she might take this.

This student has enjoys drawing anime characters but has never worked digitally. She is exploring digital painting.

He wanted to try wood burning and engraving.This is his first attempt. Up close, the texture is really interesting. I'm going to introduce him to the dremel today. See what he thinks.

Working with plaster and sand to create eerie portraits.

This is a sketch for a painting that will combine realism and zengtangles. Case in point, she struggled with this idea and this sketch for two weeks.

You don't even want to know :)

Art Ed Vision: Open, Flexible, Transparent

As we prepare for 2015, we are setting a new vision for the direction of Art Education in our school and beyond. To develop that vision, I asked our department to consider the three words that would best describe the future art room. Here are the three that I compiled along with an explanation of each...

Open, Flexible, Transparent

Open: Students make all decisions on project complexity, order, media and level. Developing the ability to turn a question, observation or opinion into art.

Flexible: All projects are scalable in scope of complexity, projects are non linear,  project level from beginner to advanced Is adjustable

Transparent: students work, statements, concepts and methods are shared on a global platform

Having a vision is one thing. However, implementing it creates an entirely new set of questions. How does an art program offer students projects in a non linear fashion? How can level, scope and complexity all be adjustable? To answer these questions we are rolling out a pilot of the Apex Portal Version 2.0.


First Look

Please keep in mind when viewing that The Portal Version 2.0 is currently under construction. Some of the content areas have been populated while others are placeholders. Our goal is to have everything in place and ready for a pilot release for the start of the second semester (mid January 2015)




















The Units:

Each unit (first introduced here) is designed using a four stage process; Introduction, Dig Deeper, Challenges, Your Turn.

The Introduction is a short look at what the unit is about. It will explain to the student the objective and provide example of both traditional and current artists work. The purpose of the Introduction is get the student excited about the possibilities and help them decide if this is a unit they wish to pursue.

Dig Deeper asks the student to research on their own the topic of the unit. This section may require students to watch videos of seek out artists and artworks that relate to the topic.

The Challenges section offers students a choice of small, one or two day projects that will help the student explore the unit through creation and media use.

Finally, the Your Turn section asks the student to design and create a work of art based on what they have learned. This section is designed to help the student with idea generation however, the what and how of the project is left entirely to the student.

Non Linear

It is important to note that the students are free to select (or not select) any unit and in any order they desire. They will not be required to follow any particular sequence. Once they have completed a unit, they are free to choose any other unit they wish to explore.

Adjustable/Scalable

The Units are placed in three categories. Explore, Engage, Extend. There is built in complexity of these categories starting with basic  in the Explore section and building to more abstract ideas in the Extend section. Again, students are free to explore any of the units regardless of complexity. They will also determine the length of time needed to fulfill the requirements whether it be a quick brush up of a technique or a three week endeavor.

Click here to visit the Portal Version 2.0

Sneak Peek: Units on the Portal

A few weeks ago, we announced that the crack team of art educators here at Apex have been working on what we are calling "not your momma's art teacher's units".

Each unit we are developing is based, not solely on making art but on being an artist. We took a long look at what artist do, created a list of possible artist behaviors, and scrubbed the list down to our top seven.

These include Artists Observe, Artists Steal, Artists Communicate, Artists Collaborate, Artists Curate and Artists Solve Problems. A sneak peek of what these units might entail are now available through the Portal!

Pretty exciting stuff!

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Making Artists...

by ian sands

Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?

Glinda: You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.

Dorothy: I have?

Scarecrow: Then why didn't you tell her before?

Glinda: She wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.

Scarecrow: What have you learned, Dorothy?

Dorothy: Well, I—I think that it, that it wasn't enough just to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em — and it's that — if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?

Glinda: That's all it is!

Scarecrow: But that's so easy! I should've thought of it for you -

Tin Man: I should have felt it in my heart -

Glinda: No, she had to find it out for herself. 

I've learned a lot over the last year and it has changed my personal philosophy about teaching art. My old motto was "make art". Now, I'm not so much interested in having students make art but rather making artists. This was a big paradigm shift. It removed the focus from the product and placed the emphasis on the person and the process.

Ariel was a student in my class last semester. She was consistently exploring geometric vs organic shapes through a series of small, acrylic paintings. As her teacher, I wanted to see her push past these exercises. I could have assign her a project but that would have been my solution. Instead, I gave her the materials and instructions for building a 4' x 4 ' canvas. 

The newly gessoed canvas outside on the picnic table

Ariel took a few days staring at the canvas. I joked with her that she was afraid of it. To some extent I was right but soon Ariel started painting her organic shapes.

The painting during week one

A few days into the painting, Ariel (in her words) was having a bad day. She took a palette knife and covered the canvas in muddy brown. 

The mud after a bad day

The painted remained in this state with Ariel not picking up a paint brush for several days. It was now mid May and I was starting to second guess my teaching. If I had just given her a project, she would already have a successful, completed product.

Then, Ariel changed course. She started cutting out magazine images in geometric shapes and glueing them to the canvas. Next, she applied thick, black organic lines in paint. 

Starting over

Ariel was onto something. Throughout the month and into June, Ariel continued to work on her art. By the end of the school year she had almost completed a well balanced composition that incorporated both geometric and organic characteristics. 

Ariel was thrilled with her results as was I. She had spent many weeks not simply painting, but contemplating, struggling, engaging others in conversation and eventually, following her own voice.

Ariel with her painting in June

Any opponent could easily argue against my teaching philosophy. It could be pointed out that Ariel wasted two months on this project. She could have completed at least four teacher-directed projects in the same time. Teacher-lead projects could have also incorporated more concepts with less ambiguity. 

If my focus was still on making art, I would agree. However, I believe the process that Ariel went through held the most value. It was something I couldn't tell her. 

Scarecrow: But that's so easy! I should've thought of it for you -

Tin Man: I should have felt it in my heart -

Glinda: No, she had to find it out for herself. 

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Transitioning from Modify Choice to Full TAB

We received an email asking how we used themes and concepts together and how we presented these ideas to the class. In this post, we'll respond to that email by outlining how we transitioned from Modified Choice to full TAB using our Art Two class as an example.

Last summer we made a chart with three different categories: Themes, Concepts and Media. It was a big list of all the things we thought we might want to cover. Here is a look at each:

Themes: some of our themes were more conceptual (I.e identity) and some were less ( I.e up close and personal). The less conceptual ones are easier to solve so are better for students who haven't had as much experience coming up with ideas. In either case, we prefer themes that allow for more than one solution as opposed to using a noun as a theme. For example, "Animals" makes a poor theme because the students will simply print out a photo of a turtle or puppy. 

Theme Examples:

Up close and personal, sticky situation, culture, identity, play, systems, empathy, boundaries, transformation , absence 

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Concepts: This was basically a list of principles we wanted the students to be familiar with. With Art Two, we wanted to focus on the principles of design.

Concept Examples:

Contrast, repetition, exaggeration, juxtaposition, emphasis, movement, interactivity, appropriation, collaboration

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Media: When we created our media list, we put a focus on what materials we wanted to introduce. We also grouped them when it seemed beneficial. In a TAB situation, you want to make sure the students have an introduction to the material. If for no other reason than to make sure they know how to retrieve, properly use, clean up and put away the supplies. Grouping the media is also beneficial when teaching mini lessons. I.e you can teach cross-hatching with pencil and with pen & ink. 

Media Group Examples:

Black and white: pen and ink, charcoal, pencil. 

Color 1: oil pastel, chalk pastel, color pencil. 

Color 2: acrylic paint, water color paint, spray paint. 

3D: clay, paper mâché, plaster strips.

The final step was to select which themes, concepts and media to group together. We did our best to determine which theme would match up with which concept and what order to introduce media. 

The earlier projects had less choice. As the class progressed, everything opened up. Here are examples of a few of our Art Two projects in order:

Project 1:

Theme: What's the Point 

Concept: Contrast

Media: Pen & ink, charcoal or pencil

See more student solutions here:

http://www.apexhsart.blogspot.com/2013/09/whats-point.html

Project Two:

Theme: Up close and personal

Concept: Emphasis

Media: oil pastel, chalk pastel, color pencil 

( you will notice in this project some students were already breaking out of the box using water color and even make up

See more student solutions here:

http://www.apexhsart.blogspot.com/2013/10/upclose-and-personal-art-two.html

Project 3:

Theme: Sticky situation

Concept: Repetition

Media: Paint (any)

See more student solutions here:

http://www.apexhsart.blogspot.com/2013/10/sticky-situation-repetition-part-2.html

Project 4:

Theme: Portrait

Media: non traditional material 

(the point of this project was to let the students realize they could break out of any box)

See more student solutions here:

http://www.apexhsart.blogspot.com/2013/12/non-traditional-portraits-part-3.html

So how did the students react to this method of teaching? 

You can read their responses here: 

Does Choice Really Matter?

Not Your Momma's Art Teacher's Units

While everyone is lounging by the pool soaking up the rays, the crack team of educators back at Apex Art headquarters are diligently constructing an amazing program for next fall. Elaborate flow charts are scrawled across the whiteboard as hot topic ideas spur fervent debate. 

Previously, such encounters have produced art-shattering changes such as Student Choice, Theme-Based projects and the Portal. Of course, we will continue to incorporate all of these concepts as we move forward. So what's so amazing that it's the focus for next year's curriculum? Units!

Ok, units might not sound so spine-tingling. However, these aren't your momma's art teacher's units. Each unit we are developing is based, not solely on making art but on being an artist. We took a long look at what artist do, created a list of possible artist behaviors, and scrubbed the list down to our top seven. 

Artists Observe:

This unit will cover observational drawing and possibly painting. It will incorporate still life drawings and nature drawings as well as architectural drawings, urban sketching or even plein air painting. 

Artists Steal:

Discussions will revolve around artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Shepard Fairey, Damien Hirst. Themes could be based on concepts such as appropriation and Intertextuality. 

Artists Communicate:

This unit will cover the many ways art is used to communicate ideas and thoughts. It could cover a range of art works from contemporary artists to commercial fields such as advertising and illustration to video and animation. This could culminate with a theme based project.

Artists Collaborate:

This unit will introduce the concept of working together to build something bigger than the sum of its parts. Consider discussing and contrasting different ways artists collaborate from Jeff Koons who hires people to create his art to teams like Christo and Jeanne-Claude who worked together. 

Artists Curate:

This unit will cover how museum and gallery exhibits are conceived and put together. It could cover everything from artist styles and collections to how museum curators pick topics for shows. Could look at different artists and explore what about their work gives it a style. Could culminate with each student producing three works with their own unique style.

Artists Solve Problems:

This unit will deal with limitations and constraints artist apply to themselves style wise, material wise and concept wise. It could also speak to limitations artist overcome from Matisse or Close in a wheel chair to Phil Hansen's embrace the shake. Could also discuss overcoming environmental constraints like Michelangelo painting the ceiling. Projects could range from limiting student materials, to working in difficult situations.

Artists are Self Learners:

This unit will encourage students to use tutorials, create tutorials themselves, and explore new materials. Sharing what they learn with students in their class or even other classes could also be incorporated.

So go ahead, relax, enjoy your summer knowing we've got it all under control.

I Don’t Like Grading, And I Don’t Think I’m Gonna Do That Anymore

Over the last year, we implemented many changes at the Art of Apex. Everything from new technologies like our student blogs and portal site to curriculum changes like theme based teaching and TAB/student choice. The one area I (Ian Sands) personally have struggled with is grading. 

Read the Entire Post:
I Don’t Like Grading, And, Uh, I Don’t Think I’m Gonna Grade Anymore

Last summer I read a blog post by Joe Bower about abolishing grading. I followed the post to Joe’s website where I discovered a plethora of articles about not grading. As I read through each article, I started to question my own grading practices. Why did I grade? Was my grading informative or restrictive? Was my grading punitive? I didn’t like my answers.

I recently wrote an article about this for The Art of Education. Please click here to read the article and feel free to post any comments you might have at the bottom of the post.

 Next year I'm considering not grading their projects or their blogs at all, but simply  tracking student's work. Our grading software allows us to mark projects as "complete" or "missing" where grades go. When it's time to enter grades, I'll sit down with each student with a copy of this spreadsheet and have a conversation about what grade they think they have earned in my class for that period of time. Instead of grading project, or grading blogs, I'll simply give them a grade for the class.

2013-2014 Art Teachers Year in Review

This was the first time since I started at Apex that there has been a team of teachers with common interests, working together to achieve common goals. The results, which I outline below, far exceeded any expectation I could have envisioned. This is truly an amazing list of accomplishments!

Technology

There were several technology based ideas brought to fruition that helped advance the Art Dept.

The NAHS website was established to deliver information about meetings and events. http://apexnahs.weebly.com/index.html

The Student Spotlight was introduced to showcase the work of individual students. http://www.artofapex.com/search/label/Student%20Spotlight

We branded the "Art of Apex" and applied the brand to all our networking sites including gMail, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest. We also purchased the ArtofApex domain. http://www.artofapex.com

Speaking of the blog, we rolled out the first group blog series about Choice in the Open Art Room. This series amazingly received over 4,000 individual hits, with each of the five individual posts receiving more hits than any other blog post. http://www.artofapex.com/2013/11/why-dont-high-school-art-students-work.html

Of course I couldn't mention technology without giving props to our biggest technological accomplishment, the Portal. So impressive is this accomplishment in size and scope, with over 50 videos, 60 Pinterest boards and over 1,000 pins, that it is equivalent to many of the projects I worked on at Nortel Networks.  http://artofapexportal.weebly.com

Furthermore, this is the first year that all art students at Apex (over 400) have created a blog. The Artistic Behaviors section of the Portal has allowed a consistent method for students to self assess their artistic development. http://www.artofapex.com/p/student-blogs.html


Curriculum

Theme Based Teaching:

This was the first year theme based teaching was introduced at Apex. Theme based teaching allowed the students to develop creative solutions to problems instead of following recipe style art lessons.

TAB/Student Choice:

Similar to theme based lessons, this was the first year the concept of letting students make decisions about the art making process has ever been discussed. The student response to this method was overwhelming positive. This was more then allowing them to choose between media, it was the first time we at Apex have dedicated our efforts to teaching them to think and work as artists.  http://www.artofapex.com/2014/01/does-choice-really-matter.html

The proof is in the pudding.. The number of students signing up for next year's art classes is through the roof! Every class has enough students signed up for another section beyond what we already offer.


Professional Development

Our acceptance to NCCAT allowed us to create and populate the Portal content. This trip, including our tour of the Green Energy Park, was a wonderful professional development experience. However, the story goes beyond our experience. An art department, located outside of Charlotte, was so inspired by our Portal that they in turn applied to NCCAT with the intention of developing their own art dept. portal. 
http://www.artofapex.com/2014/03/hey-where-did-all-teachers-go.html

Professional development is not just about receiving but sharing what we learn. Two of our proposals were accepted to the NCAEA State Conference in New Bern next October. I believe we would have had all three accepted if not for a mix up regarding one of them.

Several of us took part in the international Monday Art Ed chats sponsored by Colleen Rose on Google hangout. In these video sessions, we discussed topics ranging from the Portal to student choice. All of these sessions were recorded and made available online.https://m.youtube.com/user/MrsRoseArt

Speaking of international exchanges, several of our students exchanged comments with students from Ontario, Canada in the Google Plus Community.

And most recent, but certainly not least relevant, the HS TAB Facebook community had 50 teachers join on the first day and continues to grow in both numbers and conversations daily.

Truly, this has been a remarkable year... and we are just getting

Introducing the Art of Apex Portal!

The Art of Apex Portal is an online Knowledge Management Repository responsible for the distribution of inspirational ideas and tutorial based learning...

Wait.. What?

Oh, sorry. Let me try that again in english..

The Art of Apex Portal  (currently in production) is a website where students can find art inspiration and easy to follow online tutorials. The Portal is divided into four sections.



What Should I Create?

No matter how exciting we think the Garfield posters hanging on our class room walls might be, sometimes students need a bit more inspiration. The first section of the portal, titled "What should I created", is an extensive lists on links designed to help the student search and find inspiration for an upcoming project. Need inspiration for your wire sculpture? Looking for the latest street art? Curious about how other artists have handled Juxtaposition?? It's all here!

What Do I Need?

Currently under construction, this section of the portal will provide students with a list of menus so they can easily and visually understand what materials they will need when beginning a new project. For example, a menu on printmaking would explain all the materials needed to begin the process. The menu will contain both written and visual descriptions of the cutting tools, lino blocks, different inks, brayers, etc..




How Do I? Watch A Tutorial! 

Not sure how to create a blog? Want to learn how to animate using Photoshop? Forgot how to mix brown paint? The "How Do I" section will contain an organized list of short, less than five minute, video tutorials to bring the student quickly up to speed. These videos will not only serve as quick reminders, they will be available anytime, from anywhere.


My Class Website

Last but not least, the "My Class Website" provides direct links to each teacher created website. Not sure what you'll be working on in Computer Art? Need to be reminded of the project the Art One class has started? Find all the class links, including Apex High School's site right here!

the Art of Apex Portal can be found online at: http://artofapexportal.weebly.com

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