Blocks Paper Scissors

A conversation with Katherine Douglas

In this episode, Clyde takes the lead in a conversation with our good friend and colleague Katherine Douglas. Katherine Douglas is an American education pioneer. She has a long and illustrious career in art education. She is the Co-author of Engaging Learners Through Artmaking, she and Diane Jaquith are the principle Founders of the Teaching for Artistic Behavior approach to art education and the Teaching for Artistic Behavior Network. Katherine has researched, written and presented on TAB practice and philosophy for over four decades.

Katherine shares her wonderful story about the genesis of Teaching for Artistic Behavior.  We also touch a little bit about what is required in becoming a TAB teacher. 

Check out these books:

Engaging Learners Through Art Making

The Learner-Directed Classroom

The Open Art Room

Choice without Chaos

 

***** A little note from Clark. I am no sound engineer. However, I am in the process of learning a new editing software. Please be patient while I figure this out. Thank you for listening. 

Ten Things Every New TAB Teacher needs to do (or not do) Part 2

In this podcast CLyde and I continue our conversation regarding things new teachers to Teaching for Artistic Behavior stress over. 

Clyde and I discuss the changes teachers and students experience in the school setting: including the change to TAB, the effects of divorce, trauma, poverty plus the demands of testing. 

Why should we penalize a student for reasons beyond our control?

*Special Thank You to Katie McDaniel for helping out with our podcast. Your voice is amazing!

 

 

Ten Things Every New TAB Teacher needs to do (or not do) Part 1

Excuse us for the late nature of this podcast. There were several things that prevented us from getting together to have our biweekly discussion. There was the Spring Fine Arts Festival that was another smash hit. Then we had Spring Break. Who wants to work over Spring Break. and finally, my incessant bout of bronchitis. You will notice that my voice is rather soft during this podcast. I apologize in advance.  Plus, I have been experimenting in the fashion of TAB with the equipment for this podcast. I saved enough pennies to purchase a mixer and two mics. This should allow me greater flexibility to host guests in the future but in the meantime. Please be patient while I am still learning. Thank you.

In this podcast, Clyde and I discuss a few difficulties new TAB teachers face and probably should do or not do. 

• a quiet classroom
• stress over materials
• stress over mess

Also mentioned in this podcast is FlipGrid. Check it out!

 

The Secret Art of Boys/Girls

In this episode we have a special guest ( school counselor Tonya Wood,) to help Clyde and i understand the secret art of boys and girls. We discuss and try to answer these questions: What should we do when we see children using fantasy violence in their art? Does it mean they are having violent thoughts? Whats happening developmentally at their age level? What impact, if any do violent video games play? or for that matter, digital devices in general? 

 

Michael Thompson

Glow Kids 

Killing Monsters

Radical Technologies 

The Shallows

The Unmotivated Student

In this episode Clyde and I return from a long break where I was sick with the Flu and Pnumonia. We discuss the unmotivated student and how we deal with them in class. Who are they? What can we do to help them? 

• Build relationships through talking with students
• Give students choice
• Give students space and time 
• Look outside the typical art room materials 

 

 

 

TAB Midwest Teacher Networking Workshop
Who: Any Midwest Art Teacher, K-12
What: Teaching for Artistic Behaviors (TAB) and
Choice Based Art
*Sharing experiences, lessons, classroom setups, etc.
Where: Northridge High School
56779 Northridge Dr.
Middlebury, IN 46540
When: Saturday, March 3rd, 2018
2-5pm,
*Dinner option afterwards

Thank you for spending your time listening to this podcast. We appreciate it immensley.

*Special Episode note: I apologize for the sound quality of this episode. We had some technical difficulty during our discussion, so I had to record this on my iPad. 

 

TAB Stories: Incredible Acts of Creativity

In this episode, Clyde and I talk about some of the incredible acts of creativity we've seen in our classroom. These acts include a 6ft dragon that was displayed at the Arnheim Gallery at MassArt, A 16ft Eifle Tower made from plastic soda straws, a cardboard Dalek with lights and sound as well as an interactive war drawing. 

LuckyTown

 

 PAPER SMACHE!!

Creativity

In this podcast, Clyde and I catch up on what happened over Thanksgiving break before we dive headfirst to discuss creativity. We talk about what it is and where it is, as well as if schools are somewhat responsible for the decline of creative thinking. We get off track a little and get back on. All in all not a bad conversation. 

 

Mentioned in this Podcast

 

Central Indiana Land Trust

Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Diane Jaquith: When is Creativity?

Nan Hathaway: Smoke and Mirrors

Robert Scott Root-Bernstein, Michèle Root-Bernstein: Sparks of Genius 

Clips: Clips Video app

George Washington Carver: Biography

John J. Audobon: Drawn from Nature

A Conversation with Diane Jaquith

In this podcast, we are joined via the telephone with TAB co-founder Diane Jaquith. Diane Jaquith, retired after 25 years from K-12 art education, is a co-founder of Teaching for Artistic Behavior and directs the TAB Summer Teacher Institute. She is the co-author of Engaging Learners Through Artmaking and co-editor of The Learner-Directed Classroom. Diane is an adjunct faculty member at Massachusetts College of Art & Design in Boston. We discuss the origins of Teaching for Artistic Behavior and how it has evolved since its inception in 2002. Diane also shares information about the Summer TAB Institue in Boston and two books she is working on. 

Clark with the Three Muskateers: Kathy Douglas, Diane Jaquith and Pauline Joseph, July 2010, Boston, MA

Constructivism in a TAB classroom

In this episode, we discuss constructivism and how it relates to a TAB artroom. As mentioned in the podcast. Here are the twelve indicators (TAB) adapted from In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms by Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks

1.Choice based art teachers encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative.

2.Because of the very nature of visual arts education, choice based art teachers use primary sources and raw, physical, manipulative interactive materials to inspire and catalyze learners.

3.Choice based art teachers encourage students to generate, utilize and create their own ideas and artistic problems when engaged in art making activities.

4.In order to facilitate ownership, choice based art teachers allow students to drive artistic activity, shift instructional strategies and alter instructional content.

5.Choice based art teachers make inquiries into student’s previous knowledge of artistic content and encourage students to express their knowledge before sharing their own understandings.

6.Choice based art teachers encourage students to engage in dialogue and artful conversation, communicating art ideas, knowledge and creative processes with one another.  

7.Choice based art teachers encourage students to research their art and ideas.

8.Choice based art teachers seek and encourage student reflective thinking expressed through ongoing dialogue, reflective writing and artist statements.  

9.Choice based art teachers engage students in experiences that contradict their initial understandings of content or hypothesis and then initiate discussion for student’s further consideration.

10.Choice based art teachers afford students time for artistic ideas to incubate.  

11.Choice based art teachers allow students time to develop understandings of art content.  

12.Choice based art teachers facilitate learning through the use of discovery, introduction of concepts and concept application. The “Learning Cycle Model” (discovery learning) is a distinctive feature of choice based art education.                                          

Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum and instruction is the heart and soul of TAB pedagogy. In this podcast the two veteran art teachers have a wide ranging discussion about their teaching practice. They discuss the importance of weaving art education content into emergent creative experience while name dropping several artists and educators. Clark and Clyde also discuss lesson demonstration transitions to studio activities, interacting with learners and how they use open ended questions to scaffold children's art experience.