Arty On

As we get closer and closer to the start of another school year, a little voice begins to chime in to my personal thoughts and planning..."I will do this", "I will not do that".  I begin making tiny promises to myself about how I will approach the new school year to make it even more dynamic than the last.  After a summer of time spent rejuvenating and clearing my mind, this little voice wakes up to reflect and give some perspective.  It tells me what to stop doing and what to start doing in my teaching practice and it won't shut up.  So here are a few "beginnings" and "ends" I've settled on to guide my daily practice.  Simple changes in thinking, routines or habits that I believe will make a big difference in our art studio this year. For me, this school year will be the end of: Setting meaningless limits on students that stifle their creativity.  Making "yes" and "why not" a stronger part of my (and my studen...

How does a choice-based classroom allow for student artists to develop their ideas in a meaningful way?  This is a question I am currently experimenting with and offering varied solutions for in my PYP art studio. For the most part, I'm finding that there is no end to the ideas that students want to investigate.  However, some of them enter the art studio with so many ideas that they find it difficult to stick with just one.  They are enthusiastic, they are motivated, and they want to try it all!  They ping pong from here to there, experimenting with one technique, then collaborating on another, engaging in making mistakes, and finding out what they like and don't like as an artist. I love this about running a choice-based art studio. However, I also wonder what the limit of these explorations should be?  At what point does a student need to choose a topic, medium, or technique and explore it more in depth?  What is the role of the teacher in ensuri...