Snapping Out of It: Making the Switch to a More Student-Centered Art Studio
Ever feel like you're in a funk? Like there's something not happening that should be? Not that anything is wrong, but just that something is...missing. I had this lingering feeling last year about my teaching practice. I was teaching PYP visual arts at the International School of Phnom Penh (ISPP) and after 5 years of experience, getting to know the PYP, establishing a rapport with my students and colleagues, I had the premonition that it was time for a big change. Not in schools, not in what I was teaching, but in HOW I was teaching it. I realized that I was stressing out and spending my time planning Units of Inquiry that were lacking...something. That sometimes, despite my best efforts to allow for student choice and voice, the exhibitions of student pieces ended up lacking...something. That even when I had a super supportive admin team that appreciated both the process and product of art making, our curriculum was lacking...something....