Last week, while teaching my students the art of the kumihimo weaving, I had a boy who absolutely refused to try the technique.

I supposed it seemed difficult, as he had been absent the first day of the project so he missed the part about how to set up the loom. I had made a loom for him and gathered his string the previous class period, so actually it should've been easy to pick it up and move the third one from the empty slot over and over and over again until it was long enough to become a bracelet. The hard part was done, all that was left was actually implementing the braiding and repeating the process, using perseverance. 

When I first handed him his loom, he exclaimed that he was going to make his into a cat toy.....which meant that he was going to take all that yarn off of the loom and do something else with the it and ignore the new skill that I wanted him to try that day. 

As an art teacher, this was one of those really, really, really hard moments. 

On the one hand, he had a creative idea and he was excited to make something. On the other hand, the room was set up for bracelet making, the supplies were ready for him to try a new skill and he was refusing. 

This is a student that frequently refuses things that seem hard. If he doesn't think he will be able to accomplish the task, he says what he would rather do. He also argues about why his idea is better and questions why he can't do what he wants to do. 

I struggled in this moment because he DID have a creative idea....and maybe it would've turned out great. But I had a plan for the day and I was frustrated that he wasn't as excited as I was to try something new. 

This was one of those moments where I thought a lot about a TAB art room. For this particular student, a TAB room would be the best thing ever. He would be free to choose his material and his subject every time and not be forced make what everyone else was making. 

I have dabbled with TAB a couple of times since I moved to the middle school, but my classroom just isn't designed to store that many different kinds of projects, or set up that many different materials at the same time.

As an art teacher, I can totally see the benefits of a TAB curriculum, so I try to implement that way of creating at least once a semester. Since I only have my students half the year, I felt like I was opening a new station every week, and then closing everything and starting over in January....just when we were getting going, it was time to start over. Also, my 6th graders did not take it seriously. They just wanted to play every time and never got into what they were making and it was discouraging. 5th graders definitely thrive in a TAB environment. 

In a TAB or Choice Based studio, students are encouraged to use their own creativity. I have read many articles about how the public education system has squelched creativity in students. I even wrote my Master's thesis on this topic. 

In that moment with that student, I felt like I was squelching his creativity. 

We sort of went round and round.
I told him that I wanted him to try a new skill.
He told me that he would rather be taking the MAP test.
I told him that this activity would be good for his finger muscles and his hand eye coordination and might even be relaxing.
He told me the hated art and music and only liked P.E.
I asked him if he could do whatever he wanted in the gym, or did he have to participate in the game they had set up for the day (bad mitten, mat ball, basketball)?
He said that this week, they could choose between two games and my class was stupid and the project was stupid. 

Obviously, we were getting nowhere.
Now, we just have a few weeks left.
I know he will push back against some of the things we have planned. 

I'm sharing this story as I think about the benefits of a choice-based curriculum verses a tradition art classroom where the teacher plans every aspect of the project. 

I like to think that I give my students tons of choice on each project....they can choose their own yarn colors, they can select an animal, they can pick what color of paper, they can draw whatever design they want in the background....but the truth is, maybe that isn't enough for them to buy in anymore.

Students today are given very little options in their educational decisions.....everyone studies the same thing at the same time, regardless of their individual interests. Sure it is easier for the teacher, but do the students truly connect or make lasting memories. 

For Valentine's and Easter, we had a 'catch up' day. If students were done with other projects, they could use supplied materials to make whatever they wanted to take home. They could make a collage, use origami techniques, draw, make a little paper sculpture, using materials we already had available for other projects. We used paper scaps, color sticks, scissors, glue sticks, etc. Students were happy and I gave them a participation grade a they went out the door with their creation from the day. Since some students truly needed a full day to get caught up on other projects, some students were not able to have this 'free time'. The main rule was that they had to make SOMETHING or work on other work. If they did not want to make something to hang up at home, they could even make a card for someone for Valentine's Day or Easter. 

Even with all that freedom, I still had students who walked out the door with nothing.....one boy was in tears because his creation didn't work out and he wadded it up and threw it away. 

​In this case, I wanted him to try a new skill, even just for a few minutes....and he wasn't ready. By pushing him too hard, did I create a kid that will hate art forever? If I just let him do whatever he wants every time, am I really preparing him for the future or am I just setting him up to fail later. Just because something is hard, doesn't mean it isn't worth trying. Just because it isn't your favorite, doesn't mean you shouldn't try a new skill. 

I try to give my students LOTS of different types of things throughout the semester. Sometimes we use yarn, sometimes we use paper to make collages, sometimes we paint. My hope is that they will find something that they enjoy, but they might not like every single thing we do...and that is okay. 

At my district's recent professional development day, I invited a local teacher to present how she accomplishes Teaching for Artistic Behaviors or TAB in her classroom. I was curious about how she set up her centers, managed all the different materials, classroom behaviors, and assessment. 

Last year, I dabbled in TAB, providing art centers every other week or so for my students. It was a lot of work to prep 'special' materials and art centers on top of the regular lessons and projects we were working on as a class.

But I felt like most students were authentically engaged.
They were REALLY excited about their wire, yarn, craft sticks or other materials.
This year, when they have extra time, they just aren't at all interested in free draw paper, coloring sheets or the other 'free time' options that I have available to them.
I sort of miss the centers.

But then I remember my frustration. 

Storage was tricky and keeping things organized and stocked was stressful. Keeping everything organized was difficult and it was also hard to 'help' everyone that needed help when they needed help. 

The painting center was a waste. Students only seemed to paint splatter painting and hand prints even though the sign clearly said NO SPLATTER or HANDS. My students did not have the skills to develop good ideas for paintings. 

The modeling clay center was a joke. 6th graders would grab the clay, gather around a table and talk boyfriend/girlfriend stuff for 47 minutes while they pounded on the clay and rolled it into boring coils. Art making was not happing. Engagement was not happening. It was a waste of time and it was frustrating for me as the teacher. The kids were happy, but it was play time. Should I be encouraging playtime or discouraging it?

Do students REALLY want to learn? Do they just want to play? What do they need? How do I implement it? 

I wanted to know how she trained her students, how she organized her classroom and how her students responded to the freedom. 

The teacher began by explaining that she is very Type A, so chaos in her K-2 classroom is absolutely not acceptable. She also explained over the course of her 17 year career, she has been discouraged by the uprising of 'Pinterest' bulletin boards displayed throughout her building. She felt like the artwork that students create in their regular classrooms had become too cookie cutter, more about following directions than authentic art making.

She explained how she does many introduction lessons before allowing students to begin the planning stage of their projects. She introduces each and every center, allows students to experiment with materials, and then mid-year, they are ready to 'choose' a center. Students can create anything they have been trained to use: clay, fibers, collage, paint, etc.

The first week that every center is open is a little hectic as she has to oversee and check in with each student in order to get them up and running on their project. But after that, it is like a well-oiled machine. Everything has its place and everyone knows their role. Everyone helps with cleanup. Everyone is excited about their project. 

After seeing her centers, I realized that I tried to do too much last year. I offered too many games, not enough planning. I didn't require students to plan out their project, I just let them pick a center and go for it. 

Just letting students choose a background color on a step-by-step art recipe is not authentic choice. If it isn't the students choice of materials, subject matter and design, then it isn't true choice. I'm guilty of pulling back the reigns in order to slow down my implementation of choice. I know that I want to reorganize some things and reconsider more choice for 4th quarter. I need to think about what to offer, when to offer it and how to implement it. But I think my students will respond well to more freedom. 

Last week, a friend posted a link to an article about how technology and kids brains don't mix. I wholeheartedly agree that I spend too much time tethered to my screens. Between my iPhone, iPad, computer and television, it is easy to zone out in tech, instead of being productive. 

This year, I am implementing more Teaching for Artistic Behavior strategies in my art room with regularly scheduled free-choice art center days in our regular rotation between bigger portfolio/whole group projects. 

Since I am rather new to the free choice way of thinking, I did not have very many supply-heavy centers ready when school started. Since I only offer the centers once every-other week, I also cannot change my room too much to accommodate an entire sculpture corner so I have to be creative with what centers I have open and when. Implementing a variety of centers that address the huge variety of learning styles and trying to provide stuff for kids to do that are not 'babyish' and that are still cool to my middle school students was challenging and a little daunting at the beginning of the year. 

​Generally, drawing and 'research' are always open, allowing students to thumb through packets of images, info, and drawing guides. Collage is always open. I also have a 'architecture' center which consists of legos, blocks and marbles (my students love to set up 'marble runs'), and a couple of other rotating manipulative kits that I have. 

Sometimes iPads are an option for centers, and I explained in the beginning that students should use them for setting up green screen movies, stop motion movies, designing video games, and also creating movie trailers and a few suggested apps. My iPads had Google Earth and a couple of other apps that students would just seemingly waste time on, so I ended up taking some of the apps off, in order to encourage them to create something! 

I've been pleasantly surprised that many students would rather create something with wire or popsicle sticks than numbly play an iPad app. The difficult thing about supply-heavy activities in TAB, is that I don't have storage space for large sculptures and many of those things run dry if I don't monitor how much is used on a student-by-student basis. Which is a killer for creative ideas. SO many times, students want to make something with TONS of supplies and I have to limit them in some way because I just don't have enough for everyone to do that. 

The nice thing about having technology in the rotation, is that it uses almost no supplies. The video game design app has a paper template that I keep copies of for students to use, and I have a tub of supplies for green screen movies (green gloves, some cardboard painted green, green straw from starbucks for puppet show movies, and lots of toys for students to practice using in front of the cameras.)

Each class period when centers are open, I spend a little time introducing a new special center, like chalk or stippling with ink, or styrofoam or dice games or artist trading cards. Sometimes the special center reinforces something we are doing in class or relates to seasonal subject matter like fall or halloween. Some students work on WOW pieces like weavings, which take several class periods to finish. Others always go for the special centers. Some want iPads every single time. Others work in teams to set up a marble run or build a tower or use modeling clay with the modeling clay tools. This year, following our weaving unit, I opened weaving and sewing---allowing students the opportunity to use fibers in new ways---awesome and successful centers!

If students finish a project early, iPads are usually never an option for free time activities---the only time they have free choice on the iPads are on Free choice day. On regular art days, if students finish early, I have an activity cart with books, origami paper, collage materials, drawing paper and usually some type of coloring sheet. Occasionally, I will allow a responsible and trustworthy student to look up something to reference online, but I try to limit that, because they typically spend WAY too much time searching. Often, I will find a picture and we will both agree on it, and I will let them look at it---like if they want to see an eagle landing or something specific like that. 

We have used iPads to enhance 2 projects this year. Once, we used them to take a 'selfie' and upload it to google drive so I could print it for each student. The second time we used the iPads, students worked in pairs to enhance their understanding of 1 and 2 point perspective and design a structure using perspective. I gave them links and vides and photos to help explain perspective, after we had practiced as a class in our sketchbooks---some kids just weren't getting it, so I was a little desperate to find different ways to show them how it worked. I also let them look at some visuals of structures, like mansions, tree houses, castles, and other places as inspiration for their structures. I had a bunch of examples on a smore flyer. (More about that lesson later).  It was nice to have TONS of visuals at their fingertips, as I do not have a bunch of prints of those types of images.

The week of Halloween, we had a weird shortened schedule for two of our sessions, so I checked out the chrome book cart from the computer lab and had students take a Kahoot quiz. The quiz is super interactive and it is a great formative assessment tool. Since we were only together for 20-30 minutes, it was nice to play a review game instead of trying to get out supplies and then spend a bunch of time cleaning up. We were productive and it was super fun and engaging. 

Below is a collection of images I have taken throughout the semester. Most of the photos are of 'WOW' pieces, in which students are very proud to show off their work, and they spend multiple art sessions on the project. Other photos are in progress of the centers in action. 

 I decided to survey my students to get their opinions about the technology aspect in our class after reading the article I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Since we have used the technology a little bit this semester, they have experienced it in our class and have been exposed to it as I described above.  Also, I should mention that the biggest majority of my 5th-6th grade students do NOT have a laptop assigned to them, they get about ONE hour of computer lab a week, and they use a classroom computer to take AR tests.

 When students arrive to my class, I always have them fill out a slip---sometimes they draw, sometimes we review, other times I ask them questions. Here is an info graphic with the question on my poll. I took their slipps, counted all the yeses/nos and compiled some of my favorite responses to the 'Why and Why Not.' The results are below. Please take the time to read some of the responses. I was very surprised by what they said.