My purpose in hosting pre-service educators is to empower them to adopt the traits of a TAB facilitator. To achieve this goal, pre-service educators must have the intention of following the TAB guiding principles. (What do artists do? The child is the artist. The classroom is the child’s studio.) Following the TAB guiding principles will maintain a student-centered classroom and optimize the facilitator’s traits.
This article details the pre-service teaching experience of Dana Kirk, who joined the TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) classroom of Jessi Ruby in the spring of 2020.
Jessi
In my class, students have autonomy over their art-making process. They select the materials, ideas, and purposes for their art. I create structures to support learning and provide students with space and time to choose art-making experiences. Since students make all the art-making decisions, the environment relies on a curriculum of emergence and facilitation. The curriculum is always evolving based on students’ interests, classroom surroundings, and other factors.
Emergent classrooms put students at the center of their learning, and the teacher’s role is to facilitate and support students’ learning choices. The role of a facilitator is a complex balancing act that requires numerous skills that can vary from connection builder, questioner, and organizer to listener and praiser. I can recall an instance when I had a student interested in origami. I organized links and ideas for this student to consider on a slide presentation.
Throughout my years of teaching with a TAB philosophy, I acquired strategies and structures to adapt to this role. Facilitating a TAB classroom can have its challenges, so how do pre-service educators embrace this role? A constant, transforming curriculum can provide challenges for pre-service teachers.
Dana
A TAB classroom promotes emergent learning and fluid lesson plans. It provides the teacher with the freedom to experiment and change lessons after reflecting on students’ engagement and learning processes. I have been able to use structures that are already in place and then create my objectives. For example, it has been easy for me to learn and implement the norms and routines for the start of class and the clean-up process.
After observing students during their studio time, I was able to build demonstrations based on their interests and things that I think will help them with their chosen art processes. When my lesson did not go as planned, I was able to change it. The open studio structure allowed me to connect with each student separately and meet their individual needs. After explaining my lesson, I would go around to each student, hear how they had overcome challenges, push them to try new things, and do mini-demos for small groups or individuals.
Jessi
My purpose in hosting pre-service educators is to empower them to adopt the traits of a TAB facilitator. To achieve this goal, pre-service educators must have the intention of following the TAB guiding principles. (What do artists do? The child is the artist. The classroom is the child’s studio.) Following the TAB guiding principles will maintain a student-centered classroom and optimize the facilitator’s traits.
Facilitator attributes will vary from person-to-person, but there are fundamental components to help pre-service teachers develop into effective TAB facilitators. Teaching pre-service educators to be competent in observation, documentation, and reflection will prepare them for their future TAB or choice-based classrooms.
TAB classrooms adapt to children’s evolving, innovative ideas. To conform with such an environment, a TAB facilitator must be comfortable with ambiguity and be ready to adapt. Observing students can help determine their interests and needs and aid in developing or modifying curricula.
Pre-service teachers should be encouraged to document students’ processes to help in planning. Documentation can take many forms; encourage pre-service educators to try using photos, digital portfolios, anecdotal notes, and videos so they can discover their preferred method. Reflecting on the documentation is also a crucial step, so the facilitator can develop a reply and support in the curriculum. A response can include adding materials or demonstrations to heighten students’ knowledge, and support can include offering tools to scaffold skills or additional ideas. Pre-service and host educators should build in time for collaborative reflection every day to discuss possible replies and supports to add to the curriculum.
Introducing pre-service educators to emergent and facilitator practices will ensure their success in their future TAB classrooms. Future TAB educators can become effective facilitators by learning to let students take the lead. Beyond that, learning how to become emergent requires observing, documenting, and reflecting to support students’ learning.
Jessi Ruby is an art teacher at Pete Mirich Elementary School in LaSalle, Colorado. Jessi@TeachingforArtisticBehavior.org
Dana Kirk is an art teacher at Colorado Springs Christian School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Dana.Kirk@CSCSLions.org
Art teachers share lessons that focus on media arts, digital processes, and new technologies. Students design and develop meaningful side-scrolling video games, learn light painting techniques to capture long-exposure photographs, turn 2D drawings into 3D-printed models, create a digital floral folk-art piece inspired by their heritage, and more.
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