My team and I are at the beginning of a new learning journey — one that is both exciting and intimidating. I have never been more grateful to be part of a strong team, since our leadership skills are bound to be challenged and enhanced.
Our goal is to improve our own teaching methods in art education by adopting the philosophy behind TAB, which stands for Teaching for Artistic Behaviour. Rather than providing simple skill-building opportunities for our students, we hope to emphasize the importance of creativity in response to civic and social responsibilities. If students realize that they can take advantage of tasks to build upon their knowledge and strengths, we believe that their character and creativity will prosper.
Throughout this paradigm shift, we will be using technology as an integral tool to document our learning, to share resources with other educators and to provide several choices for our students. These choices are not limited to creative tools, such as online editing, but include several options for capturing and sharing their learning processes: blog posts, videos, podcasts and images will complement each task. Ideally, by providing a strong framework for proper documentation, students will begin to assess their learning and their work will directly relate to our Ministry’s creative and critical processes.
Ideally, we will develop a platform that will become a resource for other art educators in Ontario, similar to the Portal developed by Apex art educators, Melissa Purtee and Ian Sands. We also hope to consult with other TAB educators from whom we can gain valuable insights and knowledge: Katherine Douglas (artist, educator and author), Jean Barnett and Julie Toole (and others).
We have a lot to learn, which means that we will need to balance pedagogy with andragogy (and maybe even heutagogy<– thank you for the resource, Brenda Sherry) because we really don’t want to keep this learning to ourselves.
If you have suggestions or advice for our team, please leave a comment for us. Thanks.
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Northern Art Teacher 
We are lucky in that our team includes three members representing three different schools and many different northwestern Ontario communities. We also live in an area that is and has been inspirational for visual artists going back to very early in human history, and art that responds to social and cultural issues.
Our students have access to the whole world at their fingertips and they also have developing opinions on world issues. We have the opportunity to combine this with artistic expression to build relevance and authenticity in art as a way for our students to express their thoughts on the world around them.
As Colleen mentioned, this is a paradigm shift at the secondary level, where art instruction is typically along the lines of “you all must use acrylic paint to create a house.” Where’s the relevance, authenticity – and engagement – with that style?
I’m looking forward to this project and O appreciate the knowledge, skill sets, and enthusiasm of my teammates.
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