smARTist Blog

When I graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and a concentration in Fine Arts, I was ready to take just about any job I could find.  So I nestled down in the first job I was offered as an Art Teacher at two magnet schools in Southern Indiana.  I was expecting to ride out my first job for a couple of years, get some real world experience, and then move on to a job I actually wanted.  I was not intending to fall in love with my job, but I did.

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Fast forward twelve months.  I have my first year under my belt and I'm ready for a new challenge.  But try as I can, I can't seem to figure out what to do.  That's when I heard about it.  This thing called TAB.  I had never heard of such a thing before, but I was instantly obsessed.  In a TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) classroom, students are not just handed materials and a set of directions and told to "make it like this".  Students are given information, and strategies, and inspiration to push them to make their own creative decisions.  These young minds, that are bursting with ideas, are invited into an atmosphere

that encourages them to experiment, learn, and create.

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I knew from the first moment that I heard about TAB that this was the format for me.  It didn't matter how hard it would be for me, this is how I wanted my students to learn.  So I dove head first into student-choice.  After only one year of using TAB I do not claim to be anything close to a master.  I've made many mistakes, fixed my mistakes, and then started all over again to make new mistakes.  This blog is here to follow me through this process of trial and error.  And my hope is that I can help at least one person discover how to be a smARTist!