Kids take the reigns

To many present teachers, the idea of letting children take the reigns of the class controlling every project or lesson for the year may sound a bit daunting and scary! To be honest, I would probably fall under the same fear. How could I let my class dictate the learning that's going on? How could I sit back and trust the class to make adequate progress and to grasp the main concepts that we as teacher's have responsibility covering? The thought of not meeting specific standards imposed by local, state, and national models is kind of scary!

There has to be a median here. The author of this article, Nan E. Hathaway, did not intend for art teachers to decide to sit back, drink coffee and take naps. No! Hathaway, who is a middle school art teacher in Vermont, was describing a median where students take the lead and teachers facilitate learning. She believes that student-directed learning is the key to the art classroom. The art room has to turn into a studio where students are considered artists with authentic purpose. The article says, "students must first 'be given the opportunity to think like artists,'" (Hathaway, p. 4). Students take the reigns and teachers are there every step of the way, supporting students in their decision making processes. How can students learn the values of higher order thinking, when a teacher is constantly holding their hand? I think teachers who are able to

master the student-directed classroom are geniuses, and I bet it takes a lot of practice and experience!

I found this picture (to the left) on Pinterest a while ago, and I believe that it is important for all people to be aware of. These are all valuable aspects of art in schools. I believe that every child who takes a student-directed art class will be able to successfully say they have achieved every single one of these values. As art teachers, we need to encourage group collaboration, dialogue, exploring, trying and possibly failing, and appreciating various points of view, to name a few. These expectations can only be learned on your own. Sure, teachers can guide students in the right direction, but I think that students can only excel in art when they are given the reigns to explore and learn on their own.

As I was looking around on the internet, I came upon a high school's art history project that really stood out to me in terms of student-directed learning. Even though it highlights a high school age level, I believe the project would work (with  modifications) for any many ages. The students created a music video and in that video the students designed and recreated famous pieces of art in which they, the students, were the main characters. This example of student-directed learning shows how the students put forth the passion and motivation to create these recognizable pieces of the art world. Allowing students to take the lead in learning experiences like this, will quite possibly result in more learning than initially supposed. From watching the video, I think the students enjoyed the activity as well.

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