5 Questions to Ask Yourself as an Art Teacher

When I first started thinking about choice-based art teaching, sitting down and asking myself some tough questions as I planned my units helped.

1. Who got inspiration for this project, the student or the teacher?

2. Who experienced the creative process behind this project- the ideation and planning, the trial and error, the decision-making-- the student or the teacher?

3. Who got to pick a subject for this project, the student or the teacher?

4. Who made the decision about which medium or technique might work best for the project, the student or the teacher?

5. Who got to decide how much time was dedicated to creating the project, the student or the teacher?

If the answer to most of these questions is the teacher, ask yourself-- who did most of the learning?

And this led to even deeper questions, what is the point of art education anyway? This Ted Talk is an oldie but a goodie-- if you haven't seen it yet, please have a look and let me know what you think!