Educating a new principal about TAB
This year will be my 19th year teaching art to elementary students at Sugar Creek Elementary. For the first 14 years, I had the same principal. This principal was very supportive of the arts. When I wanted to move to a student-centered classroom, he just asked me a few questions about how it would be different and gave me the ok. Later he would remark that he had no idea what I was talking about but had seen how excited and passionate I was and that was all he needed to see. Over that time, I continued to educate and inform him of what was happening. He trusted me to do what I felt was best in my classroom. He would often come into my room and show off what the kids were doing. As time went on, he began to see the benefit of TAB and became a big fan.
Five years ago he retired. When he left it was hard for me and our staff because he was the type of principal who was loved, respected, and looked up to. He valued teachers, trusted them and was very good with the kids. His replacement, another principal from our district, leadership style was different. He wasn’t the out front leader but more behind the scenes. He pretty much stayed out of the art room and left me alone. After a year he left to be principal at a smaller school in our district.
When we hired a new principal, she was new, really new. This would be her first principal's job and came with little or no knowledge of Teaching for Artistic Behavior. So I was very nervous when I spoke to her. This was the first time I felt I needed to educate my administrator.
The first thing I did was explain to her how my class was different and how students were taking more ownership of their learning. It's always a good idea to use some language that the administration understands like differentiation, student-centered, constructivism, etc. Another way I helped her understand what was going on was through social-media or certain TEDtalks. I love sharing articles that have to do with how I teach and my philosophy. On a regular basis, I would send her an article or post an image on Twitter and share with her directly. In a short time, she was on board and really became an advocate for how I was teaching. She wanted other teachers in our school to come to the art room and observe what was going on.
Today we learned she will not be returning next year. So the process begins again. However, I have learned that our new principal has a few more years of experience than our last. I now have the confidence to present TAB to any administrator and hopefully the reputation to back it up. I will always be an advocate for choice now and will continue to be a cheerleader for as long as I can. To be continued...
When we hired a new principal, she was new, really new. This would be her first principal's job and came with little or no knowledge of Teaching for Artistic Behavior. So I was very nervous when I spoke to her. This was the first time I felt I needed to educate my administrator.
The first thing I did was explain to her how my class was different and how students were taking more ownership of their learning. It's always a good idea to use some language that the administration understands like differentiation, student-centered, constructivism, etc. Another way I helped her understand what was going on was through social-media or certain TEDtalks. I love sharing articles that have to do with how I teach and my philosophy. On a regular basis, I would send her an article or post an image on Twitter and share with her directly. In a short time, she was on board and really became an advocate for how I was teaching. She wanted other teachers in our school to come to the art room and observe what was going on.
Today we learned she will not be returning next year. So the process begins again. However, I have learned that our new principal has a few more years of experience than our last. I now have the confidence to present TAB to any administrator and hopefully the reputation to back it up. I will always be an advocate for choice now and will continue to be a cheerleader for as long as I can. To be continued...
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