TEACH LIKE AN ARTIST PDF

As an artist, I am trying to frame understanding in my compositions. I try to fit everything I need in the picture and nothing more or less. It is a lot like being a poet; every word in a poem is thoughtfully chosen and carefully edited to express just what the poet meant. In the same way an artist and writer tune and rework, teachers need to do the same. This book shows my planning, my exemplars, and what the students understood by the evidence of what they made. 

My experience as an artist taught me to continue to look at my work and improve. That is why I put so much stock in preparation and doing the project before my students. 

Artists are influenced by the world around them.
Artists transform ideas into their creations.
Artists live, work and play art.  All of their experiences      
could and should be seen in their artwork.
Artists communicate through visuals, sound, symbols               
(writing), and tactile experiences.
Artists don't stop working.
A good artist evolves and is constantly communicating.

Now replace the word Artist with Teacher. Don’t we all         
want to be taught this way?


Doing the project I was asking my students to do first is the key to all good teaching. It also lets you know:

What will the students learn by doing this?
Is it essential to the learning goals you want to achieve? 
Will this project work?
What are the bottlenecks?
What materials do you need?
How long will it take? 
Most importantly, is this a fun project to do?

After thinking about it for a long time, this book is evidence that doing the project will let the teacher  know everything they need to know to help the students learn. I have spoken hundreds of times to thousands of people and told them about my practice, helped them come up with cool projects and the only thing that would ever help is doing the project first. It really is the beginning and the end of teacher training. 

Ken Rignall, my grad school professor, would come to the print shop at California College of Arts and Crafts every morning at 6:00 am. I would roll in at 7:00 am, not bad for a grad student, but I had taught for four years, so this was normal for a teacher. 

What was not typical for a professor was Ken would be there doing the demonstrations that he would be doing with his students later in the day. One day early on, I asked him, "You have been teaching for 25 years; you don't have this down by now?" He said, "I need to know if this will help these students, is it the right time, sequence, will it be valuable right now to them, is this demonstration still possible with the materials on hand. And most importantly, Jeff, will they have fun with it? No one ever learns something for life if it isn't fun or at least positive." This conversation was worth the MFA. 

​When I went to High Tech High, I made the projects I was asking my students to do. The few times I did not, it was a mess. Doing the project yourself sets the floor and gives you a tangible exemplar to show your students. 

I get that it was hard for people to hear from me, over and over again , "Do the project yourself, first." I was the art teacher, too blunt, irreverent for a school setting (I said fuck a lot), and I was a workaholic. I have lots of talking points and animations, Voice and Choice, What PBL is not, Notice and Connect, and the list goes on.  But doing the project first is that single act of humility that shows you are doing what the students are doing and it is valuable. 

This is a book of my exemplars and my students' work. I try to honestly explain where the projects came from and how I managed my students.  A lot of people helped me, foremost my wife, Maribel. I was obsessed with every project, talked about every student and their work, and made it seem like my teaching was the most essential thing in the world and she was incredibly supportive. 

One of my funniest and saddest obsessive stories was when I had just spoken to a group of education reporters at the New York Times, and they ate it up. I showed them the kind of work I was doing with my students, and they wanted to know how they could get their kids into a school like mine. Afterwards, I felt like a rock star. I went to a Chelsea bar I had heard about. I sat down and ordered an Old Fashioned. As the bartender was burning the orange garnish, the man sitting next to me asked, "What are you drinking?" I told him what it was and how this place is famous for them, he ordered one too and asked me if this is my usual spot. I told him, "No, I am from San Diego." He asked, "What are you doing in New York?" I spoke uninterrupted about my day, my projects, my teaching, and how I killed it at the New York Times. I realized I was talking too much and apologized for my braggy explanation. I asked him, "What do you do?" He put out his hand and said, "Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees." "Oh man" I said, "I am so sorry" he laughs and said it was nice to hear about someone who loves to teach and cares about kids so much and that it was weird that I did not know who he was. This story shows my exuberance for and narcissism about teaching. I loved it, and my students had fun and made great art. I hope you enjoy this catalog of work.