I'm going to try and incorporate art centers into my teaching. It's going to be a gradual process and so I'm beginning by using centers as a reward for excellent class behavior. I use a red, yellow, and green 'stoplight' for my classes, and the goal, after reviewing the rules with them, is for them to always try for a 'green' day. If they succeed in having 3 green days in a row, they have earned a free choice day, which will be structured into art centers. Currently I'm trying to put together some center ideas that will be productive and engaging for all the grades but its a bit more work than I anticipated (isn't it always though? lol). So I have a feeling this will be a work in progress. Anyways, I found a great article on the teaching palette blog site entitled "Proven learning Centers for the Art Room" Here's the link, its definitely worth a look. I especially like the color sudoku and the Picasso center ideas.
http://theteachingpalette.com/2010/07/28/proven-learning-centers-for-the-art-room/
I started incorporating centers this year too. I bought 2 sets Connectagons and my students love them. I bought them here http://www.hearthsong.com/Connectagons_p9071.html There is a special if you buy two sets, which I took advantage of.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post and link, the Picasso centers are amazing! I have been reading about Teaching for Artistic Behavior/Choice Based art education and am also planning to gradually lncorporate choice and centers more into my teaching. Have you checked out the TAB site? teachingforartisticbehavior.org It is definitely worth checking out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info guys I appreciate it!
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