Process over Production

My curriculum is an assemblage. It is not pretty and perfect on paper (although I try my hardest on Google calendar and the gazillion spreadsheets I've made ) but when put into process my curriculum accounts for the students, encounters, lines of flight, and all the little nuances of an art classroom environment. I teach artmaking with a developed plan of process. I teach students PLAY, SKILL BUILDING, KNOWLEDGE BUILDING, and help them make PERSONAL CONNECTIONS. After all these processes are are achieved, we make art that has MEANING.

I recently took a graduate class at The Ohio State University and the word assemblage was part of a new language we learned from the philosopher Deleuze. We used process to understand his concepts. I didn't always understand the class material in readings or when we were given assignments. As soon as I dove into the process however, concepts became clearer and understanding happened.

This is how I want my students to learn---with moments of discovery and new understandings. I don't want the curriculum to be all about producing pretty things for spectators to gasp at, but a curriculum that is deep and considers more than fancy new tools---it considers the student.

My goal is to include the iPads in all parts of my curriculum and enhance the process of artmaking that I believe is so important to a contemporary art curriculum. Stay tuned...

the beginning

Last fall I called my tech guru at work and asked him if he would support me writing a tech grant.  I asked him how many iPads he thought I should ask for and to my surprise his answer was a class set!  Really!?!?  You think the foundation will support that?  YES!  Apparently, art teachers are making the best cases for why this technology needs to be in our curriculum and it worked!  10 iPads are scheduled to be in my classroom this coming fall!

Since the online community had given me the research I needed to write my grant, (and I won!) I think I should share my experience and add to the dialogue that us art teachers are creating a buzz about.  So here it is.....