A Shout Out about Teaching for Artistic Behaviour [TAB]

Abstract

I never, ever, thought I’d be that teacher—the one you hear screaming at the kids in their class from half a mile away—until I became one. I’m not a shouter. At least I wasn’t a shouter until, after over 20 years teaching in high schools, I began working as a specialist art teacher in a primary school. How did I move from good behavioural management strategies and a working pedagogy in the high school art room to bored, noncompliant behaviour in the primary school? How did I find my way back from hating art classes as much as the kids did to an environment where we all are engaged, look forward to and love what we do?