My greatest concern for starting an AP program at my school is that I am not sure if I will be able to handle the requirements of AP and IB in the same class. I am not sure at this point what is required of AP but I know very well about the IB program. In IB Art my students are required to keep an Investigative Work Book and must do studio work that is documented/researched in their IWBs. My IB students may opt for Standard Level or Higher Level-Standard is for one year and Higher is for two. The best way for me to find out how to do both AP and IB is for me to take this class. I am very excited to find out about AP Studio Art!
I need to change my username to Suzan. The other art teacher and I had an art blog here at blogspot: http://artatwhs.blogspot.com/
Our district made us move it to a more controlled blog site however our old site still shows. That's why it keeps saying Mrs. Cauble. I'll figure out how to change it at some point.
My main concern with starting an AP program is very similar to Susan's - I am probably going to wind up with my AP students embedded in my upper level art classes in order to achieve acceptable #'s (at least 12 students per class). I am going to make an educated guess based off the syllabus for this course and state that the Studio Art AP "test" is most likely portfolio driven. If this is the case, my concern about the mixture of AP with my other classes is not that great, as those classes are already driven by the stringent portfolio requirements of the Charleston County School District's Summer Art Institute.
My main concern is that I have very little experience teaching upper level art classes and I am nervous, but excited to take on more advanced classes. ALso our AP program has been lead my my colleague for many years, but the number of students interested in AP have fallen, so I am wanting to give it some new life...
I am interested in learning exactly what the requirements from me and my students are. I did not attend high school in the United states so I am pretty sure there are differences. I feel that I am a strong teacher at the secondary level and am excited to be working with older students.
My greatest concern is the quality of work required for the AP Portfolio, and the level of committment required to reach that level of quality. While my students are used to being constantly pushed by me, this will take that to a whole other level! How will they respond? Will they rise to the challenge? Will I be able to give them what they need to succeed?!?!
Since my school already has an AP program in place, and I'll be more of a "companion" teacher I have a good idea of what the portfolio expectations are, I understand how the upper level class fits in with the AP class (they meet at the same time) and I have a good sense of what is required from each student. I hope to gain a better understanding of what makes a strong portfolio within each of the categories (2-D, 3-D and Drawing), what distinguishes drawing from 2-D, what some key "best practices" are and what an ideal AP studio class environment looks like.
My initial concern is getting students to pass the portfolio. This was the first year in which the students who submitted were with me from the beginning. I realize it takes time to build a program, but it would be nice to have someone pass. Another concern is trying to sequence my courses that I offer. Being to only high school art teacher puts a lot of pressure to teach a large variety of courses, but having 8 preps is a bit insane.
My basic concerns are 3 fold, getting the administrations support,getting funding and materials and meeting the students needs. In all three of these areas I hope we will find some resources to use when we run into dead ends.
I really can’t answer this since I teach middle school and have no real high school experience. So, I am going to pretend that I am trying to start an advanced class under conditions similar to those I work under now….
My greatest concern would be support. If the conditions I experience in middle school existed through the end of high school, it would be impossible to start such a program. The administration, parents and students that I work with have no expectations for progression in art. For them, it is normal (and desirable) to see a thirteen year old student doing exactly the same thing as a six year old student. For me this is an unbelievably perverse situation, that is, an education system that retards the visual development of students. The greatest change I would like to see in art education would be vertical teaming with a clear curriculum that states precisely what students will be taught and what they are expected to be able to do at each grade level in simple straightforward incremental steps that require and demonstrate growth (just like any other subject) rather than the mile wide, eighth of an inch deep and 100% useless state standards that are our only guidelines. We can never expect the greater public to support visual education as long as the first thing that public education teaches all citizens is that visual knowledge is a haphazard, random assortment of unrelated quickie “projects” that do not require rigor or the sequential accumulation of teachable/learnable skills.
My greatest concern for starting an AP program at my school is that I am not sure if I will be able to handle the requirements of AP and IB in the same class. I am not sure at this point what is required of AP but I know very well about the IB program. In IB Art my students are required to keep an Investigative Work Book and must do studio work that is documented/researched in their IWBs. My IB students may opt for Standard Level or Higher Level-Standard is for one year and Higher is for two. The best way for me to find out how to do both AP and IB is for me to take this class. I am very excited to find out about AP Studio Art!
ReplyDeleteI need to change my username to Suzan. The other art teacher and I had an art blog here at blogspot:
ReplyDeletehttp://artatwhs.blogspot.com/
Our district made us move it to a more controlled blog site however our old site still shows. That's why it keeps saying Mrs. Cauble. I'll figure out how to change it at some point.
My main concern with starting an AP program is very similar to Susan's - I am probably going to wind up with my AP students embedded in my upper level art classes in order to achieve acceptable #'s (at least 12 students per class). I am going to make an educated guess based off the syllabus for this course and state that the Studio Art AP "test" is most likely portfolio driven. If this is the case, my concern about the mixture of AP with my other classes is not that great, as those classes are already driven by the stringent portfolio requirements of the Charleston County School District's Summer Art Institute.
ReplyDeleteMy main concern is that I have very little experience teaching upper level art classes and I am nervous, but excited to take on more advanced classes. ALso our AP program has been lead my my colleague for many years, but the number of students interested in AP have fallen, so I am wanting to give it some new life...
ReplyDeleteI am interested in learning exactly what the requirements from me and my students are. I did not attend high school in the United states so I am pretty sure there are differences. I feel that I am a strong teacher at the secondary level and am excited to be working with older students.
ReplyDeleteMy greatest concern is the quality of work required for the AP Portfolio, and the level of committment required to reach that level of quality. While my students are used to being constantly pushed by me, this will take that to a whole other level! How will they respond? Will they rise to the challenge? Will I be able to give them what they need to succeed?!?!
ReplyDeleteSince my school already has an AP program in place, and I'll be more of a "companion" teacher I have a good idea of what the portfolio expectations are, I understand how the upper level class fits in with the AP class (they meet at the same time) and I have a good sense of what is required from each student. I hope to gain a better understanding of what makes a strong portfolio within each of the categories (2-D, 3-D and Drawing), what distinguishes drawing from 2-D, what some key "best practices" are and what an ideal AP studio class environment looks like.
ReplyDeleteMy initial concern is getting students to pass the portfolio. This was the first year in which the students who submitted were with me from the beginning. I realize it takes time to build a program, but it would be nice to have someone pass.
ReplyDeleteAnother concern is trying to sequence my courses that I offer. Being to only high school art teacher puts a lot of pressure to teach a large variety of courses, but having 8 preps is a bit insane.
My basic concerns are 3 fold, getting the administrations support,getting funding and materials and meeting the students needs. In all three of these areas I hope we will find some resources to use when we run into dead ends.
ReplyDeleteI really can’t answer this since I teach middle school and have no real high school experience. So, I am going to pretend that I am trying to start an advanced class under conditions similar to those I work under now….
ReplyDeleteMy greatest concern would be support. If the conditions I experience in middle school existed through the end of high school, it would be impossible to start such a program. The administration, parents and students that I work with have no expectations for progression in art. For them, it is normal (and desirable) to see a thirteen year old student doing exactly the same thing as a six year old student. For me this is an unbelievably perverse situation, that is, an education system that retards the visual development of students. The greatest change I would like to see in art education would be vertical teaming with a clear curriculum that states precisely what students will be taught and what they are expected to be able to do at each grade level in simple straightforward incremental steps that require and demonstrate growth (just like any other subject) rather than the mile wide, eighth of an inch deep and 100% useless state standards that are our only guidelines. We can never expect the greater public to support visual education as long as the first thing that public education teaches all citizens is that visual knowledge is a haphazard, random assortment of unrelated quickie “projects” that do not require rigor or the sequential accumulation of teachable/learnable skills.