For now...

Throughout 2013 I wrote some articles about teaching like an artist on my other blog. Just to start things off on this new blog, I am copying this post from there. It compiles the posts that best fit in the series. Some links below will take you back to that blog.

The original post:

I had a lot of chances to express myself creatively this past year and it has been exciting. Without a doubt it has been the best time of my 20 years as a teacher.

Through reflecting on this and through blog posts, the theme that developed is Teaching Like an Artist.  The general idea is 

Artists get a vision for something that doesn't exist, 

they work to make it real 

and they share it with others. 

As teachers we can inspire more students if we follow that same pattern.

Here's a list of those articles, republished on this blog:

• 6 Ways to Teach Like an Artist - The original post after a summer of thinking (and revised after getting some input)
• 5 Benefits of Teaching Like an Artist - What I learned after consciously putting these things into practice and paying attention
• 6 Reasons Your Students Need to See Your Mediocre Art - Why you should share your talents even when you're not a pro

These two from my other blog are closely related to this concept:

• Know Your Audience - How teachers as artists leads to a striking metaphor
• The Smart Jams Music Video Project - The creative project that developed over the course of the year

And while I didn't realize it when I wrote them, these two posts fit well within this idea of teaching like an artist. 

• My Attempt to Encourage Creativity - The risk I took that eventually became an exciting project
• Fear, Love and Coming Alive - How I learned so many of us hold back