Faculty Collaboration
Art Team Collaboration:
Vertical Teaming is a concept that was discussed at the AP Certification workshop that I attended back in 2009. At the time, I had no idea what that meant. I was working as the only art teacher at a charter school serving grades 7-12 and there was no one to team with. I was part of the humanities department and most of our time was spent discussing issues specific to Language Arts and Social Studies. The idea of vertical teaming in art introduces the idea of Pre-AP, which is based on two premises. The first is the expectation that all students can perform at rigorous academic levels and second, that we can prepare every student for higher intellectual engagement by starting the development of skills and acquisition of knowledge as early as possible. There are a lot of steps involved in creating and sustaining a vertical team, but really the buy in is mostly conceptual and curricular. Perhaps the most powerful result of faculty collaboration is a deeper knowledge of “who” our students are, what is important to them, their background, and whether this student self identifies as college or career bound. An AP curriculum that concentrates on issues of identity for example, may not be the most valuable for career bound students, where a rigorous curriculum that emphasizes quality and breadth in their portfolio would be.
Participation in the SLCSD visual art workshops provides the opportunity to collaborate with middle school and even elementary art educators to prepare students for the next step. We also have the opportunity to collaborate across grade levels, which for high school students who may be interested in teaching art, would give them a hands on student teaching experience.
Vertical Teaming is a concept that was discussed at the AP Certification workshop that I attended back in 2009. At the time, I had no idea what that meant. I was working as the only art teacher at a charter school serving grades 7-12 and there was no one to team with. I was part of the humanities department and most of our time was spent discussing issues specific to Language Arts and Social Studies. The idea of vertical teaming in art introduces the idea of Pre-AP, which is based on two premises. The first is the expectation that all students can perform at rigorous academic levels and second, that we can prepare every student for higher intellectual engagement by starting the development of skills and acquisition of knowledge as early as possible. There are a lot of steps involved in creating and sustaining a vertical team, but really the buy in is mostly conceptual and curricular. Perhaps the most powerful result of faculty collaboration is a deeper knowledge of “who” our students are, what is important to them, their background, and whether this student self identifies as college or career bound. An AP curriculum that concentrates on issues of identity for example, may not be the most valuable for career bound students, where a rigorous curriculum that emphasizes quality and breadth in their portfolio would be.
Participation in the SLCSD visual art workshops provides the opportunity to collaborate with middle school and even elementary art educators to prepare students for the next step. We also have the opportunity to collaborate across grade levels, which for high school students who may be interested in teaching art, would give them a hands on student teaching experience.