Tené Gray: Artists as Teachers
Filed at 10:31 am on October 30, 2007 • Leave a comment
Tené Gray discusses using professional learning communities to support the development of artists as teachers.
When DYN artists walk into their classroom to prepare the 21st Century Renaissance student to become multi-literate, the expectation is that the mentors possess the same set of 21st Century Literacies. The DYN artist possesses expert knowledge and skills respective to their medium. The desired outcome is that the artist is sharing their expertise in the form of instruction. In other words, artists are expected to be teachers. What does it mean for an artist to teach a 21st Century Renaissance learner? What do artists understand about instructional practices that impact student learning with respect to 21st Century Literacies? What does it mean for artists to be reflective about their teaching practice? While no one really knows the answer to these questions, we all know that students need competent teachers, teachers who are committed and passionate about their work, teachers who trust one another and are committed to building relationships with one another, and teachers who believe in continuous learning for themselves as well as their students.
Professional Learning Communities
How is this accomplished? How do you build the will, skill, and capacity of artists to do this kind of work? I believe that participating in professional learning communities is a way for artists to understand their own teaching practice, therefore having an impact on student’s and their learning. In the Digital Youth Network (DYN), this comes in the form of professional development. The entire DYN staff engages in a monthly professional development session or professional learning community, which is facilitated by the literacy coach. Additional professional development experiences come in the form of smaller learning communities. The smaller learning communities, which are the weekly skill-building sessions and bi-weekly staff meetings; involve only the DYN teachers, in other words, the DYN artist. These sessions require that co-facilitation by the lead artist and another artist.
The professional development experiences involve learning more about the instructional focus, looking at student work, cross class/pod observations and engaging in professional reading, problem solving, and skill building. Mentors have an opportunity to learn new knowledge around content, skills, and are also given opportunities to present dilemma’s to the group for a consultancy. This construct allows the participants to increase cognitive understanding of teaching and learning and develop a more sophisticated repertoire of teaching skills. The idea is for artists/mentors to engage in inquiry and use tools to support their development as teachers in an effort to inform the teaching and learning that takes place in their classes/pods specific to the 21st Century Literacies.
Click here to see examples of the professional development cycle as well as unit and lessons created by the DYN artist/mentor, please visit.
Editor’s Note: See the series index for more conversation about the Digital Youth Network.
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