It's a new art school.

For me, anyway.

I am borrowing the title for this blog from a song by the Jam – “Art School”, side one track one on their first album – and I long for it to have symbolic meaning, but it would be a stretch. The art school The Jam sang about was a metaphoric one and the song was meant to be a statement of purpose – a manifesto for the first wave of punk (and one that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the fascist rhetoric of the Futurist Manifesto of 1909, which glorifies war and speed and calls for the destruction of museums and libraries). Probably not a total success as a manifesto – the "All Mod Cons" LP works better both musically and philosophically - but still something I keep hearing in the back of my mind as the soundtrack to the montage of images (the clip-show episode?) of the high school TV drama that was my day at work. “Say what you want, 'cos this is a new art school”.

It's a new art school, because I am a new art teacher. I am in the middle of my second year teaching art in a public high school, and it is a new career in a new town. My profession for most of my 20s was music – record store owner, shipping drone for record label, struggling musician, 4-track jockey – but my background was in visual art. After selling the record store and dissolving several bands I decided to look into teaching. Seemed like the perfect new path which held on to the best bits of the old path: creative, with a performance aspect, but most of all affecting the lives of other people in a positive way.

It's a new art school because it's nothing like the old art school. I hope. I have very few positive memories of my high school art classes, and certainly did not enter education because I had an inspiring art teacher. I went to a small private high school – less prep school, more country club – and was taught art by the wife of the headmaster. Well-meaning person, but not the kind of teacher who wanted to have challenging, philosophical discussions about painting or the state of contemporary art (as I did, and tried to do). Most of our projects were time-fillers. There was very little freedom to select content or media, and very few opportunities to analyze or evaluate our work. I hope to change that for my students.

It's a new art school because, despite expensive schooling and training and the first sprouts of experience, I really don't know what I'm doing. I went on to study art and art history in college (despite my ho-hum high school art experience) and art education at the graduate level, but I still feel unprepared for much of what I do. Too much theory, too little practice. I had some very helpful professors and an excellent student teaching mentor – I still hear his Obi Wan voice reminding me to use The Force in a sticky situation – but, for the most part, I was told that many things about teaching can’t be taught.

And they were right.

For these reasons, I feel it is necessary to keep a journal of my experience – a journal about the teaching of art, and the art of teaching. A place to reflect on the challenges and occasional successes of what has so far been the hardest thing I have ever done. Anyone got some pointers?