My students need to go outdoors and play in the mud! Ceramic clay, glazes, and canvas table covers are needed for my students to learn ceramic arts in an outdoor area.
$1,060 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My students want to get their hands DIRTY! They want to use their hands and their brains simultaneously in ways that are both creative and productive. Limited art supply funds do not stretch to buy much needed clay and canvas table coverings to develop our middle and high school ceramics program.
Our school is one of the few schools in our district that offers 6-12 grades within the same educational site.
(Middle & High School) The school is a permit-only school that accepts students from diverse geographical areas. The permits are given through a district-run open enrollment process that ensures randomness and fairness. Our California climate often offers the possibility of outdoor clay classes. If you remember what it was like in middle school, you will recall insecurity of expression and the fear of the embarrassment of being "Un-cool." My middle school art students are not quite children, yet not true teenagers. Emotions, wants, and needs change daily. They are at a strategic age. They are learning about themselves and the world around them. My students are formulating what kind of people they want to become. Working with clay allows them creative expression in a fun, stress-free, non-competitive way.
My Project
The resources I am requesting will permit my students to expand their classroom to an outdoor ceramics area. Instead of attempting to do small ceramics projects in our tiny crammed art space, the students will produce clay projects outdoors on canvas covered tables in an open-air ceramic arts space. The canvases requested will protect the tables while preparing a surface to work with clay. The clay and glaze requested will supply the students with the materials need to complete a variety of ceramic art projects. The art work will be fired in our on-site kiln. Students will learn the skills of pinch, slab, and coil building construction as well as get exposure to wheel throwing techniques. Relevant, interesting activities will foster enjoyable long term learning. My students will be empowered with the ability to create personal artifacts and connect learning to other subjects. My goal to develop the school's ceramics program is an effort to offer meaningful & enjoyable learning.
Research on learning and the brain substantiates findings that kinesthetic arts such as ceramics enhances our cognitive, emotional, perceptual motor, & stress-response systems.
Stronger academic skills, including increased retention, higher levels of student confidence & more highly developed independent thinking skills result when students use hand manipulation & movement in learning. Ceramic projects are likely to increase student understanding & achievement of multiple curriculum standards.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Abdus-Samad and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
