Sketch & Writing Journals: A Creative Place to Reflect
Help me give my students these writing and drawing sketchpads where they can have a place to workout their feelings during this time and draw goals for the future.
By teaching Elementary Art K-5, I am privileged to have had most of my students since they started school in Kindergarten and get to know them better each year. The project I am asking funding for will be focused on the 5th grade class with 150 students. They LOVE coming to Art class to have a creative break from their regular routine. These children are a diverse group that are sweet and sensitive. Many have been impacted by the hurricane (Florence) that hit our area hard 2 years ago, or last year's hurricane (Dorian) and are just getting back into their houses after many had to rebuild or relocate. And now, they are remote learning from these homes with limited resources.
My Project
These sketchbooks will become writing and drawing journals for students to reflect on these unprecedented times and visualize goals for the future. The idea for this project came from the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, where the goal is to uncover your potential creativity. Each chapter requires attention to your inner artist and gives thought-provoking tasks to help pinpoint your individual potential. I have adapted the exercises in the book to help students process what they have been going through so they can use their experiences for self-discovery and betterment.
These journals will become a safe place they can develop their art and writing skills, visualize goals for the future, and collect ideas and resources to get there.
They will be doing drawings that visualize jobs that they may do when they are adults; sketch the areas that hold them back to problem-solve how to progress; write letters to themselves now as if they were 80 and lived their dreams; create and collage a visual file as a resource to project success; and many other lessons that encourage their best selves to emerge. Because these will be so personal and special to the students, it's important that they have mature sketchbooks to record this time in their lives that will hold up for years of reflection.
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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. SAUNDERS and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
