{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"St Charles Community Middle High School","outOfStateSupporters":29.8,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":10547915,"projectId":10373119,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your generosity! \r\n\r\nThe Gelli plates, paper, and paints you funded opened up an entire printmaking unit that we simply couldn't run before. Students are creating monoprints rolling paint onto the gel plates, working into it with brayers, brushes, and found textures, then pulling one-of-a-kind prints onto paper. Because no two pulls ever come out the same, every student ends up with a print that's genuinely theirs, and most days the room turns into a rotation of stations: mixing color, printing, drying, and going back in for a second layer.\r\n\r\nOne project that's stood out has been layered ghost prints where students pull an initial print, then reprint the same plate a second and third time with less paint each pass, building soft, translucent layers of color and texture on top of each other. It's taught them more about color mixing and happy accidents than any worksheet could.\r\n\r\nStudents always enjoy the process in which they first peel back the paper and sees the print for the first time. They always want to do another print and enjoy the experimenting part of the process. \r\n\r\nMonoprinting is inherently unpredictable. Students can't fully control how the paint will transfer, so every pull requires them to assess the result, decide what's working, and adjust their next move. That's problem-solving and critical thinking in action, not as an abstract lesson but as the literal next step in making the print better. It also naturally opens the door to mixed media: because a monoprint is really just a textured, colored piece of paper once it's dry, it becomes raw material for cutting, collage, drawing on top of, or combining with other techniques in future units which means this one purchase keeps paying off well beyond the current project.\r\n\r\nWe're moving into a series where students combine their monoprints with mixed media cutting, layering, and collaging their prints into larger compositions, and choosing a personal theme to tie the series together. From there, we're planning to bring in photography: students will photograph their own prints and printmaking process, then incorporate those images back into their work layering a photo transfer or printed image onto a monoprint, or building a composition that mixes painted texture with a photographic element. It's another way to stretch the same set of Gelli plates into an entirely new skill set. The unit will end with a small classroom gallery so students can see their prints displayed together and talk through their process with classmates and families.\r\n\r\nMy goal is to give students access to fun, hands-on electives that build creativity, problem-solving, and innovation in the visual arts and to help grow our art program's numbers at the same time. Every new material and technique is another way for a student to find something in art class they connect with, build confidence in, and want to keep coming back for. Support like yours makes that possible.","fullyFundedDate":1786242803027,"projectUrl":"project/the-creative-art-lab-new-visual-arts-pr/10373119/","projectTitle":"The Creative Art Lab: New Visual Arts Program","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Pence","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp10547915_orig.jpg?crop=1527,1528,x0,y5&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1783696428833","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/10547915"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_72685","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":301,"numTeachers":27,"percentFrplEligible":70,"percentAsian":0,"percentBlack":0,"percentWhite":90,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":6,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":2,"gradesServed":"7 - 12","studentTeacherRatio":"11.1:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":true,"metroType":"RURAL","ncesMetroType":"RURAL_DISTANT"},"inStateSupporters":70.2,"schoolId":72685,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about St Charles Community Middle High School on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"St Charles Community Middle High School","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/michigan/st-charles-community-school-district/st-charles-high-school/72685"}