The Next Picasso Is In My Classroom!
The Met. The MoMa. The Whitney. Our classroom. My students have been visiting museums to see world famous art and now with your help we're ready to create our own.
My students are a group of energetic and enthusiastic learners. We have been visiting museums all year and studying different ways that artists tell stories. Each trip is accompanied by an art project as well. My students love these trips and the opportunities to create their own artwork.
At the same time, my students are overcoming many challenges. Almost all of my students qualify for free lunch. Most of my students do not speak English at home, and almost all of my students are below grade level in reading and math. In addition, our classroom doesn't have a lot of art resources that would allow my students to experiment with different artistic media.
My Project: So far my students have had a chance to use ordinary classroom materials like pencils, crayons, and markers to create their own artwork. The pastels, watercolors, charcoal and frames will allow my students to create and display an amazing variety of artwork. The sense of excitement and pride these materials will generate is immeasurable.
Your support will transform my students' experience with art. They already love their trips to museums and every chance they have to draw and color. These supplies will allow my students to explore, experiment and grow as artists and people. This journey of discovery can only happen with your help.
Comments
The thought that occurs to me is that time in school would be better spent teaching your budding Picasso to read, write and speak English rather than fine art. But perhaps that's an invalid opinion, since I'm not a certified school teacher.
Reading and math are definitely the focus of my instruction. Of the approximately 5 hours of class time I'm responsible for, 4 of those are spent on literacy and math. The extended day period and the after school program focus exclusively on reading and math as well. Arts have an important role to play though for a number of reasons. One important way the arts help my students is by providing my lowest performing readers to engage in critical thinking exercises that they can't really practice as much with texts like "Where is Big Kam?"