EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

We can't agree who is a better artist, Picasso or Da Vinci.  Trying to rank student art when they are doing their best is, in my opinion, equally useless at best and potentially stifling.  We are all individuals, with individual preferences and different things we need to say.   My primary job as an art teacher is to try to understand what the students want to achieve, and help motivate and empower them to be able to do it without giving up or taking the easy way out.

INSTRUCTION

The elements of art, principals of design, and manipulation of a wide variety of media are emphasized at all grade levels.  Increasingly difficult concepts, techniques, and media are brought in as the student age advances.  A large leap occurs in 4th grade, with the inclusion of photography, take-home creative journals, and an intensive unit on portraiture.  In 5th grade, we expand shading and figure drawing skills.  Outlier school students receive similar instruction to the grade K-3 students at the K-8 school. Also, grade-level art history, math, and language arts are woven throughout lessons to support core class instruction.

DONATIONS

K-8 ART FUND:  Fundraising for art supplies and field trips is separate from MUSE.  This year, we are asking for a $20 donation to cove supplies for each student in the art program grades 1-8.  Checks made out to "K-8 Art Fund" or cash can be given to Tracy or Jeanne at the front desks of the K-8 campus.

MUSE:   MUSE pays for the K-8 art teacher position, just as it once paid for the chorus teacher position when that popular program was getting off the ground. Without your donations to MUSE, these and many other enrichment activities and programs for Mendocino Unified schools could not exist.  For more information, go to muse.mcn.org.

STUFF:  If you have any unused/unwanted art-making materials laying around ad would like to loan or donate them, chances are we could put them to use.  The following items are specific ones we could use.  Thanks!

Last Updated:  9/4/11

CERAMICS
Clay Extruder
Throwing Wheel(s)
Trimming wheels
Throwing tools
Glazes (low fire or high fire)

MISCELLANY:
Digital cameras (preferably with SD cards)
Nice new white t-shirts (for tie-dying)
Good quality fabric dye
Linoleum printing blocks
Fabric silkscreen ink
Clear plexiglass sheets
Random art supplies you have laying around
Realistic busts (heads) or figurines for figure drawing exercises
Human Skeleton (plastic of course)
Art posters
Foam Butcher Trays (for relief prints)
Dremels
Safety Glasses
Foam eggcrate bed pad pieces (to hold drying ceramics pieces)
Old puzzle pieces (for assemblage/collage art)
Electric turkey knife (for cutting styrofoam)