The 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students are eagerly invested in learning pottery with their hands covered in clay! I see these young artists as the foundation of the art program at New Buffalo High School. It is essential to my teaching philosophy that all my middle school students experience a variety of art forms, including the fundamentals of Ceramics, so that they have prior experiences of developing basic techniques, taking creative risks, learning from their mistakes, working together in a collaborative studio, and most importantly having fun in the art room.
( Day 1 on the wheel with 6th graders)
As I have been teaching pottery in my high school classes this past year, I noticed the hesitation in some of my HS students who were insecure and easily frustrated when they couldn't immediately produce bowls, vases, or mugs. Throwing pottery is difficult and takes lots of practice and patience to brush it off when things don't go well and try it all over again. Since I have the pleasure of teaching art grades 6-12 at New Buffalo, I realized the amazing opportunity I have to introduce my youngest students to pottery so that they can develop confidence over time and become more comfortable on the pottery wheel each year.
(7th Grade Student)
I had been reflecting on this idea since attending the Michigan Art Ed Conference at the end of October and decided to start skill building exercises with the pottery wheel in my middle school classes during 2nd Trimester before winter break. We began with working through where clay comes from with the clay reclaim process by pounding scrap pieces into dry powder that was rehydrated, blended, and wedged into fresh clay for their projects. At each table students participated in the steps of clay reclaim for 5 minutes each before rotating to the next table.
Next, we reviewed hand-building methods including pinch pots, slabs, and coils leading into the first phase of the unit where each student constructed and designed coil bowls to donate for the upcoming Empty Bowls event held at New Buffalo High School towards the end of the trimester. The Empty Bowls project is an international grassroots effort to fight hunger. The bowls are meant to serve as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world. The basic premise involves a simple meal of soup along with taking home a handcrafted bowl for donations. All proceeds are donated to the Blessings in a Backpack organization which benefits families in our community by sending home food with New Buffalo Elementary students who might not have enough food for the weekends. This organization is made possible by volunteers and community donations.
The students were happy to donate their bowls to the cause but I didn't want to conclude their Ceramics unit solely with the Empty Bowls project because I felt it would be unfair for them to only develop one technique and then not be able to keep their ceramic artwork. Students invest a lot of time and energy into their clay pieces that results in significant pride and ownership in the physical artwork they have made!
My solution was to divide the unit into three sections so that students could rotate on the pottery wheels and develop hand-building techniques for a personal project as well as donating their coil bowls to the Empty Bowls event.
After the empty bowls had been fired and glazed, students began designing their personal projects based on the prompt "Itty Bitty Miniature Sculptures." Each person was given a half pound of clay to create their artwork on a reduced scale. They could create one sculpture or many smaller individual ones with the amount of clay they had to use.
We looked at how minatures have been made throughout art history and contemporary artists who continue to work small today. The students read an article called "Ceramicists Crafting Miniatures" and discussed the artists' work together before brainstorming ideas for their own miniature artworks.
The "Itty Bitty Miniatures" are in the making as students take turns using the pottery wheels.
I am proud of my students tackling the wheels with such fearlessness and motivation! By focusing on the growth mindset of my students in Ceramics over their middle school years, they can learn how to create functionally sound works of art that expand beyond the bounds of their imagination.
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