New School Year...New School Things!!!

Making Moche Animal Pinch Pots with my self-contained class of 4th graders.

Our first round of pots...the basic, classic pinch pot!

I know it has been a while since my last post and I am already 5 weeks into the new school year. Needless to say, I am one tired educator. My new role as team leader for our new "core enrichment" team has been challenging to say the least. I feel like I am constantly typing on my keyboard, responding to emails, sending emails, updating forms, paperwork, team meeting agendas, lesson plans, ILT (Instructional Leadership Team) meetings, IPDP (ippy dippies), PD presentations...and the list goes on and on and...on. The one thing which remains ever constant is the instense passion in which I maintain in my art classroom. Despite all the busy, crazy things going on outside my classroom, I find myself each year a bit more focused, more seasoned and I am really enjoying my kids this year. One of the great and fun challenges of this school year is the pilot test of my first "self contained" classroom. This year through a selection process, students in the 4th and 5th grade had the option of auditioning to be in perfomance bound blocks of our core enrichment program (formally known as "ancillary" classes). I will be seeing the same group of 4th graders and 5th graders for the entire school year. This change in our program will allow for deeper, more intense explorations in our art, music, and broadcast journalism classes. It is a change I gladly welcome and excited to see the results this year.

Pottery is our exploration theme this year. I am overwhelmed with the daunting task of finding monies to buy supplies. Budgets are slim and continue to dwindle, so I must be more "creative" in my approaches to keeping up the quality of my school's art program. Materials to make art are expensive and when you service over 900 young artists...that is a major undertaking. One of my prospective grant funding sources hopefully will come from http://www.donorschoose.org/ . This organization literally takes the difficultly of writing a grant proposal and simplifies it. I am hoping some people and organizations find the time and generosity to donate to our exhibition this year.

"Vessel - Modern Visions of Ancient Pottery from Around the World" is the title of MoSRA's next exhibition. We are using the study of the ceramics of ancient cultures from around the world to catipult our ceramic explorations this year. Students will translate these iconic, historic relics into their own ceramic vessels with huge modern and contemporary twists. I am very excited to once again see how my students take the "ball" and run with it.

We will also be updating our "Sparks Park" with some much needed artworks this year in preparations for celebrating our school's 10 year annivsersary.

I will be trying to blog more frequently as our exhibition develops.

Artfully yours,

Michael Bourquin
Art Specialist