Ms. Emily at Central Park Elementary knows that humans are going to make mistakes. But what do we do when we make mistakes? We fix them. Humans need to stretch and grow and push themselves, even when there's a risk of failure. Ms. Emily crafts lessons that emphasize social/emotional learning and lessons that impart life lessons. How does she do it in the STEAM Makerspace? With clay. Building, planning, creativity, iterating, and experimentation are all celebrated in Ms. Emily's classroom, but without clay and glaze, those lessons can't take place. But thanks to our generous donors, we helped her out. Here's what she said:
"Dear Santa Clara Schools Foundation,
At our school the 4th and 5th grades were offered STEAM rotations. They tried 6 different activities from 6 different teachers over the course of 6 weeks. Then, students were given a choice to pick a rotation. The rotation I taught was ceramics. I used the supplies I received from Donors Choose to supply my ration. During the rotation students learned a few basic techniques and glazed their pieces. Students learned how to make slabs and pinch pots. They also learned how to create connections to make handles and other things. Using these skills students were able to be creative in making anything from mugs, bowls, boxes, animals, figures and more! When I first brought out the materials the students were excited. They said things like, "the clay is so wet and messy" and "this feels really cool!". But the students had a challenging time understanding that the clay isn't like air dry or oven baked clay. There are more rules that have to be followed in ceramics so our pieces don't explode in the kiln. Such as being hollow in the center and having a small pin hole for the air to escape. It was a fun science lesson for them to learn about heat and expansion. Once they understood this, students had a wonderful time being creative. Students also had a challenging time understanding that glazing isn't painting. It's a bit different. Glazes are powders mixed together to create color and the glaze looks different before firing. Sometimes glaze will look red and then turn green or blue in the kiln. This was also very sciency but a little complicated with the chemistry for them to fully understand. But they were intrigued!
Throughout this creative process there were some failures and students had to navigate flexibility and their emotions around these failures. Ceramics are a beautiful way to learn social/emotional skills (SEL). So many things can go wrong when building ceramics. First, you need to make sure that you connect the parts correctly, leave air holes and construct your piece effectively. Then, your piece goes into its first fire. During this step anything can happen even if you do everything right. Some students' pieces broke. The students were really positive about it and wanted to find solutions, like if they could glue it back together. Sometimes that is possible after you glaze but it is hard to glaze a broken piece. So, some pieces had to be thrown out. After the first fire, students glazed their pieces and they were fired a second time in the kiln. Again, in this stage anything can happen. Luckily, all the pieces came out looking beautiful! Finally, we had an art show to show off all their hard work. We invited families, 2nd and 3rd grade students and even district staff. The students were so proud of their work and loved showing it off to everyone.
I want to continue to do ceramics with other students. Our STEAM rotations may change a bit on how we do them but I want to continue to teach ceramics to either my class or with all of 4th and 5th grade. There are a few things I will change about how I teach the subject but I am excited to grow from what I've learned about teaching ceramics. I think this was such an amazing experience for the students. It is an experience not many elementary students get to experience. I believe the more different and unique experiences students are able to have, the more things they are able to try, the more well rounded are students become and the more they will discover about themselves.
With gratitude,
Ms. Emily"
"Dear Santa Clara Schools Foundation,
At our school the 4th and 5th grades were offered STEAM rotations. They tried 6 different activities from 6 different teachers over the course of 6 weeks. Then, students were given a choice to pick a rotation. The rotation I taught was ceramics. I used the supplies I received from Donors Choose to supply my ration. During the rotation students learned a few basic techniques and glazed their pieces. Students learned how to make slabs and pinch pots. They also learned how to create connections to make handles and other things. Using these skills students were able to be creative in making anything from mugs, bowls, boxes, animals, figures and more! When I first brought out the materials the students were excited. They said things like, "the clay is so wet and messy" and "this feels really cool!". But the students had a challenging time understanding that the clay isn't like air dry or oven baked clay. There are more rules that have to be followed in ceramics so our pieces don't explode in the kiln. Such as being hollow in the center and having a small pin hole for the air to escape. It was a fun science lesson for them to learn about heat and expansion. Once they understood this, students had a wonderful time being creative. Students also had a challenging time understanding that glazing isn't painting. It's a bit different. Glazes are powders mixed together to create color and the glaze looks different before firing. Sometimes glaze will look red and then turn green or blue in the kiln. This was also very sciency but a little complicated with the chemistry for them to fully understand. But they were intrigued!
Throughout this creative process there were some failures and students had to navigate flexibility and their emotions around these failures. Ceramics are a beautiful way to learn social/emotional skills (SEL). So many things can go wrong when building ceramics. First, you need to make sure that you connect the parts correctly, leave air holes and construct your piece effectively. Then, your piece goes into its first fire. During this step anything can happen even if you do everything right. Some students' pieces broke. The students were really positive about it and wanted to find solutions, like if they could glue it back together. Sometimes that is possible after you glaze but it is hard to glaze a broken piece. So, some pieces had to be thrown out. After the first fire, students glazed their pieces and they were fired a second time in the kiln. Again, in this stage anything can happen. Luckily, all the pieces came out looking beautiful! Finally, we had an art show to show off all their hard work. We invited families, 2nd and 3rd grade students and even district staff. The students were so proud of their work and loved showing it off to everyone.
I want to continue to do ceramics with other students. Our STEAM rotations may change a bit on how we do them but I want to continue to teach ceramics to either my class or with all of 4th and 5th grade. There are a few things I will change about how I teach the subject but I am excited to grow from what I've learned about teaching ceramics. I think this was such an amazing experience for the students. It is an experience not many elementary students get to experience. I believe the more different and unique experiences students are able to have, the more things they are able to try, the more well rounded are students become and the more they will discover about themselves.
With gratitude,
Ms. Emily"
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