MTG West Foundation Parents Teach Art
By: Eddie Randle
Updated: December 6, 2012
Teachers at West Foundation are all about keeping the education of the arts alive.
One 3rd grade teacher came up with the idea of having parents come in and teach art lessons every week.
Now that idea is spreading throughout several classes.
Eddie Randle explains in tonight's Making the Grade.
Students at West Foundation may be seeing their parents both after and during school hours.
Third grade teacher Kathleen Davenport started a new trend this year that is already spreading to other classes.
"We're doing parent led art which is something I read about this summer, I did some research online and saw that it had great success across the nation so its something wanted to bring to our classroom", said Davenport.
According to teachers getting volunteers is a lot easier than they anticipated.
"The parents love to come in and help you just have to give them opportunities and they'll take it they love it", said Davenport.
Davenports class received a double dose of help for a recent art lesson.
Both a mother and grandmother came in to teach the class.
Sandy Sawyer says they wanted to challenge the 3rd graders with a lesson on different art mediums and they chose to highlight stone, paint and mixed media.
"We wanted to stretch them a little bit give them a little art history and give them some meaning to art, said grandmother and volunteer Sady Sawyer".
One of them was Mr. potato head and the other a bottle cap mosaic of Lady Gaga.
They say its fun to work with the kids and it gives the teachers a chance to breathe in-between planning academic lessons.
"We think the teachers have a really hard job just teaching the basics but that doesn't mean the kids don't need art or the so called extras, says Sawyer".
"The response has been overwhelming and every month I've had a parent come in and provide a great art lesson and I'm booked up thru may with parents and the enrichment these kids are getting is just incredible, said Davenport".
Eddie Randle, KFDX 3 NEWS.
Davenport says if your a parent who would like to participate you should contact your child's homeroom teacher.
One 3rd grade teacher came up with the idea of having parents come in and teach art lessons every week.
Now that idea is spreading throughout several classes.
Eddie Randle explains in tonight's Making the Grade.
Students at West Foundation may be seeing their parents both after and during school hours.
Third grade teacher Kathleen Davenport started a new trend this year that is already spreading to other classes.
"We're doing parent led art which is something I read about this summer, I did some research online and saw that it had great success across the nation so its something wanted to bring to our classroom", said Davenport.
According to teachers getting volunteers is a lot easier than they anticipated.
"The parents love to come in and help you just have to give them opportunities and they'll take it they love it", said Davenport.
Davenports class received a double dose of help for a recent art lesson.
Both a mother and grandmother came in to teach the class.
Sandy Sawyer says they wanted to challenge the 3rd graders with a lesson on different art mediums and they chose to highlight stone, paint and mixed media.
"We wanted to stretch them a little bit give them a little art history and give them some meaning to art, said grandmother and volunteer Sady Sawyer".
One of them was Mr. potato head and the other a bottle cap mosaic of Lady Gaga.
They say its fun to work with the kids and it gives the teachers a chance to breathe in-between planning academic lessons.
"We think the teachers have a really hard job just teaching the basics but that doesn't mean the kids don't need art or the so called extras, says Sawyer".
"The response has been overwhelming and every month I've had a parent come in and provide a great art lesson and I'm booked up thru may with parents and the enrichment these kids are getting is just incredible, said Davenport".
Eddie Randle, KFDX 3 NEWS.
Davenport says if your a parent who would like to participate you should contact your child's homeroom teacher.
