Help in Teaching Ceramics
Overview of the Goals
As everyone who teaches ceramics has learned, the subject is vast and teaching it can be challenging. This is especially true for people who have not had the benefit of good teachers or years of experience but find themselves teaching ceramics as part of an art curriculum. Our common experience at k12clay has validated our understanding of the benefits ceramic arts bring to education and given us tools to make it more successful for art educators today who are clamoring for additional support.
At the 2012 Seattle NCECA conference k12clay established this initiative to support the teachers and students who want help finding links to numerous interdisciplinary resources in ceramics. We further agreed to gather resources for making the case for clay in education.
The Seattle Initiative
1. Collect and make available exemplary Lesson Plans with documentation, and
resources that can also connect to core subjects and state standards.
2. Design and create a clearinghouse for Resources for the ceramic art teacher
including links to websites, PDFs, images, museums, potteries, galleries and local
artists to support teaching practice.
3. Provide established Safety guidelines for teaching ceramics in a K-12 setting.
4. Solicit, collect, and publish, funding resources for ceramic arts projects and local
support groups with people to turn to locally.
5. Connect our website to journals, organizations, social media, universities, colleges, craft groups, arts
organizations, industrial ceramics corporations, education and charitable foundations, museums and craft
organizations.
6. Establish an organized site as a place where ideas and resources for ceramic
arts research can connect or find support.
7. Establish an international Bibliography of ceramic art education research.
8. Collect research establishing connections between ceramics and improvement in reading.
9. Collect research that establishes connections between ceramics and improvement in
other areas of the school curriculum including examples of benefits of using ceramics in education from a
variety of sources.
10. Establish the k12clay.org website as a unified "go to" starting point for ceramic arts teachers or for advocacy
of education in the ceramic arts.
This initiative was accepted by the Foundation as the final third of our mission, including the exhibition and scholarship. We include it here as a public offering and a statement of our intent to work toward the creation of these resources.