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Lesson Plans


Re: budgets or lack of

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
The Whites (bolide)
Sat, 9 Oct 1999 12:38:51 -0500

Since Scottsdale is affluent, why not have each student purchase a school
pack of needed materials at the beginning of the year. In Norman, OK we do
not have art specialists at the elementary level, however each grade level
turns in a list of needed supplies that students may buy at local outlets or
from the PTA. The PTA also puts these supplies into packets for sale to
parents on back to school night. They average about $20 per child and
include crayons, elmer's glue, const. paper, colored pencils, Prang
watercolors (whatever the grade level sees as appropriate) With art
specialists in your district it would be nice to have their input as well.
Good luck on that. We are going to have a visiting artist at our school for
a month. She will be working on a woven sea mural with our students. I
sent home a letter to all students at one site (300 students) requesting
yarns, shells, laces, anything for the mural. At this point my room is
filling up with wonderful materials. Linda White in Norman, OK
-----Original Message-----
From: DRITTART <DRITTART>
To: artsednet.edu <artsednet.edu>
Date: Friday, October 08, 1999 1:03 AM
Subject: Re: artsednet-digest V2 #1753

>Budget: First of all, let me say that I love having the opportunity of
being
>an art teacher. It is the best. I really feel that what we are giving our
>students cannot be obtained by them in any of the other disciplines. I
feel
>that what we do for our students is very, very important.
>However, my budget is the worst I have had in 36 years. I teach for the
>Scottsdale School District, here in Arizona, a district where the majority
of
>the parents are wealthy and who support the arts in their homes and leisure
>time. They are great, the district is one of the best in the support of
>strong education, etc. However, I think that this community, the
>administration, and the parents are really concerned about having very
high
>test scores and getting their children in to the best colleges, and just
>don't see the arts as the answer. In the highschools they are allowed to
>charge an optional fee, but at the elementary level there is, of course, no
>such fee. Elementary art teachers are at the mercy of whoever does the
>budget at the individual schools. Elementary art teachers are usually
>isolated members of the faculty, not a part of the grade level teacher
>groups, and so therefore, do not have very powerful voices when everyone
>else is looking out for themselves.
>My budget this year is less than $1.00 per student per year, or $685.00.
(By
>the way, I heard of a new teacher in the district who was given only
$150.00
>for the year. She was trying to teach with broken crayons and newsprint).
It
>is awful and I am put in the position of always begging, which gets "old"
>very quickly for me and for those I am forced to beg from. Being in such
an
>affluent area, with very few special needs or minority students makes it
>almost impossible to apply for grants. I also, simply do not have the time
>to write one. I spend my lunch period setting up for the afternoon
classes.
>I am tired of teaching lessons with donated discards. I want to teach a
>sequential curriculum based on the National Standards. The budget or lack
of
>a reasonable budget should not be what drives your lesson choices!!! Any
>suggestions from you all would be welcome. It does, however, feel good to
at
>least share this information with a group of teachers who can understand
and
>relate to my situation. I am thankful for this forum.
>
>I also think it would be interesting to hear what kind of lesson loads we
all
>have. I have 30 classes a week of 45 minute periods. I also have 6
>different preps a day. What about the rest of you?
>