BCS art teachers prove that the arts aren’t just something extra; they’re part of a well-balanced education and are essential in society, our schools, and our world.
Leicester Elementary School (LES) art teacher and 2019 Erwin District Teacher of the Year Lissa Pedersen aligns her lessons with what students learn in their regular classrooms. As part of a broader study about the structures and functions of living organisms, LES third graders have been studying how humans move. Their art project this week involved creating crude human shapes with construction paper, refining those shapes with joints, and depicting motion poses with the paper figures.
“By third grade, students begin to tell more stories about themselves and are more interested in making art that approaches the real world,” Ms. Pedersen said. “In order to tell these stories through art, it is important for students to be able to make a human figure that can show expression through the way it bends and moves.”
Later this year, students will look at the ways that other artists use the human figure in art. They will make paintings, puppets, self-portrait comics, and even clay panels with a human in motion based on a personal story or a re-creation of a folktale or myth.
“Art gives students an external reality to something they feel inside,” Ms. Pedersen said. “They’re engaging in the world of meaning-making through a visual process.”
Studies have shown that students involved in the arts are better prepared for society by being better communicators, more empathetic, creative problem solvers, and having more global awareness and understanding. Buncombe County Schools (BCS) offers enriching arts classes at all grade levels. Our students can be a part of a large musical production, master an instrument, sing in competitions, take AP visual art courses, learn design techniques, and much more.