I requested a grant to purchase three new pottery wheels for my classroom to help expedite the teaching of throwing on the wheel in my classes and to give my advanced students more opportunity to throw on the wheel. The pottery wheels arrived just in time. During the course of the 3rd 9 weeks I was able to cycle all 180 students through a 5 day throwing session on the wheel. They learned to throw a plate and a bowl, they had two days to throw as many pieces as they could and spent a day learning how to trim out their pieces.
Normally this process would take all of the 3rd nine weeks and part of the 4th 9 weeks but having the three extra wheels dramatically increased the our rate of completion. Also, because the pottery wheels were open during the 4th 9 weeks I had several students request to use them and were able to. The improvement in wheel throwing techniques amongst my III and IV level students was tremendous. I am confident that in the upcoming school year I will be able to start off with throwing a tall cylinder and hopefully progress seamlessly into unique shapes. Additionally, each wheel comes with a $100 voucher for Amaco glazes! So not only did The Woodlands Art Council Micro-grant program provide a greater opportunity for students to learn pottery throwing techniques, they also provided students with a great deal of new glaze options! At Grand Oaks High School in November we offer opportunities for teachers to take a break from their hectic environments and come to the Ceramics lab and throw on a pottery wheel. I am grateful that more teachers can come to each session now that we have added the new wheels and look forward to seeing their impact in the upcoming school year. Thank you so much for the grant it is greatly appreciated on the Grand Oaks campus!