This week and last week, we had pottery wheel days in 8th grade. We had to work in shifts, since we only have 8 wheels total, but each student gets to have a whole class period to work on the wheel.
Working on the pottery wheel is hard! I tell students that it's okay to NOT end up with a finished pot! If they end up making a little something, that's fine, but it's not a requirement. I am not a trained ceramicist, so I had a bit of a struggle to learn how to properly use the wheel. In fact, it took me the whole school year to get the hang of it! I made sure to share this fact with students, so they would not feel bad if they struggled, too.
Once you DO get the hang of it, it's really fun. Mr. Gail and Ms. Read even joined us last Friday to try to throw some clay! It was pretty cool to see them get their hands dirty with us!
I never did get the hang of using the wheel - kudos for your persistence! I have one brand new in the box - ordered for me when our new school opened 8 yrs ago. Since I teach K-5 not sure how I can implement lessons where only 1 student can use it at a time...
ReplyDeleteI have one wheel for.my elementary school, too. It does seem rather silly to only have one. I will probably not bring it out next year. It kept clay mess in my room for far too long. And, I never got the hang of it, and am way out of practice now!
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