Art education helps students with the development of language skills, social skills, risk-taking, decision-making, and inventiveness. The 6th-grade students in Mrs. Robbie Price’s class at Sutter Creek Elementary are fortunate to create art more often. One of her lucky students Lillie LeBel exclaims, “Art has helped me find that I am able to make more complex art than I had thought. Mrs. Price gives harder art than most teachers and tests your limits to how creative you can be with your art. She also gives you options so you can make your masterpiece really yours!” I have been watching the incredible art come out of Mrs. Price’s classroom for a while now and am always amazed at her student’s intricate work and the variety of unique lessons she teaches. Mrs. Robbie Price has been integrating arts into her curriculum for many years.
This is her 17th year teaching and she says, “It has changed my teaching because of my passion for art and the passion the students have developed…and you don’t even have to be good at it!” Currently, she teaches art at a minimum of 2-3 days a week with multiple-day projects. “Sometimes it is integrated into social studies and other subjects,” states Price. She said her teaching changed when she started doing art at home, Robbie found it more enjoyable for herself and she wanted her students to experience that as well, much more frequently.
When I asked her what impact art has had on the kids when creating regularly, Mrs. Price states, “Kids are more excited about having the opportunity to work with different mediums and genres and for some kids, it is very powerful for focus and to strive to learn the vocabulary of art, to become art literate. We talk about how to use art as an expression of creativity, of thoughts, ideas, and emotions. It’s mindfulness. It takes them into that right brain thinking and really involves them into a project”. I completely agree. I long for that moment when I can forget about my worries for a bit and focus instead on how colors blend or the glee I feel when something magical happens artistically. I didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate this when I was in 6th grade, but mindfulness was indeed happening. Sixth-grade student Kharisma Carson states, “What I like about art in Mrs. Price’s class is that it is a challenge..art has helped me in so many ways like most of the time it helps me with my stress.” Classmate Neveah says “I love how art is so soothing and just very, very calming. When I do art, I just feel so slow and steady. Whenever I am anxious, art makes me feel very put together and more mentally there.”
