The Classes Duo video conferencing program that is connecting Jean Zay Elementary Public School in Paris, France and Nature’s Way Montessori School in Knoxville, Tennessee is yet another project that organically combines two or more of WIF’s Strategic Focus Areas.
The program unites Paris and Knoxville school children as they create art based on themes derived from Beauford Delaney’s life and work (The Arts). It is providing an opportunity for Knoxville children to travel to Paris to meet their French video pals and vice versa (Travel / Study Abroad). It involves reading and writing through the children’s communications and the reports they write about the topics they are learning (Literacy). And it is creating an impetus for the students to learn about earth and life sciences through painting and clay modeling (STEAM Education).
During the month of February 2018, the students learned about the U.S. Civil Rights movement and prominent figures in the movement such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Josephine Baker. They learned that during her performing career, Baker owned a cheetah named Chiquita. They also learned that many people mistakenly identify Chiquita as a leopard or a jaguar.
The educators shared information about Beauford’s artistic activities as a child, noting that he and his brother, Joseph, often shaped figures from the red clay that is indigenous to eastern Tennessee. They agreed that the children should spend at least one session working with clay. The kids on both sides of the Atlantic were excited about this opportunity and many decided that they wanted to sculpt Baker and Chiquita.
The Knoxville kids are off to a great start. Matt Hilton, a science and math teacher at Nature’s Way, presented a lesson on the composition of soil and taught the children what makes Tennessee clay red. That same day, University of Tennessee art history professor Mary Campbell taught the students a lesson on Josephine Baker.
(See photos of the presentations here.)
Dawn Kunkel, the art teacher for the program, taught the students about the “bust” in art and discussed Baker’s most characteristic physical attributes (her hair and her smile). She told them about the techniques used for modeling clay (pinching and attaching). Using photographs of Baker, the children proceeded to create busts of her likeness.
The following week, Kunkel provided the students with photos of Baker and Chiquita as well as photos of other cheetahs. They discussed the differences between a cheetah and a leopard. Then the children created models of Chiquita.
(See photos of the clay models here.)
During this time, the Jean Zay children were on winter break. They will work on their clay models when they return to school in March. Look for their story in Part 2 of Classes Duo and STEAM Education.
