Help a friend and have some fun with Partnership Art that spreads creativity and social interactions for all involved.
Partnership Art is a new class that Mikaela Jaros brought into place this year. The idea comes from wanting to give special needs students an opportunity to take an art class with a buddy so that it is not as challenging for them. This way both students receive their fine arts credit and for those students that are hesitant to take art classes, this gives them the opportunity to earn their credit while helping someone else.
For the special needs students, they get the opportunity to experience all the different materials in art while also getting social interaction skills with their buddy. The projects done in class also follow along with the curriculum of Art 1 as well, so both students learn the material just with a different approach to each class. Partnership Art is more of a hands on class with less research than Art 1.
“This is the first year for it at any of the schools, so it’s a class I actually submitted the paperwork last year, saying we needed something like this. We got it this year, and they put it in at almost all the middle schools and high school in the Keller district,” said Jaros. “I actually just had Curriculum Writing with the other teachers at the high schools, and so it was a little bit of a rocky start, because some people were like ‘what do I teach them, what’s the curriculum, what things are we supposed to cover over the year?’ So it was nice going to Curriculum Writing, because we were able to write down our goals for the class and what they need to understand by the end of the year.”
Partner Art is a huge advancement for KISD schools and an amazing privilege for both special needs kids and their buddies. If someone does not have a lot of confidence in their own art, instead they could get their fine arts credit working hands on with someone who just needs a little extra help. Buddies in Partnership Art, also get the benefit of learning about the curriculum and helping other people and get experience with learning techniques. Art 1 and pre-AP art can be quite intimidating for someone who has never worked on their own art. Special needs kids benefit by learning the curriculum that Art 1 students get, but having fun with play-doh sculptures, and pointillism art with Q-tips.
If a student is interested Partnership Art, they can talk to Jaros in M109.
“They get the social interaction thing which is really important for them. They also get to experience the different materials without feeling all the pressure of trying to make something that has to be on display in a competition,” said Jaros, “I mean who doesn’t like to play with playdoh it’s fun.”
