Teacher Spotlight: Julia Bossi, Granite Park Jr. High
The students in Julia Bossi’s art classes at Granite Park Junior High learn not only how to create beautiful pieces of art, they also learn research skills and use Cornell note-taking strategies to record and organize the information they learn. Ms. Bossi teaches the students that artists research new techniques to inform their art-making practice, and she has the students do the same.
For example, after the students began working on a project to learn slab ceramics, they spent a class-period identifying struggles they were having in creating their pieces. They then researched online using their class set of Chromebooks to find solutions to better their technique. After a class discussion and some suggestions on using good search terms, they found information in YouTube videos and on websites. As students found information, they recorded techniques they might use to improve the quality of their work using a Cornell note outline.
Ms. Bossi has also created her own YouTube channel, Granite Park Art Studio, where she has uploaded several videos in which she explains and demonstrates the different methods of building ceramic pieces to serve as a resource for her students. The integration of technology and teaching research and note-taking skills, which are also taught in other curricular areas, gives her students another opportunity to practice these skills and to see how they apply in real-life contexts.
You can view some of Ms. Bossi’s art demonstration videos below.
Spotlight created by Jennifer Peirce, District Educational Technology Specialist and Team Leader.
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