September 2015

Dear Maury Families,

My name is Lauren Bomba and I am the visual arts teacher at Maury Elementary School. For the past 4 years at Maury, I have designed my own unique, standards-based art curriculum that aims to make learning and creating art a rigorous and authentic experience for students. I am proud to share that the amazing work of our Maury art studio has been recognized, city-wide, and this summer I had the privilege of writing the Visual Arts Cornerstone Assignments for all DCPS elementary school art teachers. The goal of Cornerstones is to bring the same rich work that students are doing at Maury to all schools, in order to create a more equitable education for all. I am honored that Studio Maury was recognized as the example for all DCPS visual arts instruction!

My goal as your child’s art teacher is to inspire students with a lifelong love and curiosity for the arts. I want to expose them to different and challenging media. I love creating cross-disciplinary units that bridge science, math and literacy as a way to reinforce the learning happening throughout the building. Our units are theme-based, so instead of working to master a skill or technique in art like painting or drawing, we aim to explore concepts or ideas and use a variety of media and develop the student not only as an artist but as a person. A few of the themes we will explore this year are Contrast, Becoming, Trusting, Community and Movement.

Students are held accountable for their progress and behavior in art class. Due to the potentially dangerous and messy nature of art materials and tools, I hold students to a high expectation when it comes to being a responsible and trustworthy member of our classroom community. I adhere to the Responsive Classroom Philosophy of Logical Consequences (You Break It/You Fix It and Loss of Privilege), as well as a positive, class-wide, intrinsic behavior incentive called A-R-T, which stands for Act, Respect, & Try. Classes that work together to “make ART” aim to bring home the Platinum Palette for their homeroom!

I encourage families to follow our blog, www.studiomaury.wordpress.com, to witness the step by step creative process and culminating products of our work together. It is my goal that this blog, along with my twitter account @studiomaury, will help keep readers updated about the thoughtful work your artist is involved in. Please subscribe to our art blog for regular updates on your child’s art education in our DC public school. My intentions are for this blog to serve as a parent, school, and global resource for art enthusiasts everywhere.

I am very excited to meet our new families this year and welcome back our returning ones as I continue (or begin) establishing a unique relationship with each of your children individually. I truly believe that art allows each child to feel successful, original, and confident.

Thank you,

Lauren Bomba

Art Teacher, Maury Elementary