To Whom It May Concern:

This past year I was fortunate enough to have Gene Furchgott teach a class at my school called “Yo Art.” This course was 10 weeks long and dealt with PowerPoint and photography. This letter is written as support for this wonderful program.

This class was an excellent addition to my fourth grade science curriculum. In this class, my students reviewed the aspects of photography, which aligned with some of the same elements that I was teaching per my standards. Elements such as reflection, refraction, shading, transparent, translucent, opaque, separation of white light into colors, and many other elements.

My students were very pleased to be able to go on a fieldtrip to the stained glass shop where they used prisms, saw the different types of glass that they had already talked about and the process of making the unique glass.

In addition to the learning aspects and the fieldtrip, the students were allowed to use cameras to take pictures of what they saw at the stained glass shop and of some photography techniques at our school. The photography element was used to make the content exciting and relevant to the children, as well as reinforcing ideas about light and its properties.

The students were then led in creating a PowerPoint presentation to show their photos and what they learned. This was a useful skill, as everyone learned how to use PowerPoint, which will help in future academic pursuits. This was a great addition to the class and a way to tie up all of the elements at the end.

I have no problem with recommending this class to be renewed and I look forward to having the opportunity to work with Mr. Furchgott again.

Best wishes,

Lori Holbrook
Fourth Grade Teacher
Julian Mitchell Elementary School