Growth in my painting skill?

I am currently working at an ESL camp that has a ceramics class.  Well, going from clay to drying to painting to firing in the kiln would take a few weeks, so the class is simply painting or applying a glaze to a prepared coffee mug.

Before we get to my two cups, I want to look at the glaze.  I knew that glazes changed colour in the kiln and that they were based on metals but it was interesting to see that for myself.  Here, a student has smeared glaze over the entire surface of his mug.  I should have taken an after shot because the brown became blue and the finished appearance is great.

Below are some samples of the glazes.  The one with stars is labelled 'Cobalt" and we can see the percentages used.

 I thought about what a mug for my son should look like and prepared a draft on the white board before the class started.

Here is the mug before firing.

 And below are two mugs.  One I made in the first week (Ocean Dreams) and one from the second week (Savanna Dreams).  Although the artwork or craftsmanship in both cases in not noteworthy, the improvement I think is.