# 15

 Where am I heading with the Arts and Arts Integration?


I am headed to years of creative and fun learning for myself and my students. It has been so interesting to learn all of the different elements of art that are so easy to integrate into education, but then to go and be in the classroom and see how arts brings education alive to the students was the best part! I love the idea of keeping students attention while teaching with something other than technology! Even though I know it is a great tool, I believe technology can't be the only thing we use to keep learning fun for our students. That's were creative arts comes into play as not only a tool to make things more exciting, but it adds a whole new skill for students to master.
Creative Arts will most defiantly be a staple in my teaching. I won't need to try to find time to add it to my lessons, but instead will use it simultaneously as a tool that will enhance my students learning.

“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.”

-Walt Disney

# 13 Final Days of Field Experience

The last two days of Field Experience were bitter sweet. I felt relieved that our lessons were done but sad that we had to say good bye after a few short weeks of getting to be with such a fun class. Since it was the week of Thanksgiving, there were many activities which related to the holiday including the Tommy the Turkey song, which they had been practicing for 3 weeks. At our Thanksgiving Feast on Tuesday, where we made "Stone Soup," the students broke out in song at the same time, all singing Tommy the Turkey. After 3 weeks of practicing reading fluency, the students new that song by heart. All the students in Mrs. H's class are bursting with creativity and excitement, it was so inspiring to be around such energy and be able to see how it can be used to amp-up their education. Teaching is awesome, end of story :).

# 12 Third Week of Field Experience

Since Monday's are early out days in Alpine School District, the days are slightly shorter and Mrs. H's class doesn't have Social Studies. So instead, Rachael and I taught Tuesday-Friday. Each day we tried to do something a little different to not only give a little variety for the students, but also for our own knowledge to see what works and what does not.
We started each lesson with a short physical activity such as a song, dance or mirroring the leader. One day we used music from the time period of explorers(fiddles and banjo's) as background music while the students traced their maps in their Explorers packets.  Doing so kept the students from talking too much with their neighbors and helped them calm down, plus it was really fun to listen to. At the end of every lesson we used Roll on the Wall as our assessment to see what students had learned about the explorer we taught about that day.

# 11 Second Week of Field Experience

Another fun week with Mrs. H's class. Rachael and I even got to take our first try at teaching on Wednesday. In our lesson we started out by doing a little brain boosting by having students follow along with doing the brain dance and other stretching activities. By doing so, the students were a lot less fidgety for our lesson. After learning about Fathers Escalante and Dominguez and how they had to turn around in the middle of their expedition and head home instead of finishing their original destination of Monterey, California, we had the students create a decision alley. One side of the alley came up with reasons for turning around (winter time, so people wouldn't die, etc) and the other side had reasons to continue the journey (finish what you started, etc). We then had two students represent Father Escalante and Dominguez walk down the alley, listening to all the different reasons. The students had fun doing this, but Rachael and I decided it could had gone a LOT smoother had we explained the activity clearer to the students.
Throughout the week we also observed arts in the classroom as the students worked on various artistic projects. One of my favorites was carving their own petroglyph into clay tablets. Each students' work was very unique but each one looked so cool and told a different story (of which they wrote themselves.)
On Thursday, after the "early birds" went home and it was just the later group there, Mrs. H passed out a little song about Tommy the Turkey.  As the students learned to read it they also learned the tune to the song and they picked up how to sing it really quick. They all loved the song and it also has helped their reading fluency also.
Friday was our second time teaching and it went really well. As an assessment activity at the end we did the process drama "Role on the Wall." Since our lesson was on Jim Bridger we had the students fill in his outline with facts about him that they had learned that day. They loved it!

Next week we are teaching all 4 Social studies lessons and we cannot wait to get started!

# 10 First Week of Field Experience

This has been such a fun couple of days getting to know Mrs. H and her awesome class of 4th graders. There has been so much to observe and participate in, but the most fun things to be apart of have been creative arts activities. This class is full of little artists in both singing and drawing/coloring! They all sang their multiplication facts as a class when there was free time, which was awesome. During math time if they got stuck on their worksheets they would quietly sing song from that multiplication fact until they got their answer, this was so neat to watch.

Reflection #9

 I learned that I have a lot to work on when it comes to singing but until I become that novice musician, I can still be using music and singing in my classroom. It was harder than I thought to come up with a book that both matched a curriculum standard and was easy to put a tune/lyrics with, but I think my group still did a good job. I think that the Industrial Revolution group really got the idea of this lesson and did a very nice job of making the information memorable. During our groups presentation I had to get brave and sing louder than I normally do in a group, but with my team members it made it a lot easier. I help my mini group learned the pitch of the song and tried to teach them how to follow the pitch by raising and lowering their hands with the pitch levels, but for someone like myself who struggles with pitch (tone deaf), this was a little difficult but I gave it a try anyway. I believe that if I show my students that it's okay to not be an amazing singer in order to sing with the class then they will be able to gain knowledge and confidence while in my class, and that is something I want my students go get while I am their teacher! :)