# 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! :)

Reflection #8

Although my personal musical skills are far from the expert level, I have always had a love for music. Despite my abilities to create pleasant sounding music I can still enjoy musics beat, rhythm, lyrics and emotional meaning it gives to life. In previous field observations I took note of the kindergarten teacher who was constantly using music and songs to start the daily routine and to transition topics. Her students loved it and I loved the thoughts of doing that in my future classroom. Not only will I use music as an attention getter or transition help, but I want to incorporate music into daily lessons so my students can benefit from the positive effects of music. In order to do that I need to brush up on my skills and knowledge of music so I can adequately teach them. Learning and participating in making music in the classroom will help students to feel more comfortable and confident and be able to have fun while they are learning. I really feel that of all creative arts, music can be the easiest to incorporate and can have the greatest effect in creating well-rounded individuals.

Reflection #5

What did you learn from developing a Process Drama from text? I feel like I got a lot more out of the book as the reader but then again as the presenter when I thought about and incorporated the process dramas into the book. I love the way the story comes off the pages and becomes alive when you get to act out and do activities that go along with the story WHILE you are reading it. I like to think that the authors and illustrators hope that all of their storybooks are respected so much that teachers use them as a teaching tool and expand the story from the book into a lesson or part of a lesson plan.  
What did you learn from the other team presentations? Listening to the other groups presentations, I got a lot of fun ideas that I want to remember for my future classroom.   
So What drama ideas will you try to implement in your teaching? My favorite activity was when we all got in a circle and held hand and had to navigate as a group, i could see this Process Drama working for so many subjects in school.  
Now What - How will you prepare to teach and integrate creative drama in your teaching? I think always remembering to have an open mind when learning how to teach new subjects and thinking of ways to make learning more meaningful and fun by using drama activities I will be prepared when I make my lesson plans in the future.

Reflection #4

What have you learned? This week I learned how much drama activities can enhance everyday learning in the classroom. 
What are your new perspectives about using drama in your future classroom? Drama wasn't ever my thing in grade school and I didn't see myself using it very much in my future classroom either, until class on Tuesday. I hadn't ever thought of the idea of extending a simple picture book by incorporating a few short process drama tools before, but I love it now! I got so much from the book we read in class by stopping and doing correlating activities like Decision Alley, I can't wait to see how students react to such activities.
So What kinds of activities do you think you will use most as you begin teaching? My favorite drama activities that I have done so far have been Machines and Decision Alley, I love the way they get students up and moving and thinking. I am sure there will be many other activities that I will learn to love, maybe even come up with my own! 
Now What - Why do children need creative drama? Why is it important to integrate drama with other curricular areas? Students need to have a well rounded education that goes beyond reading and writing from their desks: they need to be active! By adding drama activities to daily lessons, students not only get the benefits from physical activity, their brains get exercise they can't get in any other way than from thinking outside the box to solve a problem and be creative.

Reflection #2

I enjoyed going beyond talking or reading about the main points in class where the different elements of visual arts such as line, color, shape, etc. and actually getting a hands on learning experience. I have a feeling that most lessons in this class will be that way and I am not going to complain about that! I think my favorite element to learn about was texture, because it is one element that I haven't had much experience with creating texture with only a pencil and paper. In the book I read, "viewing and doing art can five emotional release."(page156) and then in class got to experience that for myself as we painted, colored, and created while listening to classical music.

 As a teacher I will be able to have tools to create a relaxing and comforting classroom where creativity is continually encouraged. This will hopefully allow me as a teacher to reach students who may be struggling emotional or other ways who don't know who to deal with their feelings. Understanding this concept has proven to be very effective for myself. Tuesday was a busy day for me and by the time I got off work and hurried to be at school by 3 my mind was on the verge of exploding. I wasn't looking forward to the next 4 hours of class, but as soon as we started our projects I began to relax and enjoy myself and my brain seemed to calm down and begin working better. I left class with a brain and body that was awake, rejuvenated and ready to learn.

Now What – How will I prepare to effectively teach my future students?  How has my perspective changed? How will this change the way I teach my future students? Getting to experience the complete change of attitude I went through from being exposed to visual arts and music, has definitely altered my thoughts about art integration. I have always planned on doing various small art activities whenever I could fit them in, but seeing the effects of really integrated the arts into all parts of education, I will make them more of  a priority. I cannot wait to observe the effects of creating the same set up in my classroom!

Photos from Flickr

Visual Arts I

I would have to say that I am a fence sitter when it comes to the arts. Sometimes I love it, sometimes... not so much. I think for myself, I am a fan of enjoying  the arts of others and not so much of creating the arts. But only to a certain extent because there are things that I love to do such as crafts, painting and other hands-on type things. I do love to listen to others' music, watch plays, musicals, and enjoy others' artwork. 

Reflecting back to my elementary years I remember specific art related activities in various grades, but not one particular teacher who really integrated arts into our daily lessons.  

I liked learning about the research that has been done concerning involving the arts in the classroom and the positive outcomes including cooperation, involvement, higher test scores, and high self esteem of the students, because it gives me, as a teacher, and excellent reason to have fun creative art projects at school.

The arts have taught me how to appreciate life and see it with a open mind.I have gained a love for the arts as a whole through experiences with various individual aspects.

My favorite teacher taught me to laugh and be happy even when life got hard. Her philosophy of life was to be optimistic, learn all you can and not take life too seriously, I have learned to do the same. My least favorite teacher was probably my kindergarten teacher because I never felt a real connection with her like I did with my others. As a future teacher I feel it is crucial for every student to feel important and loved by the teacher.

At this time I can gain as much information concerning the arts and learn different ways to integrate them into elementary education so when I do have my own class room I will already have the tools I need to enhance my students education with the arts.