Reflection 15: Where am I heading with the arts, and arts integration?

I have reflected a lot this semester as far as my use of the arts and integrating them into my classroom, and it has been very beneficial process. As I continue my education I hope to learn more and more about the arts so I can use them in my classroom. That is the nice thing about  learning about the arts, they are all around you. I also hope to practice my art so that as I teach my students I can say that I have practiced what I am preaching to them.

I plan to frequently integrate the arts into my curriculum. I am a true believer of art integration. I am really excited to see and compare my tests scores are on subjects that I taught using the arts versus topics I taught without the arts. This semester was successful in teaching my the importance of integrating the arts. 

Reflection 14: Integrated Teaching

What?
During field I learned how important it is to integrate the arts into my teaching. The students love it, and it is a fun way to help them retain necessary information.

So What?
Now that I have learned how important it is to use the arts as a teacher, I plan to use them as often as a I can. They are very essential. During field is used the musical arts by teaching my students a song to help them memorize the five native american tribes that live in Utah. When I gave them a quiz in the names of the tribes the students asked if they could sing the song to help them on the quiz. I told them that they could. The scores of the quiz were very high.

Now What?
During field I wrote a journal of my experiences. As I use the arts in future lessons I will use this journal to recall things that I learned during this teaching experience to improve and build upon my knowledge of teaching the arts. I believe using the arts will teach students tools that will help them when they reach higher and more difficult classes.

Reflection 13: Field, The last two days :(....

I am really sad that field is over. It was such a great learning experience!!!! Though some things did not go according to plan, I am grateful for the things that I learned from the things that went wrong.

The last day of field, we gave a post assessment of the unit. It was so great to see the improvement of our students scores. It was a very satisfying feeling knowing that we taught them something and it actually stuck! I am really looking forward to becoming a teacher.

I really feel like we improved a lot over the course of field. I am a big fan of the "I'll wait until you are finished talking" technique! Works like a charm.

Reflection 12: Field Week 3

This week our students did their tribe presentations. They worked really hard on them and were really excited to show the class what they had learned as well as the special design of their posters.

It was really great to get to see all that they learned as a team, and to see their creative abilities.
The day our students presented was one of my favorite days. It was so rewarding as each group got up and talked about something that we taught them. All of the presentations ran really smoothly. The students that were not presenting, took notes on two things they learned from the presentation as well as one thing they liked artistically about the poster.

Reflection 11: Field Week 2

This is the week we began teaching our lessons. The first lesson we taught we taught our class a song to help them memorize the 5 Native American Tribes that live in Utah. The loved the song so much and learned it so fast. It really helped them to remember the tribes. I think the song will really bring up our post assessment scores compared to our pre assessment scores.

We did our second art lesson using visual arts. The students LOVED LOVED LOVED it. They thought it was the neatest thing they had ever seen. We had them tell there own Native American Legends by creating their own etching. They colored a sheet of paper with a variety of colors, painted over it with black paint and then etched out different symbols to tell their story.

I am learning how important the arts really are to students. It helps them to look at what they are learning from a different perspective.

Reflection 10: Field Week 1, 11/3-11/5

So far field has been going really well. We have been spending most of our time observing our teacher and learning the daily routine. We were able to teach the students a song. We did not integrate it with the core, because it was more to serve the purpose of the students getting to know Mckenzie and myself, and to get us comfortable in front of the class. We taught them a song to the tune of when Johnny Comes Marching Home. It is a song about Thanksgiving. We taught it to the students one line at a time along with hand actions to help the students learn the lyrics. They loved it, and learned the song in about twenty minutes. I really enjoyed teaching the students the song, and it was a great management tool. I look forward to teaching the students our Art integrated lessons. We are planning to teach the students a song to aid in memorizing the 5 Native American Tribes of Utah, and having the students learn a the Native American art  form of Etching.

Reflection 9: Music 2

What did you learn from the process you engaged in to create this music lesson? What did you learn from the actual presentation experience? 


I learned that using folk song tunes to make up a song using the core is a VERY beneficial process. It is a great tool to use when you need your students to memorize and ingrain something into their mind, for example what a pronoun is. 


I felt like our presentation went really well, but I feel that when teaching a song you need to be sure you have great classroom management control. If not you will lose some of the students to miss behavior and not everyone will learn the song.


So What is important for you to remember and learn? 


It is important to remember to  pay attention to the lyrics you use as well as how the students sing them. As well as be patient as your students learn the song, it may take some tume.


Now What are your next steps?


My next steps are to continue to build my creative arts files. The more resources I have the better. I will use this method a lot in my teaching. I think it is a great way for students to learn, and it links what they know to another part of the brain.

Reflection 8: Music

What is music and why should it be included in the elementary classroom? 


Music is a significant part of life, it is everywhere we go. Music is made up of 7 different elements:
Rhythm--movement of sounds through time
Melody--the tune
Harmony--blending of tones or sounds

Duration –length of sound

    

Form—overall structure of sound

  

Dynamics—energy of sound

         

Timbre—color of sound

Music is a wonderful teaching tool. Today in class we learned how to teach a song and came up with other ways that teaching a song could be useful, for example, spelling or vocabulary. Music promotes attention and memory, mental health, and makes us happy. So why not incorporate it in your classroom?

So what are your goals for using music with your future students, and, so what is important in teaching music to children?



As a teacher I really hope to have great management skills and feel that music is a great way to gain control of a classroom, as well as unite the students as peers. I hope also to use music to help stimulate their creative process. I will play music anytime we are doing an activity they are stretching their thinking. 


I think musical theory is very important. At some point in any ones life they are asked to know a little about music. As a teacher it is important to teach theoretical elements of music to prepare my students for future musical encounters. 

Now what do you plan to do to prepare to effectively teach and integrate music in your future classroom?


As always, our book is a great resource, as well as links on our class website. I will use my colleagues' resources to add to my files as well as continue to look for new--up to date methods of integrating music into my curriculum.

Reflection 7: Dance

What has changed in your understanding of what creative children’s dance is, and why and how to use it in the classroom? 

Last weeks class was so much fun. I loved seeing everyone's ideas and activities to get our students moving.

My understanding of dance in the classroom before we did this unit is that there was no way to apply it to the other cores. But now that i have seen all of my cohorts presentations and ideas I am so excited to incorporate dance into my classroom. I think that dance is a great way to help concrete information into student's minds.

So what will you be taking with you from your experience with creating, teaching and participating in creative dance lessons in class?

I think that using dance in the classroom is a creative, FUN, and easy way to incorporate the arts into the other cores. I've learned that is important to maintain good classroom management while doing these activities because if you do not they will not be effective in helping the students learn the material.

 Now what do you plan to teach your future students and how will you prepare for that?

I am going to strongly incorporate dance in my future classroom. I am going to try and use it once or twice a week. I think it helps students to remember the information they learn in multiple parts of the brain. I will prepare to teach dance by purchasing the book Dr. Escalante mentioned in class. It is full of great lesson plans. I will also be sure to keep myself in good physical conditions so I can move along with the class.

Reflection 6: Dance

What new insights do you have regarding what children's creative dance is and why it is important?
I thought that our reading was full of great examples, but as usual it was class that really showed me how useful and how easy it is to use the arts in the classroom. I think that creative dance is a great way to get my students minds going in the morning and it is important for them to have a well rounded day full of lots of different types of learning.


 What  important philosophical and practical things became clearer as you worked in class?
In class I realized how practical using dance can be in the classroom even when studying math and science. I loved the idea of using dance to help the students with geometry. I think that is a great activity that really applies to the core while incorporating the arts.


 So What does that mean for your preparation for next week and for field?
I  am really excited to use dance in field. As my group works and prepares for our presentation I really hope to create a lesson plan that can be used in the 4th grade curriculum so I am able to use it in the classroom.


 Now What do you need to do to incorporate this knowledge and skills into your practice? 
I think that it is important to have a basic background knowledge of everything you are teaching. So I believe reviewing key points of the chapter as well as reading through the class website will help build my knowledge of dance. Also, it is important to attend different arts seminars to lessons current and new.

Reflection 5: Drama

What did you learn from developing a Process Drama from text? What did you learn from the other team presentations? 
Developing a Process Drama from text was really fun. I think it is a great way to get the students out of their seats and actively involved in their learning. The thing I learned most from the developing our project was how easy it is to integrate the arts with social studies and language arts. It also helped my to develop more enjoyable ways to asses the students of their knowledge of what we are studying in social studies or language arts. I also learned from watching other team presentations that the more involved we were in the activity the more we enjoyed it so as a teacher I will need to be sure I am excited about the activity to create excitement in my students.


So What drama ideas will you try to implement in your teaching?
I think that mid morning and mid afternoon I will use the games that we learned such as machine to bring energy back to the classroom. During those times of the day, i've noticed that students tend to be sluggish and using the theater games we learned will bring blood back to their brains. I will also use the processing drama from text method. I think it is a great way to integrate the other cores.


Now What - How will you prepare to teach and integrate creative drama in your teaching?
I am keeping a journal of notes, and lesson plans of everything we do in our class as well as ideas or projects I find elsewhere. Having this file will be a great tool for me to use as I integrate creative drama into my teaching. I also want to practice reading in different voices. I think students really enjoy it when you are dramatic as well. 

Reflection 4: Drama I

Today in class we spent time learning different types of theater games that we can play with our class. I really enjoyed the machine game. I felt that it made a lot of us come out of our shells as well as our usual groups of friends. It helped us to laugh and interact with one another. We also, were given a GREAT example of a lesson plan where a teacher has the students process dram from text. From the example of the lesson plan I learned that many other subjects can be integrated into Dram in a very fun way that helps solidify the information in the students minds as well as help them relate to it on a more personal level. As a future teacher, I had never really thought about using drama in the classroom. Today was a great eye opener as to how much fun drama can be, especially when you integrate it into your other cores. I will use this approach in my classroom often. I think that it will have the same effect on my class that it had on our class, it will unite them together.
I thought that all of the games, and information we learned today is very applicable in the classroom, and I intend to use it in my own. I think my future class will really enjoy character as one because it makes them think beyond what they are learning and think about it in more depth. I also think that they will enjoy processing drama from text. There are a lot of activities I could do that involve letting the students move around and I think they would really enjoy that but be learning a lot at the same time.
Creative Drama is very important to children. I believe the most important reason is because it helps them to deepen their learning and thinking just a little more than writing a paper could do. It is important to integrate drama with other curricular areas because it will help the students to view what they are learning in multiple ways. This will improve their scheme which will allow them to remember the information longer.

Reflection 3: The VIsual Arts

What have you learned about the principles of visual art - and looking at/understanding a piece of art? 
In class we discussed the six principles of art, these are:

Proportion – The principle of art concerned with the size relationships of one part to another or to the whole.

Balance – The principle of design concerned with equalizing visual forces, or elements in a work of art. 

Variety – The principle of design concerned with difference or contrast. Combining one or more elements of art to create interest by adding slight changes.

Rhythm – The principle of art that indicates movement by repetition of elements. 

Emphasis – The principle of design that makes one part of the work dominant over the other parts.

Unity – The quality of wholeness or oneness that is achieved through the effective use of the elements and principles of art. 

I have learned that as I look at a piece of art, to better understand it, spend more time looking at it rather than just glancing as I walk by. If I stop and truly process the painting and use these principles as I look I will see into the greater detail of the art. For example, in class we looked at many paintings but the one I enjoyed the most was The Booker T. Washington's Ladder. When I walked into class I made a harsh judgement of the piece and not until we discussed it did I understand it. As a class we looked at this piece we all noticed the proportion of the ladder. We noticed that it was narrow,curved, and as it did not look like a ladder you would want to climb. The artist very much represented Booker T. Washington's life long journey through this piece of art.

What is the value of using children's picture book illustrators as an entrance to both understanding and making art? 


I think there is a lot of value of using children's picture book illustrators as an entrance to both understanding  and making art. I think that when introducing a new style of art it is great for the students to see it applied in something they all enjoy. As we did our presentations I gained a new appreciation to all of the different types of art illustrators use and the creativity they use. I also think using picture books can inspire the students as to what they want to create when they make their own piece of art.


So What can I do to effectively prepare to teach about artists and their techniques/styles? 


I feel that the best way to prepare to teach about artists and their techniques/styles is to do similar preparation that I did with my group to prepare for our group project. We researched the artist and their background, different books and illustrations they have done, the mediums they use, as well as the different techniques. 


Now What -  Why will that be important to me and to my students?


As we have discussed multiple times in class as well as read in the text. Art helps students in more ways than creativity. It will help my students develop better skills in all subjects. As a teacher I feel that if I can master teaching the arts I will be a better teacher because I will be able to reach my students on all levels and help them learn which style of learning they enjoy most. 

Reflection 2: The Visual Arts

What have I learned visual art - from both the text and class? 

In class we focused on learning and defining the elements of visual arts. 

We focused on 6 elements:

Line            Shape         Color

Value          Texture       Space

I learned that it is important to understand all of these elements and have experiences them yourself in order to properly teach them to your students. I found that when learning the elements of art I really enjoyed listening to classical musics. I really felt inspired as I listened to the different melodies. It is also very important not to rush art projects in a class, this may cause the students to be unsatisfied with their work. 

The text was also full of great information on how to teach visual arts. I really liked Blooms Higher Order of thinking. I agree with his theory that the goal of higher thinking is to cause students to think beyond memory or literal level and coordinate higher level thinking skills to solve problems. Another section in the text I enjoyed was the 3rd building block of using art as a teaching tool. I enjoyed the two pronged lesson plan.

So What does that mean for me as a teacher? As a person?

As a future teacher, I feel that it will be very important for me to integrate the arts in to the other standard curriculum. I was shown many examples that art can benefit students, so why wouldn't I use them? It says in the text "art is hands on, it activates aesthetic senses" I believe that using art to activate aesthetic senses will increase progress in other subject areas.

 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?

I am actually pretty nervous about how I will prepare to effectively teach my future students. I feel like I cannot read enough out of the textbooks, or write down enough of what all of my professors say. I guess that is is okay to be nervous though it is only week 2! I feel that the best way that I can prepare to teach is to do what my professors ask of me as well as put in 150% effort into my field experiences, how will I learn if I don't try? 

My perspective on integrating the arts into curriculum subjects has really change. The first time we met in class I didn't think it was that important to a student's development. But as I read the chapter and listened to our discussion in class I will be using art as many ways as I can in my classroom. 

Reflection 1: The Arts & Me

What?

Over the course of my life my wonderful parents made sure I was constantly involved in the arts. Both of my parents are educators and firmly believe in a child having a well balanced life in all areas, and to them that meant I began my study of the arts at a very young age.  My parents put me in piano lessons when I was 4 years old and I loved every minute of learning the piano. Now as an adult, sitting down to play the piano is a way I deal with things I am experiencing. 

I have had many teachers who have integrated the arts into my education and they all did it very well. However, only one specific one comes to mind. My very first "school" teacher, my grandmother. She taught me preschool while my mom was attending BYU and to this day I remember her always bringing out the arts in everything she taught me. Every Wednesday we would have painting hour and during that time she told me to paint how I felt about what I had learned at her house this week. 

I really enjoyed our Jigsaw activity in class on Thursday. I felt that it helped my learn things from the reading I may not have learned from reading them alone. A few things that I learned from this activity as well as from my own personal reading are: 

Integration of the Arts make a student's education whole. Everyone has creative capacity and integrated the arts into education can help a student learn how he/she learns best. It is important to understand the children are natural problem solvers and it is important not to squash their ability. Let them do the work.

So What?
I believe that the arts have greatly impacted my life. As I said early I learned to play the piano at a young age and because of this I understand that in order to improve ourselves we have to practice. The Arts taught me responsibility and dedication.

My favorite teacher was my 6th grade teacher and this was because she understood that students are on different planes of learning. Within 3 weeks of the school year starting she realized that the reason I was struggling with math was because it was too easy for me. I was not doing my work because I was bored. She got to know all of her students on an individual level and learned their needs.
My Least favorite teacher was my 8th grade geometry teacher. She did not make me feel excited to learn and made all of the students afraid to ask her questions, and seriously, in geometry you need to ask questions.

As a future teacher I want to be sure I include all of my students in my learning environment, and to make them feel like they can soar above their own expectations.  I want to make sure the get a balance of all of the topics they are required to learn and help them to grow to be excited about learning.

Now What?
I think that the best thing I can do to prepare to effectively teach and integrate the arts as a teacher is to put my best effort into our class. Do the reading, the projects, and research the different methods we learn about even more in depth.