Reflection #15

Where am I heading? Well, I'm heading in an artsy direction. : ) I feel like I have a solid foundation on the basic principles of art and can now move on from there. I am headed in the direction of allowing all children to have an equal opportunity to explore their creativity and expressing themselves through art. Art can be a great way to help students come out of their shell, to build friendships, explore new things, find hidden talents, and my favorite, bring equality in to the classroom.

I will continue to find resources and build on my arts journal. I want to eventually get to know my students well enough to know what works and what doesn't and be brave enough to try new things. I want to be an example of how the arts can change and mold your life. Music did that for me. It was because of people in my life like my parents and music teachers who opened the door to the arts. It was because of programs like 4-H that provided art classes and design. It was because I had people in my life who appreciated the arts and understood the benefit. I still have those people in my life. I will be the teacher that opens that door for my students and shows them the way.









Reflection #15 Where am I heading with the Arts and Arts Integration?

Reflection #14

I have had the most success in this classroom in building on the things I know and learning new techniques. I have learned a lot specifically in the visual arts department as well as the creative drama. I have realized as this semester has progressed that I have a lot of great talents that I can share with my future class. I don't want to be a teacher that learns all of this amazing material and seen the positive effect it has in a classroom and feel like I don't have time to do it. Integrating the arts is very possible. There are many resources available to teachers and a lot of it is free. There are workshops all over and grants that can be applied for. My eyes have been opened. I am more informed. I have changed from a person who loves the arts and probably would have incorporated as often as I could to someone who will go out of my way to make sure that the arts are being used in my classroom. I have become an art activist.

Reflection #13

The final week of student teaching was awesome. I am going to miss those sweet fourth graders so much! Since our teaching portion was over we got to focus on helping them with guided reading groups and their current writing projects. Guided reading has often been one of my favorite parts of the day. During the guided reading time I would help the students in my reading group with a particular book. Throughout the reading the students would stop and write on sticky notes their predictions, connections to real the real world, summaries, vocabulary words, questions, answers, and many other things. My favorite part about it is their interest in reading and how much they love to tell you their opinions and express their excitement. Since there are thirty one students in the class it is often difficult for Mrs. Schino to meet with all of the groups every day so it was nice to be able to help her share the load.

For their writing assignments they wrote about a turkey named Patricia and her greedy owner named Pete. They were in partner groups and one of them would write from Pete's perspective and the other would write from Patricia's perspective. At the end of their writing they made a book with personalized pictures on every page. Their stories turned out so great and it was wonderful to just be a part of their writing process. I got to help them edit and revise their drafts and see their work from beginning to end. This is the only other activity during the week that Katie and I got to help with a project that integrated the arts.

This field experience has been such an amazing opportunity. I have learned so much in my experience with those great fourth graders. My experience with the arts in the classroom has been so great. I have come away with a lot of great ideas and ways to incorporate the arts in every core curriculum. I have also seen how much the children love it and how beneficial it is. It gets their brain stimulated and going so they are better prepared mentally for retaining information. Integrating the arts has also helped me see how excited the students get when they are introduced to a new topic. Again, I am a great believer in the arts and I can't wait to use it in my own classroom when that day comes.

Reflection #12

This week we only taught two lessons so it could have been more low key but we also had our observations on those days. So far we've taught for seven days! One of the days this week incorporated our digital story about Utah and our kids loved it! We also had each of them make a paper quilt square with a specific Utah symbol assigned to them. They did an amazing job and really took pride in their artwork. After Katie and I assembled it and added our own quilt squares, we hung it on the class bulletin board and it looked beautiful.

For the quilt square activity they were each given a fact card about their specific symbol. Then the drew their symbol on their quilt square with a title and listed one or two of their favorite facts. It was a great way to apply their knowlwdge and assess their understanding of the topic through art.

The following day we taught about landforms and made salt dough maps. Note to self, send a not home to the parents to make the salt dough and do not attempt to make enough for 31 kids! Lesson learned. It was an awesome project though. The salt dough was color coded to match one fo the three landforms in Utah. I built a sample one under the document camera as they followed along. They had a blast and I could overhear some of them saying how much fun they were having. It was a great way to teach about landforms and incorporate art. The teacher wasn't going to have time to make the salt maps so I'm really glad we had the opportunity to make them with the students.

I will definitely do this activity again if I teach fourth grade. It's amazing to me hoe much art can encourage learning and enhance it. Again, it was a great tool to use as a post assessment to check for understanding. All of them turned out fantastically and it was totally worth making 93 balls of dough for (each child got three different colors of dough). I'm just a fan of art. I'm a fan of giving students the opportunity to stretch their brains and use art to learn. It has been a great tool to have for Social Studies. I didn't like Social Studies in elementary school and I think if a little more hands on art would have been involved I would have remembered more. Our brains remember visuals much more than words and art allows you to do that.

Reflection #11

Well, our Compass Rose Lesson was awesome. I was so nervous to start teaching but I think it went really well. We taught a lesson every day this week in Social Studies. The students loves our rap about the Compass Rose and I think it will help them remember what it's all about. We also had each students color and make their own Compass Rose. The teacher had the handout and let us use it in our lesson plan. The students enjoyed making a Compass Rose to their individual liking and they were learning as they went along.

Throughout the week we taught them about latitude and longitude, map legends and symbols, and played a review game. Katie and I got to give the students a test based on what only we had taught them since we taught the whole unit. Each student also had to know each of the six surrounding states of Utah so I made up a rap to help them remember it. It goes:

There are six states all around
Some are up and some are down

Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado too,
New Mexico and Arizona how about you?

Then there's Nevada, he is to the West.
And those are the six states for the test.

They really enjoyed the rap and rhyming has always been a great tool to help me remember important information so I wanted to see if it would help them. Most of the students remembered the six states or only missed one or two on the final test. I was so proud of them!

From this week's experience I've learned a lot. I want to be able to use the talents I have to help my students learn. Rhyming has come very easy to me and I love to write short songs or poems about people or topics. I want to incorporate and encourage that in my classroom. I also wanted to express how much I know art integration is very possible in core curriculum. It often doesn't take very much extra time to incorporate it and the students learn so much more becuase they are engaged and doing hands on activities.

Reflection #10

My first week with field experience was pretty good. We met our cooperating teacher (Mrs. Schino) and her frouth grade class on Tuesday and observed them for a little bit. Mrs. Schino is from the East coast and not afraid to speak her mind. I was a little bit nervous about that at first but not so much anymore. Katie and I were assigned to Willow Springs Elementary. It's in Draper in a very nice neighborhood. It is a very nice elementary school and I can already tell there is a lot of parent support.

The first week was strictly observation  (thank goodness). I wanted to be able to see how the class functioned and how the dynamics were. This week in Social Studies they learned about where they live including the planet, hemisphere, conitinent, state, county, and city. Mrs. Schino has put us in charge of teaching her students map skills. I'm a little nervous because I'm not an expert in that area but I'll learn a lot with them. Fourth grade is the year you make salt maps of the state so Katie and I are pretty excited about that. It's one of our favorite things from fourth grade.

Our first lesson next week will be about the Compass Rose. We are going to incorporate a small art project and introduce the topic with a rap. We think this will help engage the students. I know the students really enjoy art and they have the opportunity to have an art lesson every Thursday from a separate art teacher. I think they are very blessed to have that opportunity because not every school has that luxury. The art teacher also happens to be one of the student's in Mrs. Schino's class' mom.

For right now Katie and I have those main ideas for integrating the arts. Mrs. Schino has been using the arts in her persuasuve writing assigmnent about turkeys. There are some very artistic children in the class. Integrating the arts into our lesson plans will be very possible and I think the students will really enjoy them.

Reflection #9

I had been looking forward to this section of Creative Arts all semester. Like I've said before, I love music. I had so much fun coming up with a song to teach the class that coincided with the book we chose. This project came the easiest to me and I've learned a lot about the abilities I have in music and can implement in the classroom. I really enjoy writing rhymes and want my future students to be able to use music to create poetry, write stories, learn math, and science, and any other curriculum they can. I know how much music has helped me and I want to encourage that in anyone I can.

From the presentation I learned the importance of dress rehearsal. : ) I didn't even think about having all of those papers and the affect it would have and distraction it would be on the lesson. I should have thought about the mechanics of the lesson but it didn't cross my mind. My lesson is learned and I will know that better for next time. It was great to have an actual instrument during our presentation as well and I would like to be able to invite guests to come share their musical talents at least once or twice during a school year.

My next step is to continue to use everything I have learned in this class so far as best as I can. Music is one of my favorite arts and it can be incorporated into anything. It crosses over to dance, art, drama, and everything in between. I want to be an advocate for the arts and continue to learn what I can so so I can enrich my classroom with them

Reflection #8

Music encompasses many things. It involves instruments, voices, or both. It is rhythm, offbeats, notes, full of dynamics, choruses, hooks, refrains, or none of the above. It is one of my favorite ways to express myself. It is very important to be incorporated into any classroom of any ages. It is very influential and has been a big part of my life. I was introduced to music since the beginning of my life. My dad plays the guitar and both parents sing. I grew up on the oldies and soon came to love other genres of music. I was introduced to the flute and began lessons in fourth grade. It taught me discipline, practice, and a passion for the arts.

MY goals for using music with my future students is to allow each of them to have a fair opportunity to take advantage of music. I like hip hop, rap, alternative, classical, oldies but goodies, r&b, rock and many others. I want to introduce them to all kinds of music. I want my students to if at all possible, learn to play an instrument. There are so many benefits! Music helped me in school. I learned good discipline and study habits. I learned about rhythm, dynamics, D.S. al Coda's, harmony, melody, notes, tone, and so much more. I became a part of my music when I played. I soon got into singing and that is one of my favorite things to do. I sing when I'm sad, happy, excited, angry, pretending to be famous when I'm in the shower, and performing in front of people. It is a great way to release stress and weighing emotions. I want that to be an outlet for my students as well.

To integrate it properly into curriculum I want to continue to know the popular music but keep my roots in the other good stuff I know. I will help them develop a passion for music by making it an everyday occurrence. I will introduce them to instruments and share my personal experiences with them. They will love music because they will understand and become part of it.

Reflection #7

My perspective hasn't changed much since last class. I still feel very strongly about incorporating the arts into my curriculum and especially dance. I really enjoyed the presentations and I had a lot of fun being a participant. As the books were being read I also thought of other ideas and how I would use the books for other movement activities. If it's possible I would like to have gym time with my students every day for half an hour. If that's not possible we could use the gym and the classroom and adapt. I know movement is very important for children academically but it's also a great tool for them to have emotionally. It's a way to release emotions and stress. I felt a lot better after class because I felt a release of some of the stress I've had from everything that is due and activities that are going on in the program. I want dance and music to have that same affect as students.

I want to teach my future students that no matter your size, shape, color, or background, you can dance. I love to dance and I love all types of music and I want my students to find their passion of the arts. The more I expose them to the different types the more likely they are to find it. I also want them to learn that taking advantage of that will help them with school. It will help them focus more and get better grades but it will also help break social barriers and build friendships.

I really enjoyed this unit and I am very excited to implement dance into my class. I become a different person when I'm dancing. I am insta-happy (not that I'm not usually happy but it's a quick fix when I'm not) and I can express what I'm feeling through dance. I'm not a professional but that's the beauty of dance. Anyone can do it and it doesn't matter if you're good or bad. There are different styles, any kind of music you want to dance to you can, and you can do it at home, with friends, or in front of a mirror by yourself. : )

Reflection #6

I am so excited about incorporating creative dance into my curriculum as a teacher. I never realized how many elements were involved and how much  children can learn through dance. It is important to use these skills through dance because the children are able to use creativity, motor skills, team work, unity, rhythm, and listening skills. They are also able to follow multiple directions. I'm also a big fan of creative dance because the children are able to expend more energy and get their blood flowing to increase brain productivity for learning.

As we worked in class I was able to better understand how children develop physically. We talked about the order that they learn physical skills like galloping, running, jumping, hopping, and sliding. I also learned about how dance can increase coordination.It was also good to talk about keeping the class in close range as you were giving directions to keep them on task. I learned good techniques for bringing your class back together and keeping their attention. I also learned about keeping good pacing and how important that is for keeping children's attention and on task.

For next week and for field these experiences will be very important. I will know how to better manage the children and to keep them interested during the creative dance activities. I am also excited about the different games and elements that I can incorporate into the dance activities. I will teach rhythm and counting because I think those will also be great introductions into the music activities that will follow.

To incorporate these knowledge and skills it will take practice. Field will be very important because I can learn what works and what doesn't. I can also perfect lesson plans and activities. I know it is also very important to be excited about the activities. If you're not excited they won't be excited either. I am also going to let them come up with their own ideas and create their own dances and techniques. That is the great thing about creative dance. You can assert your own creativity.

Reflection Week #5

There are many benefits to creating a Process Drama. The students are able to glean several different important skills. I learned about the importance of making books come to life and using them to enhance critical thinking as well as giving the students the opportunity to apply literature and subject matter to their lives. I especially like the idea for literature in the History genre because it can take less interesting or unappealing topics and make them more exciting for students. It is important to be creative and to plan well for the Process Drama you will be doing. A variety of activities is also important to keep the children continuously interested.

I really liked the other presentations and being able to have a visual idea of other activities is important for me. I learned it's very exciting to give opportunities for students to learn to work together in a group on one task. I also learned how many ways one subject or story can apply to students and encourage opinions and different perspectives. My favorite thing about Process Drama is that it makes a story real. Sometimes I actually felt like I was a part of the story and it made the anticipation for the end really exciting.

From what I've learned I would like to implement several ideas in my teaching. I really liked the alphabet story telling. That activity will encourage vocabulary as well as learning the different types of words like nouns, adverbs, and adjectives. I will also incorporate the Process Drama in the classroom for books about History. I had so much fun creating the lesson plan for the group project and I think students will really enjoy the music, questions, and many other ways to analyze and apply a book.

To prepare to teach and integrate creative drama in the classroom I will make lesson plans now and write down ideas that I have so I can use them in the future. I will also be more aware of the literature available to teach young students. I want to continue to be excited about using creative drama in the classroom so I can model that to the children and help them be excited. My goal is to help the children be involved in literature and be able to express their creativity through the arts.




Reflection #5
What did you learn from developing a Process Drama from text? What did you learn from the other team presentations? So What drama ideas will you try to implement in your teaching? Now What - How will you prepare to teach and integrate creative drama in your teaching?

Reflection #4

 Tuesday's class was the most fun I've had in a class all semester! I think I'll have way more fun in a classroom setting than my students will. I learned a lot of great ideas through the mirroring, machines, and interactive story time. The mirroring was great because it gives students both the opportunity to be a leader and a follower and it enables them to come out of their shell a little bit. They can feel comfortable in expressing themselves because it is a class activity. I learned I like being a leader when my partner tries to do crazy and quick movements and also because I like to be the one using movement to express myself. It was also nice being the follower because it was very soothing and relaxing. It was neat to try and mimmick movements using only peripheral vision as well. My favorite activity was the machines. I will definitely use this in my classroom. I could think of a machine to be right off the bat and picture it in my brain. I also loved being able to add on to the machine and work together in a class. That would be a great activity to use to create class unity and for children to explore their imagination. I would also use a lot of the interactive storytelling techniques used in class. I really love the idea of sound effects in the background and using lighting to change the mood or setting of the story. Decision alley was also really fun and it really encourages the children to think and become a part of the story. Drama is a very important element to implement into the classroom. I enjoy having students act out stories and getting to know their characters. I would definitely use the talk show idea for getting to know characters and understanding perspectives in different texts.

 Children need creative drama because it is a way for them to get to know themselves and express themselves. It is also a great way to create unity in a classroom and encourage cooperative learning. It can also increase critical thinking skills as well as perspective-taking skills. The benefits of incorporating drama into a classroom are many and when you are using drama in other areas of curriculum they are developing these skills as well. The skill set they obtain from effective creative drama carries over to other areas of study like math and reading and writing.

Reflection #3

I really liked the pieces of artwork that were brought into the class to be able to see examples of  the principles of art. My favorite piece was "Ladder for Booker T. Washington." This piece was a great example of rhythm and emphasis to me. The rhythm of the picture was constant but distracting at the same time because of the crookedness of the ladder. It was constant because it continually led upward toward the sky. The emphasis was definitely the ladder because the backdrop to the ladder was a dark, drab, monotonous color. Through the other pieces I learned about proportion and keeping a balance in art. I never realized how many aspects there were to think about when creating art. Unity and variety is also a factor that is pleasing to the eye. 


The children's book illustrator activities was a great idea. Not only did I learn about different styles and why people illustrate the way they do but I learned about myself as an artist and my little niche. I really enjoyed being crazy and using watercolors to blend and splatter. I think this would help children get to know themselves as an artist and find out what they really enjoy and are good at doing, I'm not a very good freehand artist but I thought I did well at a couple other ways of expressing my art. Sometimes art for students can be intimidating for them. Each child has their own abilities and come from different backgrounds that influences their art. When you can introduce them to many different styles they can see that they can find where they fit in and immediately be connected to an illustrator and using that to validate and be proud of their own artwork making them more comfortable with themselves as an artist. 


To effectively prepare to teach about artists and illustrators I will do my research on more of them. I need to become more familiar with different types of art before I can teach it effectively. I would like to have a variety of books from different illustrators in the classroom so the children can discover who they are drawn to or whose art techniques they like most. It would be great to do a similar activity in class that we did in our groups. This will be important because they will be able to discover their creativity and where they feel the most comfortable expressing it. It is also a fun way to for them to learn the principles and elements of art.







 

Reflection #2

This week's hands on activity and the reading have really helped me gain a deeper understanding about the visual arts. The activities in class were my favorite part. I really liked being able to apply the different aspects of visual arts with the reading because I am a hands on person. I realized that everyone in my group had different strengths in different areas. Christina was really good at drawing the different lines. Jentry did a great job with using construction paper and colored pencils to exhibit spacing. Allan was really good at creating textures. I feel like I was the best at the science side of art like tinting and shading. I found that very interesting because I've never thought of myself as being technical in my creativity. This was a wonderful opportunity to see the different strengths of my peers and apply that to teaching the arts in the class. I was also amazed at how many different things there are to art. There's a lot to know. It isn't just am opportunity to express yourself but there's a lot of depth and technique and knowledge that can be required.

As a teacher and an individual I feel like I can apply this to a classroom by being aware of the different strengths students have and letting them use those strengths to create wonderful art pieces and being excited about art. I want to help them understand the things I now know about techniques using the elements and understanding the principles. The more they know the better artists they can become. Visual art can be complicated (I'm thinking of the color wheel in detail) but also teachable and simple to children and adults. I love the arts and the more I learn the more I appreciate it.

Reflection #1

I have had a lot of personal experience with the arts. From a young age I learned to love music and appreciate several genres. Some people even call me "Jukebox." When I got into fourth grade a woman from the church I attend had a daughter who was selling a flute. I had decided that instrument I wanted to learn. My older sister played the clarinet and I wanted a band. I took private lessons for awhile and then joined band in elementary school through high school and continue to play a little. I also love to sing and I grew up in household with my musically inclined family. I sang in choirs. I have also really enjoyed using my creativity for art projects and designing a classroom. I can't necessarily draw well but I express my creativity in other visual ways.  I had a few teachers that integrated them into classroom curriculum but for the most part it seems like after elementary school creative arts was separated as an elective and the curriculum for English, Science, and Math were strictly that. No "fluff" needed. From the chapters we've read and reviewed in class it's been nice to actually see some research to back up the benefit creative arts can have in a classroom and how there is a correlation between higher grades and creative participation in creative arts. I also really enjoyed when the book talked about how the arts engage our head, heart, and hands and help us express emotions. It's amazing how a little creative arts in a classroom can increase cognitive development and critical thinking.


Being able to experience and be a part of creative arts has really helped me in schooling. It's a break and release for me. It helps me to focus and concentrate and I've seen a difference in myself as a student when I'm not participating as much in music the way I used to. Some of my favorite teachers were my music teachers. My high school music teacher had such a passion for music and had great experience. My desire to practice and become better at playing my instrument or singing carried over to my dedication to my academic studies. Being able to have that as a young fourth grader taking flute lessons and learning discipline helped me carry those values and self discipline to school work at a young age. As a future teacher I want to be able incorporate music or encourage creativity as much as possible. In the arts you can be yourself. you can be an individual and express yourself. I want my students to feel their worth not necessarily based on academics and test score but the person they are.

I think the most important thing for me to do to incorporate the arts is to make a conscious effort. Art isn't necessarily painting or drawing. It is expressed through many ways. There are ways to use art in Science and English. Believe it or not, there are ways to use Art in Math. The more I learn and understand it as an educator the better I can make it a tool for success in the classroom.