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

I have always thought of the Arts as an important part of any education. There are of course some forms of art I am more comfortable with than others but I love and enjoy all of them. So what does this mean to me as a teacher?

Luckily there are many resources out there for teachers looking to add the arts to their core lesson plans. There is the UEN web page, and Springville Art Museum site and with Google all you need to do is type in math lesson plan ideas using (insert the type of arts you want to use). I also plan on taking as many continuing education classes as I can. I particularly look forward to the arts ones. In January I am taking a Zumbatomics certification class. Zumba is a Latin-inspired, dance-fitness class that incorporates Latin and international music and dance movements (Perez, Bato 2010). Zumbatomics is Zumba for children 12 and under. I thought it would be important to add this training to my resume. With more and more budget cuts and teachers feeling that they don’t have time for “the extras” not only are the arts disappearing from our schools but so is PE. With the Zumbatomics training I can incorporate dance and fitness into my social studies lesson. I would also like to start an after school program using the Zumba formula.

When I was in field one of the students saw my Zumba wrist bands. She told me that she loves to do Zumba. If I had been there longer and gotten to the point in Social Studies where the students learn about slavery I would have taught them a Cumbia dance and talked about how the foot work is small and close together because of the chains around their ankles. It would then be fun to have the students make a quilt square to help reinforce the maps to find the Underground Railroad. After that we could do a drama lesson having the students depict life on the plantation or escaping.

I have tons of ideas, binders of music and dance lesson plans a several books. I can’t wait to start the adventure of teaching and life long learning.

# 14 Arts Integration and Teaching

I have really enjoyed this class. I have always loved music, dance and theater both watching and participating. I have also always loved looking at visual arts even though I have no talent for creating my own. I attribute much of my love for the arts to my mom and school.

I was one of the lucky kids. My parents always had music of all genres playing in our home. I was exposed to everything from Mozart and Baugh to the Beatles and the Carpenters. My dad played the flute and he had a friend that played the guitar. I always knew that I wanted to play an instrument. In fifth grade I learned the violin and in seventh grade I learned the flute. I don’t remember much about my schooling until fourth grade. The things that I do remember mostly revolved around the arts. I remember in about second grade learning the words to the song The Candy Man. I also remember learning about Hawaii. We made a book to put all of our activities in. I still have mine. We made lays, colored a picture of King Kamahi Mahi and did salt dough replicas of the Island. I also remember making my mom a candle for Christmas. In the upper grades, fourth through sixth, my elementary school was set up very much like a junior high. For half of the day we had home room which consisted of all the language arts. I still remember righting haiku poems and halving to memorize a poem of my choice. I still have that poem memorized but can’t find the book I got it from. The second half of the day we traveled. We had a different teacher for Social Studies, Math, PE, Music and Art. My art teachers name was Miss Zeminick. She taught us how to work with clay, fire it, paint it, glaze it and fire it again. We worked with paper mashie and one activity we started by drawing a picture of something we were studying in science, then we made our own carbon paper, after that we traced our picture onto a surface that now I don’t know what it is, but it seemed like it was some kind of soft, clay, tile. Then we took a carving tool and carved out our picture, the next step we inked our carving then put a piece of paper over it and rubbed. Each step had a final product but the final, final product was our stamp.

In music we learned to sing as a choir, play simple instruments and perform in front of our peers. Every year at the end we would have a talent show. The top three winners in each class would then perform for the final awards assembly for the year. In sixth grade I was chosen. I was petrified but for the past three years our teacher made us perform in class to prepare us for real world experiences.

Once a year for an entire semester in our PE class we square danced. I loved it. I was not the most athletic person and did not like playing flag football or basket ball. But when it was time for square dancing a looked forward to gym class. Almost every year without fail there were more girls than boys so the teacher chose me to be his dance partner. This was the only time I felt special and had high self efficacy in school.

Isn’t it interesting that my most vivid memories of grade school come from the arts? Our text and many other resources talk about how important the arts are for learning. As I have observed several classes I have noticed that some teachers are doing a great job of integrating the arts into their curriculum. I saw a school were PE was no longer a part of the curriculum so the teacher used theater and PE combined to get to the students. It was a guided improve similar to the TV show whose line is it Any Way. Most of the students really had fun and got to stretch their muscles and get a cardio work out at the same time. But I have also noticed that most teachers have almost no arts in their classroom. I have also noticed how much this has hurt the students in other academic areas especially Language arts. The students have a very difficult time tapping in to the creative part of their brain to write a tall tale or a piece of fiction. They are fine to write about something that happened to them over the summer but ask them to write about a made up kingdom and they are paralyzed. I have noticed that the lack of arts is also hurting most teachers’ ability to teach and have classroom management. They tend to only teach by direct instruction because they’re not sure how to do it any other way. I like how Dr. Escalante showed us how a teacher started out teaching creative movement to his students by reading it directly from someone else’s lesson plan or book. But over time, as he got more comfortable with it himself, he branched out and started coming up with his own lessons. He now is a traveling lecturer, teaching teachers how to integrate creative dance into their lessons.

I hope as teachers we are never to self contuse to try new things and never to seasoned to keep learning and growing ourselves. We need to set the example for our students and our peer teachers.

Last Week of Field

What: I completely forgot to blog last week. This was our last week in field. I am really going to miss it. The students were wonderful and this experience reinforced for me how much I really enjoy fifth grade.

While working at this school I noticed that the only specialty classes that the students had were P.E and computers. At my kids school their specialty classes are P.E., music, art, and computers. I asked one of the students when they have music and art, I thought maybe they had it later in the day when we were not there. The student told me that they don’t have art or music. This made me sad and a little angry.

So What: One of the days that I was there the students had some free time were the teacher told them they could do SSR (silent, sustained, reading), work on their tall tales, math, spelling or if they had all that done they could have some free time. There were many students that I know for a fact didn’t have their work done for those subjects and took the free time but I didn’t say anything. The reason I didn’t say anything was because almost all of the students that took the free time got out art supplies and started making pictures. The teacher, even though she doesn’t know a lot about art herself, keeps many kinds of art supplies available for her students to use. She has water colors, markers, colored pencils and lots of paper. Most of the students got out the water colors and were using several different types of techniques. When I asked one of the students were she learned to do what she was dong she said her teacher last year showed her how. I really feel like the class needed this time to be creative and unwind. I was happy to see that the teacher gave the students this time to explore and be creative.

There was one particular student that I noticed was really struggling in every subject. It wasn’t because she didn’t know how to do what was being taught but she had a hard time concentrating. One day she noticed my plastic wrist bands and asked me what they were for. I told her they were for Zumba. She told me she did Zumba also and really liked it. She also takes other dance lessons. I got thinking that all this student may need to succeed is to have some core lessons (math, science, lit.) done through creative movement. I wish I had notice this before we had taught all our lessons.

Now What: When we become teachers we don’t know what kind of conditions we will be teaching in. It may be a school like the one my kids go to that still has art and music or it may be like the one I did my field work in that has no arts at all. It will be my job as an education to expose my students to as many of the arts as humanly possible. I would like to take them on field trips to see plays, concerts, dance recitals, and art exhibits. I would like them to create their own works of art and share them with the class. I am very thankful for the PTA and their reflections program. I was in charge if it one year at my sons school and got to be a judge for several categories. Many of the students are so talented and have amazing abilities that need to be fostered. My husband shared this link with me today and I found it very interesting. I hope you do too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Field 2

What: This week we taught two social studies lesson were we integrated the arts. One, drama, did not go well at all. The second one music, went very well. The students also performed at the UVU Veterans day program.

So What: Our first lesson was on the settlement of Jamestown. We did a jig saw lesson using the book My Jamestown. We started off by dividing the class into six groups of four and assigning each group a part of the book to read together and decided the most important parts. Then each person in the groups was given a number between one and six. All the ones got together, all the twos got together and so on. Each group member was to tell the rest of the group about their part of the book so that they would all know the whole store. Then we divide the six groups in half. The ones were suppose to be the interviewers and the twos were suppose to be any character from the book they wanted. The interviewers were suppose to ask questions and the others were suppose to answer as if they were from the book. The students hated it and there were even some tears. I think we gave them to much material to read and the groups should have staid smaller. Instead of four groups of six, we should have kept it at six groups of four. We also should have better demonstrated the interviewing section of the lesson.

Our next lesson was on the Mayflower voyage. We did the same lesson that we did in our arts integration class a few weeks ago but with the new lesson plan that we e-mailed you. We got back from UVU so late that we only had time to do the anticipation guide and book the first day. On the second day we reviewed the book and learned the song. This class loves to sing. They really got into and I over heard on student singing the song later that day.

As I said earlier the students sang for the UVU veterans day program. They got a standing ovation on the last song. They did such a good job that UVU has invited the fifth grade to come back every year and perform. They used the music and actions from the Hope of America program.

Now What: We learned a lot from our first two lessons. I know that arts integration works. I am curious to see how they do on the end of unit quiz we are going to be giving next week. I have a feeling that they will do best on the questions that have to do with the subjects were we used drama and music. I need to find out more about the Hope of America program. My partner Krystal says she did it when she was in High school but I have never heard of it before and I have had two children of my own go through the fifth grade. There is still so much to learn. Isn't that great.

# 10 Field week 1

I’m not really sure how to follow the what, so what and now what formula for this blog so I am going to just write what I observed, feel and think. I hope that is ok.

The first day of field the teacher was gone and had a sub. I didn’t notice much in the form of the students art work around the room. There were some pictures of a horn of plenty that the students had painted. As a fast finisher some of the students still had their horn of plenty that they could color. From what I have learned that isn’t really art. Maybe if the students had drawn or sketched their own picture, choosing their own median to work in. But I wasn’t there for the lesson so perhaps there was more to it.

On the second day, Thursday, the only art was during writing. The students have been learning how to write tall tales. They were suppose to do a pre-write and part of the pre-write was drawing a picture of their mane character. I hope they take it a step farther and completely illustrate their stories.

On the third day, Friday, the students practiced a song they learned that they will be performing on Monday for a school assembly and then again at UVU for the Veterans’ day program. The teacher had the words to the song pulled up on her smart board, she had them sing through the song, then she covered up some of the words and had them sing it again and the last time she had the smart board turned off and turned down the CD a little. The students sounded grate I just wish the CD didn’t have children singing on it. It would be nice to hear just my classes beautiful voices.

Next week my partner and I start teaching. On Tuesday we will be doing a lesson on the colonization of Jamestown. We plan on reading a small part of a book called Our Strange New Land. Then we are going to divide the class into groups and give them another excerpt from the book. The students will read and discuss it in their groups. Then we will divide the groups again so that each group has one person from each of the other groups in it. Each person will have a turn to tell their new group about the part that they read. Then the group will choose which three members will be characters from the book while the other three in the group will be reporters. The students will then take turns interviewing each other as the character from the book. We have a shy class so I hope we can pull this off. I’ll let you know next week how it went.

On Thursday we are teaching a lesson on the Mayflower voyage. We will start by reading the book On the Mayflower and then discuss it. I wrote some new lyrics to the tune I’ve Been Working on the Rail Road. The words are about some important thing s that happened on the ship. I hope that the song will make it easier for the students to remember some of the facts. We will also be discussing and learning the differences between rhythm, tempo and beat as we learn the song whole to part.

It should be a fun week filled with much learning for both us, our students and maybe even our cooperating teacher.

Reflection #9

What: During the process of creating this lesson I learned that writing lesson plans is much easier than writing lyrics. I have always loved music and have known of the great power that music can have in teaching. I learned from the presentation that you should always have a back up plan incase what I am doing doesn’t work. The only good thing I can say about our presentation is that we were the only group that did the beat and the rhythm separate as a class before we mixed them as a class.

So What: I have seen the importance of whole to part. I want to use music as much as possible in my classroom. I am curies to see how often our cooperating teacher will use music in her class. I need to start using music to teach write off the bat. Like anything else if I don’t use it now it will be harder to use later on.

Now What: In order to get better at writing lyrics and teaching music I need to practice and use it as much as possible and I need to start now. I hope to expose my classroom students and my own children to many of the arts. My own children listen to classical music and watch musicals. I need to sing with them much more than I do. I need to use every opportunity I can to introduce children to all types of music.

#8 Music

What: For me music is the spice of life. It is what gives life flavor, emotion and feelings. As the book states “Music is totally integrated into our lives. Joggers run with iPods, music is piped throughout airports, and CD players are basic car equipment.” In my home each of my children have their own music device, it’s sometimes hard to get anyone’s attention with those ear buds in. I am proud to say that my 16 year old has just about every genre, including classical. When I have a test I listen to classical music on my way to school. The reason that music should be a part of every child’s education is because of how it makes the brain work. Music brings the right and left brain together. Music also helps different hemispheres of the brain to overlap. In short music works the entire brain and can help to rewire it. Also music can help bring cultures together in the classroom. We had our primary program in church today. About six weeks ago a family in our ward adopted twins from Africa. They speak no English but they were able to sing the primary songs. It was wonderful to watch. No art form has more power to cognitively challenge and emotionally engage than music (Creating Meaning).

So What: Of the small knowledge that I have of music integration the things that I do plan to do in my future class are play classical music in my room before class starts and work closely with the music specialist in my school.

By playing classical music as the students are coming in, the music can create a mood of calm and an environment ready for learning. I once had a teacher that would play soft music in the background while he taught. When we had a test he would have us lay our heads on the desks and listen to the music, as he gave a review. We would then take the test with the same music softly playing in the background.

In working closely with the music specialist I can help integrate the things that she is teaching and she can help integrate the things that I am teaching.

Now What: To help prepare myself for music integration in the classroom I first hope that the three cooperating teachers I get to work with will use music so I can learn from watching them. I will take as many music integration classes as I can and I will practice on my own children. I think the most important thing I learned this week in class was how to teach a song to children. They do it completely wrong in primary. They always teach the children by having them repeat and say the words after the chorister. I actually hope I will get called to be the primary chorister now. I am also exited to use the resources that were shown to use on the website.