What: School for me was a long time ago. It's hard to remember specific lessons taught. I do remember third grade at Orem Elementary. I had a teacher by the name of Ms. Hall. We were doing a unit on Hawaii. I still have my finished product in a box of keep sakes. It's a booklet that we compiled of all our work. One page is a salt play dough replica of the islands, another page is a paper I wrote about one of the kings, another page has facts about the different islands and I have a lei that I made for a party that we had at the end of the unit. Even though I don't remember the songs now but I do remember learning some. When I was in fourth grade at Westmore Elementary in Davenport Iowa I remember an after school program that was creative dance. Other than that I don't remember the arts actually being involved as part of the chore curriculum. We did have music and art and for one semester every year for PE we had a unit of square dancing but I don't remember them ever over lapping into other classes. I was however always involved in dance, music, and theater after school. One of the things I learned from my reading was how closely the main teacher should work with the specialty teachers. When I was in school in Iowa my elementary was set up very similarly to the Jr. High. I had a home room teacher that taught all the English subjects (spelling, literature,and writing). That was the first half of the day. The second half of the day we traveled. We had a different teacher for each subject ( math, science, art, music, social studies and PE) Each of these teachers had there Bachelors in the subject they were teaching. In the school district that my children are in the specialty teachers (music,art and computers) only need to have a high school degree. Many of them have no more of a back ground in the area they are teaching than I do. That worries me. I have been a strong believer of the arts as part of the every day learning process. When I have discussed this with my children's teachers they say there just isn't the time to get it all done and prepare for the end of the year testing. They are missing the boat. Integrating the arts will help the students to understand and retain the information they have learned which in turn will help them do better on the tests.
So What: I have always enjoyed varying aspects of the arts. I love music, dance and theater. I am not very good at drawing but enjoy doodling and coloring helps me to relax. Even though I love dance, I always did jazz, tap, ballet and ballroom, all beautiful styles of dance but they have very set steps and music. I learned to follow directions but not how to be creative. A couple of semesters ago I took dance for Elementary teachers. I thought it would be an easy class but it pushed me completely out of my comfort zone. I loved it and hated it at the same time. It was a great experience and in my opinion should be a required class for all education majors, not just an elective for elementary education majors. My favorite teacher and least favorite teacher are one in the same. Mr. Bowmen, ninth grade English, did not believe in giving different spelling lists for different ability levels. We all did the top list. I have a form of dyslexia and have always struggled with spelling, it is something I continue to work on and try to improve. Thank goodness for spell check. Also the first semester was diagramming sentences. I hated it. But Mr. Bowmen never gave up on me. He always pushed me to do better and study harder. One time I got a 100% on a spelling test, he was so proud of me that he took my test and showed it to all my other teachers. The second semester we became good friends. We studied literature. It turned out to be a strong area for me and I was able to really shine. As a teacher I want to get to know each of my students and find out what their strong points are then build on those to help them in other areas. I also want to take as many continuing education classes as I can that focus on the arts so that I can become a more affective teacher.
Now What: This class and my dance for elementary teachers are the first steps in preparing to integrate the arts. I also need to learn from veteran teachers that implement AI in their classrooms and I need to take continuing education classes. As a substitute teacher I have had the opportunity to add some creative movement to a lesson plan the teacher had me do. I was to read the book " I Feel Silly" By Jamie Lee Curtis and then discuss the book and emotions with the students. When we were done reading the book I went through several different emotions and had the students show me with their faces what that emotion would look like, then I went through the same emotions and had the students show me what that emotion would look like with their bodies. One of the students in the class had aspergers syndrome. When we read the book he was not interested at all. When the students used their faces, he was somewhat interested in what they were doing but when the other students used their bodies he was completely captivated. It was wonderful to see. I also notice during singing time he did not participate if the students just sat on the floor but if the song had movement to it, he had a blast. I want to find ways to engage all of my students and I know the way to do this is through AI.
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