#2 Visual Arts

What I have learned so far in class is it's OK if you'r not good at visual art as long as you try. At my first station I was concerned about what my picture should look like or fallowing the directions exactly but as I got in to it I wasn't worried and ideas started coming to me. All of my own children are very artistic and I know that the best way for them to learn is visually and hands on. I have always planned on using art of all forms in my teaching. So What: Two of my children have learning disabilities. One has communications disorder and the other has aspergers syndrome. One of the things I discovered with them was when they read they do not form pictures in their heads of what is being read. Through my research I learned a technique that I tried on them and it really worked. I would read a poem or a short story, as I read they would draw a picture of what I was reading. This seemed to really help them develop the skill to see what is on the written pages. This worked so well with my children that as I have substitute taught I have done it with the classes I have gotten to work with during teacher read aloud. I feel this helps the students stay focused on the book and shows off awesome works of art. Now What – Last semester when I did field work for my intro to ed. class I had the privilege of observing a wonderful sixth grade teacher. The students were working on science. She gave each student a map of the starts with the constellation Orion the most prominent. They were also given a paper that had the distance of each of the starts on it and a conversion chart of centimeter. She gave each of the students a long string, ruler, and several beads. The students measured the string for each star in centimeter,cut it, tied on a bead and then put it on the appropriate star. When they were done , the teacher had them tape their star map under their desks. Then they laid under their desks and looked at their picture. After some time they wrote in their science journals about their observations of the star map. The teacher was trying to get the students to realize that even though the stars may look like they are right next to each other, they are actually thousands of miles apart. For this activities the students worked on science, math and art. When I was in second grade, we were learning about Hawaii I remember making a salt play dough replica of the islands that we stuck to a piece of paper to put in a book. Another time I remember in about sixth grade doing a report on the winter Olympics and making a collage. I still have these items in a box. The lessons that have stuck with me the most have been the ones that I got to be creative in. This is the kind of teacher I want to be. The best things I can do to prepare to be that kind of teacher is to read our class book and refer back to it in future years. Also I need to observe teachers that are already doing arts integration in their classrooms and lastly with the internet we have access to information world wide to help us. We are not alone.