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.
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