Reflection # 5

WHAT?: I really enjoyed this section of the book! I loved learning all the different ideas of process drama and how to integrate them into my classroom. I think that it is one thing to get ideas of activities but to get ideas of how to actually use them in my classroom is such a GREAT thing! Also, the group presentations we had there were so many different ideas shown and presented. I loved how they were all different, and so we got so many ideas from each of the presentations. Not only ideas that would work for the books the groups presented, but ideas that could work with multiple books!

SO WHAT?: I did have some favorite activites. I like the ones that involve the whole classroom for example: the activites where you divide the whole class into groups. I think that as a class this would be fun for everyone to be participating, not just a few students. Also, I really enjoy decision alley. I think that it can be a real eye opener for the children, because a lot of them do not understand the situation until they are actually in it themselves. I also really enjoyed the tableu/frozen picture that Ashley in our group did. This was a great way to see what the children are actually getting from the text as you read. They are able to make the picture that THEY would see as a group from a section of the text. I also really like Mantle of Expertise, because I think you can tell how everyone is feeling individually about the part of expertise you assign them to.

NOW WHAT?: I think that drama can be used in many ways. I think that it can be used, like we did in class, with a storybook or it can be used as brain boosters/energizers for the classroom, etc. I think that it is very important, as a teacher, to be very prepared in how you are going to use the activities the lessons you are teaching, because where the students will be participating and moving around, it could get out of hand really fast. I think it is very important to integrate drama in the classroom, because not only is it fun, but it also is something different for the students. It teaches them new ways to understand and interpret the text. Drama is something that they will not be doing everyday. It is important to shake up our classrooms, but to be very prepared in doing so.

Reflection #4

WHAT?: This week was a huge eye opener for me in class. When I first seen that this week's lesson was going to be on drama I just couldn't picture how to integrate drama into the classroom with all different subjects. I think that drama is so fun to incorporate in the classroom, because it keeps the children involved, and it is VERY fun! I had a blast in class learning all the new activites in class, and I loved the presentation that we did with the book at the end. It kept me so involved while you were reading the storybook to us.

SO WHAT?: This week in class we learned so many fun, drama activities. I am excited to present to the classroom our book and our drama tools. I think that when we do these activities it helps learn so many new ideas on how to integrate drama into the classroom with all subjects and standards. I think one of my favorite ideas was the way we presented the story book to the classroom. I loved how we used a simple storybook to accomplish different subjects and standards while doing fun activities with it. While reading through the 21 process drama tools there were many activities that I really liked, one of my favorites was the "thought-tracking" idea. I think that this drama activity would be so interesting to do in class!

NOW WHAT?: I didn't really realize that there were so many ways and ideas to integrate drama in the classroom, like I said up above. I think it is so important to incorporate drama in the classroom because for one I think it keeps the children more involved with all the activities. When you do these fun activites the students have a chance to be apart of the lesson. I think that doing activities like the examples are ways that the children will remember what they are learning in all subjects better.

I think by integrating drama with all subjects it keeps the children staying creative because they have to put themselves into the lesson. Also, when you are doing an activity with a teaching lesson the children really have to keep paying attention in order to complete the activity or role that they are suppose to. Also, using drama in the classroom really shakes things up with the students. It gives them something to do rather then sit there and be lectured the whole time, which is fun for us teachers as well!

Reflection #3

WHAT?: This week in class we learned about the principles of art. I think that each every principle is so important, and then when they are all used together it provides so much unity in an artwork. I think it is very important to know the difference between each principle and be able to identify them in artwork. When you know how to indentify each principle then it is very easy to add it in to your own artwork. Also, this week we had each group present their illustrators. I loved these presentations, and I loved being able to reinact thier artwork! It was really fun! I believe that it is so important to show young children illustrators because not only are they learning background of the illustrator/book, but they are also getting ideas on how to create their artwork. By seeing multiple ideas of artwork the children can use these, in their own creative way, to complete their artwork.

SO WHAT?: For me as a teacher it is so important that I have multiple ideas for artwork. For my class it would not be fun if I was doing the same art project EVERYDAY! By learning more and researching illustrators it gives me many ideas on how to integrate art into my classroom, because many of these artworks could be used for more than just art in the classroom. Just even in the hour we had to listen to the presentations and reinact their artwork I learned sooo much and so many different ideas to use. I know that as a teacher it is very important for me to research illustrators all the time, use some of their art ideas, and integrate them in my classroom.

NOW WHAT?: Art I feel in slowly being weeded out of classrooms. Like I said in my previous blogs I really do not remember doing much artwork in any of my classrooms, except for holiday decorations. I just think it is so important, for me as a teacher, to keep MANY ideas in my classroom on how to integrate art into my classroom. Not only is it fun, but it helps the children to stay creative. Also, it will help them feel more comfortable with art so when they get into high school or college, and they have to take an art class they are not NERVOUS like I was! I think when I am a teacher if I use art in my classroom it is going to keep my classroom a lot more fun and interesting, not only for me but for my students!

Reflection #2

WHAT: I really enjoyed the activity that we did in class this week. I thought it was a great way to teach children the elements and principles of visual arts. I think that this would be a great activity to do in my classroom because not only are the children doing hands on activities with the art but they are also learning the definitions about them. I think the text had some great things to learn about visual art. My favorite things were how it explained what visual art did for the children emotionally and for their self-esteem.

SO WHAT: Every week I learn more and more how important for me, as a teacher, it is to integrate art into the classroom. I have read so many positive outcomes that visual arts can have on children in the text. I think that this class is so important for me because now hopefully, I can feel comfortable enough to have a lot of art projects/lessons in my classroom. Because I know before I did not feel comfortable doing art at all. Thinking back to my school years I wish that we would have been offered more visual arts, especially reading all the positive outcomes that it doesn have for children. I think that visual arts lets children show their creative side, which is extremely important!

NOW WHAT: I think that by completing and passing this course I will feel so much more comfortable and more prepared to have visual arts in my classroom. I guess even before even just these two weeks of class I never realized how important integrating arts into my classroom really would be. The text offers so many ideas on how to promote and integrate visual arts, as a teacher, some of these ideas will be very helpful for me to use in my lesson plans. I think as a teacher it is very important to realize that arts can be used for more subjects then just strictly art projects. It can be integrated into every subject in the classrom, and I will definitely have to keep that in mind when I am lesson planning in the future!