Reflection #13

WHAT?: This week was our last two days in field. I cannot believe it is already over. I was really sad about leaving the classroom. Since my partner and I taught last week this week we just mainly observed and helped our cooperating teacher where she asked us to. We did not see hardly any art integrated into the classroom at all this week.

SO WHAT?: I feel like it is so important to integrate the arts into the classroom any chance we get. I feel like this classroom did not get tons of art integration; however, when we taught last week we did 3 art integrated lessons which the children loved and had so much fun with. It was so awesome to see the children's creativity. The only thing we saw this week was when the children were learning math they were drawing pictures to help them solve the problems. It was really neat to see the children all use different pictures in order to help them with them math problems. Children are so creative when it comes to art. It is their chance to open up and really let their personality shine through if they want to. It is so important for the children to be able to express their creativity with art once in awhile. This helps the children with their comprehension and learning levels.

NOW WHAT?: I know that from this experience and really seeing how much children enjoy and NEED art integration that I will integrate as much art into my classroom as possible. I think it is so important for the children to be able to express their personalities through their creativity. It was so neat to see the children's different artworks and to hear their stories behind why they did what they did. The same goes for their math lesson even. I thought it was so neat that they could draw pictures to help them represent the problems. I think for some of the children this really helped the math unit CLICK for them, and that was so awesome to observe. I think that some children need this kind of representation. I have learned so much throughout this field experience, and one main important thing is that art really is so important to integrate in the classroom. It is very important that children get the exposure to these types of lessons and activities. I believe that it really does help out their learning skills, and I know that as a teacher I will integrate art into my classroom as much as possible.

Reflection #12

WHAT?: This week my field partner and I taught our lessons. We did three lessons that were arts integrated. Two of them were visual arts and the other one was theatre. They worked really well other then classroom management is a lot harder to maintain when the children are doing arts integrated lessons. We taught the children about Greek mythology, art, and architecture. The first art integrated lesson we did was the children acted out a myth with their own interpretation in a group. The two visual arts was drawing their own modern architecture building and labeling it with the proper parts we taught them, and then the last one was the children made their own Greek influenced story telling vases.

SO WHAT?: My partner and I wanted to use as much art integrated lessons as we could because when we were first observing we did not feel that the children got to use a lot of arts in their classroom. We wanted to make sure that we switched things up for the children in the classroom and gave them a taste of using arts with their lessons. You could tell the children really just loved the art projects! We were so glad that they were a hit. I think that adding arts into the lesson plans really helped the children's comprehension because the next day we would ask them about the day before and they would remember so much about what we learned all because of the arts projects. I think that the children enjoyed the visual arts lessons more than the theatre just because they were a little shy getting up in front of the classroom to act, but once they got going the students did great. The students really enjoyed watching the other groups act out as well! It was a great activity especially to help the children's comprehension skills on the myths.

NOW WHAT?: Using arts integrated lesson plans in field really helped me learn what I need to do in my own classroom. I think that art lessons really needed to be planned out or else they can get out of hand really easy. I learned that using arts integrated lessons in my classroom you really need to make sure you have good classroom management during the lesson because if not the children will get off task and start talking a lot, which leads to the art projects not getting completed. I was really impressed with how the children acted out the myths, some groups were better than others, but overall the myths were acted out really great. I think that the children really enjoyed this activity, and it helped them to remember the myths a lot more than just reading them. I know that this is something I want to use in my classroom because it really does help the students. Actually using arts integrated lessons really helps you see how important they are to use in the classroom, and I know I will use them a lot more than I ever would have without this class!

Reflection #11

WHAT?: This week in class we were able to help out in the classroom a lot more last week, but we still haven't taught our own personal lesson plans yet. We will do that next week. We created two lesson plans with 3 art integrated activities, so next week I will blog more about that and how they went. This week we still did not see tons of art integration in the classroom. I wish we could see more, but the students did go attend a music class right after lunch. They do this throughout the week where after lunch they will go to a speciality class. Some days (not sure which days) they go to an actual art class to do some art projects. However, the teacher does not use tons of art integration in her class actually- that I have seen yet.

SO WHAT?: i believe that it is very important for the children to be able to attend classes like music and art. However, I do believe that these should be integrated into the class as much as possible. I do not believe that the only time the children should be able to participate in this is outside of the class. I think something else the teacher needs to do is get the children up and moving more, because I feel that the whole time in class all they are doing is sitting. I don't think that this is good for children to do all day until lunch, so I believe that if arts was integrated throughout the day occasionally that it would help the children want to learn and listen more. I think that the children get tired and bored of sitting there all day so they start getting rowdy; however, she is a very good teacher. I just think the children should have more arts integrated whenever possible, especially after learning how important it is in class.

NOW WHAT?: I still think as a teacher I am going to integrate the arts/music/drama as much as I can in the classroom. I think it really helps boost the children's motivation level. This would in turn help them want to learn and do better in class. In our lesson plans we made sure we did some fun, but yet educational activities for the children so they got to experience different ways of learning. We are doing a lesson where the children will create a poster for a Greek God, the children will act out a myth to their interpretation of it, and then they will do a visual arts lesson creating a Greek influenced vase. I am so excited for the children to be able to do these activities. I think they will really enjoy them while still learning a lot about Greece. Next week we will let you know how these lesson plans went, and if there is anything we should change about our lesson plans! I am just so excited for the children to be able to experience something new, and I am also excited to put what I have learned so far in class to use! I want to see if my interpretation of things actually works in a classroom!

Reflection #10

WHAT?: This week in field my partner and I just got to observe and help the children when needed. Our teacher wanted us to get a feel for her classroom and the children before we really started to do too much! It has been a really fun experience so far. We have been going in the mornings this week and so to be honest the teacher really has not done much that has been art integrated. The one thing that was art integrated was for guided reading and for the children's assignment they were to draw a comic strip of pictures of events that were happening in their reading book.

SO WHAT?: I thought that this was a very clever assignment, and that it would help the children express their visualizations on paper. It is very important that while the children are reading that they are having a movie playing through their head as well. This will help them see what everything in the book looks like not just in words. I think that the classroom really does need to have more art integration from what I have seen so far. However, I have just been in the morning so maybe during the afternoon she uses art a little bit more- which we are hoping. Another thing she does is with math the teacher is teaching fractions so she has the children draw out their math problems to help them better understand- I really enjoy this! It is one thing that I think really benefits the students.

NOW WHAT?: Based upon the first week so far it has been a great learning experience. In my classroom I know that I would like to integrate the arts more, especially because lately we have learned how much it benefits the children. I think that it is so important that the children get an opportunity to have art in their classroom, because it helps them learn so much more. I am hoping that in this classroom I will see more art integration, but if not I know that as a teacher I will be sure to integrate art more. I think that the children will enjoy it so much! There has been a couple of art integrated things, but in our lesson plans I know that we are going to try and use art as much as we possibly can for this class so that way they get the opportunity!