Reflection #15: Where Am I Heading?

I figure that I am heading in a better direction for my teaching and for teaching my future students with the arts. I feel like I am more comfortable to teach the arts and I have many resources and tools at my fingertips. I feel like there are different areas of the arts that I can focus on throughout the school year. I hope to be able to try all of these areas and be able to improve and become better in my teaching.

I feel that I can do this through practicing and not being afraid to experiment and try new things. I hope to also be open to my other colleagues as well and be able to try out their ideas to know if it will be good for my students. Hopefully I can get to the point where I can feel good about my teaching through the arts.

I hope that my students will enjoy it as well and as much as I have. I hope that they can see the benefits of having the arts. Surely, I will teach them how they can appreciate the arts and become more exposed to them. I hope that they can see their creativity increasing and their critical thinking skills being enhanced. I hope that it will be something that they will always enjoy!

Reflection #14: My Journey

What I have learned about myself throughout this semester is having a more open mind for the arts. I felt that I always had, but this helped for me to have it grow more and more. I am beginning to understand how important it is to integrate the arts into the classroom. It helps enrich the creativity of the students so they can become more independent thinkers and solve more problems on their own. It has helped me to learn that there is no right way or wrong way to do something, but that they can feel safe and feel comfortable and accepted by themselves and their peers.

So I will begin to start to implement and create lesson plans that will integrate art more into the lessons. I will be more open about using dance and theater rather than drawing and painting as what I think of first when the arts comes to mind. I want them to be exposed to all different types of art forms and to allow them to be able to enjoy and to really enhance their thinking through all different kinds of art forms that they learn best from.

Now I will try to have the courage to be able to implement the arts more into lesson plans so that the students can learn and become more independent and creative in their learning. I want them to be exposed to what has made the world what it is today through the different art forms. There is so much to learn and appreciate. By having them be exposed, I hope that it will inspire them to love the arts and to expose it to others as well.

Reflection #13: Field Experience

What have I learned from my experience? I have learned so much from being in field. Our lessons we did for our field experience went well. Actually, one of our lessons went well with the students drawing the different types of Roman pillars, but the other lesson we had where we integrated process drama into the lesson didn't do too well. The students had been a little more rambunctious that day and it was harder to keep them focused. They did really well with the role-on-the-wall activity, but the pantomime activity, they weren't cooperating very well with it. We did have a good experience with the pillars though. They did a great job with identifying the different types and incorporating them well in their drawings of their ideal home.

So what can I do better? I can better understand now that the students need to have clear directions of what they are going to do in the different activities for process drama or for any other activity we might do with them for the future. I would have to know the students a little better to know what worked for them and what didn't. We found out after we did that lesson was that the students did not do well sitting on the floor trying to listen. They liked to work better in groups and being able to discuss what they can learn from their classmates in their groups. We could have done that in a different way where it would have worked better for them and for us too.

Now what do I plan to do in the future? I plan to be able to spend time and try these lessons again and work with what works well with the students. I hope to be able to keep the same activities, but maybe switch out activities for different ones. It would have probably worked better if the students with partners had an interview with each other about the story and the characters within the story rather than the pantomime. It's just a matter of experimenting and trying of what works and what doesn't work. All in all, I think it comes down to knowing your students well enough to know what would be best for them and their best learning environment.

Reflection #12: Field Experience

What we are doing in field is doing our lesson plan where we are trying to integrate process drama in 6th grade on the Ancient Rome unit. We told the story, "Roman Diary" where it is about a young girl that is Greek and she is on her way to Rome as a slave. She describes her experiences in her journal entries. She tells about the things she has witnessed and seen and how she has felt. We had the students act out being at an auction for auctioning her off to a master, there was an activity of a role on the wall where we had the students write the feelings of a Roman soldier going off to war. We had them write the feelings the soldier might have had being in this parade. Alot of the students wrote down that they thought that soldier might be scared and worried to go to war. On the outside of the soldier's outline, we had them write words that people watching the soldier in the parade might have felt. Most of them wrote down, proud, handsome, courageous, etc. We had an activity where we pantomimed them going throughout different places in Rome. The young slave girl rescued a baby in a fire and we had an interview with the three heroines and the class asked questions while they gave their best responses as if they were the slave girl.

So at the end of the lesson, we had the students make a journal entry of their own writing down their life as a servant and see how it would have been for them. Many students shared and they were really good! They truly got a feel of how it might have been being a slave in Ancient Rome. I think the activities helped them to understand those feelings.

Now the students have a better idea of what life was like for someone their age, but maybe at a very different social class than they are in. It helped them to gain a better perspective and appreciation for the people of Rome and their lives. It helps them to realize who they are in their own lives and how they can be aware of others and their needs and be more sensitive to them. Overall, I think they were grateful to enjoy the experience and the activities in process drama.

Reflection #11: Field Experience

What have I been learning about while being in field and using the creative arts? I have been learning a few things. I learned while giving the lesson about the different types of pillars that a lot of them are still used today and the places where they have been in used in architecture have been used in the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Utah State Capitol and so many other places I'm sure. It was just amazing to see the the shapes and lines and what distinguishes one pillar from another. This helped students to be able to understand and distinguish from the other pillars by their art form.

So what does this all mean to me as a teacher? It means that a lot of the art that was used back in the time of ancient civilizations are still being influenced today in our buildings that we see. It means that their artistry was passed down to us and we can appreciate where it comes from and from where it was originated. That meant a deal to the students in the classroom realizing that what they see and what buildings they are familiar with, they can know that it was the Romans and Greeks that influenced that type of artistry.

Now what am I going to do? I am having the students draw their ideal dream place using the four different types of pillars at least once to be able to know and distinguish how they are similar and how they are different from one another. I encouraged them to look at the shape and the lines and the form of the pillar and what type of pillar might be used on what type of a building. They were able to remember the pillar types very well and they are doing very well on their sketches of their ideal dream house.

Reflection #10: Field Experience

What am I learning about? What am I teaching about? I am learning a lot about the students in my field experience and learning more of what their needs are and maybe what my field partner and I can do to help them. We are teaching the Ancient Rome unit and it is our first day of teaching tomorrow. We are teaching on the geography and architecture of Rome. We are hoping to do our post/summative assessment by having the students draw their dream house using the different types of pillars we discussed in class.

So what am I going to do to help the students learn more about the drawing and the elements of art? I am going to teach them about the elements of art and what they can do to make their drawings stand out and be excellent. I want them to take time in their project and be proud that they did it.

Now what am I going to do? I am going to teach about the different types of pillars and why they used that specific type of pillar for a certain type of building. I hope that it will be fascinating and fun for them to stop and take a look around town or if they take a vacation to spot the different types of architecture and how this kind of art is still influencing us today.

Reflection #9: Music

What did I learn from the process I engaged in in the creative music lesson? I learned that very simple melodies and lyrics were very helpful to children and to adults as well. I learned that it is easier to sing and not say and to have the students repeat it many times, so they know the song really well. Also, I learned that I have to be comfortable and confident in the song and to know it well enough to teach it to children. I learned that cues helped to know when the students are supposed to come in on a song and that will help them to know when to start and stop.

So what is important for me to remember and learn? I felt that it was important to remember that we really can retain much more information by singing the song. I can remember most of the lyrics to almost any song that I love to sing. I feel that it is important to integrate lyrics and melodies that are fun for you and the rest of the class. I felt that it was important to identify and hear the difference in different notes and pitches so that the students can understand and know how to sing better.

Now what are my next steps? I feel that my next steps are to find ways to integrate the core into music. It is so fun and such a great learning experience with children. Whether they say it or not, many students love to sing songs and do activities that involve singing. I know that they would much rather do that than a read a textbook all of the time, so I would encourage them to write their own music and lyrics to songs. They will be happier and I feel more successful in the classroom if they use music.