Music In the Classroom!

Music is a powerful tool and a very useful one at that. Especially when it comes to learning. I can't tell you how many times I was able to refer back to song that I learned in school and I was able to recall the lessons and facts I was learning. I mean why do we sing to children and teach them nursery rhymes, because so much of your brain can be developed through music. Music can help you control the mood of your classroom which is a huge part of classroom management. Of course every group of students you have will be different but I feel that Music will have a place in my classroom. For all my life I have sang and been in choirs, I feel that it has really helped me become a very strong verbal person.

I feel that if you connect songs and music to your teaching you will have your students more meaningfully engaged. You may not be able to remember everything you are taught but when you associate a song with your learning you can usually remember where you were when you learned it and what lessons you did that accompanied it. My group chose to do our 4th grade lesson plan on the 5 Tribes of Utah, immediately I remembered that when I was in 4th grade I did a report on the Goshiute tribe and we sang the 5 Tribes song, I was able to remember that we dressed up like our tribes and used drums to sing and dance. Also so many of the other songs that were presented in class I had learned throughout my early education career. So many of my wonderful learning memories are tied to learning a song. I feel that public education is lacking in Creative arts, teachers have so much to cover and they start to stress because they have so much to cover and that there is no way that they have time to sing and add music into their daily class schedule. But I know that isn't true by integrating the arts into your classroom and teaching through the arts rather then with the arts you are igniting a creative flow of learning that will boost your students learning and their enjoyment.

As a future teacher I plan on having music all the time! I want to open my future student's eye's to the world of creative arts. Have my classroom be well-rounded, so many of our students will never get the opportunity to have music, dance, and drama in their lives it is our job as their teachers to give them these chances. I know that I can't overwhelm my class with music just because I love it, there has to be a happy medium. I want my class to also have a say in their learning because then they can be proud of what they are doing. So I guess I will just have to see how it goes, but I know that CREATIVE ARTS will have a home in my class!

DANCE!

I really loved ready this section of our text. I love to move and dance, and I think that creativity through dance can really engage your students in learning. I remember when I was in elementary school every week we had wacky Wednesday and they would play music over the intercom and we would all dance, my teachers would even get up on the tables and dance and just make us all laugh. When we played getting to know you games we would create a dance move that defines us and we would go around and all do them to help help us remember each others names. Just like singing sometimes you can only express feelings through dance. Especially emotions because a figure or shape can stand for so much more then just a word.

So many parents enroll their children in dance classes, and I feel that any sort of extra-curricular activities help children learn how to work together and teach them discipline. But with so many of these classes they are so organized and structured so children lose that creative flow. They are a group and not an individual any more. Dance in the classroom doesn't mean that you need to have a routine, dance is the BEST! Body, energy, space, and time, and that means that you are teaching your students how to use their body and the space around them to tell a story. So much of our culture is based on dance and with our growing diversity I can't imagine a funner way to share a personal part of your culture with your fellow peers then through dance.

School should integrate as much creative arts as possible. If we want our children to be well rounded then they should be given the opportunities to try new things and stretch outside their comfort zone. Dance is not just for girls and that stereotype needs to be broken. By teaching the students that it is ok to express themselves can you imagine the classroom synergy that will follow! They will become a family and learning will become easier because they will work well together.

The old school form of teaching is changing and teachers are starting to see how important it is to break up the direct teaching and adding more creativity into the classroom. Even though the there is so much curriculum that you have to cover throughout the year you have to remember that if your students are comfortable with you and their peers and are not being challenged or reaching outside their comfort zones, learning will stop and they will lose the love of education. I plan on integrating dance and all the creative arts into almost everyday of teaching. I want to break up the dance by fun brain teasers and activities. Putting on plays and dancing out scenes from books. I am already envisioning dancing out the water cycle with my class. Dance has been around since the beginning of time and that is how people passed down their stories and came together to celebrate life. Why would we take that out of our classrooms? Creativity will blossom and Friendships will begin, trust will follow and then we can have the true love for learning!

Reflection 1

Okay so I had a little difficulty when I did my first blog and I wrote about the reflection 2 first. From the moment I step foot in this class I instantly knew that I was going to love it. Art has always been a passion in my life and the thought of getting to teach through the arts makes my future career as a teacher seem so much more fun. The reading just helped me further my knowledge of the impact on arts. I really enjoyed the carousal activity that we did in class as well. It really helped me remember all my reading and getting everyone's views helped me realize what I missed in my reading. Art is underused in the classroom and it is not fair to the students. Teachers are starting to realize what a key role art can play in their students learning. There have been so many studies that have proven how students who are educated with art are better in literacy, and cooperation in the classroom. Just because I love singing and dancing and acting doesn't mean that I know how to teach with them. I am looking forward to learning fun and new ways to integrate my passion for these skills to empower my teaching. I want to know how do you engage students who don't like art? Because we all know that there are so many different types of learners how do you make the arts work for everyone? There are so many ways to use art in teaching, it increases variety and breaks up the direct teaching, and gives the teacher new and fun ways to assess their students learning instead of standard tests. Through art children can learn to express themselves and for those students like me who love to be in the limelight and don't do so well on normal testing this will give them an outlet to shine. Children need to challenged and be exposed to all forms of art, this helps them being well rounded learners. For many students this will be their first time to do art projects, and sing and dance and just let loose. Especially for your ELL learners. A lot of them would have come from countries that they might not have even been allowed to go to school and now they are dropped into a classroom where they are expected to sing silly songs to help them learn. You as the teacher have to be sensitive and help each and every child in your classroom. I am very excited to see where we go in this class and I can't wait for my art journal to grow!

Drama in the Classroom!

I have always been a DRAMA QUEEN, and know I get to use that to enhance my teaching, How cool is that! I knew that I was going to love Creative Arts from the first second we started talking about the syllabus. I plan on having a very well rounded class room full of many teaching techniques and going at our learning from different angles. Drama is a fun way to loosen your class and open the flow for creativity. It will help your students get outside of their comfort zone, and work together in a fun way. I have learned that you have to ease into the theatrics. You can't just expect all your students to be comfortable with acting through learning. There are so many different types of people in this world and you as the teacher have to encompass each and every student in your learning and there will be times when drama isn't the most beneficial way to teach something. We use drama strategies to allow those students who like the limelight, to have a pathway that they can shine. Also for those students who are shy to get involved more actively in their learning. The old-school way of teaching is slowly changing and the integration of creative arts into the classroom is proving to change the end results of learning. Students are engaging different parts of their brain and getting a more well rounded way of learning.

I love that we start out every class with some sort of warm up that integrates what we are going to learn for the day. It is hard to explain how you learn to be a teacher, but it is through modeling and seeing good teaching practice, and that is what I feel we are learning in this class. I have written down in my arts journal all our warm ups and I plan on using them in my future classroom to introduce Drama to my students. Everyone is involved and we all work together and no one feels left out. That is true learning and it has bonded us as a class. I love the "follow the leader" activity we did, and I can't wait to try it out on a class someday. It is a great way to get your students out of their seats and working with their peers.

I think when people hear DRAMA- they get a little freaked out because they think that you can't learn while being dramatic. The word drama doesn't always have the best connotations and us as the teachers have to break that barrier with our students. Some of your older students will think that it is dumb or silly and wont want to participate but if you model it as a positive way of learning you will have wonderful results. Curriculum is our guideline of what we teach, but how we teach is the amazing autonomy that teachers have. I feel that you can integrate drama into every area of learning. You can make plays, and interviews about everything you are teaching. I can't imagine a funner way to teach writing, and math! You just have to change your beliefs on teaching and start thinking through a dramatic brain, then integrating drama into your classroom wont be so difficult!