I teach kindergarten.  At the beginning of the year I often find myself reflecting. Where on earth do I begin?  Many of these students don’t even know how to hold a pencil.  As My class started learning how to form letters, the typical struggles were encountered, and I acknowledged direct instruction and a lot of practice was the only avenue to acquire the skill of printing  .  After coming back from the Art Academy and drawing with Scott Flox it hit me.  Just like learning to form letters, some students need to have drawing modeled for them.  This modeled drawing is like a “bridge” building confidence, knowledge, and a little skill.  Modeled drawing does not stifle creativity, but gives reluctant students a starting place to truly express themselves.  As soon as I started to do this I saw little drawings pop up everywhere.  What’s more the drawings always had the students own spin.  A simple realization, with lot of em-pact on my teaching!!!

As I reflect back over the opportunity to attend BYU ART Academy I realize how many parts of my life this experience has affected, both personally and professionally.  At the beginning of the ART Academy George Nelson introduced us to Four Lenses.  This provided me with the tool to better look at how and what people need.  Knowing this provided me as a teacher a way to understand my students behavior.  At the beginning of the year I had a very difficult student. When the entire school knew this student by name, because of problems in the office, lunchroom, hall, and playground, I knew I needed a different approach from anything that had worked in the past.  I looked at this student and realized he was an “orange” student.  He was difficult to manage,  the approaches that had been tried were not meeting his needs.  When I prepared a few lessons with him in mind his “behavior” changed from disruptive to one of my exemplary students.  Teaching in the nexus was fun for me and the students, as well as necessary for this “orange” student to have the opportunity to learn in a way that connected with him.  I also reflected on this information, when working with other teachers, and my own family.

As the year progressed I had a little boy who had learned his alphabet, was beginning to read but was not writing at all.   It was interesting to me that he would not even attempt to draw, in his journal.  He only scribbled in his journal.    One day in December he said “show me how to draw a gingerbread man”.  After that he’d started drawing gingerbread men.  Then he started to label his pictures.  Now he is writing.  It all started with modeling drawing.!!!  My students have enjoyed learning some basic principles and expressing themselves.  It’s a different dimension where some students can shine, and all can enjoy.

I  am not comfortable being in front of my peers, being in front of kids is fine, but I struggled with dancing, in front of adults.  It reminded me how safe we need to make students feel as they try new things and don’t feel confident with their effort.  I realize just participating can be a good beginning. I may not be ready to go on a stage, but it doesn’t put me over the edge either.  As Marilyn shared her enthusiasm for dance and beautiful shapes I started to watch for this also.  This may not seem like much but it has changed my perception and enjoyment while watching dance.  Marilyn helped me see how to introduce dance into the curriculum.  My students love dancing out vocabulary words, making shapes with their bodies, and moving to rhythm.

The brain dance has also played a new role in my classroom.  I’ve learned how important movement is to learning.  The brain dance has helped my students focus. One day while we were working on our PSA during Art Academy Cally had us do the Brain Dance and I saw how much it helped me refocus, that sold me. As I looked for different ways to help my students practice things I thought about all the things we have learned about needing to move and how the brain learns so much more effectively with movement, I came up with this idea.  I put the high frequency words on some shape, then distribute them randomly throughout my room.  The kids love running from one area of our room to another and reading the word to me.  This one little idea has helped my students master successfully reading high frequency words.  As I have shared this idea with other kindergarten teacher they too have found success.  Students enjoy this practice because they are up and moving.

Music has always been a strong component of my teaching.  However I realized instead of singing just to learn some concept, I learned at the ART Academy from Jerry that technique with voice can be taught to very young children. It sets the mood for learning. Often when we write students ask for the “pretty music” (classical).

This experience has stretched me, given me tools to use, and goals to still meet.  I want to increase my ability in all areas.  I really need to work on my technology skill.  I’ll keep working a little at a time.  It’s been great working with all of these experts, and seeing how other teachers have used this information.  I’ve been changed through this experience.  Using art integrated through out the curriculum makes learning more enjoyable.  I will continue this quest.

After reading the book Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts, I wanted to have our entire school be involved in this exciting progress.  After talking to the principal he agreed that this would be a unifying experience.  We chose a theme, What’s in a Shape.  Each member of our school faculty was ask to look at the core curriculum and find choose something they are teaching, and integrate it with art.  They were to be displayed in the hall during parent teacher conferences.  The talk this generated between faculty, students and parents was just what we were hoping for.  Looking at how kindergarten through sixth grade talked about shapes in such different ways created new understanding.