The Art Academy has been a terrific experience. What a wonderful opportunity to meet talented people who are willing to share their love of the arts with me.

As a first year teacher, I sometimes felt overwhelmed with the responsibility of sharing what I was learning with the rest of the staff at my school. How would I ever be able to share all of these ideas and experiences in a way that would inspire others to incorporate more art into their classrooms?

In addition, being out of the classroom, preparing for a substitute teacher, and attempting to implement what I was learning in my own classroom required a tremendous time commitment. It’s difficult to step out of your comfort zone, especially with so many other things to learn.

It turns out, I didn’t have to worry. My principal, Jan Tanner, and my teammates at Eastlake were behind me one hundred percent. I had a strong support system and enthusiastic listeners each time I returned from an Art Academy adventure.

I also discovered that there are quite a few advantages to being a new teacher. For example, many of the presentations built on experiences I had as a student. I had taken many classes that helped me develop lesson plans that integrated the arts into my grade level curriculum. Most importantly, I discovered that I didn’t have any “bad attitudes” about art integration. I had been taught that integration was possible, now I had these amazing presenters reminding me of what I had learned. The art Academy provided me with many useful tools and ideas to expand my fledgling attempts.

I found that whenever I did have doubts about successfully integrating arts, I was fortunate enough to have my fellow Art Academy participants, as well as presenters and peers, providing support, ideas and encouragement to try new things.

I am so lucky to have had this amazing experience attending the Art Academy. I can hardly wait to start a new school year. I will be able to begin teaching the whole child the very first day.

I have had some wonderful experiences with dance since our last meeting!!  I used a reading block to introduce the concepts of movement, including vocabulary and an overview.

I began a unit of “movement” in PE.  I have several students, including a young man, who are in dance programs after school.  These students became my group leaders because of their skills and mastery.  (Skills like rhythm, beat and vocabulary)

The first lesson started with my dance students moving together around the gym.  I talked with the students wor just a few minutes, asking them what they saw, felt and thought as they watched the students moving.   Their observations were insightful and enthusiastic.

After our discussion, I used a lesson similar to one Marilyn had used with us.  My students began to discover different ways to move and explored levels as well.  When we returned to the classroom, we reviewed the experiences we had, tying in the vocabulary and movement information from our introductory meeting.

I have continued with several more activities to “teach” the elements of dance.  It has been fun and an excellent team building experience.  I will teach dance earlier in the year to help facilitate a cooperative, trusting and safe environment in my classroom.

There were several things I worked on as I was preparing and presenting this lesson.  I found it was VERY difficult to move around the room as i was modeling, and keep the beat with the drum..(Marilyn sure made it look easy!)  I think that is going to take years of practice for me!  Side coaching is essential; it helps reach specific teaching goals and is a big help with management.  Managing 32 kids in a “creative” environment was tricky some days.

I purchased some drums from Marko Johnson.  That was an incredible experience itself.  He is a passionate, talented man who was happy to share his joy of music.  It was a terrific music lesson.

I would love to share an experience my fourth grade students and I had when I integrated theatre into our Language Arts.

I all started when I did a Readers Theatre with my students.  They LOVED it! It was exciting to watch my struggling readers have success (and fun) reading in front of an audience.  The kids wanted to make costumes and props, but for our first attempt, I kept it simple.  However, their enthusiasm got me thinking.  I really wanted to give them a chance to “act”.

I decided to make our December book report a “performance” book report. Each of my six reading communities were reading a Christmas themed novel.  Their assignment was to choose an important/interesting part of the book (without giving away the ending) and perform it for the rest of the class.  The goal was to encourage others to read their book.

As an introduction, I used our readers theatre experience and we discussed what a performance included.  We talked about the difference between a movie and a play, and brainstormed ideas for props and costumes.  Each week the communities had goals to meet; choose selections, decide roles (everyone had to perform), come up with a script, costumes, props, etc.  I have to say I got sort of nervous during some of our discussion sessions, but the end results were terrific.  Most of the communities were more traditional, with the students as actors, but one group decided on sock puppets.  It was great!

This activity was so much more than a language arts activity.  It provided an opportunity for the students to work together, perform for others, and gave them a different way to communicate what they had read.  Ideas for props and costumes brought art into the project.  In addition, the discussions that occurred as the students talked about possible selections also improved verbal communication skills and encouraged deeper understanding of what they had read.  This activity had something for everyone!