What Will I Take Away From This Course?

What Will I Take Away From This Course?

This course has definitely been one of my most demanding courses throughout my MAED experience. I have enjoyed the opportunity to look at many different art forms and what it takes to master them. I have gotten a better sense of what people go through to create things that I have taken for granted. When I think about this idea with my students, and what I have learned that will benefit them, I don’t know where to begin. I can look back on the first module we did, where we talked about what art was, and it makes me think about what my art of teaching to my students is. How can I make it important to them? What will make them appreciate it and not take it for granted? In order to achieve this, I need to take bits and pieces that I learned from all of the modules that we discussed.

 There is the idea of interior design and architecture that we got to study. I mentioned in my blog posts that designing a classroom that benefits my students, means taking the time to step back and think about what makes sense. How can I take advantage of all of the space that I am given to create an environment that caters to student learning and can help them be excited about it? I am now thinking about my classroom, not only as a place to get work done, but a place that is going to influence the way that my students learn.

I think that the film & television module was another one that made a huge impact on me. Not only because movies and television are a daily occurrence in our house, but because it made me think about how the artists need to use angle, lighting, and storyline to keep the audience engaged. I need to do the same with my students, in a similar way. I may not have to change the lighting, but I think the angle, and the way that I present information to them is going to make or break a lesson that I teach. I need to dig deeper to find ways to make the lessons meaningful to them. I need to attach them from a different angle if my first attempt doesn’t yield the outcome I had hoped for. I also need to think about the “dialogue and storyline” I use. What am I going to talk about, or have my students talk about. Will it be relevant to them or will it be something that they are uninterested in and learn little from? The later is unacceptable. I have the tools to no longer create lessons like that. I need to take the time to present my information from different angles and give my students engaging material to discuss or talk about with me.

Fashion was another area that I think made me think closely about my classroom and the concept of differentiation. We see kids that wear what they want and it may seem crazy to us, but it is their way of expressing who they are. Just because it is different from the way that everyone else is dressing doesn’t make it wrong. It is a different verse to the same song. I need to take this approach when I am teaching. Every child in my classroom is different and their brains “dress differently” than each others. This mentality reminds me to think about the idea of a different angle on teaching. I need to produce multiple activities and lesson ideas to be sure to address and reach all of the students in my classroom. My switching up the types of activities that I do, I can be sure that there is something that allowed every student to be successful in my classroom.

Overall the idea of using concepts from different art forms into my classroom is a great one. This course caused me to look at ways that I could improve the quality of learning that is taking place in my classroom. There is no reason for my students to be bored when I am sitting here with the tools needed to create compelling and exciting ideas to help them be more successful learners. I hope that I don’t forget the wonderful things that I have learned in this course, and am able to incorporate them into my future classrooms. I know that my students will benefit from them! 

Getting our kids as excited about education as they are about fashion...

"We educators should be envious of the intensity of observation and imagination associated with students’ fascination with fashion." This quote from the Wong, Hendriksen article really struck a chord with me and made my mind go immediately to my class and what this meant for them. I teach first grade, and believe it or not they are fashion conscious already! I have one student who comes in constantly showing off their new "hip" shoes or pants. I know they have an older sibling, and that this plays a role because those in my class who are the older sibling rarely display the same dedicated to fashion attitude. I can say that all of them have some type of recognition for what fashion is and how to have some. The truth is, they do care about it, and as they grow older they tend to care about it more. If you were to compare school attitude and fashion attitude, there is an inverse relationship with one another as they get older. Students in kindergarten have an excited attitude towards learning. They are interested and curious. Their fashion sense, on the other hand isn't really a top priority. A senior in high school tends to have a less excited view on education, but is definitely aware of what is in style and what isn't. I think a great goal for all educators would be to keep the excitement and imagination throughout the educational years. Keep the experiences and lessons compelling for the students so that they don't get "bored". Fashion is constantly changing, and teaching styles should too. Don't teach reading the same boring way day after day. Kids need excitement and mystery. They like to have to figure things out. They can know that reading is at 9:30 every day, but they don't need to expect to do x on Monday, y on Tuesday, Z on Wednesday etc. Give them different activities. Change activities based on your students. One thing that I found very interesting when I first started teaching was that someone said "It must be easy after the first year because you can just reuse your lesson plans." "HAHA!" I laughed. Can I use some ideas and perhaps things that I made, sure, but the lessons need to change with the class. One class might be more interested in one thing, while another likes something completely different. I use their likes to fuel my ideas, and in doing so, hopefully keep them compelled to learn and enjoy the design of my lesson. I think it is important to keep the fire burning throughout all of their educational experiences the way the fashion industry keeps us interested until we too old to care.  

Keeping my students interested like musicians on the radio

When I was reading the Copland chapters, he said that "what fascinates him is the thought that by its very nature music invites imaginative treatment, and that the facts of music, so called, are only meaningful insofar as the imagination is given free play." This quote stood out to me, especially being a teacher because it is important to keep the attention of our students, much like a musician needs to keep the attention of their audience to keep selling records. The question is how? The quote talked about music being meaningful because it allows the imagination to have "free play". This is the same concept that I need to apply in my classroom to help make productive students are interested in their learning. I need to allow their imaginations to grow by giving them experiences that encourage that. One way might be to assign an activity, but give them options on how they want to complete it. This would ensure that each student was demonstrating their knowledge of a topic, but doing so in a way that was the most meaningful to them, and allowed them to use their imagination the way that they want. For example, if I gave an assignment that was strictly writing, my students who don't enjoy writing might not do so well tapping into their creative mind when completing the task. However, if I said you could draw a picture and give it a caption, write a paper, or write a poem, this might open the doors and allow more students to complete the activity in a way that was meaningful to them. Student A might choose the first option and do a much better job because they were able to use their imagination to create the picture, and still did a portion of writing by using a caption. The point is that all of my students are different and each has their own imagination. Each imagination may need different activities to get the wheels spinning, as well as make the assignment meaningful to my students. I think I will be a better teacher by trying to use multiple activities to keep my students' attention and help them develop their imaginations even more!

Music in the classroom?

     When I first began reading for this module, I thought it was a perfect thing since I use music in my teaching so often. The Burns article talked a lot about the rhythm and melody and the Wikipedia articles talked a lot about the hook. When I am working with my students, I try to get them to learn catchy songs that have hooks in them to help them learn and remember certain material. I wish there were songs for everything because my students tend to remember the information that I have linked with a song or tune. For example, we made up a song for things that sink and float and all of my students got 100% on the assessment. When I ask them what the setting is, which is something we learned at the beginning of the year, they are able to tell me while singing the catchy song we made up to help them remember. Whenever I teach them through music, they show so much more engagement and excitement. After reading these articles and the focus that was placed on the "hook" I realized that many of the songs we have learned over the year have been remembered because of the hooks that they have in them. I intentionally taught them songs to help them remember things because I have seen it work before, but I unintentionally gave the songs these "hooks"that are mentioned in the articles. I think they work for kids the same way that hip music works for us.
      On another note, I think that the idea of using the same rhythm and beat can relate to routines in a classroom. Kids work well with routines and being able to predict how their day is going to go. The same tune just different lyrics.

Why do I have to learn this?

When I read the Eisner article this week, it hit home with me and made me think about my students. In my FB post, I talked about how the article mentioned the need for us to "learn how to read them" (referring to the arts). I related it to film and how I feel I get more out of watching movies now, since I have taken classes where I learned how to read more into the film instead of staying on the top layer and simply enjoying it for the hour or so that it is on. Instead I ask questions and try to watch it from a different perspective. I know that my students wonder why they need to learn certain things because frankly they say, " Why do we have to learn this?" It is true, teaching is an art, and the concepts can be viewed as an art as well. I think that we need to take this into consideration when are kids ask questions like those because they haven't had the experience learning how to read the art of teaching. They wonder why we make them write when we are doing reading, or why they have to learn place value for math etc. I think it is important to take the time to explain to them why they are learning something. The school that I am at right now is strict, but it makes me do this on a daily basis with my kids. I have an objective for every subject every day, and I go over it with my students. They know what they will be learning and why, as well as how I am going to assess them. I think this is important to make the experience of the lesson compelling for them and hopefully they will get more out of it.

Design and architecture outside of the lesson

When I was looking at the design and architecture, I was thinking of it more metaphorically and how to apply this to my lesson planning. In my first post, I talked about applying the design aspect to lesson planning through differentiation, or changing the activities. Then, I stepped back and realized that I could actually take the design and apply it to the design of my classroom. One of the things I noticed in the reading was how to take a big space and create walls through furniture arrangements and placements of wall art. I can think of the furniture as the furniture in my classroom. How can I arrange it to create specific spaces to meet the needs of my students? I have started to arrange things keeping in mind that I want to make my classroom appealing to the eye, but also versatile! I have always had my reading table accessible to my students so I am able to use it for my guided reading, but based on where the furniture was when I got the room, the book shelves were scattered around the room. Last weekend I moved them so that they are easily accessible to me when I am pulling books for my students. This way I don't have to walk across the room if I forgot a book. To many this may have seemed like the obvious thing to do, but I was so caught up in other areas that I had completely overlooked this aspect of my classroom until recently. I do feel like I have always taken time to really think about the placement of my posters and things on my walls. I try to make them the most useful to my students while trying not to make it look like a car with bad bumper stickers. I try to arrange all of my writing posters together so that when my students have a questions about writing, they can look in one area to hopefully get some help. When it comes to my table groups, I try to arrange them in a way that all of my students can look at the board without having their back to it. I also like to leave a space for me to have carpet time, since I do teach first grade. Overall this module has really made me reassess the way that I have my room set up and how to make the most of the space that I am given while trying to keep it appealing to look at as well. I am all about displaying student work and having fun posters, but I also know there is a way to make it look busy and cluttered as opposed to organized and versatile!

Interior design

When I saw that we were going to be working on looking at the design of houses and structures, both interior and exterior I was so excited. I always wanted to be an interior designer, but chose to go the teaching route instead. As I have been reading the articles, Susanka does a great job for setting up what it entails to make a "house a home". When I think of this mentality in the classroom, I think of how to make my lessons matter to my kids and be meaningful to them. For example, we have to think about differentiation for each child and examine how to make the experiences compelling for each child. Every house is different, and as Susanka says, "the ways things are arranged give it an identity all it's own". I think this is true for our classrooms and lessons as well. You can teach a lesson one way, but you may need to teach the same lesson concept to a different child who benefits better from a different approach. Just as interior designers and architects are trying to design buildings and rooms that are appealing and interesting to the eye, they have to change it based on the audience. I doubt you will go into a farm town with one country store, and try to build a brand new modern home. It wouldn't work that way. However, you could build a new home and try to make it "fit in" with the neighborhood, as Susanka said she had to do for a new home that was being built in an old neighborhood. This same concept needs to be taken into the classroom. Every child has a different "eye" and a different way for learning. Part of designing compelling experiences for them is figuring out what makes each student tick and using this to guide instruction and allow them to be successful. I think this is a great concept to live by! It may seem like a lot of work, but there will be less "remodeling" if you take the time to get to know your audience and how to reach them academically so that they don't need to be retaught information because the way that you taught wasn't for them. They would pass on that house and you would end up showing them many more.