Field Experience

I am excited to be able to integrate art into my teaching in the future. This class has provided me with so many ideas, both simple and elaborate, on how to use art effectively in a classroom. In my field experience, I noticed my teacher using visual art, music, and drama quite often. The class completed a artist study that they learned all that they could about a famous artist and then they created a piece of artwork that was similar to their artists style. (Similar to what we did in class.) I really enjoyed seeing something that we did, put to work in an actual class. Each month they also memorize poems or songs that go along with what they are learning about in different subjects. While I was in the classroom, the teacher started a reader's theater with the guided reading groups as well. Each activity was fun, simple, effective, and the kids loved it. In class, I really enjoyed listening to and seeing other groups' presentations and ideas. Everyone perceives things a little differently than someone else might, so it was a good learning experience for me to be able to see how other individuals saw each aspect of art. I have seen drama, music, and of course visual art in classes. But I had never before seen or really thought about using dance in a class. I love dance, so the use of it in my classroom makes me really excited about new integration ideas and possibilities. In the future, I want to pay better attention to little things teachers do. I didn't realize how often even little bits of art get integrated into nearly every lesson. As I pay closer attention, I want to become better at using arts in different lessons throughout the day. I would also like to plan more art lessons to use during my pre-service experiences. My art/health lesson that I planned, was probably the one I had the most fun with (as far as planning goes that is).