Well the smells, sounds, and sights of summer are finally upon us. I hope all of you are not buried under school work and are able to get out and enjoy some of this lovely weather.
You may be wondering...What exactly have I signed up for? The Lincoln Center New Educators Workshop centers its educational and artistic immersion around two works of art which are experienced twice during the week. The works of art we will be seeing in Kalamazoo are Kite Tails (dance, performed by Wellspring Cori Terry & Dancers) and Visual Art (works from the exhibition The Figure Revealed: Contemporary American Figurative Paintings and Drawings). Working with a grounding philosophical question to guide the work, the week's work will draw heavily on discussion groups, immersion activities, curriculum planning and the development of an aesthetic education vocabulary.
My guiding question for your blog reflection this week has to do with your current teaching methodology. How have you tried to incorporate imaginative and creative learning into your current practice? What challenges do you face in your school community? With your students? How do you bridge the gap between teaching to a test and creative engagement?
A few things for you to ponder this evening...looking foward to reading your comments.
On to the good work.
Nicole
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5 comments:
I believe that I have done a lot to bring artistic creativity into my classroom. I have built partnerships with the Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, and Adventure Stage Chicago (and of course The Auditorium Theatre) and have really stressed the importance of having my inner-city, special education students, view and participate in live performance. I always fully prep my students before shows and try to immerse them into whatever we are going to be seeing. In my classroom, I incorporate music and art in everything we are learning about. My students sketch, color, collage, and use photography during a year in my class.
The biggest challenge I have faced is funding. Every year, I write grant after grant, and some years I still come up empty. Now, with busing being so expensive, even having free play tickets can be a challenge to coordinate. In my school, all special-education high school, we do not have the problem of having to teach to the test. I still had difficulty, at times, fitting in what I was supposed to cover during the year and what I have doing to prep my students for a learning experience.
It's a great coincidence that this is the topic as it's something I was able to reflect upon with my fellow colleagues- dance teacher- Eileen, and the visual arts teacher whom I work very closely with. I'm grateful to have her (the art teacher) across the hall, and to have a similar schedule with hers for some grade levels we teach during the same period, and allows us to coteach and integrate more closely, and literally reflect and share ideas in the midst of the day, sometimes with brief reflection, as the next class has already arrived 0 seconds in between, but somehow we manage a "how did it go?? Although, we do have to set aside time as a FA committee to sit down and plan on a regular, if not daily basis to check in with the integration of our lesson. We shoot for at least 1 to 2 integrated units, and next year our goal is going to expand, yet also closer collaboration with classroom teachers. The structure of the daily schedule is challenging, and definitely requires a lot of planning and then reflection to see what is working or how to work out kinks. My big thing is balance. For example, I like to use a lot of video...space is an issue..posting word walls..energy level as a dancer and teacher--how much to exert when you know you've got 6 class periods to teach. Aside from this, this challenge and approach it with keeping this in mind as I think about planning next year's units/sequence of lessons; this also why is why I'm eager to take the summer workshop it imperative to connect more closely with the classroom teachers and work on integrating the curriculum they're teaching to dance~ sometimes this connection simply helps the environment and I think the students respect the positive interaction and coplanning amongst the teachers. Scheduling the same grade levels gives the art teacher and I a chance to coteach and integrate our unit plans or lessons~ we are fortunate to be work well together and make a good team. Also, I'm fortunate to be in a position to lead an activity or part of a session with her (art teacher) during our professional development sessions~ this helps give us a voice and mission to collaborate our art forms.
Hi this is Melinda from Curie Metropolitan High School. I am Artistic Director of the Dance Department and teach approximately 110 students each day. Artistic creativity in the classroom stems from partnerships with organizations such as The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, The Lyric Opera, The colleges around the Chicago and community organizations. Further, artistic creativity comes from continuing education and intrinsic motivation for the idiom that is taught and the love for each and every student that you teach.
I think the problem comes with funding and an overall understanding of how performing and creative arts can make a difference in the lives of students and the community that surrounds them. Statistical information and studies are difficult to find and the arts are not considered core curriculum.
The question is how do we include the arts as a dominant interest in our society and government?
Hi this is Melinda from Curie Metropolitan High School. I am Artistic Director of the Dance Department and teach approximately 110 students each day. Artistic creativity in the classroom stems from partnerships with organizations such as The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, The Lyric Opera, The colleges around the Chicago and community organizations. Further, artistic creativity comes from continuing education and intrinsic motivation for the idiom that is taught and the love for each and every student that you teach.
I think the problem comes with funding and an overall understanding of how performing and creative arts can make a difference in the lives of students and the community that surrounds them. Statistical information and studies are difficult to find and the arts are not considered core curriculum.
The question is how do we include the arts as a dominant interest in our society and government?
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