Field Experience Blog

Wow! I can't believe field experience is already over! It feels like I was just starting it. What can I say about field experience?? Well tons of course!! First off I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to pan out, I mean I have observed in classrooms before, but I have never actually taught, except in our classes at UV, and that has never been full out or with students who aren't on my same level academically. I was kind of nervous, just because I didn't know exactly what to expect, but once we met our cooperating teacher I knew we would all get along! Our cooperating teacher was really great, she really helped us out on figuring out our lesson plans, like what could go where and such, and she supported what we were doing and gave great feed back.
When planning and teaching our lessons during field experience we incorporated 2 different art forms into our teaching, we had the class make masks, which is a visual art form as well as we had the students create a play that had to do with their specific character and mask, which incorporated drama. We tried to bring music into each of our lessons, whether it was being listened to during their work time or to give them an example of something. After our lessons were finished we asked the students what their favorite part of us teaching was and they all said either the plays or the masks! So that just justifies that bringing the art into the classroom makes learning 100 times more fun, helps to give the students something new and exciting, as well as helping them to focus on the work they were doing. I will definitely be using the arts in my future classroom.
I really love the kids in our class and am definitely going to miss them as well as our cooperating teacher that we worked with. It was a really great experience and opportunity this experience has helped me to really know that I do want to teach the lower grades and that I do really want to be a teacher. Its funny because going through school and with all of these classes that we are taking it kind of scares me, makes me second guess myself and wonder if I can really be a teacher. But with this field experience I know now know that I can be a teacher, and that one day I will be a great teacher!

Music Reflection

Music is so much more then just actually music that you listen to, it is singing and instruments as well. I think it is important to bring it into the classroom because you can introduce your students to types of music they may not have heard before.
I think that it is a lot harder to make songs up then it is to use songs that you already know. I think that it can be really fun, and exciting for kids to come up with their own songs to tunes that they already know.
I think that in my classroom I will bring in different types of music, I don't know so much about the actually singing to my kids, ha! But that is a little ways away. I think that I may make it a goal to somehow sing at least once a week... that way I'm not completely brushing it off and with making it a goal I will have to do it and I will get more comfortable with singing to my students. I think that it is a great thing to bring music into the class, and possibly is the easiest art form to bring into the class because all you need is a computer with music on it, or just your voice!
Unfortunately I was sick the day we presented our songs, but I did help in making two of the verses, which at first was kind of hard, but after coming up with the words and making sure that it went to the tune I was pretty proud of what I had come up with. Something that I was a little disappointed in was that my group ended up changing one of my verses. Because they didn't understand why I had said what I did in my verse, and because it wasn't directly related to the book, but I had done my homework on the painting I had and it was a historical fact that I thought was important to the painting. But that's what I get for being sick on the day they presented. Ha!! Bu all in all it was a fun process

Dance Reflection

Some new insights that I have about dance are that I think that it is a great way to get students up and going. It brings out a different area of their creativeness. It also really helps them do better in other subjects. Its interesting that bringing dance into the students every day lives would do that, but its a great thing that it does.

I think that in field I will definitely be using dance in my lessons that I have to teach. I think that it will probably give my students a different point of view on things as well as bring some fun into the classroom.

I think that just finding the right information to put into dance will be a great thing for me to use in my classroom and make it a more fun and exciting place for my students to be. Because lets be honest, school is usually pretty boring, but it doesn't have to be, so why not make learning fun!

Reflection #3 - Drama

We just finished our unit on drama and it was a lot of fun! I learned that drama isn't just doing a play or remembering lines, it is thinking on your feet, telling a story, and using your imagination. I also learned a lot of new games that I can use in my classroom as I think beginning of the day games, to get my class excited for the day and ready to go!

I really liked using a book and process drama activities to teach a subject, like with If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, and teaching wants and needs. I think that I will definitely use process drama and these other fun games like the Alphabet Game in my classroom to engage my students and get them out of their seats!

I think that it is important for students to have drama because number one, they are already using drama and their imagination everyday whether its at school or at home when they play with friends. I think that it is also really great to get them out of their seats, have them think on their feet and get them using their imagination. It also gives them the opportunity to not just write stories but also play them out.

I think my group did a great job on our project. What EXACTLY was expected from us wasn't the clearest, but after watching a few of the other groups go through the motions we were able to present how we were supposed to. Our book was a great one and we all put forth something to the project. I learned that you can really use any kind of process drama to go with a book. Also process drama adds to a book and brings it to life!

Reflection #2 - Visual Arts

What have I learned from visual art? Well I learned that when people usually go to an art exhibit they don't really spend too much time looking at a piece of art. The longer you look at a painting or a sculpture the more you begin to understand not only what the artist is trying to say in that specific art work, but what sorts of elements and principles are being used in the painting. I also learned about the different elements and principles that have to do with the visual arts.

So now that I know the different principles and elements I will be able to bring each one into my classroom and teach my students the different ways the you can use each principle and element in making art!

I think that my perspective has changed with knowing more about the elements and principles because now with like balance, I know it just doesn't mean balance as in a weight sort of look, but it also can mean a balance of color as well! I am definitely going to bring the visual arts into my classroom not only in projects that we will do as a class, but also as art work from artists around my classroom. I think it will give my classroom more of a sense adventure and excitement.

My experience with my group on our illustrator project was good, I think everyone did a great job at bringing something to the table as well as I learned some interesting new facts, not only about the illustrator that we picked as a group, but also about the other illustrators from other groups.

Relection #1

When I think arts I think paintings, drawings, sculptures, things that would be in an art museum. It wasn't until recently that I realized that "The Arts" is a number of things from actual art, to dance and drama and music. I'm not a very artistic person when it comes to drawing or painting or in the drama department, but when it comes to dancing or music I believe that I have a pretty good knowledge. I love to dance and I love music so in those two areas I think I could have the most fun. In the other two areas I will have to practice and work more at.

Thinking back on my elementary experience with the arts, well I don't believe that I was given much opportunity in school with different kinds of arts. I remember in 1st and 2nd grade always drawing pictures of myself for each season. I also remember in the 3rd grade my teacher taught us a song to remember certain multiplication problems. But other then that I don't really remember using much arts in my classrooms. So because of that I want to bring the arts into my classroom as much as possible. To engage my students, give them a different look on every subject, and to bring so fun and excitement into my classroom!