Overall Experience

Its amazing all the ways that art is integrated with out even realizing it. For instance all the literature my cooperating teacher used was amazing. She would demonstrate ways of writing, something she wanted them to learn, and so many other things! But she wouldn't just read them. She would READ them! Making it exciting and so much fun to listen to. I loved that. For one of our lessons we taught the students a song! It was the one that we shared in class, but the students loved it. It turned into our review the next day and they really understood more of what we had taught. It was great! This is one of those experiences that I will never trade.

Final Week In Field

Here it has come field is over and nothing else remains except for my experiences. I have learned so much that it boggles my mind. Who knew how much you can learn about yourself and how you get along with others based on three weeks of field work. These students have taught me so much. I loved seeing the light bulb turn on and their excitement over learning! That's when I knew this is really what I want to go into! I love eduction and students! This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and I will cherish it forever and a day!

Third Week Of Field

Ahhh!! Yep third week was crazy! We taught three of our five lessons and our supervisor came in and watched us teach! We were so freaken nervous!!! But its over with and they went over well. I learned so much from just teaching these lessons. Its like I finally understand what all my teachers have been telling us all along. Another crazy thing happened this week. My partner texts me while I was at work saying that she wasn't coming in today and that I could etheir finish our lesson or teach my new one!! Man did that ever make me stressed. But I survived and moved forward. Our teacher just told me not to worry about it and that we would just continue teaching on Monday. Other than that it was an amazing week!

Second Week Of Field

Well here it has come our second week of field. It was another great experience. I started to learn the students names! Which made all the difference. But life is good, we were going to start teaching this past Thursday but our teacher had to go get some training so she wasn't there for Thursday or Friday. Which was a good thing for us!! Another weekend to prepare our lessons. But man I am really understanding how useless substitutes really are. My partner and I both were to take part of the lesson during the math test. Simply because we were doing this the substitute totally turned the class over to us at the end of the day. Let me tell you that was terrible. The students wouldn't listen to a word that I said and I was ready to leave at the end of the day. Other than that everything went well!

First Week In Field

This first week was crazy!! To watch how a real classroom runs really is an eye opener. I always thought that I knew how classrooms work and how to handle myself in front of students. I wasn't bad but there are so many things that I could have done to be better. For instance all the behavior there might be. We had a substitute our second day and it was crazy!! I knew that I was never really good with substitutes but man the substitute had no idea what she was doing. All that she did was tell the students to shut up. Yeah that is no way to get them to listen to you. But other than that my first week was great! I think it will be an eye opening experience!

Visual Art

Visual art is amazing. It really can show how you feel and the deep meanings a person might be trying to present to you. Then with children books they always have artwork in them. Honestly, that makes the book enjoyable to read. Its also amazing to look at all the illustrators out there. They have such a talent. My mind doesn't always work in the many ways they come up with. The illustrator that we did was Don Wood. I never realized all the books that he has done. The funny thing is that some of my favorite pictures books were all illustrated by him. King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, The Big Hungry Bear, and Piggies. These have been my favorite since childhood. I love reading and looking at them.

Music

I love the idea of music in the classroom!!! It could help to inspire students to the next level, or help to concentrate their minds on the subject at hand. For me if I am really trying to stay focused on something I will turn music on. Just because it gives part of my mind something to be doing while I am working. Depending on the type of music that you even have playing will choose the mode that will be in the classrroom. For this you want an environment for students to feel comfortable and safe. By us giving that tone just through music is amazing. Music is a huge part of my life and for that alone I think music should be incorporated in the classroom with just about everything!

Dance

To me dance is just a way to feel a concept and grasp a deeper understand. In no way am I a very good dancer. I am totally uncomfortable doing it in public. They focus on it for making children more comfortable with themselves. When you are comfortable with yourself and who you are it doesn't matter what you are doing and who is around watching you do it. For that reason alone it is key to teach student's creative dance. By slowing bringing it into their education they learn that it is okay to dance different and that they can do anything they put their minds to. Studio dance is more routine and only the best of the best stay with it. While everyone else just fads away. But having it in schools could end up making all the difference. I might just try and find ways to make it apply to what we are learning. For instance by doing a lesson on the rain cycle you could have them move the different ways that each stage does.

Drama

Drama really is a hard thing for me to use. Simply for the fact that I don't really feel all that comfortable doing it myself. But it isn't always about you. I feel that I just need to put it into my head that it is for the students and then I might feel more comfortable. I love to go and see plays so I understand the need of that in the classroom. By using drama I know that I will be able to connect with a different form of student than myself. I can see how it will help with other forms of curriculum. Just in the fact that it might make it all the more exciting for the students, making them want to learn and be engaged.

September 8, 2009

Today was just another amazing adventure. I really did learn a lot and appreciate the way that she helped us. The journal really is a great way to keep notes and grow in and of ourselves. It alowes us a place to collect and gather differenct ways to us art in our future classrooms. They don't always have to be that big of a deal but the little things always seem to help and make a difference. For instance just doing the mirror game was so much fun. It really did show and teach us about eachother. For instance we were able to disscuss the importance of eye contact. I loved that just because I was able to apply it into what I am already doing at work. It really does make a difference becasue it shows the person that you care and are listening to waht they have to say. Then the one with our name was great! I honestly think that it helped me to learn new peoples names. I really am bad at names but that was a great help. Because now I can apply their names to a face and an action. This class really is helping us all grow into becoming a closer group. the last game that we played was "who started the movement". This one really helps to reiniciate names. You get to say the different peoples name and try to hide who is chosing the different movements. These three different activities really show how you can add a game to make a class go by and become so enjoyable. The next thing that we did was separate into groups and answer questions from or reading assignment. I really liked this simply becasue it allowed us to disscuss with someone something that you had learned. It really has been a great experience being in the class.

First Day of Class

The first day of class was really interesting. Just coming from one class I thought that I would walk into the classroom and it would be just like it was for all the other classes that I take in it. But having the tables rearranged and put into a different way really lightened up and opened the room. the music playing in the background made it so that I wanted to be there and learning. Having an assignment right there to start the class with was great. We were given the assignment the moment we walked in the room and we all just got started without really trying to. I loved all the different pictures on the board and then the one about her family. It almost made it seem like we were really getting to know each other and making a connection. I loved when we got split up into the groups based by the color that we were. It really helps to know the different types of students that we will be in contact with and how we need to interact with them. Then having us all sit in a circle and saying our name with a different word attached was fun. It helped to really gain a better understanding of the different individuals in the classroom. I have to say though is that the movie that was shown at the end was really touching. We are all different and as teachers we need to recognize this and learn to reach out to all different types of students. We don't want to lose one that we could have helped. I really thought this class was amazing. She helped bring us all together and have a unity that I hadn't really felt before.