Wow, what a week! It was great to finally get into the classroom and meet all of the students, and see how our first round of planning played out in the reality of the three classrooms.
One of the things that came out from our first plan is that Mrs. Meyer stated that, as I was really steering the ship for the first day, she got to observe her students in their classroom setting, but from a completely different perspective. For example, a girl in class is very quiet, but raises her hand to answer questions consistently. She does not regularly get called on, as she is drowned out by the enthusiasm of her peers. Mrs. Meyer noted that she kept an eye on her later in the week, and made sure to call on her more often.
At the beginning of my time I did a brief introduction of myself, showing some pictures of plays I had been in and talking to the students about some of the things we would be doing with theater in the classroom - there was good general excitement.
While the students were gone at their specialist, the teacher and I discussed how the kids were doing energy-wise that particular day, and how we would break up the afternoon.
We began with a game called "Introduction and Applause". A very simple activity where each student came up in front of the class, introduced themselves, then bowed, and had to stay up in front of the class while the students gave them a round of applause. - This was good for both the students as presenter, and as audience. It is a good icebreaker for teachers at the start of the year.
We then went on to the Prezi presentation I put together called Creating a Character. I was most concerned about this portion being boring for the kids, but it was very well received. The students were asked to look closely at the images and answer in depth about the "Big Question" being discussed. For the three images at the end, they were asked to answer as many of the Big 6 questions as they could, and explain their reasoning. This is something that the teachers can use and update, or re-create year after year in order to drive home the 6 Big Questions (who what when where why and how) The Prezi:
We then proceeded with the team building games - Zoo day, the mirror exercise, and the Human Knot. I believe these are also exercises/warm ups that the teachers can use at any point throughout the year for focus, creativity, and team building.
We have our outline for next week all set up, and it just needs a bit of ironing out and specification on the activities.
I am, at this point, feeling as though I need a bit more experience in lesson planning. All three of my teachers are really helping me, but at the same time, with so much planning to do I cannot ask them to take extra time to teach me out of our 2 weekly planning hours. I would find it helpful to have a 101 lesson planning training, so that I can be thinking about strategies for implementing Theater into a teachers curriculum over the 12 week period in the most effective way (also the way that will mirror how the teacher will be implementing it in the future)
I have really enjoyed having my first experience the different energy in each of the three classrooms, as well as the differences and similarities that Cindy, Lisa and Elizabeth bring to their teaching.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Monday, September 14, 2015
Second Cadre Meeting 9/9/15 and Teacher Planning
In a flurry of activity, I wasn't able to write my blog last week, so two this week!
Last week Wednesday (Sept. 9) we had a second cadre meeting. This meeting was great, tons of things were clarified:
1. Co-teaching is only in front of students. 1 on 1 time with the teacher does not count
2. The idea that when we are working with the teachers, we are enhancing current curriculum - this is a huge key to CITA working. We need to remind the teachers that whatever we are doing - the hope is that they can re-create it in the future. My teachers do have this in mind already.
3. We also got a bit of clarification on what the purpose of the blog is : How is what we are doing affecting teachers specifically, or what is the impact on the teacher?
4. The final "Showcase" is not to have a "performance" per se at the end, but it is more of a way to show process, and and how our art form has been incorporated into the classroom.
As Tami and Kris have said, We are building the plane as we are flying it, and I feel like this cadre meeting definitely helped build a bit stronger of a base for us to work off of!
Later that same day, I had a planning meeting with my teachers at Oaklawn. I went over everything that we talked about that morning at the cadre meeting, and I definitely felt like we were all on the same page.
We got down to the nitty gritty of what days and times I would be in the classroom, and decided that I would be in each classroom one day a week. During Read aloud time 12:20 - 12:40 (about 20 Min) we will do theater games/exercises that help the students with
1.projection/breathing
2. speed of reading
3.phrasing (following punctuation)
4.expression
Then in the afternoon at about 1:15 we would set up/take down for afternoon activities and from 1:30-3 pm we are going to work on simple character development as it pertains to a smaller book they are reading.
The students will be put into small groups and will work together on reading it aloud, in character (including the character of the narrator)
The week of Oct. 26, 27,28 the students will "perform" (read) their stories to their classmates using the techniques they have learned.
I think my teachers felt better after this meeting - getting solid ground under us as far as what our goals were for the first 'unit' and setting out a week by week schedule . (I know I definitely felt better!)
Last week Wednesday (Sept. 9) we had a second cadre meeting. This meeting was great, tons of things were clarified:
1. Co-teaching is only in front of students. 1 on 1 time with the teacher does not count
2. The idea that when we are working with the teachers, we are enhancing current curriculum - this is a huge key to CITA working. We need to remind the teachers that whatever we are doing - the hope is that they can re-create it in the future. My teachers do have this in mind already.
3. We also got a bit of clarification on what the purpose of the blog is : How is what we are doing affecting teachers specifically, or what is the impact on the teacher?
4. The final "Showcase" is not to have a "performance" per se at the end, but it is more of a way to show process, and and how our art form has been incorporated into the classroom.
As Tami and Kris have said, We are building the plane as we are flying it, and I feel like this cadre meeting definitely helped build a bit stronger of a base for us to work off of!
Later that same day, I had a planning meeting with my teachers at Oaklawn. I went over everything that we talked about that morning at the cadre meeting, and I definitely felt like we were all on the same page.
We got down to the nitty gritty of what days and times I would be in the classroom, and decided that I would be in each classroom one day a week. During Read aloud time 12:20 - 12:40 (about 20 Min) we will do theater games/exercises that help the students with
1.projection/breathing
2. speed of reading
3.phrasing (following punctuation)
4.expression
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| The awesome Read Aloud time book we will work with! |
The week of Oct. 26, 27,28 the students will "perform" (read) their stories to their classmates using the techniques they have learned.
I think my teachers felt better after this meeting - getting solid ground under us as far as what our goals were for the first 'unit' and setting out a week by week schedule . (I know I definitely felt better!)
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
INSPIRATION - Mr Rodgers!
I have many hero's in the worlds of the arts and education, and I think it is important to be reminded of the work they do. So in order to inspire everyone, and to promote thinking like, and being inspired by, the great artists and educators of the past and present, I am going to sporadically post "Inspiration" blogs featuring their work.
My first blog, as you can guess, is featuring one of my all time favorites: Fred Rodgers. I was searching for some songs that would have perhaps been good to use during our classroom time, and I ran across these two:
1. Making Up Stories is Learning:
2. I'm Still Myself Inside:
Both of these songs are so lovely - He is so brilliant at taking a concept/problem/fear etc... and explaining it simply and using singing to do it.
On his program he utilized song, puppetry, dance, video, storytelling seamlessly to educate, comfort and empathize with children of the early childhood education age group.
He also used music many times to help children manage their feelings, and new things that were happening in their lives. I think this is a part of CITA that we could explore further, helping teachers develop classroom management methods not only for the educational needs of their students, but for their emotional needs/management, and learning of social skills.
I plan on watching more Mr. Rodgers to get inspired!!
And his message to adults is one that I still watch every once and a while when I feel low, or uninspired - I feel like this message especially pertains to the Teachers and Teaching Artists of AIM:
My first blog, as you can guess, is featuring one of my all time favorites: Fred Rodgers. I was searching for some songs that would have perhaps been good to use during our classroom time, and I ran across these two:
1. Making Up Stories is Learning:
2. I'm Still Myself Inside:
Both of these songs are so lovely - He is so brilliant at taking a concept/problem/fear etc... and explaining it simply and using singing to do it.
On his program he utilized song, puppetry, dance, video, storytelling seamlessly to educate, comfort and empathize with children of the early childhood education age group.
He also used music many times to help children manage their feelings, and new things that were happening in their lives. I think this is a part of CITA that we could explore further, helping teachers develop classroom management methods not only for the educational needs of their students, but for their emotional needs/management, and learning of social skills.
I plan on watching more Mr. Rodgers to get inspired!!
And his message to adults is one that I still watch every once and a while when I feel low, or uninspired - I feel like this message especially pertains to the Teachers and Teaching Artists of AIM:
What a brilliant man.
First Cadre Meeting - 8/28/15
Our first Artist Cadre - 8/28/15
Our first cadre meeting began, as I am learning most AIM meetings do, like so:
We had a ton to discuss, so here we go!
I did notice one thing during our meeting:
So, to sum up my feelings at the moment
Our first cadre meeting began, as I am learning most AIM meetings do, like so:
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| Delicious Breakfast Cookies...Mmmmmmmmm |
I. Hours - My team had suggested that we could break the kids off into smaller groups during their reading time in order to get even more work done. However upon discussion with Kris, we really ironed out that the goal of the program is co-teaching, and so even though it is an awesome idea, the only hours that count toward our 8 hours a week are when we are in the classroom with the teacher.
A. We talked about how we could perhaps look at how we could integrate theater in the classroom with Daily 5. I could be in the classroom working with smaller groups, or something like that. I will discuss this with my teachers and see if that is something they would be interested in..
B. Another awesome question that came up had to do with the teaching artists working with the teachers one-on-one. This, I believe is very important - it is not necessarily lesson planning, but actually giving lessons to the teachers in our art form so that they feel comfortable teaching it - yes, some of that can be picked up as we are working in the classroom, but I would strongly argue that taking a bit of time to work with the teachers without the students on the basics of an art form, or the specific way you want to integrate it into the classroom is really at the heart of our purpose. An hour
or two once a week or every other week (that counted towards our 8 hours) in workshop with our teachers, is the idea that I walked away from our cadre meeting most passionate about.
II. We discussed the AIM Academy, and we all thought that it went great! The idea of putting together a FAQ sheet for the teachers containing all of the pertinent who what when where why and how came up - something that would really give them a clear idea of not only what the goals of the program are, but exactly how they are expected to utilize their teaching artist. Erika Svanoe suggested this be distributed to teachers as they apply, which we all agreed was a great idea.
III. We also discussed how to utilize the funds that are allocated for each classroom. I asked about the possibility of getting a GoodWill gift card, or something like that, as the reimbursement route is not a possibility. There was also discussion about having a bit of spending cash for the small things that pop up, that we don't necessarily need to order.
A. While discussing this, I had a few ideas, including :
1. Sending a letter home with students letting their parents know
that we are trying to create a stockpile of costumes for the classroom to use, and that they can send in any fun costume pieces that they think would be especially useful for American History (they would remain part of the classroom collection)
2. Costume creation for both Rock Star and Timeline exercise will be a great part of the program - it doesn't have to be crazy and involve sewing- but putting the costumes together and learning to be observant about what people wore and why is an AWESOME EXERCISE!
3. Putting together "Time Tubs" with the costumes labeled approximately according to decade will be a great way to keep things organized.
IV. We also discussed our blogs, and there was much collaboration on how to get them done:
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| Yay! |
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| Kobi and Kris = getting it done! |
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| Babatunde and Erika Working it out! |
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| AIM could also stand for "Arts Integration on Macs"! |
1. I am excited to get into the classroom
2. I am nervous to get into the classroom
3. Getting together with my teachers again on Sept. 9 - I hope to get our Lesson Plan completed and to work out other opportunities for them to utilize me (if that is what they want)
4 I am also excited to meet up once more with the artists on the Sept. 9th as well and learn about what the executive committee thinks of our ideas/questions!
5. I have almost completed a prezi presentation for the first week of class, and holy smokes, I am overloaded with 3rd grade pop culture!
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