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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