Thanks for the conversation

Thank you very much for being my blog partner and sharing your experiences, reflections, ideas, arguments and inspirations.  

It has been a wonderful journey to take and has challenged my ideas and beliefs.

Elise and Kirsten both contributed equally to this blog.  

Integrated arts curriculum

Spelling word created at: http://www.graffiticreator.net/

Thanks for your ideas Elise.  I will try engaging them in street art to build their self esteem and interest.  However I will have to integrate this into the regular curriculum.  Maybe doing some graffiti art with their spelling words.  I still feel that this is too shallow a definition of Arts and am searching for ways to integrate the Arts authentically into the classroom.  Kirsten

Relevant self expression

I understand that perhaps an embroidery project may not work with your students.  

Maybe you can really tune-in to what is relevant to the children - form a rock band, create a video or animation, use a wall in the school for graffiti art, try some street dancing.  Good luck. Elise

Poor self esteem

I really don't think many of your ideas would work at my school, the students have very little confidence and often refuse to even participate.  Much of our time is spent focussing on core curriculum such as literacy and numeracy.  I really want to engage the kids in the Arts.

What do you suggest? Kirsten.

Making, presenting and responding

Well Kirsten, I think any school can have an Arts focus, regardless of socio-economic status.  My students are very experienced, yes, because art has been a big part of their entire school lives.  

I think scaffolding is the key.  I would suggest you introduce art projects which are simple and can be completed in one lesson to give your students confidence in themselves.  You can gradually build up their skill and understanding.  Make sure you make it fun and that they can proudly display their completed work - making, presenting and responding (Sinclair, Jeanneret, O'Toole, 2012).  A group project, where all students contribute, may also help with the problems with group dynamics and poor self confidence you have mentioned. 

Would this work? Elise

Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., O'Toole, J. (Eds). (2012). Education in the arts (2nd, ed). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.  

Joint teaching experience

It was wonderful to come and join three of your textile classes thank you so much for inviting me! 

It was fascinating to observe the different attitudes between the students in your classes and the students in mine.  Your students were competent and able to work independently.  I was also surprised to see everyone at roughly the same stage in their project.

ALL of your students held a positive attitude about their work.  This contrasts greatly with the poor confidence of my students who are dependent on teacher assistance and are almost always negative about their work.  I wonder if it is the Arts focus of the school that provides your children with the confidence to succeed or whether it is a demographic factor.  If a whole school integrated arts program were used in a low socio-economic school I wonder if it could increase their confidence and independance? Kirsten

Teaching textiles

Thank you for coming along to experience a day in my world, teaching textiles to grades 1, 4 and 5. I loved your help and enjoyed our debrief in the sunny playground at lunch time.  

As you experienced, I incorporate a lot of regular verse and movement into each lesson. Through art the children not only develop their skills but important values - giving and receiving, patience, reverence, gratitude, inclusion and helping each other. 

Each project is carefully scaffolded through storytelling, song, bodily movement, form drawing; a very thorough process which links with Steiner's understanding of child development in each grade (Steiner, 2004). Elise

Steiner, R. (2004). A modern art of education. Yorkshire, UK: Anthroposophic Press. 

Arts integration

Children thoughtfully invest in the art they create.  They make thoughtful decisions throughout the creation process. (MacDonald, 2012).  

I loved this quote made in the lecture Self Portrait and Self Expression. To me, it encompasses why we should integrate arts into the curriculum, it is certainly a teachers dream to have children this engaged in the learning process.
Elise

Abbey MacDonald. (2012, August). Lecture for University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, TAS. 

I accept the challenge

That sounds fantastic!  I think it would be a great idea to expand our views by experiencing one another's classroom situations.  The school I am in does not have a strong Arts program and from what you have said so far your school seems to be very Arts orientated.  I would love to come and get some ideas and inspirations. Kirsten

Let the conversation begin

I invite you, Kirsten to come along and visit how the Steiner curriculum embraces creativity the arts, and I could visit your government school in a low s/e area and we can explore the similarities and differences as part of this on-line conversation?  Elise

Art and creativity

My name is Elise, and I am very excited about the subject ‘Introduction to the Arts’ as these subjects were amongst my favourite throughout primary and high school.  I enjoyed drama during high school and always took part in the high school plays.  Visual art was a subject at which I excelled in my final year, and I have since become a primary school textile teacher at a Steiner school in Hobart.  

During high school, I played flute for many years and have recently begun to learn the piano, as I believe music is essential in any classroom.  I am less familiar with visual media, however my previous career in marketing and advertising may assist me when teaching critical thinking and analysis.

The chapter in Education in the Arts (Sinclair et. al) particularly resonated with me.  I believe allowing children to ‘play’ is a huge part of their learning, where the arts occur spontaneously and naturally.  My work as TA in the Steiner school kindergarten reinforces this, as most of the day is dedicated to child-led play and all toys are open ended.  During children’s role play, I have seen ‘play cloths’ become robes, scarves, or river, and sticks become swords, buildings or fences.

Ken Robinson’s You Tube clip is inspirational but I disagree that every school places “creativity” low on the curriculum. Working in a Steiner school, creativity is used to facilitate all areas of learning. 

My arts experience

Hi, I'm Kirsten and I have very mixed experiences when it comes to Arts education.  A lot of my school experiences with the Arts were quite negative especially in drama and music.  I often felt very anxious in drama class because I was a very shy and quiet person.  I also felt anxious in music class but that was because I had a very negative (and grumpy!) music teacher in Grade 3 who told me I should never sing in public again and used to yell at anyone who did not know their scales.  

Outside of school my Arts experiences were always very positive.  I remember doing lots of drawing and craft activities with my Grandmother when I was younger.  When I was very young I loved to dance and sing and act in front of the family video camera.  I have always loved visual arts and one of the most positive experiences was when I was in Grade 10 art class and I learnt how to draw spontaneously with oil pastels.  I always spent hours doing detailed drawings and paintings so my art teacher challenged me to do a picture of a shell in 5 minutes on a HUGE piece of paper using continuous strokes.  This was extremely difficult but after a few tries I found it very liberating and it transformed my thinking about visual art.  Photography is another passion of mine and in college I had fun taking pictures and manipulating them digitally. 

I am really excited about this unit and learning new ways to integrate the Arts across the curriculum especially after seeing Arnold's work in the workshop this week.  Especially the use of photographs to teach children about different emotions.  It was good to see the emphasis on inquiry questions which is how I am trying to run my lessons to engage children who need extra support in their learning.  

I love integrating the Arts into my science lessons especially drama and I find it helps facilitate the understandings of kinesthetic learners.  I look forward to integrating the Arts authentically into my future lesson plans.

What were your Arts experiences?