"If children cannot learn the way you teach,
then teach the way they learn."
-Ignacio Estrada
Foundation in Rigorous Study
The purpose of my courses is to develop a personal and professional basis, the confidence and knowledge base, and techniques and approaches to support a highly creative atmosphere in the classroom.
The foundational experiences of this course start with a rigorous study base. My book, Experiencing the Arts: Creative Arts in Education, gives powerful examples and academically sound talking points that initiate intelligent thought and honest debate. In addition to the text my students study the research of multiple creative experts such as, Csikszentmihalyi, Robinson, Gardner and Hetland to name a few.
The foundational experiences of this course start with a rigorous study base. My book, Experiencing the Arts: Creative Arts in Education, gives powerful examples and academically sound talking points that initiate intelligent thought and honest debate. In addition to the text my students study the research of multiple creative experts such as, Csikszentmihalyi, Robinson, Gardner and Hetland to name a few.
Team Building to Help Concentration and Cooperation
Get up and get motivated!!! In this course the students participate in a variety of activities that give the pre-service teachers hands-on experience in leading challenges that promote learning using multiple creative methods.These challenges are designed to help build self-confidence, change perceptions, and allow students to see their peers taking on different roles than those typically demonstrated in the traditional classroom setting.
Field Trip to the Art Gallery
Talking about art is not enough. The students of the 403 Visual and Performing Arts course visited the Halsey Art Gallery on the College of Charleston campus. Artifacts included historical paintings and objects depicting real life and the inflated truths of an individual's history, and ancestors.
Visit the Halsey Gallery at http://halsey.cofc.edu/
Visit the Halsey Gallery at http://halsey.cofc.edu/
Music at the Heart of Creativity
Music and movement are essential to learning for children. According to the music education expert, Rae Pica, "When we think of movement and music in early childhood, it is perhaps the image of dancing and singing children that first comes to mind." Adding music to instruction is wonderful but true CREATIVITY and ART INFUSION is when a child can use IMAGINATION, CRITICAL THINKING, and SELF-EXPRESSION.
The Art of the Tableau
Little Red Riding Hood
Bringing the theater arts into the classroom is very important when working with early childhood students, as well as elementary students.
The Tableau is French for "living picture" or frozen pose where the actors "freeze" in a position in a highly dramatic interaction with other actors. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move.
The Tableau is French for "living picture" or frozen pose where the actors "freeze" in a position in a highly dramatic interaction with other actors. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move.
The Power of Role Play
Role-playing is simultaneously interesting and useful to children because it gives them the opportunity to deal with everyday issues. Some of the benefits of role play that were discussed with the 403 visual and performing art students are as follows:
- Grasp real world thinking critical thinking. Understanding complex problems with no single "right" answer presents valuable opportunities to learn
- provides perspectives on situations in a safe environment.
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STEAM in the Classroom
Rigor + Creativity = Success This is the algorithm for learning. In this lesson the students worked as teams and applied science and engineering concepts found in Rube Goldberg's Drawings and designed original "Complex Machines" using creativity. These types of lessons enhance learning by making the student an active participant in the process. |
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Simplicity Tells the Story
Everyone knows that a picture tells a thousand words, right? But what about the elements that make up a picture? Using the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as an example, Molly Bang uses boldly graphic artwork to explain how images and their individual components work to tell a story that engages the emotions.
Likewise, my students tell their own tales with simplistic elegance. Their completed works of art are displayed below. In class we discussed how using Bang’s technique of telling a story would be useful in teaching literacy to children
Likewise, my students tell their own tales with simplistic elegance. Their completed works of art are displayed below. In class we discussed how using Bang’s technique of telling a story would be useful in teaching literacy to children
Creativity and Technology
Technology is helping teachers to expand beyond text-based learning and to engage students who learn best in other ways. In 403 we fully embrace the use of technology and all it has to offer. The students are taught how to use Word as an aesthetic tool for learning and utilize digital storytelling as a way to capture the students’ attention.
My students get experience learning about various sites that can help them in the classroom. Such sites as Stop Motion, for quick editing stop motion animation projects, Popplet, a word web organizing program; HeroMachine2, a hero generator where everyone has the chance to be a hero and write about it; and Smore, an e-newsletter.
My students get experience learning about various sites that can help them in the classroom. Such sites as Stop Motion, for quick editing stop motion animation projects, Popplet, a word web organizing program; HeroMachine2, a hero generator where everyone has the chance to be a hero and write about it; and Smore, an e-newsletter.
Visual Arts and English Language Arts
“Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art is a dynamic art-and-literature based approaches to writing developed by Beth Olshansky to meet the needs of students with diverse learning styles. Through the use of simple hands-on art experiences, the introduction of quality picture books, and an on-going Artists/Writers Workshop, these innovative approaches give children access to visual and kinesthetic as well as verbal modes of thinking at each and every stage of the writing process. They allow all children to enter the writing process from a position of personal strength and enthusiasm.”
-Picture Writing web page http://www.picturingwriting.org/combined.html
-Picture Writing web page http://www.picturingwriting.org/combined.html
