Arts Integration for the 21st Century Learner
I have finally been inspired to write again! Today I had the opportunity to visit my Alma mater UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) for the 13th Annual Arts Integration Conference. My thoughts of getting up to go to school at 9am on a Saturday, after a long and busy week, were not pleasant, but I put on my big girl pants and went. As I have mentioned previously, I have been teaching for almost 20 years now in both public and private schools, but there are always new things to learn and be inspired by. There is so much that we have to teach in the classroom, but we cannot overlook the needs of our students to connect with what they are learning so that what they are learning has purpose.
The morning began with the keynote speaker, Laura Wexler. (laurawexler.com) She is the co-founder and co-producer of “The Stoop Storytelling Series”, a podcast that began in 2006. She shared her story of failure in a relatable way that engaged all of us in the audience and helped me to reflect on my own stories. I love to tell stories and soon realized, we all tell stories every day. I think the best stories are the ones that you can relate to and make a connection to. A good story can bring people together into an authentic relationship on common ground. Sort of like, “We are all in this together.” Hmm, I wonder what stories our students could tell us about their lives!
One of the most memorable things she shared was the story of Sinclair Caesar. He told a story of friendship and bullies in a way that had me engaged my imagination as I could visualized what was happening. Look up the podcast on stoopstorytelling.com and have a listen; you won’t be disappointed! (http://assets.stoopstorytelling.com.s3.amazonaws.com/audio/production/2017-04-24/SSSenator041817SinclairPrestonCeasarIII/SSSenator041817SinclairPrestonCeasarIII.mp3)
Since I teach Kindergarten, I also chose to attend a workshop called “I Like to Move It: Making Strong Connections Through Movement”. I really do like to move it and so do my young students. Young students learn best by doing and what better way to do this than by using your whole body! Throughout the time we were in the room, everyone was actively engaged in ways to incorporate movement and music into science teaching topics such as: how a seed grows, the weather cycle, wind, parts of a tree, life cycle of a frog, as well as movement and poetry (“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost). I was also introduced to “Seven Jumps” and can see this working perfectly on Tuesday morning. If you haven’t heard of this dance from Denmark, you can find the song and watch students moving to the song on YouTube. The song and movements are engaging, fun, and easy for young students to follow. This movement activity will provide students an opportunity to communicate, engage with one another, and practice listening and balance.
By the end of our time at the workshop, it was evident that he generated a classroom of teachers that want to implement new and engaging movements for learning. For more information about how to incorporate locomotor and non-locomotor movement in your classroom, copy and paste this into your web browser: Tom Pierre, NBCT - Sing, Say, Move, Play, Create: Authentically Engaging Warm Ups and Activities Through The Schulwerk.
After today’s exciting workshops, I am also considering bringing back our connection with the Baltimore Museum of Art for the “Developing Language and Literacy Through the Arts” program! If you have any other ideas of how to incorporate movement, music, storytelling, or another form of art into the classroom to engage our students, I would love to hear about it! Let's keep the conversation going!
