Art-Infused Curriculum February 14, 2008

While reading for my Growth and Learning class at Rowan University, I learned that there are benefits into having an art-infused curriculum.  Many teachers are coming to the conclusion that art within a curriculum is helping both their students’ cognitive and affective arenas.  Some of the themes that these teachers repeat to incorporate art into their classrooms are Imaginative discovery, Divergent or creative thinking, Invention, A sense of beauty and artistry and Depth of feeling.

As I teacher I plan to try and incorporate some on these themes in my classroom.  For an Imaginative discovery theme I would have centers that promoted the idea of role playing.  In the kitchen area I would have aprons, baby dolls, mops, cash register, etc.  When using the Divergent theme I could use it in a science or math setting.  My students could create stories and think them out like they think out their math problems.  Using the Invention theme I would provide my students a picture maybe once a week and they would create a story using the picture as a prompt.  For the Sense of beauty theme I would allow my students to create a piece of art work and then hang them around the room to display them.  When using the Depth of feeling theme I would take in what individual students are creating through their art.  Art brings out topics in which educators do not like to talk about.  I would use these themes to enhance my students learning in many different ways.  

This information was taken from:

“Differentiating for the Young Child” by Joan Franklin Smutny and S.E. von Fremd

You Tube February 14, 2008

After reading for my Technologies in Writing class at Rowan I learned that when you mix humans, camcorders and computers you get You Tube.  Did you know that You Tube is uploaded to more than 65,000 times a day?  Where do people find the time to sit at a computer and upload things to a website?  I know that I don’t have that kind of time.  That theory makes me cringe but what gets me even more is the fact that Google just bought $1.65 billion in stock to be a home for a 27 second cute little kitty-cat’s video.  The clip was viewed 2 million times in a two week period.  This is crazy.  Google can spend that much money on a 27 second video but we have people living on the streets and education funding seeming to get lower and lower.  To put that much time and money into something doesn’t really amuse me.  I would rather see the money go to a bigger need.    

it’s the start of something new! February 14, 2008

The setting is this: it is my first time as a counselor during the summer.  I love working with kids, especially elementary school age.  I was counseling at Camp Haluwasa, a Christian camp that I used to attend from the time I was seven to fifteen years old.  I love it there; it is like my second home.
The program I counseled in is called Tall Pines Territory, for campers aged nine to eleven.  In the past I have worked mainly with early childhood age, and a little bit of elementary filtered in, but this was all new to me.  The campers expected us to be up at all hours of the night, make sure that nothing strange entered our tents, and to always be available, to which I readily complied.  It was like being their mom for a week.  After the first couple of days, I was exhausted.  I mainly had inner-city kids, many of whom have rough exteriors but warm hearts.  There were times when I would just sit outside of my tent and cry because these girls were putting up such a facade for all of their friends.    In the following weeks, new campers came and I became a lot more comfortable with that age group.  I was able to relate to them much better, and vice versa.
This past summer was amazing, and I plan on going back this summer.  The time I spent with the campers made me realize how versatile you can allow yourself to become, if only you take the time.

this past weekend! February 14, 2008

This past weekend I was able to spend it with some people very near and dear to my heart, the West Park United Methodist Youth Group.  I am a youth leader, along with five other privileged people.  We met six other youth groups up in the Pocono’s an awesome weekend.  We split the teens up so they were with other people besides their own friends.  It was a good experience for them, I think.  It gave them a chance to experience different people and make new friends.  I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my youth group.  I am not around as much as I have been in the past, and I miss the teens very much.  I also realized this past weekend that previous events that have made me feel uncomfortable, such as working with teens instead of elementary age, no longer caused me anxiety and nervousness. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with them, and we grew closer as a result.  Overall, this past weekend was amazing.  I got to spend time with some of the best teens ever, and I overcame some of my anxiety about working with teens.