Blog #6: So Long, Farewell!

Fall field is over and it's now time to go back to big kid school. What a great experience it has been to work at Valley View Elementary with my fourth grade class. I learned a lot about how important it is to keep the students engaged in their learning. It requires a lot of planning and practice to get to a point where teaching is easy, but I'm patient.

One thing that really became apparent is how important art is in the curriculum. The teacher I was working with didn't incorporate much art, or anything fun really, into her lessons. There were so many times the students would be bored and I would think about better ways to teach the lessons that would allow the students to get up and moving. In my classroom management class we learn that students need to do three things every day: 1.) talk, 2.) laugh, and 3.) move. Art, drama, music, etc. are great ways to allow the students to do this.

As much as I sometimes dreaded all the work required for my art class it really has taught me a lot about things I can do to make my own classroom more enjoyable for the students I teach.

If I were an Indian

So for my field experience I got to teach my fourth grade class about the prehistoric indian tribes in Utah. It was a lot harder to plan lessons than I thought it would be. Debbie and I spent 4 hours last week planning three lessons. Blah! But it was fun to see the kids react to our teaching. They enjoyed all the fun activities we planned for them. We also taught them a song that my mom wrote about Indians and they LOVE it! Ms. Ellsworth really likes it too. She wants to perform it at their end of year presentation. It's amazing what music can do to help kids learn. It's been fun to see them learn and get enganged in the classroom.

Valley Who? Valley View!!!

Phew....One week in field. It's been a nice change of scenery from the education building. I am in Ms. Ellsworth's fourth grade class at Valley View Elementary in Pleasant Grove. This is my first time working with the older grades and I'm not going to lie...it's kind of boring! ha ha! The students are old enough at this point to do a lot of work on their own. It's not a babysitting job so much any more. It's getting much better as I learn the students names and know a little more how the classroom operates.

I will teach my first lesson on Friday so we'll see how that goes. I'm pretty excited actually. I think the kids will enjoy some fun activities that keep them engaged. Their social studies hour is normally pretty boring so hopefully they like the lesson Debbie and I have prepared.

Blog #5: Visual Arts

Last week we learned about visual arts and the different elements of art. It was a really fun subject because we got to do a lot of hands-on activities to learn each concept. It's interesting to learn about the elements and principles of art in class and then to see them come to life through different illustrators and artists. I went to an art museum this week and it was fun to be able to analyze the art and kind of sound like I knew what I was talking about! :)

I will use visual arts in my classroom and let my students explore and find their inner artists. I believe that understanding brings greater appreciation and we could always use more of that in the world.