Reflection 7: Field Trip

The two field trip events I choose to do was going to the Woodbury Art museum and seeing the UVU production of "Much to do About Nothing". The first of which was very much interesting, but not something I would put much effort behind having a class going to. Yet, the second event was able to impress me, and definitely was something I would like students to view before trying to do a unit on Shakespeare. There were also some other field trip events that I considered doing with the students, that involved art, but weren't particularly centered on it. Thanksgiving point for example, which has a wide variety available to classes to who come and visit there. Just the fresh air and scenery would be nice for the kids to experience. They also have some wonderful productions there. For instance The Secret Garden (wasn't playing this fall) which would be great to first read the book with the kids and then see it actualized in both play and music.

Field trips truly are a great way for students to learn, and I wish there was more of a budget for them in school funding as I think its far more liberating as well as impactful to leave the classroom and be able to experience the world rather than just be told. Maybe some day I will be able to realize this in my own classroom, though it is doubtful. :)

Reflection 6: Field Experince

While I knew that I wanted to integrated Creative Arts in my lessons I didn't realize how easy it actually would be for me. It was actually one the most important things to me, to make sure that the kids were in some way using creative thinking while learning the subject matter at hand. Perhaps most importantly however was that I was able to notice how important it was for the students to have this aspect in instruction. In a couple of the lessons that Kristy and I did we first had to do direct instruction before the activities we had planned. The difference in interest between that and when there was no follow up was amazing. The students became actively involved in asking questions to make sure that they knew what was going on for the games that we had planned, and even students who were not normally involved were raising their hands with the rest of the class.

This just proved to me how important it is to include the creative arts in small ways throughout every single lesson planned. Human beings are innately curious, but something first has to spark that and creative arts is that something. Areas that don't seem to connect to this are the ones that are most important to do so with though... like math and science. Both involve creativity, but are often blocked to students who look at it as firm data that has no change. This is the exact opposite when you get to the most important areas of these fields. It's my goal in the future to do just this, and look forward to implementing creative arts in these areas as well. :)