Drama Presentations

As I mentioned in my last post I love that drama allows students the opportunity to express themselves that they may not have otherwise been able to do so in a classroom setting.  I also thought that everybody did a great job in presenting their drama lesson plans.  However, my fear came true when groups began presenting and after about the third group the lessons began to repeat themselves.
I really do think that drama offers experiences to students who don't know how else to express themselves.  I however do think that teachers need to be careful in how often they incorporate  drama because a lot of students may not feel comfortable "acting" in front of their peers. 
I also think that as future educators it is our responsiblity to inocoporate as many of the arts into our classrooms as possible!

Drama

Growing up I was always a shy student, so whenever we had the opportunity to act something out in class it would make me so nervous that I would dread going to school the day of our performance. 
While I agree that it is fun for students to be able to play around and get their wiggels out I think that we also need to realize that not all students are going to enjoy expressing themsevles in that form of art.
I am excited to one day incorporate drama into my future classroom because as I have mentioned before I think it is an excellent way of giving students a chance to "breathe" while still doing something productive.  However, I think that I will also try my hardest to incorporate the other arts as well for my students who may not feel as comfortable acting in front of their peers.

Principles of Visual Arts

As I have mentioned in my previous posts I have always enjoyed art.  So getting to discuss art in class was like stepping back into high school.  I loved looking at the paintings and being able to discuss them as a group and as then as a class. It was fun to see and hear how differently we interpret art work. 
It is never to early to introduce children to the arts and what better way to do that then though children's books.  We begin reading to children from the time they are born so why not introduce them to the pictures in their books as well.  Allowing children to be exposed to art at a young age helps students to pay more attention to the details and to notice things that they may not have noticed other wise.
The best way to do this is by exposing students to as many things as we can.  Read them books, take them to musems, encourage as much art exposure as possbile in the school.  The students may not notice if it is there, but they will deffinatley notice if it is not there.  Also, allowing students to experience art first hand will enourage them to explore there creative sides.  All students have a creative side and we as educators need to encourage them to discover it.

Visual Arts

With todays activity where a partnership would take turns explaining to each other what they were to draw, it made me realize that visual art is all in the perspective.  Something else I realized is that children's picutre books are a form of visual art. 
As a future educator I have always thought that Picasso was for art and Polacco was for literature, but I love that the text found a way to incorporate the two catagories into one.
I found that todays class experience with the rotations was an excellent way to get students involved.  It kept the students active and curious as they were able to look around at the work their classmates were doing.  And the best part was...there was no right way to do any of it,  Every student was able to express themselves in a way that he or she wanted to. 
So what does this mean for me as a future educator?  That is why I am begining to love this class!  It is teaching me that no two students are the same and because of that there is no one way to teach a student.  Also allow the students to use as many types of art materials that they can get their hands on.  Art is a way of expressing themselves so don't limit a student to just markers and crayons!