Elluminate for week 5 was really great. We shared lesson plans and provided each other with ideas on how to include art in either a language arts or a social studies lesson plan. I am excited about many of them and will keep them to use for my classes.
Reading Eisner’s paper for this week has given me quite a lot to think about. While I have always said that students who are involved in the arts seem to do better in academic classes, I have never given a lot of thought to whether or not using art to teach other subjects would make an academic difference. After reading Eisner’s paper, I think that perhaps the other subjects should be used to increase the art possibilities given to our students. He believes that using art to teach the other subjects minimizes the importance of art in the academic world and after reading all of his paper, I tend to agree with him.
It would be such a shame to see art as just a tool for teaching math, science, reading and such. I think that what we have to do is make the arts, art and music, understood as being an important and necessary “subject” to be taught to students so that they have different ways to express themselves. I also believe that the arts allow individuals to express their differences in ways that can be understood and are non-threatening to others who might otherwise be fearful of a culture’s differences.
Something I really want to do as I begin to teach and have my own classroom is to be sure that I use a lot of art in that classroom. I want to open up the channels of creativity in my students and let them do and be the very best that they can.
No comments:
Post a Comment