Clarkdale Elementary in Austell , Georgia is undergoing a transformation . This Title 1 , K-5 elementary school has started integrating the arts into the curriculum . It has changed us . Like many Title I schools we face issues concerning student behavior , learning retention and student apathy . Arts Integration immediately addressed these issues and transformed our classrooms !
As an art teacher , I have always believed the arts could reach the hard to teach , the non-auditory , creatively-brained , and hands-on learners of the world . I have tried to use my class as a means of making connections between art and classroom learning , to engage learners and make both their art and academic experiences more meaningful . But , until Arts Integration entered my life , I never fully realized the power that it had to transform learning for all students , in all subjects .
In the fall of 2015 , several teachers at my school started Arts Integration training through our county , in collaboration with ArtsNow , Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum . Training focused on theater , dance , music , art , and stepping outside our comfort zone ! What we learned was so impactful . Over the course of six trainings we used rhythmic speech to review rocks and minerals , created tableaux demonstrating the food chain , choreographed and performed a dance to demonstrate our understanding of the water cycle !
None of us were actors , singers , dancers , but it was easy to see how we could teach theatre , music , and dance standards at the same time as we were teaching core subjects . It was so much fun and so much more engaging than a crossword , word search , or memorizing a study guide for a unit test . We had to understand content , and then interact with it to put it into action through the arts . The level of rigor was very high , as was the level of engagement . All of us grew as educators , and as people . There was possibility in the air , and that made teaching and lesson planning more fun , and very exciting . We left each training session with a new set of skills that we put into place immediately . We had a new level of enthusiasm , and , best of all , we saw it impacting our students .
We had a new level of enthusiasm , and , best of all , we saw it impacting our students .
- Beth Morris , Clarkdale Elementary
STEAMed Magazine
35
January 2017 Edition