Being a good arts integration teacher is more than just having great lesson plans. It’s about your attitude and your classroom’s ambiance. Even if you have been using arts integration in your teaching, you sometimes need to remind yourself of these important aspects of the practice. I might consider these 5 points to be the backbone of a good arts integration teacher.
1. Define ArtsInt – Learn and understand what arts integration truly is. Keep to the integrity of the art form. Be careful not to only use the arts as an add on or afterthought. Two great posts that you should refer to here are True Arts Integration and ArtsEd verses ArtsInt.
2. Advocacy – Bone up on some real-life examples of success. Sometimes that will come from studies you can read, but the real effective advocacy comes from classroom stories and students’ own words. Check out my Arts Integration LiveBinder for a tab on Advocacy and Stories.
3. Share Yourself – Share your appreciation of the arts with your students. They will enjoy learning more about you and will catch your genuine enthusiasm. This kind of sharing also helps to create a safe learning environment for your students. If you are open with them about what you love, they will feel safe sharing more with you.
4. Do What You Love and Start Small – Start with an art form with which you are most comfortable whether that is music, visual, poetry or any other art form. Start with and follow your passions. When you start with an art form that you love, you are most likely to do it, succeed and try something more.
5. Just Do It! – Don’t be afraid to try new things. This is a process for you and you have to take a leap every now and again. The other part of “Just Do It” is to give yourself permission to take the time and invest it in developing and implementing great arts integrated lessons and activities. The more you do, the more positive results you will see. Trust that process!
I would love your comments on this one!
~EMP
I LOVE #4! So many teachers are scared of Arts Integration because they don’t have a strength in art, or music, or dance, or whatever. Yet, everyone has a passion for at least one artform. By using that passion within their teaching, they’re already beginning to use arts integration in a very real and authentic way. Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth!
What a refreshing and exciting article to read! I love how the focus is on share yourself, do what you love and start small. It is so true that your students will feel the same love that you feel regarding a subject. When learning about Arts Integration and how to instill this love in your students it is good to keep in mind ‘Just do it’ similar to the Nike ad. It is a great place to start since you are in a comfortable place yourself. When you feel love and enthusiasm about something so will your students. I love creative movement and want to pass this love on to my Prek students..what a great place to begin…
I, too, enjoy creative movement and dance. For me, it has always been matter of classroom management and how to contain the organized chaos or the banter of excitement. Because of the open concept plan to our school, when the kids make noise in my room, I feel a bit like I did when I came late to church. The the entire congregation is watching. I love my doors, but windows are another interfering factor, the glass greenhouse of activity. I guess “Just Do It” will be attempted again and again.
After having been told most of my life that singing is not one of my strengths I find myself always singing along to songs on the radio and enjoying myself. This love of music in any form has always made me feel good so to those who don’t like the quality of my singing, I say “to bad”. I love music and movement and children automatically respond to them. Using them in teaching is a win-win situation. I have to give myself more permission to take more risks #4 and “just do it” #5. If I am having fun so will my students.
Share yourself and start small. Good advice for the novice or more experienced teacher. Lately, I feel that my occupation sometimes defines me in a rather limited sense to the children. They see me at the tech teacher. I think that lessons that I enjoy most are the ones that have a piece of me. Perhaps, the attraction of this topic is the notion that children can sense your true joy, interest and passion and feed off of it. With collaboration and integration, you need to start off small, as we all have learned that a poorly planned lesson is like a stack of cards. Collaboration and trusting the process is what works. We have been working successfully on using images, music, art, and history to explore and learn about waves of Immigration, and each year as we build, it becomes better for students and staff.
Leslie, I love what you wrote about children’s sensing “your true joy, interest and passion” and feeding off of it. It is so true that students of all ages are capable of noticing what is in your heart as a teacher. Some days we have it; some days we don’t. My children, Sydney and Andy, have enjoyed your teaching and your class…so my guess is that you have the passion on more days than not! 🙂
Leslie, I loved the article and in turn, loved your thoughts! I especially liked the part of your comment that your students see you as the tech teacher. And when you work with them on a lesson that has a part of you, you feel that they pick up on your joy, passion and interest. When I read your comment I went to the feeling I had and hopefully my students had when we made cookies a few months ago. I LOVE to COOK! Although it is not an “art” per-see it is something that I feel so very passionate about and when I do it, I know that I appear confident, engaged, proud and joyful! We used the process of making cookies to give us a real life experience to jumpstart a writing piece. I look forward to feeling more confident about integrating the arts and feeling just as confident in this new adventure!
It was refreshing to hear the words “start small”, feel secure and then build on it. This is how I believe adults and children learn best but I don’t feel we are always allowed to approach new things at this pace.
I agree children do love to know more about us as people. Many young children have difficulty seeing us outside of our role as teacher and this sharing helps them make that shift.
The “Just do It” resonated with me because I don’t view myself as a big risk taker but yet if I know I need to do it to benefit my students then I am more at ease with the risk!
The concept of “Just Do It” is so important in our jobs. When we think of all the things we ask of our students, about 99% of it is as frightening to them as it was to us when we first learned it. So, as we ask them to branch out and trust US, we must do the same for them. In my public speaking class, I use an article that states, “Do it scared!” I think that motto will push us and our students to whole new levels. Good for you for having the bravery to make that first move!
Just do it, trust the process and integrity is what struck me. Loved that this article had 5 easy steps to beginning arts integration in the classroom. Trusting the process is crucial. I think as we put our trust into this concept we will see the value of the process. Watching student excitement and success will further drive this process and develop the integrity of the arts integration process. So just do it!
I like the five keys to arts integration in this article because the information is understandable and non-threatening. I like the idea to shift my thinking from art as an “add on” to art as an equal partner in the lesson. Now, while I do not see myself as a dancer in the high school classroom (though, it is tempting to do cartwheels down the aisle sometimes), I do see myself incorporating more theater, fine art, and music in my classroom lessons. I am excited to see sample lessons and create some of my own (as long as I don’t have to dance in front of anyone!).
Number 5, “just do it” and remembering that it’s a process really resonates with me. Too often I let my need for perfection stops me from pursuing something at all. Rather than feeling like I can’t introduce something new until it has been perfected, I will start small and just do it! By taking that first step and remembering that sometimes good is good enough I will be taking the first step in an arts integrated curriculum. Once I start I can then begin to tweak and expand but I need to begin by taking the first step. Just do it!
“Start with the art form that you love” rings true for me. I love gardening, although there is both science and art at play when one gardens. What does the plant need to thrive, and what environment will it live in successfully. Additionally, color plays an important role in the development of a garden. One of our more successful integration projects was the coleus plants that children grew from cuttings and how they each crafted a ceramic pot for their plants. How Karen brought the science of throwing a pot and the kiln baking process was amazing. The project bloomed into so much more that I ever imagined, real-word connections and memories. I think it worked better than many projects, because we each began with something we loved.
I love this, Leslie. What a great example of how starting with what you love sparks great opportunities for your students. This WAS a great project. I hope you do it again!
I have posted about this article in the past. Looking at it again, I think number four is the most important tip. Just start small with something in your comfort zone, and then go from there. It is easier to plan lessons with art forms you are most comfortable in using and then move outward.
Elizabeth,
You have nailed it! I love this article. Short and sweet and to the point, even we who teach the arts are shy and have fear of sharing. It is key, however, for our kids to see what we love. It is like some awesome force field is emitted through us when they see our eyes sparkle, our voices get louder and more intense and our faces flush with fun as we convey our love for what art form we absolutely consume like a creature who is ravenous. That force field invelops them and they realize that they need not fear in partaking in feeding themselves. When we are doing what we love, the time seems to transcend. We feel “Full” and satisfied with the inner peace that comes from the afterglow of creating. We remember those teachers who stood on desks reading Shakespeare, or played along with the Holst Suite for the love of it. We relish those memories of teachers who brought us to museums or reenactments to expand their love in creating an experience that would later be indelible. It takes courage for certain. It isn’t about being afraid, but more understanding it will always exist, but as our guide inward. It ignites our love for the art and simultaneously gives us strength and appreciation of ourselves for what we have to give.
Girl, You give such vivid imagery. You need to create a visual (or compose some music) that harnesses these ideas!
Thanks Elizabeth! Working on that!!!
I really related to the idea of “sharing oneself” with the classroom. My favorite part of being a teacher, is getting to know my students. I’ve found that they enjoy learning about me as well. I am not shy at all, so I don’t mind being an open book, so to speak. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m the art teacher, or because my students really trust and like me as a person, but my room is constantly full of students! They visit before and after class to tell me about their weekend, and some stay late to assist with the younger classes, or just to help clean. I gets lots of hugs too! I am aware of their home situations, and academic challenges, so that I can help them all individually. I have to take a unique approach to every child, because every child is different. When a student is struggling, I tell them a story about myself so they can relate, and not feel alone. They love to ask about the photos of my family, and about my art skills, so I constantly bring in pieces of my artwork, and they’re always impressed. It makes me feel like a celebrity! It’s almost as if that feeling of insecurity and inferiority has been lifted, since I’ve opened myself up to them. Teaching isn’t just about academics, it’s about personal relationships as well.
Nicole, your growing relationships with your students is inspiring to read about! I also think it’s important to share ourselves, and our enthusiasm with students, and to create a safe learning environment. I believe the social-emotional well-being of students can be positively affected when we can give them some of the attention they crave, as well as care about them, and show respect for their ideas. I want my students to feel confident and brave in their explorations, and when positive relationships are built with your community of learners, students seem to feel safer when trying something new.
Well said, Stacie!
Wow, that arts integration live binder site mentioned in the advocacy section has lots of great tweets and blog posts! -Can’t wait to browse further!
Being very new to teaching anyone other than my own kids – #4 really stood out to me. It’s hard to not compare myself to other more experienced teachers, knowing that it’s OK to start small and do what I love it very helpful!
I love the 5 key ideas, but the one that resonated with me the most was: “Share Yourself” which also connects for me with “Do what you love and start small.” I often find myself teaching about the life cycle of say the pumpkin, apple, frog, etc. So at some point, I’ll start with some long winded story about how I discovered, for example, a pumpkin in my garden and how did it get there when I clearly didn’t plant pumpkins that year, etc. etc. The kids love to hear that I am a real person and love the connection to their learning. Also, I end up drawing the life cycle of said pumpkin on chart paper and the kids think I’m a “brilliant” artist, but the fact of the matter is that as I demonstrate what each stage of the pumpkin looks like and show them the pictures from my story, together we end up using color, detail, and depth in the life cycle of “the pumpkin” and have a great visual and I get to color and draw at the same time!