DrAmA

I always thought that Drama was about plays and Shakespeare. Instead, I've learned a lot of new ways in which drama can be incorporated and improve the overall function of the classroom. For example, we talked in class about having students create skits to help them remember new vocabulary words. I think this helps students see more than just a word on paper, but it helps the word become alive and they are able to connect a word with a visual. I especially think it's great when students themselves act something out because then they remember it even more. I believe exercises and tools like this will be great in the classroom to improve all aspects of school-whether it's vocabulary and English or science or math. Drama may also be helpful in situations such as role-playing and teaching students appropriate behavior. Although you tell a student something over and over, they often won't be able to fully understand until it happens or they see it. I also think that it's a valuable way to get students' feelings out. Sometimes if students have an outlet, they are more likely to use it instead of using others. By acting feelings or problems out, students are able to prevent more problems and solve existing ones.

FiElD!

Overall, Field was a great experience! I loved being in the classroom with the kids. At first, I admit, I struggled because we weren't doing much of anything and were sitting in the back until we got the hang of the class. Then we went ahead and did our lesson plans.

My favorite lesson we did was the arts was a music lesson I was able to do. Fulfilling curriculum requirements, I had SEVERAL different selections of music I played for the students. I played short clips ranging anywhere from 8 seconds to a little over a minute. The songs were all different genres and gave the students all types of emotions. I didn't tell them the titles of the songs and they had no to very limited lyrics. The students filled out a worksheet while they listened that included what genre they thought the song was, and things the song made them feel or reminded them of. After we listened to all 12 clips, we talked about 2 or 3 of them and what the students learned. Then we talked about the elements of music and how they did this (tone, rhythm, volume, etc). I played more short clips that showed them examples of each of these elements and we discussed the impact the elements had on those clips and the emotions of the students. The kids got really into it and learned a lot. I then gave them homework in which they picked any 3 different songs and did the same sort of activity as they did in class, plus wrote down what elements of music contributed to these feelings.