Teaching Through The Arts

Wow! It has been far too long since my last post! I am feeling very energized right now as I have just finished a fabulous day with some wonderful educators. Today I ran "The Blossoming Learner: Integrating the Arts into the Learning Process" workshop for a small... scratch that... intimate group of educators from Weymouth ! It was fantastic. I was very impressed with the risks that they were willing to take without the benefit of the large group "safety net." Though it might seem more difficult to perform in front of a large audience it can be the exact opposite. Just a few sets of eyes can be unnerving (Especially when you don't have the benefit of watching others go through the same tasks as you!). I wanted to compliment them and welcome them to the blog! Let the integrating begin!

Donald M. Norton, M.Ed. holds a Masters degree in Creative Arts in Learning from Lesley University. Over an eight year career he has taught the third, fourth, and fifth grades, as well as English to ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. Currently Donnie teaches fifth grade English and history at the Abigail Adams Middle School in Weymouth , Massachusetts. Having just completed directing Weymouth High School's senior class musical, he understands the profound impact the arts have on students of all age and ability levels. As a teacher, singer, actor, dancer, storyteller, poet, and father, the arts are an everyday part of Donnie's world. He has recently developed a teacher-training course called "The Blossoming Learner" that focuses on practical ways to integrate the arts into the everyday learning process. It is designed to expose educators to various arts modalities in a non-threatening way, making it possible for any teacher to immediately bring the arts into...

As we begin the journey that will be school year 08-09, let us be conscious of setting the tone early and often. We must be sure to guard against any intolerance and judging from the outset. These negative factors will keep some of your students from truly expressing themselves through the arts because they will be concerned about the impending backlash. However, we can create a safe zone by being vigilant and not allowing these negatives to be allowed in our classrooms. Even the "playful" jibe is enough to worry our most self-conscious student. Best of luck to all and remember, we inspire best when we ourselves our inspired to do our best!

Hello everyone! Thank you for your emails and support! You have been wonderful! I wanted to let you know about an educator friend of mine. His name is Steve MacDonald and he is a music educator who has worked at all levels of the public schools. From kindergartners through seniors in high school, the comments are always the same! We love Mr. MacDonald! He has created a great teaching program called "Songs for Social Studies". I have created a link in the side bar for your use, or simply click on the title of this post! Keep on Keepin ' on!

What is poem? Don’t give me some long, convoluted definition. Just answer the question. Could you? Don’t worry, I can’t either. I can’t say definitively what poetry is and I can’t say with certainty what poetry isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you and I don’t understand the general concept of poetry. I know we do. All I am saying is that neither you nor I, not even the Poet Laureate, has the ability to say that something is or isn’t a poem unless we have written it ourselves. (If you happen to meet him, please don’t tell him I said he couldn’t!) One of the first things that I try to drive home with my students is that if they say that something they have written is a poem, then it’s a poem, and no one has the right to tell them otherwise! Around Christmas time, I was invited by the parent council to perform a poetry/storytelling evening at my school. About 200 students and parents (Grades 5-8) came back to school on a Thursday night to take in the show, have some hot coco...

You know what I’m talking about! Everything is perfectly normal in your classroom (well… I mean as normal as it can be). Suddenly the atmosphere is sucked out of your room leaving a soundless, scentless (OK, maybe not scentless if your kids had gym that day) vacuum. The cause? It wasn’t a star burning out and leaving a dense black hole in its wake. It wasn’t the hole in our ozone layer expanding to the point where all oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, and whatever else you science teachers know is up there, is violently ripped from our world’s grasp. (If that’s even possible, I don’t know. I don’t teach science.) This catastrophic shift has not been caused by anything even remotely close to that magnitude. No. It has been caused by the utterance of one seemingly harmless, yet somehow daunting, four-letter word. You know the one. P-O-E-M! AAAAaaaahhhhh! (Insert the “Kill” theme music from PSYCHO here.) You know you just found yourself going, “Ree Ree Ree Ree...” all alone in front of your computer...