Teaching Through The Arts

I love learning new terms and putting language to concepts; it helps me to learn it better and also helps me to explain it to others better. Allowing students to move so they can learn and think has been a constant theme in this blog, and the term "embodied cognition," thinking with and through our bodies from the article "The Body Learns"   by Annie Murphy Paul on Slate.com discusses the importance of getting the body involved in the learning process. In a series of experiments carried out more than a decade ago, Arthur Glenberg of Arizona State University " found  that children’s reading comprehension improved when they acted out a written text , using a set of representational toys (a miniature barn and horse, for example, accompanied a story about a farm). Glenberg then  demonstrated  that the same procedure could work on a digital platform: In a 2011 experiment, he showed that having first- and second-grade students manipulate images of toys on a comput...

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!

Have you ever thought of integrating poetry and music into your math lessons? It sounds like a great idea to me, and I would think that students would enjoy it as well. Check out the lesson "A Geometric Song:Patterns in Math and Music" from the Kennedy Center's ARTSEDGE website by clicking on the title of this post. There are a wealth of lessons spanning all grade levels, all subjects, and all arts modalities on the site. It's worth a long look. You can also get to the site by clicking on it in the links section at the lower right side of your screen. Have fun exploring!

Click on the title of this post to view Cape Cod Times photographer Steve Heaslip's photo gallery of Provincetown's elementary school using the arts to learn the global education curriculum. Photo credit: Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times

A recent article in the Cape Cod Times reports on how the Veteran's Memorial Elementary School in Provincetown, Massachusetts uses the arts in a day-long celebration aimed at teaching African culture. Click on the title of this post to read the article.