If you want to see a GREAT teacher, I would highly recommend stopping by the 3rd Grade classroom of Mrs. Lacrua. From the moment I stepped into her classroom, I was thoroughly impressed.
For my first observation, I had the opportunity to watch her teach a literacy lesson.
Classroom Management
If someone would have told you that you had stepped into a 3rd grade classroom, you may not have believed them for how well behaved these students were. They all had their eyes focused on the screen and was strictly focused on the content at hand and what the teacher was teaching them.
Mrs. Lacrua did an amazing job of gathering ideas from the students while also maintaining a high expectation of focus and dedication from the students. I was frantically taking notes of things I could use and incorporate in my future classroom.
Art's Incorporation
Whether Mrs. Lacrua realized it or not, she was incorporating the arts. When the students were writing their persuasive essay on while vanilla ice cream was the best, the students were using this song, (to a familiar children's lullaby)
"Hook, opinion, reasons three. Example, opinion, so you'll see. Stating our opinion help us be. Writers of the century!"
The students knew every word! She was teaching them the sequencing of writing while also allowing them to learn music. The combination of the two created a memorized song that the students will be able to store in their memory for a long time.
This practice continued when I heard the song for all the multiples of 3, to clean up and different attention signals. I could see just in this first observation that Mrs. Lacrua had a great ability to incorporate the arts and I could see how her students were already benefiting from this tool.
After this observation...I'm excited to get started! I'm excited to see how I can take arts integration one step further by incorporating it in movement. I'm excited to learn how to continue to teach students how to dance and help them learn content through music and dance. I know I've got a supported and phenomenal teacher backing me up, a great mentor at BYU supporting me and an amazing experience ahead of me.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you posted about your observations! It's so fun that we were in the same Dance 326 class together, and I'm positive you're going to be a huge asset to the future integration of the arts in your assigned classroom, and your loving energy and enthusiasm will be contagious with the kids you teach!