Dance Reflection

I really enjoyed the dance unit. I began taking dance lessons when I was three years old and I have loved dancing ever since. However, I had never learned how to incorporate dance into the classroom, so this dance unit was a different experience for me. It was definitely a lot different than the dance that I am used to, but I still enjoyed it.

While in field, Angie and I were able to incorporate movement. We weren't able to do dance, necessarliy, but they did how songs that they would sing that had actions and movements in them. You could tell that getting their bodies moving was so pleasurable for the kids and that it got them ready to focus on the next task at hand.

I will definitely use the techniques we learned in this class and implement them into my future field experiences and put them into use in my own future classroom. I think dance is a wonderful thing and so many emotions can be portrayed through dance. Even if my students don't understand that concept fully, they will still have a fun time moving around in the classroom.

Field Experience Reflection

I was assigned to complete my first semester or student teaching at Ridgeline Elementary in Highland. I went into my field experience not knowing exactly what to expect, but I enjoyed my experience more than I expected to. I worked with Mrs. Patti Ratliff in the fourth grade. I had never thought much about teaching fourth grade, but after my experience with the fourth graders, I would definitely not be opposed to the idea.

            Mrs. Ratliff had a good balance of freedom and rigidity in her classroom. When she needed the kids’ attention, she demanded their attention and kept it. But when it came time for the students to work on their own, she was a little more lax, and as long as the noise level wasn’t too loud, she just let them work. The students in the class all respect Mrs. Ratliff and she creates a fun atmosphere for them to learn in. Mrs. Ratliff definitely taught me a lot about the teacher that I hope to become both by her actions and through words.

            One of the many things that I learned from Mrs. Ratliff is that you need to establish expectations early so that you can have fun in the end. Students need to know that they are expected to work so that they can create a strong work ethic at a young age. This way, the students will work hard so that they can have fun, and the fun they have is more rewarding because they worked so hard in order to earn their reward.

            Another thing that I learned from my time in Mrs. Ratliff’s room is that I want to have a well organized classroom. I could tell that Mrs. Ratliff started the year with a well organized room, but as the year has gone on, there are areas of the room that have become quite disorganized. When it came time to find something she needed or even a paper that she had used the day before, it was easily lost. This definitely taught me that I want to have a place for everything and that I need to keep my materials where they belong so that when it comes time to use them, I know exactly where to find them.

            Overall, I had such a wonderful experience with Mrs. Ratliff and her class. I learned so much from Mrs. Ratliff, the other fourth grade teachers, and the darling fourth graders themselves. I am definitely looking forward to my future student teaching experiences and to having a class of my own. 

            In my future class, I will definitely incorporate the creative arts more. Whenever we incorporated the arts into our lessons, the students loved it! They really enjoyed themselves and were a lot more involved in the lesson. I think the arts have this effect on almost every student in the elementary school classroom.

Music Relection

Music can be a very important part of the classroom! A lot of the time, putting facts or words to music makes them much easier to remember. The lessons we did in class were very enjoyable! I feel like some of the lessons, including ours, could have had the words organized a little better so that the song flowed nicely. I must admit, though, that it was hard to plan a whole lesson around one song.


I think in my future class, I will definitely use music, but I don't know that I will do whole lessons just on one song. I definitely think that it is fun and advantageous for students, but I would just have the song as PART of the instruction, not all of instruction. But I will for sure include music in my instruction and try my best to teach them about music and why it is important.

I think the project went well. I think it was definitely a lot harder than I expected it to be, but it was still fun. I feel like we didn't really know what we were doing but we all worked together and it turned out well. I am really glad that this lesson was done as a team. I really enjoy working in teams in this class as well as my other classes. It is definitely something that I will implement in my classroom.

Drama Reflection

I definitely enjoyed this unit! I guess I always thought that incorporating drama into the classroom takes a lot of time, but it doesn't take much more than you would usually use. Plus, it gets the students active so they will actually remember what they learned about. It's hard to decide which activities I will use the most in my classroom. I have really enjoyed the progressive story exercises where everyone comes up with a portion of the story. They help with creativity and flow of a story. I also enjoyed some of the process drama activities. I don't know that I would do as many activities as we did in class for any one book, but I think one or two activities makes the book for fun and memorable for the students. There are many different reasons for incorporating drama into the curriculum. It makes learning more memorable for the students, it exposes them to different types of drama, and it gives them something different to experience and work with.

The process drama activity was a lot of fun. I actually did most of the work for my group. I told them about Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot and they thought it sounded like a good idea so I got the book, but because I was the only one with the book, I was  put in charge of coming up with the activities. The other girls in my group did help me with lesson plan outline, so that was very nice. I loved all of the other group presentations! They all picked really fun books and had really fun activities planned!

Visual Arts Reflection

I was kind of surprised about how much Arts Integration helps with students' overall success in school. I always know that doing art was important, but I didn't realize just how much it helped the students. Most of the concepts we learned in visual art I had already learned from previous courses, but it was still nice to go over the concepts again and refresh them in my mind.


I think I will definitely integrate the arts more into my teaching. I will also teach my students the different elements and principles of art so that they understand. I think it is also important for students to understand what makes art aesthetically pleasing so I will teach them about the rule of thirds and other concepts.

My group worked very well together. We each had different assignments and they all came together well. I feel like I am already really close to all the girls in the cohort so working with any of them is fun and I enjoy it. We can talk about things that aren't working or ask for extra help. I think we each contributed equally to the group project.

The Arts and Me

Arts were never a big part of my education. I have always loved to dance, but besides that, I have never been really involved with the arts. Honestly, I don't know if I ever thought it was really important. I was never really good at visual arts, which is why, perhaps I didn't really care if it was integrated into my schooling. I enjoy dancing, and although I am not musically talented, I still enjoy music. I also enjoy drama, and I was involved in a few drama productions throughout school. However, as we discussed the importance of creative arts integration, I wish that it had been more of a part of my education.

None of my teachers used arts that much. We had music class once a week, and every once in a while we would do dance in P.E. and I always really enjoyed those times. I must say that my fifth grade year was when I was most involved in the arts. I sung in the school choir and was also involved in our school production of Tom Sawyer. I was also really involved in dance and did a variety of performances. However, I don't know that it was really the teacher as much as I just wanted to try new things.

As we discussed how helpful it is to have arts integrated into education, it definitely made me want to nurture in my students a love for art. It can help children in so many different ways and I believe that it can truly be an outlet for a lot of children. It breaks up normal class time and provides the kids with a fun learning activity.