Final ImagineIT Report
What a year! I began it with concerns regarding my basic technology knowledge and justification of time allotted to the arts in Science. Teaching at a Fine Arts Magnet School, I already knew my students loved Art and were creative (you can just listen to them come up with homework excuses for proof). The question was - would they be able to apply this creativity and love of the Arts to Science and learn content at the same time?
For some evidence to support a conclusion, I polled my new 7th grade students at the beginning of the year. When asked if they liked Science, about 20% of them raised their hands. The general consensus was that they mostly did boring labs, watched movies, and read textbooks. When questioned as to why he raised his hand, of the boys said it was because he was able to sleep in that class. At the end of this year I received a very different response. Now the majority of the class raised their hands and said that they liked Science. They loved making songs and interacting with each other creatively. According to one girl, she said that composing songs made her remember more and she understood the Science topic better. They enjoyed all of the projects and said that they felt like they had learned more this year than in the past.
My 8th graders gave a rather surprising response. Although my plan had been to focus on the video making with them, it was nixed shortly after we started. I ended up adding in activities to some units that called for them to design experiments as a group or pair to prove a theory or understand a concept. Although not Art per say, it involved artistic skills such as creativity and freedom of design, and there was no particular right solution to the challenge. Many of them said that these were their favorite lessons this year and they were able to remember important details from them.
I learned so much through this process. One of the most freeing things I discovered is that you really can learn almost anything if you search the Internet long enough and invest some tinker time. I also found that students LOVE autonomy and many of them will spend much more time and effort on a project that poses a creative challenge than they would studying for a test. I realized that the common theme in all classes was that students welcomed the opportunity to create and to rise to a challenge (even though they may complain at first). The end result was pride in their work, a deeper understanding of the concepts for more students, and a greater enjoyment of the learning process.
For some evidence to support a conclusion, I polled my new 7th grade students at the beginning of the year. When asked if they liked Science, about 20% of them raised their hands. The general consensus was that they mostly did boring labs, watched movies, and read textbooks. When questioned as to why he raised his hand, of the boys said it was because he was able to sleep in that class. At the end of this year I received a very different response. Now the majority of the class raised their hands and said that they liked Science. They loved making songs and interacting with each other creatively. According to one girl, she said that composing songs made her remember more and she understood the Science topic better. They enjoyed all of the projects and said that they felt like they had learned more this year than in the past.
My 8th graders gave a rather surprising response. Although my plan had been to focus on the video making with them, it was nixed shortly after we started. I ended up adding in activities to some units that called for them to design experiments as a group or pair to prove a theory or understand a concept. Although not Art per say, it involved artistic skills such as creativity and freedom of design, and there was no particular right solution to the challenge. Many of them said that these were their favorite lessons this year and they were able to remember important details from them.
I learned so much through this process. One of the most freeing things I discovered is that you really can learn almost anything if you search the Internet long enough and invest some tinker time. I also found that students LOVE autonomy and many of them will spend much more time and effort on a project that poses a creative challenge than they would studying for a test. I realized that the common theme in all classes was that students welcomed the opportunity to create and to rise to a challenge (even though they may complain at first). The end result was pride in their work, a deeper understanding of the concepts for more students, and a greater enjoyment of the learning process.