EDUCATION IN THE ARTS

Authors: Alexia, Isabella, Camila, Joe, Destiny, Masai, Angela,   Gillian,  Myra, Kyra, Tina, Chelsea, Ana, Carmen  The students explored storytelling as an introduction to Theater Arts.  Sharing and writing stories became part of a social and cultural activity which purpose was to illustrate the kind of learning environment educators can create in their class. The first exercise was about improvising a collective story through which every student could add their own piece.  Every culture has its own stories or narratives and so do this particular generation of students. They shared themes that pertain the kind of reality they are immersed in at this very moment.  Sharing stories can be a means of entertainment, cultural preservation or instilling moral values, but it can also be a way for educators to enhance their instructional strategies. Bellow, they summarized their experience by explaining how they think storytelling can improve...

Instruments used in the circle LINK:  Instrumental Music Circle Because the students had already created sound with an array of random objects during our previous meeting, today they explored sound with actual musical instruments. They warmed up with the sound of their own palms as they became familiar with the three different claves of the rumba complex: yambu, guaguanco and columbia. Then, they picked a musical instrument and began to play with the different sounds they could produce.  Working as an ensemble, Sally created a rhythm, using the rhythmic claves.  The rest of the students added to the rhythm of the claves the sound of their own instrument. The result was a layering of sounds that felt harmonious, polyrhythmic and fun. The experiential turned academic when the students went back to their respective groups and worked of creating a lesson plan based on the exercise we did, the Instrumental Circle. Using the Miami Dade County Public School's curri...

LINK:  Metalic Sound Alexia Hirlemann,  Joe Jackson,  Angela Moon,  Christina Beltran,  The initial process of finding our "instruments" was unsuccessful as it did not produce the sound we were hoping for. Using trial and error we were able to find our sound which included bangs, and  high pitched clangs (like a cow bell) to create a well rounded percussion ensemble. The process was fun and showed that all sound is all around us.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEY CHAIN Fortuna, Lucia, Danielle, Tommy, Xinbei, Masai Through this process we learned how to be synchronized with each other. We started off with one person (Fortuna) directing us and coming up with a beat for us to join in with. Then we decided that our sound was too rhythmic, and we needed a constant sound in the background. Our process was a lot of trial and error and listening closely to what the other...

Team Members: Tommy Covelli, Chelsea Jocelyn, Masai Rains, Katherine Vovoulis and Lucia Pampana   Lesson: Emotions Objective: Teaching students that they can learn to work as a team towards a collective effort without verbal skills (i.e. without speaking) Age Group: 3 rd Graders Activity: ·          Warm Up o    5 Minute o    Let One Child Choose The Instrumental Each Class o    Instrumentals §   Chose this because our activity focuses on not speaking o    Full Body – Basic Warm Up ·          Emotion Based Dance Movement o    Happy o    Sad o    Angry §   Here students will be given more instructions as this is one of the more confusing emotions. o    Hungry o    Students are tasked with working as a group to communicate these emotions through body movement...

From left to right: Paige, Danielle and Myra Group members practicing the dance moves,  which represent the animals described in the lesson plan Animal Charades. --------------------------------------------- Lesson: Bones Group Members: Ana Teresa Moreno, Christina Beltran,  Mackenzie Buckley, Gillian Sutherland, Destiny Washington, Angela Moon  Lesson: Body Parts   Group Member: Marissa Hanson , Amanda Clichy-Silva, Luci Pampana,  Katherine Vavoulis, Kyra Williams, Carmen Boyd  Lesson: Math, Shapes and Angles Group Members: Isabella Iglesias, Tommy Covelli, Fortuna Gateno, Alexia Hirlemann, Kennedi Stephens Lesson: Animal Charades Group Members: Danielle McIntosh, Paige Cilluffo , Myra Orillac, Joseph Jackson, Chelsea Jocelyn, Masai Rains

Link: Circle Dance Class - 2018 The students were exposed to their first experience with ritual dance, a type of dance that evokes movement metaphors, gestural symbols and conscious trance as essential components of nonverbal communication.   Using an ancestral Neolithic dance as a reference, the Taino's  areito , the class was organized around the idea of a circular formation, moving counterclockwise, with a steady forward and backward step that resembled the movement of the hurricane.  They connected with each other by making eye contact, holding hands and being part of the same circle, or as someone mentioned, the same cycle of life.   The group accompanied its own dance with their own voices by layering vowel sounds that created a harmonious common and unified voice, otherwise described as a cacophony of sounds.  Movement and voice became one performative unit as they swung their arms up an down, singing and dancing to t...

Montage Art is the  process of making a composite picture by bringing together into a single composition a number of different pictures or parts of pictures and arranging these, as by superimposing one on another, so that they form a blended whole while remaining distinct. Our class has use montage art to create lessons on other subjects such as: Health, Dance, and Social Studies. Paige Cilluffo, Sally Salkini, Tiff Chalhoub , Tina Beltran, Nate Strickler Health and Wellness Well Being Class Meet Time: 2 times a week (Tuesday / Thursday). Location: Peacock Park, Coconut Grove (Tuesday) UM Kitchen (Thursday) Length: 60 min per class Lesson Plan:  Peacock Park ·      Start with students entering to “feel- good” music, and begin with safety stretches (lead by instructor), before the students begin to workout.  Instructor stands in front and leads stretches. (5 minutes of stretches)  Have students run 3 laps aroun...