In EDUC 401 (Career Education), we were lucky enough to have guest speaker, Julie Fisher, come to our class over to days and share her knowledge of fine arts in the classroom. I can’t express how informative these two days were. I learned so much, in such a short amount of time. We were involved in many hands-on activities that involved us moving around the room, get to know you activities, and games that involved a lot of concentration! We went through a ton of free resources that we will be able to use during our practicum experiences as well as when we one day get our own classrooms. Music and fine arts is not always an easy area for teacher to teach if they are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with teaching but Julie Fisher made it very clear that, that is not the case. Everyone and anyone can teach fine arts and music, as long as we incorporate our life passions and interests and that there are so many recourses that offer assistance if we are unsure and don’t know where to start.
An activity that we did during our first day with Julie, was based off the YouTube video “The Gift” by Russell Wallace. It was an Indigenous song that focused on the Northern Lights. Each student was given a flashlight with cellophane wrapped over the light in various colours and during specific parts of the song, depending on the colour you were given, you turned your light on and waved it to the beat back and fourth along the ceiling. This activity was a for us to create our own Northern Lights by following a beat and creating a beautiful setting in the classroom. I most defiantly can see myself using this activity in my own classroom as it created a calming tone within the classroom, but it also involved focus and understanding rhythm (a great activity to incorporate fine arts into your classroom!) Another activity we did as a class was an instrumental activity that we followed along to the song called “____”. There were various instruments (a wooden frog, sticks, triangle, maraca) and we were put into different groups according to the instrument you received. We followed along to the song which had different colouring markings to tell us when it was our turn to play our instrument. It was a fun activity that got everyone laughing and enjoying themselves. We even tried the song in the fastest speed it could go! And the best part of this activity is that it required a song from YouTube and a kit from the DLC. It is such a simple, low prep activity that incorporates music into the classroom that is enjoyable for everyone!
I really enjoy having different people coming into to our courses and offering a different perspective and ideas that we can integrate into our own classrooms. We are forever learning and making connections with different people within the education community is uplifting and exhilarating. It allows us as future teachers to see the passion through those that have been teaching for a while and have had an abundance of different positions within the field of education.
