Reflections on Beat Night – Poetic Experiences

This past Thursday a group of teachers took their third field trip organized by The Inspired Classroom. We attended Beat Night at the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH. What fun! It was a great night of relaxin', groovin' and inspirin'.

The evening began with an hour of featured poets reciting their original poems. There they stood, poets of all ages and backgrounds sharing their experiences with us - unhinged, unrated, truthful and full of life. They spoke of love and pain, emotion and faith. And all this was recited to the backdrop of live, improvisational music. The poets asked for a certain feel and the musicians started to play, laying out the landscape on which the lyrics of the poems rested.

The second hour was open mic and those who felt it, signed up to recite a poem with or without the band. I, knowing I would regret it if I didn’t, decided to put my name down before I lost my nerve. Ayanna Gallant, the hostess of the night (and guest blogger on TIC) introduced the readers one by one and they got up to read.

One poet was a former student of mine who gave an emotional poem about a tragic childhood experience. And in the end of the poem we heard her be at peace. It was beautiful and poetic, it sucked me in to her experience and emotional past. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought how poetry must have been a healing agent for her and how fortunate for me to have been able to witness this beautiful young lady share this part of her with all of us.

A couple of poets later, it was my turn. Once introduced, I got up to the mic, asking the band leader, Larry Simon to play something rhythmic and sultry with lots of drums. He instructed the rest of the band and the music started to play…

It was like magic how my words melted together with the music. We complimented each other with each nuance of melody and lyric. The words poured out my mouth like satin and I was entranced in the moment created by the sounds all around me.

It was a great experience and I’m glad it was captured on video, or at least you can hear the audio.
Later, as I listened to the performance and remembered the experience, it got me thinking.

Why don’t we do things like this more often? Be creative, share our experiences and build community through these art forms in true, raw, and meaningful ways? For me, reading my poem was pure enjoyment, a thrill, but for others it can be a way to get a message out, to tell a story or act as therapy for their soul.

Why don't we ask students to do this more - write from their experiences, from the gut!?

Another teacher near us had some of his high school students there. Two were being featured that night. HE allows for this in his classroom. He inspires his students to write gutsy poetry that means something real for them in their lives.

We need to do more of this for our children and for ourselves. I am thankful for these field trips. They have helped me to stay inspired in my own teaching so that I can inspire my students!

Next month is jazz and poetry month. What a great excuse to use to try out some poetry writing with my students.

PLaiC - Process, Play and Balance

PLaiC is now a new venture for me. It is a Professional Learning Community centered around Arts Integration. What a wonderful example of community. In this case it was a community of teachers getting together to talk freely about their profession and their passion for seeing true arts integration in their teaching.

There were a couple of themes we seemed to keep returning to: Process, Play and Balance.

In PROCESS, we discussed the importance of stressing the process by which we accomplish things and not just the product. I am reminded of how this does not happen in things such as “on-demand” writing like in much high stakes testing. When my students are asked to write a narrative they must do it in a matter of hours independently. There is no inspiration except for a worded prompt, no time to chat about your ideas before planning a story and no time to walk away from your draft before expecting to edit and revise it. What a shame! The writing process is taken out of the equation.

In art, process is important. When I was in grad school we learned to “Trust the Process” as McNiff’s title states. How pertinent it is to work through things, reflect, and revise in order to come out with quality work.

For more, see this collection of articles about “The Process”.

PLAY also came up quite a bit. Unfortunately, it was the lack of play that was mostly discussed. When that time is not there, the places in our brains that thrive on discovery, experimentation and play start to lose their vitality.

I am sad at the fact that as students get older, the less time they have to play. They need it. We need it. We need that time to create new things, work with new materials and discover new ways of doing things.

In terms of BALANCE, we all seemed to agree that we need balance in all things, including curriculum. It’s like the whole language/phonics based language debate – there needs to be balance. So is true in our teaching and integration of the arts. Our students need the basics (the 3 Rs), but they also need the creative. Our job is to teach with that balance, but we need the autonomy in our classrooms to be able to provide that for our students.

For more on balance, see the article “T.R.I.C.ing Kids”

I am so glad that I am now meeting and collaborating with other teachers in my district that share my views on the importance of the arts. There are more out there and it is my hope that this group will grow in the years to come. For now, this community is just what I need to continue my work as a professional.

Community Built Through Music

March is Music in Our Schools month. So let’s focus a couple of blogs on it! It is not an accident that we chose “community” as the focus for this month either, because music is a very powerful community builder!

Years ago, I came across this wonderful quote:

“No art form creates community as quickly as music.” ~Bobbie McFerrin

I whole heartedly agree. I’ve seen it happen so many times with people of all ages. I’ve been part of the community and played a role in helping to lead a community into creation.

A few years ago, I entered into a master’s degree program in Arts and Learning, where the cohort had already completed two courses. So, I was the newbie. Fortunately for me, the cohort’s next class was in music. Regardless, I was nervous about walking into a situation where others were already acquainted with one another. BUT then we were given instruments and asked to introduce ourselves to one another by playing in turn around the circle. I sang out through my drum and when I was done, all those once strange faces looked back at me with wide grins and an air of acceptance.

A little later we were all invited to play as a drum/percussion circle and after the ostinato began we all joined in: playing to the rhythm, finding our instrument’s place in the piece, getting our groove on and playing as one. And then the most magical thing happened. After quite some time, we all just finished – together. I don’t know what it was, or what causes this to happen, but we, as ONE without communicating with anything else but our instruments and expressions, knew the piece was over and finished it off. It had been our first time working and playing as a group; our first shared experience. From that moment on, I knew I was part of one amazing community – built through music!

Another example of this is from my very recent past – this past Saturday when I was conducting a workshop entitled “Building Creativity, Character and Community Through Music.” We discussed various ways to do this including listening. I took these ladies through the process of having an Active Listening experience using Chopin’s Prelude in A Major, Opus 28 No.7. That 48 seconds of beauty so inspired this group of teachers! They came up with the most wonderful images, stories and poems that they shared. It was in this sharing that we built an immediate community. As we listened, we shared a common experience, and as we shared our interpretations and the poetry inspired by the piece, we built bonds that would otherwise not be explored in a short 3 hour education workshop. (Check out their wonderful poetry here!)

I’d like to think I create these types of opportunities for my students in my classroom too. We listen to music, create music and play music together! Yes, I get them to make some noise and I even get a couple of odd glances from time to time. But I am fortunate to work in a place where community building and arts integration is smiled upon more often than not. This is such an important part of our students’ education, and I wouldn’t dream of leaving it out of my teaching.

Next blog – Ways to integrate music community building in your teaching. Due out Thursday, 3/11.

Poetry Written by Workshop Participants

This is a special collection of poems composed by workshop participants at the TIC Workshop “Building Creativity, Community and Character Through Music” on Saturday 3/6.

These were inspired by Chopin's Prelude in A Major, Op. 28 No.7

Enjoy!

The Mountain

Tip Tip Tip Tip Toe

Climb up up up High

Slide down down down Low

And Stop-and-Re-lax

~Dottie

The Pink Slippers

gliding

tip toes and down

quick – slow, moving around.

Breathe in – hold

then let it go.

Anticipate, feel

repeat again.

End with peace

before you kneel.

~Marney

Tender moments

in a lyrical way.

I capture the prize

but it is bittersweet.

I must release it and

find acceptance.

The loss still haunts.

~Nancy

Making Memories

life…

Finally, filled with love and wealth.

Our two lives joining as one.

How romantic life really is

life…

Making memories.

~Julie

Waltzing at the Shoals

Quiet voices – Seagull’s cries

1, 2, 3, 4

Morning chill to the air

1, 2, 3, 4

Freedom of pressure

1, 2, 3, 4

Skirts swirling

living for the moment

1, 2, 3, 4

Smells of coffee + breakfast

cooking

1, 2, 3, 4

Swirling in firm arms

1, 2, 3, 4

Waltzing at the Shoals

~Dawn
See Dawn perform her poem here:

Embracing

Light and soft

finished but not

peaceful, sweet

embracing.

Maybe goodbye,

maybe hello,

holding fast,

embracing.

~Debbie

Wedding Dance

Come together

Love, youth

memories, treasured

Special day

Happiness, excitement

Holding on / letting go

Love, tears

Embracing

Moving on

Wedding Day

~Sue

Change from The Ground Up

Education, in some areas is changing and, if it’s not, it needs to be. I firmly believe that in order for this to happen successfully, we teachers need to be the driving force. No longer can we sit back and have change happen from the top down. Instead change needs to happen from the ground up, at the grass roots, from us.

This type of leadership and motivation will come the more empowered we feel. And to be empowered, we need to work together and get the professional development that is necessary for us to teach in this new era of education.

I turn again to Daniel Pink a guru in the field of business management and motivation. In this video he talks extensively about motivation.



If you have 20 minutes, than this is worth your while. If you have a shorter time, fast forward 12 minutes in and listen to the end. Even though Pink talks about the business world his ideas transfer seamlessly to education in two ways: 1) We are professionals! 2) We educate the professionals of the future! These are two things we can never lose sight of.

My Biggest Need - Time

My biggest need as a professional is time, and in particular, time to collaborate with other teachers.

There is just no time to do what I really want to do at the level of quality that I would like to do it. I am fortunate enough to have an hour long prep time each day. (I know many schools don’t even allow for that.) However, much of that time is taken by meetings: IEP mtgs, pre and post observational mtgs, RtI mtgs, etc. Much of my work such as correcting and lesson planning is taken home in order for it to get done.

But it’s not even the housekeeping stuff that I’m talking about in terms of time. It’s also the time to collaborate with my coworkers: other fourth grade teachers including the arts and specialist teachers. Many times, during a 5-10 minute chance meeting, we will get a great idea, but then it is hard to follow through because our schedules don’t allow it. We are contained in our own classes with little time to reach out to the other talented adults with whom we work.

This needs to start changing and I’m sure in some districts or schools across the country it is. (I would love to hear from you!)

For now, I’d like to go back to my notes from that PD day with Mike Wasta. He said that in some areas of the world such as in Finland, Sweden, the UK and Australia, up to 50% of a teacher’s working day is spent away from direct instruction. That is unheard of in the US. The general public would go crazy thinking, “WHAT are those teachers doing the rest of the time?” and, “Where are the students?”

Well, the students, I’m assuming are still working and studying, just with another teacher. Collaboration! And as for the teacher who is not with students, well he or she is working on their craft of being an educator. In the dream school in my head, I can picture teachers collaborating and working on integrative lessons for students, reviewing student work and data, getting updated professional development and even teambuilding within themselves.

In terms of teacher’s work, here is a comparison again from my notes with Wasta:

“Old” Ways	“New” Ways
Teacher Isolation	Teacher Collaboration
Evaluation	Coaching
Intuitive Decision Making	Data Based Decision Making
Time as Constant	Achievement as Constant
Rigid Top-Down Management	Flat Management

The world is changing and it is calling for a new educational system. One that is based on teachers collaborating and becoming respected leaders in their own field. We have a need for this kind of system, but in order for that to happen, we need the time to make it possible.

Next Blog (due out on Saturday, February 27, 2010) – Ending thoughts on Education in a New Era

Make a Comment - We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this topic? What insights do you have to offer to the discussion? Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Needs of Today's Teachers

In today’s educational system, teachers find themselves in need, especially if they want to integrate, collaborate and educate the WHOLE child!

Here is a list of some needs I hear about daily in schools and online.

• Less stress from high stakes testing
• Quality professional development in everything from new methodologies to brain research
• Freedom to teach creatively
• Autonomy over our teaching
• Leadership roles in our schools
• Leadership roles in our profession
• TIME
• Money
• Support from administration
• Support from our students’ families

We teachers know the value of arts education and integration, but are hindered as mandated curriculum, budget cuts, data driven teaching, meeting AYP and high stakes testing puts a damper on our creativity as educators.

Every profession has their own set of needs. Teachers are no different except that their needs directly affect the children they teach. If teachers’ needs are not addressed and soon, then education will be in danger of being sub-par.

(This topic alone could be its own series…maybe it will.)

I know you have a comment to add. Please do!