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Honestly, the Arts Integration Network

has changed my love of teaching tremendously.

This has been the first year that I have been excited about coming to work to teach my kids

because I know my kids are excited about learning and that they are actually learning and

learning in ways that they want to learn.

Arts Integration has changed the climate in my classroom in terms of the fact that

students are really engaged. They love the idea that I can use their vesture

which is a physical way of showing vocabulary words. They love the idea that they're a part

of the conversation in whatever we're making.

Before attending the Arts Integration Network professional development, I thought

Arts Integration was just bringing arts into the classroom through singing, dancing, I just that that's all that it was.

My idea of Arts Integration was more drawing, sketching, using paints arts and crafts. It was very visual.

It was not a physical interpretation of what art can be in the classroom.

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I would now define it as integrating arts in the classroom, not just bringing a game here or there, it's also integrating into the curriculum

students are learning. [clip audio] When I say solid, get into a shape of a solid.5-4-3-2-1

Make sure you stay on your two feet! Make sure you're not squishing anybody!Very careful...

When I say liquid, you're going to begin to move away from each other

And when I say gas, you're going to move really fast.

And now Arts Integration to me in the classroom is taylored more towards the children using their bodies to show me a definition for example.

or articulate to me their problem solving. It's using their body to comprehend.

Probably one of the most noticable things when you first walk into a session, is the level of student engagement.

Just how focused they are and how much enjoyment they are getting from the interaction between themselves and the coach.

and just how attentive, how much they retain, after their interaction with the coach.

But this is sort of a new exciting frontier in Arts Education where we take a fine arts subject like theater, and we combine that with the four core subjects

ELA, Social Studies, Math and Science, and use those art forms as a method to teach content of those core subjects.

When I use Arts Integration in the classroom, as a teacher, it makes me feel like I'm the fun teacher again.

It's enjoyable. My class not just, of course they enjoyed it before, I like to beleive, but they enjoying much more. I've seen

it show up in their test scores as well.

The teachers that are involved in the Arts Integration Network are learning how to do Arts Integration from the Alley Theater's teaching artists, who are masters in their craft.

And what's great is they come in and have 16 hours of professional development embedded in the classroom, where it's not just a sit and get with their peers, but they're actually modelling.

They're co-teaching and they're teaching teachers in the network how to do Arts Integration.

We learned a lot of different things, fun things, eye opening things, things I really wanted to use in the classroom.

One thing I really enjoyed is we would learn a particular game, or something we could use in our content, and we were actually able to see it, integrated used in a classroom.

I'm very excited that we began this partership with the Alley by the Alley bringing teachers into the classroom to deliver the Staging Stem but now we're actually partnered with them to train.

our own teachers to use those prinicples in the classroom. And I think that it's huge becuase our teachers are learning innovative strategies.

They're teaching and learning.In Fort Bend, one of our big goals is being innovative, and providing an engaging learning environment. We talk a lot about inspiring students.

And equipping students, and that begins by inspiring and equipping teachers. So I think any teacher of any experience level

would be inspired to go sit in a class about Arts Integration, learn some new strategies, things they never have even thought of before

and them to bring them to the classroom and use them in a way to help teach English, math, science, social studies.

in new ways to really take the learning in the classroom to a whole new level.

[kids] Up, down, I'm pulling on a pulley. [teacher] solid [kids]particles are packed closely together.

[teacher]liquid. [students unintelligible] [teacher] Good.

What I would say to a teacher that is thinking about using Arts Integration

in the classroom is Do It. Try It

I also thought at the beginning there was no way this is going to work.

It's more than worth the compromise of changing a few things in your classroom.

becasue the outcome far outweighs what you have to change in the classroom.

So if you'd like to find out more about

our Arts Integration and Professional Development

Activities, Check us out on the Alley Theatre website

Just click into Education and and there's a lot of information about how

to contact us.

We look forward to working to working with you

and we hope that you enjoy learning about what we have to offer.

to the Houston area schools, and individual teachers

and our students. [music]