Late last month, the Cunniff School hosted its second annual "Specialists Night," all to the rave reviews of the Cunniff families. Centered around the art work of Mexican Muralist, Diego Rivera, the event had both an international and an interdisciplinary flavor. In addition to being a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together for an evening of snacks, dancing and appreciation of the children's art work, the event offered parents a chance to meet our specialist teachers in person and to hear a bit about the learning goals, instructional practices, and fantastic results of the gifted teachers in our art, music, technology and Physical Education departments. The good news is that the children eagerly led their parents to the different stations, where student work was exhibited. Additionally, family members, from pre-schoolers to grandparents, were active participants in Latin dancing demos in the gym; not to mention the Mexican food provided by a number of our families that offered a venue for enjoying one another's company after such a long, snowy winter. The difficulty with the format that night, however, was that parents may not have been fully aware of the more serious learning goals that underpinned the children's work. There is always much more behind the scenes of good education than can be seen, initially. And, it is only when we explore those learning objectives in greater depth that we realize the true power of experiences such as "Specialist Night." With that in mind, it is with great pride that we expand here on the teachers' presentations.
The initial catalyst to our evening planning was the availability of mural-sized posters of Rivera's work and the generous funding from our PTO that made renting these valuable resources possible. In art class, using the works as sources of inspiration, the children in grades PreK-5 made their own versions of Mexican bark paintings, cut-tin designs and "papel picado," the cut paper decorations that frequently appear at Mexican celebrations. In the process of creating these pieces, discussions of color choice, design, and composition, as well as the general feeling produced by a work of art were prevalent in all our classes. As a final capstone to the project, the children spent time grouped around the mural display in the hall, copying selected sections of Rivera's works much as art students do in a real museum. Results of this work was on display around the school for our evening presentation, where children proudly shared them with their families.
In our music classes, the theme of Mexican folk songs was used to reinforce children's understanding of rhythm, beat, and harmony. In addition, at "Specialists Night,"our music teacher displayed representative digital samples of projects from Grades 4 and 5 that the children had generated using Garage Band. Teams of students planned original rap songs that reinforced the school's recently adopted motto: Respectful, Responsible, Ready and Safe. The students drafted rap poems and reviewed myriad instrumental clips available in Garage Band to determine blends they thought would sound appealing and would reflect the message of their poems. This activity also provided the music teacher with an opportunity to lead the children in a discussion of musical style, reading and music notation, and current trends in music.
Physical Education classes also capitalized on the Mexican theme of the evening. Prior to the presentation, P.E. classes spent time learning traditional dances popular in Latin America. In the process, students worked on the often ignored gross-motor skills of spinning with a partner, cross-body pivots and keeping time to music using both sides of the body. That night, the unstructured nature of the event resulted in the children and parents from one of our Mexican families leading impromptu sessions for the entire school community in the more subtle nuances of merengue dancing.
Our final specialist area to present that night was our technology classes, for which the students had planned and filmed biographies of Diego Rivera. As always during their work with technology, students were encouraged to think about the best use of the medium, to plan their work considering both their message and the audience, and to practice many interpersonal skills vital to venues from classroom discussion to formal oral presentations. The results of our entire evening were also captured digitally and loaded on the web for sharing with those who could not join us. Please visit the display at the following URL: http://esees.edu.glogster.com/false/.
In this era of difficult budgets and time crunches in our schools, the disciplines, such as art, music, Physical Education and technology, not included in standardized tests are often the first to go. However, it is vital to remember that these are the disciplines that also provide students with a chance to apply their skills in a more holistic way; these are the disciplines that ask for performance that reflects real life application; and these are the disciplines that encourage exploration, creativity, synthesis of knowledge for many areas and the love of learning that supports life-long study. Our next step as educators is to add the evaluation of student performance that will validate the importance of the learning in these instructional areas, and to remind adults and children alike of the ways in which the Fine and Performing Arts enrich all our lives.
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