Comments from Teachers at the 2012 GVWP Demonstration Lab at Goodwin School
During the two-week workshop at Goodwin School, nineteen teachers studied books, discussed ideas for K-6 instruction, and observed demonstration lessons with real students. The teachers worked together to plan lessons and activities in classrooms and computer labs, finding ways to help students at all ability levels increase their motivation, confidence, and achievement. Every day, after the students left, the teachers met to discuss what they read, what they observed, and what they learned.
Debra Amarante
As a high school art teacher, I found this workshop inspiring for introducing my art students to children's book illustrators and how they work within producing a book. Just like with how chocolate and peanut butter go together so well, art and literature works well together in the same way, and especially through children's books. As a staff, we talked about the different techniques that authors/illustrators used to get their point across within their work. The tones, colors, and media choices in the illustrations, as well as the word choices, font choices, and flow of the writing all matter in producing a good quality children's book; and these are just some of the things we focused on and learned in this course.
Teachers shared things like apps and books that made our lessons more appealing and interesting. Collaboratively, we worked together to help students create a story on storybird.com, which I plan to introduce my high school art students to for illustration ideas and how they can be incorporated into a story.
Lastly, this was just an overwhelming, exciting, and fun experience that I will bring back to my classroom. Even though this course focuses on K-6 grades, I could tweak many of the lesson ideas for high school art!
Teachers shared things like apps and books that made our lessons more appealing and interesting. Collaboratively, we worked together to help students create a story on storybird.com, which I plan to introduce my high school art students to for illustration ideas and how they can be incorporated into a story.
Lastly, this was just an overwhelming, exciting, and fun experience that I will bring back to my classroom. Even though this course focuses on K-6 grades, I could tweak many of the lesson ideas for high school art!
Krista Beltran
Working in the K-2 computer lab was an eye-opening experience for me. As a 7th grade teacher, I had little experience with the younger kids, but I learned so much working with them, especially that the writing process is not all that different than in my middle school classroom. I loved watching them use their creative voices to write stories using technology, and seeing the pride in their faces when they shared the stories with their family and friends. I look forward to the Demo Lab experience each year for this reason and many more. It can truly be life changing!
Amber Freitas
My favorite component of this course was being provided the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers. No one understands a teacher like a teacher! The best ideas/techniques I use in my classroom were "stolen" or inspired by many of my colleges. I have new websites, apps, lessons, techniques and picture books to share with my future students.
My favorite visual arts/writing activity was "The Secret Shortcut". The picture book told a story of two friends who take a not-so-short-cut to school. The follow-up activities were great! The students worked with a partner to create their own map, with surprises along the way. The students then used sequencing words such as first, next, then, last to create a story of their adventure. I loved the way the students worked together!
Integrating more visual arts into my classroom is going to take a conscious effort on my behalf. Most of the curriculum does not automatically lend itself to visual art opportunities, they have to be teacher-created. Being aware that this is the case, I am going to make that conscious effort to incorporate the arts in my classroom. I understand the benefits of doing so for my students, and I want to make this a priority…. Thank you!
My favorite visual arts/writing activity was "The Secret Shortcut". The picture book told a story of two friends who take a not-so-short-cut to school. The follow-up activities were great! The students worked with a partner to create their own map, with surprises along the way. The students then used sequencing words such as first, next, then, last to create a story of their adventure. I loved the way the students worked together!
Integrating more visual arts into my classroom is going to take a conscious effort on my behalf. Most of the curriculum does not automatically lend itself to visual art opportunities, they have to be teacher-created. Being aware that this is the case, I am going to make that conscious effort to incorporate the arts in my classroom. I understand the benefits of doing so for my students, and I want to make this a priority…. Thank you!
Cassie Gregory
After participating in the GVWP Demo Lab for Visual Arts/Writing I am very excited to implement many of the activities in my classroom. My students will enjoy many group activities, such as creating creatures & designing a map of an adventure which then leads to individual stories. I now have a vision of how the pieces of the writing process build to form the big picture. The end result is a wonderfully written and illustrated story.
Van Lu
This is my second summer in the GVWP writing workshops and demonstration labs. It is wonderful to see lessons presented to students. We see the student engagement and later have a debriefing where teachers figure out if we can incorporate the lessons or ideas into our own classroom. The cross-grade-level discussions of the teachers is like a huge brainstorming session.
This program is the best way to get recharged, connected, and still help a handful of students at a time.
This program is the best way to get recharged, connected, and still help a handful of students at a time.
Leslie McCoy
I teach in a technology lab environment, so I particularly enjoyed seeing new tools I can use to enrich curriculum delivery in my classroom. Students are surrounded by technology in their lives daily, it's important that those tools also become tools for constructing meaning and cementing learning. As an art teacher, I daily see the confirmation of the connection between the arts and writing. The Writing and Visual Arts lab has been a great forum for teachers to explore that connection and share techniques on how it can help them engage student writers in the writing and revision process. Students acquiring language skills can start with images, a universal language, and learn to translate their pictorial ideas into rich text. In the tech lab, sites like Storybird and Animoto give students the opportunity to practice framing a message, finding imagery to support that message, and crafting the verbal piece to bring it all together.
Karen Taylor
I felt like I gained a lot of useful knowledge at this workshop. I enjoyed sharing ideas with other teachers, and I got a lot of great ideas, which I will be using in my own classroom next year. It was nice to work with teachers from other districts, grade levels, and curriculum areas. Often we are put into similar grade level groups when we collaborate at our own school sites/districts, but this experience gave me a different perspective and I enjoyed learning from others. I also felt like this was a very positive experience overall. Of all the classes and workshops I have attended over the past six years, this has been one of the most productive and is definitely in my top five!
I will be using many of these strategies in my own classroom for writing warm-ups and lessons throughout the school year. I found the collaboration and "sitting in" on actual lessons the most helpful.
Oftentimes workshops are just trainings where teachers sit and listen to new techniques. This workshop allowed us to participate in the process and then to reflect on it almost immediately so that we could make connections to our own classrooms.
I will be using many of these strategies in my own classroom for writing warm-ups and lessons throughout the school year. I found the collaboration and "sitting in" on actual lessons the most helpful.
Oftentimes workshops are just trainings where teachers sit and listen to new techniques. This workshop allowed us to participate in the process and then to reflect on it almost immediately so that we could make connections to our own classrooms.
Jill Watkins
I enjoyed the opportunity to learn new ways to incorporate art into my classroom activities. I was able to observe and practice new techniques that I can use with my students. We also shared ways to use technology to support student writing and art. Students and teachers were encouraged to collaborate with each other. I look forward to using many of these great ideas to include more art into my students' day.