https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq Made with a curious mind en-us 2018-05-16 09:28:53 UTC 2026-01-04 19:52:54 UTC hello@padlet.com leebojos https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261144042 I used to be an art teacher. I worked for a non-profit called UrbanArts for three years servicing schools all the way from Inwood to downtown Manhattan to Brooklyn. The train was my chariot and I spent most of my days sketching on my long commutes. 
Let's go back a few years before that. I'm an Undergrad at St.John's University. Majoring in Psychology and minoring in Studio Art. "I want to be an art therapist" thats what I said. "Sounds magical" everyone thought. But the reality came quickly when I graduated and life sort of forced me to find something "adulty" very quickly. "There is NO money in art therapy." I finally asked my boyfriend's mom at  the time. That was her swift and cutting response. She went into detail about giving it up after a few years in order to pursue "real teaching" as she called it. 

]]> 2018-05-16 09:34:37 UTC https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261144042 leebojos https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261145910 Here we are. My last semester and I am in a theater class til what time? Ugh man this is going to be rough.-- Internal dialogue 

When did I lose it? I used to be ALL about this. Heck my dream was to do this everyday? I used to spend so much time trying to integrate art into the units the teachers were working on. Ultimately always failing. I didn't get it. I couldn't make it stick. The children were terrible. The teachers always pushed back. They made me feel mortified when children simply didn't try. I WASN'T trained for it. It was like oh, you studied art? cool. Make something happen with the great depression and an art project. It was tough. Horrible feelings I hate to revisit.

NOW THE ROLES HAVE REVERSED
I'm that busy teacher who can't seem to fit it all in the day. Let alone time for theater. The kids get art anyway.. why do I need to do this?
_____________________________
AFTER A TABLEAUX RETELL

This works. It is working. ALL students but one GOT it. Some were shy. Some were naturals. But everyone ENJOYED and understood.
What was different now? How can I do this again and build on it?
The arts simply make the learning experience richer. It is wonderful. 
It was much more engaging than a brief mini-lesson. I wonder if my admin will love this too?


]]> 2018-05-16 09:42:29 UTC https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261145910 leebojos https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261235263 How students feel and grasp the concept of what they learn is translated through so many avenues in the world of education. Arts Education opens up those avenues for exploration and creativity. In the process of trying to apply theater to my elementary classroom I felt that the integration would be accepted by most of my students. Due to the fact that many children at an elementary age love to imagine, play, create, and perform. The difficulty comes most of the time from creating units that are rich with content and abide by the standards within the DOE. It can be a challenge to convince an administrator off the validity of your lesson if it is not something that has already been embedded in the school curriculum. As a teacher we face the challenge of not only creating lessons that are differentiated for our student population but also fitting the expectations of the school. How can theater be seen as much as a priority as any other discipline when there is a heavy emphasis on passing state tests? I believe that having trained art teachers who are familiar with the curriculum and have studied and created art integration lessons could truly benefit our students. I know now that preparation is key. In the past, I had no formal training. I also did not have a cooperating teacher who was willing to discuss with me the ins and outs of the units she worked on. I had faced so many different challenges that I almost felt hopeless. Preparation and  collaboration truly allows for the planning to be done and thought through. It helps make the integration successful. ]]> 2018-05-16 14:31:56 UTC https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261235263 leebojos https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261235737 We are working on a unit about the moon called Discovering the World around Us. This unit has included all forms or literature that include fiction and non fiction. The performance based assessment is creating a fairytale with facts about the moon. We have just finished reading Many Moons. An interesting and silly story that my students loved. A princess falls ill from eating too many pastries and her father the King wants to give her everything her heart desires. She wants the moon. So he summons, the Lord chamberlain, the Royal Wizard, and the Royal Mathematician, but they all have conflicting ideas on how to get her the moon. The court Jester is the one who eventually gets the child the moon by simply creating a necklace made of cold and convincing the princess that the small round gold object that sits above the trees is now being worn by her. As enjoyable as it was to read-aloud for my students it is a complex read with a lot of difficult vocabulary for the new language learners in my classroom. After learning about puppetry in this classroom, I hope to create puppets that help retell the fairytale. I also feel that giving them an opportunity to use dialogue in their home language also encourages the translation of vocabulary. Students get an opportunity to demonstrate their comprehension of the story by becoming puppeteers. They can work together to create the scenes and really get an opportunity to be creative and find a snippet to act as the princess, or the royal wizard, the king etc.. I look forward to creating the finished product.

]]> 2018-05-16 14:33:02 UTC https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261235737 leebojos https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261239761 My children rush in every morning to tell me the latest news. "Ms. Bojos do you know what happened to my dog? It was shot." TRUE story. "What happened?" "Someone tried to rob our house and they shot our guard dog"

These are the realities my six year old student faces. Who knows all the other wild, hurtful, violent, and difficult things our students experience. In being able to interpret and connect and understand these moments art education can play a significant role.
How else can we give students the opportunity to create their own idea of the final work? Through projects that allow freedom and freestyle to simply create. Integrating life events into real projects that speak to the cause their families fight daily is an excellent way to show our students we care about touching on all layers of their growth and education. 

Our students are facing deportation, poverty, temporary housing, and domestic violence and issues amongst others. Arts Education and theater is an outlet that teaches us to be more sensitive to their perspectives too.]]> 2018-05-16 14:41:33 UTC https://padlet.com/leebojos/ysw5qn340pqq/wish/261239761