McCann,+Heather,+Inclusion+in+the+Arts

Hello, my name is Heather McCann. I have lived here in Ashland for little over a year with my husband, Michael, and my daughter, Keely. My husband and I met while wildland firefighting and have been married for almost 10 years now. We are animal lovers, my daughter and I more so than my husband, and have two dogs named Honey and Buddy, and a cat named Coaly. My family and I are also outdoors people that love camping and fishing. I have finally turned my husband into a fisherman in the last two years that we have been married since fishing is a passion of mine. I enjoy river fishing because it is a challenge to cast in the perfect spot. I wish to learn how to fly fish in the near future because one of my favorite movies is //A River Runs Through It//. My educational goal is to get a Masters in Special Education because helping others brings me joy. I am an extremely empathetic person and I have dealt with my own struggles in my education. My greatest fear about being a teacher deals with classroom management because people tend to run over me since I am soft-spoken, and I am afraid of not having control of my classroom. Like I mentioned above, I have struggled with my education for as long as I can remember. I always had an extremely hard time learning and hold many memories of embarrassment while at school. One particular time that I recall was when I asked to read aloud when I was in the 4th grade. I can remember trying to sound out the word obnoxious, and I was nowhere near the correct pronunciation. My classmates would tease me from then on whenever they got the chance, not because of my pronunciation but because of how red my face turned. I still panic to this day when I am asked to read out aloud and always scan ahead for words I may struggle with. This piece of my history makes me want to create a community of learners in my future classroom, where students help and encourage each other and mistakes are okay to make. From my practicum experiences, I have noticed that I am drawn to the “struggling” or “problem” child(ren) in the classroom. I want to help these students because I feel that I was able to skate by in my own education without getting the assistance I needed. What I would like to gain from this course is more of an understanding of how special educational programs work. I am experiencing first-hand how organized a special education teacher needs to be. As a personal goal I will focus greatly on my own organization skills because I need much more work in this area.
 * __ My personal introduction __**

**__ My topic introduction __** My topic, the inclusions of the arts, is a subject I am very passionate about. Through the arts I have been better able to express myself. I also gain more satisfaction from creating something than I do filling out a worksheet, and I am ten times more likely to remember the content using my creativity then I am trying to simply memorize facts. I want to provide my students with activities that are hands-on and what better way than by the use of art. What I like most about art is that there is no right or wrong way of doing it. This freedom is liberating from the tedious tasks children are required to do throughout the school day.

**__ Top 5 things I learned __**
 * A strong arts education program improves math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skills. Involvement in the arts can also improve children’s motivation, concentration, confidence, teamwork, and school attendance. Through arts children find inspiration to want to learn.


 * Arts programs strongly influence students' self-image and increases children’s self-esteem through self-directed learning. Art encourages individuality and expressing feelings and emotions. Through the arts children can learn things about themselves and about others.


 * During these difficult economic times arts programs are the first to be sacrificed. In addition, in many schools where classroom space is limited, art studios are now only contained in a cart that is wheeled by teachers from room to room, severely limiting the arts education students receive. No Child Left Behind, with its pressure to raise test scores, has reduced classroom time devoted to the arts harming the learning of the whole child. Art is a multi-disciplinary subject and easily aligns itself with other subjects.


 * The arts serve as an essential bridge across language and cultural differences. Art history explores artwork from various cultures and the purpose that art has within that society. Art has been used for many purposes including; political reasons, personal reasons, historical reasons, beauty reasons, propaganda, and cultural reasons. Learning about another culture brings about knowledge, with knowledge there is compassion, with compassion there is acceptance. Bridging different cultures is important for America’s growing diverse population. Art does not need a translation and people of various cultures can learn new points of views through the use of the arts.


 * The study of arts benefits children with learning disabilities and/or behavioral issues. The arts allow children with auditory disabilities to say what they cannot say. Children with limited motor movement can participate in the arts. Children with hearing impairments are not limited in making art. The benefits of the arts for special needs children are numerous. The arts allow these students to finally experience a level playing field with their peers.

**__ The best Art inclusion resource __** Wright, S., // Why Art is Important for Young Children. // Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall 2003. **__ 8 Additional resources __** 1. Bartel, Marvin, //How Important are the Arts in Our Schools?// Professor of Art at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana 1999. http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/whyart.html
 * Wright discusses the crucial issue of ‘how does society value art?’ He states the following, “Art is validated largely on the basis of how well it can integrate with or enhance these "more important" curriculum areas.” (In reference to math and reading.) He also explains how we, educators of the next generation, are shaping their future views of art and art education. Art needs to be viewed as a distinct discipline that holds knowledge and skills worth teaching. Art is a way of making and communicating a meaning or understanding. Art is expressive and can be used to distinguish/categorize the diverse people that live on this planet.
 * Wright also talks about the critical role of an art educator and how they need to have the skills to know what to say and what to supply to children. Wright also references the multiple intelligences, produced by Howard Gardner, when arguing that by learning through art, children are better able to express themselves. Wright also suggests that “the children remain at the center of the curriculum and that exploration, discovery, and play remain central to the child's experience.”
 * Bartel explains the importance of the arts in the schools and the consequences of cutting arts due to budget cuts. Bartel is passionate about this subject because he is experiencing the difficulties in keeping the arts and his job at Goshen College. Bartel connects an increase in attendance to a quality arts program. Bartel also explains the success and pride that students feel when they have created something in his art classes. Society demands creativity but limits early learners by cutting arts from the curriculum.

2. Dillon, Sam. //Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math.// 2006. 
 * Rating (5/5) **
 * Due to high stake testing laid out in No Child Left Behind, schools across America are reducing time spent on other subjects, and for some low proficiency schools they are eliminating other subjects altogether. Dillon notes a school in California because the school only teaches three subjects, math, reading and gym. Children from the school express feelings of boredom and no care for knowledge in other subjects. The narrowed curriculum is narrowing the minds of the students, proving that the arts spark motivation in children.

3. Drake, Kymberly, // NAMM Foundation Works with White House Committee on New Arts Initiative to Help Turn Around Low-Performing Schools. // 2012. http://www.amc-music.com/news/pressreleases/ca-crisis.htm
 * Rating (3/5) **
 * The Turnaround Arts initiative is working to turn around low achieving schools with strategies and programs that support the arts in schools. The President has selected a group of artists that will visit 8 eight schools in 8 different states to aid public schools in the lowest-achieving five percent of their state that are receiving School Improvement Grants through the U.S. Department of Education. Drake points out that research shows that when students participate in the arts they are **//four times//** more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, have higher GPAs and SAT scores, and show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12. After-school and summer programs are being planned and allow equal access for all students.

4. Eisner, E. (2002). //The Arts and the Creation of Mind//, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. NAEA Publications.
 * Rating (4/5) **
 * These 10 lessons that the arts teach are powerful statements that I would have hanging up in my classroom. This list sums up the importance of the arts in a well-balanced education.

5. Hurley, Ryan. //Cuts in Art Programs Leave Sour Note in Schools//." 2004 .
 * Rating (4/5) **
 * "I am an endangered species," said Jeff Johnson, who teaches at Westside Academy in Milwaukee. "I am an art teacher." Hurley explains that because music and the arts aren't government-tested like reading, writing and math, school districts are pressured to cut them first. He then goes on to say that the reduction of the arts is costing schools more money in the long run due to lowered test scores evident 3 years after cuts have been made. The lowered test scores are caused by boredom, students’ lowered self-esteem, lowered attendance, and limitation of expression. "There are seven ways to communicate information, and words and numbers are only two of them, the other five are movement, sounds, images, objects, and spaces, all of which are provided through the arts.” -Martin Rayala, art, media and design consultant for the Department of Public Instruction.

6. Nelson, TJ, //Dumbing Down,// //the Dwindling Funding of the Art s//. 2005 http://worldmusiccentral.org/2005/03/09/dumbing-down-the-dwindling-funding-of-the-arts/ 7. Wallace, Karen, //Children and Art Therapy//. Art Therapy Creativity groups or Individual Counseling. 2008 http://www.islandnet.com/~kwallace/children.htm 8. Walker, Christopher, //Arts & Culture: Community Connections Contributions from New Survey Research// http://www.urban.org/publications/310512.html
 * Rating (4/5) **
 * Nelson states the following about reports about the cutting art programs for education, “These reports have become so common and numerous, it fails to inspire the necessary outrage these reports deserve and instead prompts only a momentary stab of guilt and remorse for the loss of what was for some of us the best part of the day in our early education.” Nelson breaks down three cities’ budget cuts and reports that 12,345 teaching and support staff positions lost their positions. Nelson goes on to explain and validate the educational benefits of having a strong arts program and the overall improvement of tests scores amongst these schools.
 * Rating (5/5) **
 * Wallace explains the various ways that art can be incorporated to enhance the learning of children with disabilities or children exhibiting emotional problems. The focus of this essay is geared toward using art as therapy. Through art children are better able to express feelings that are difficult for them so say. In creating art, conflict, fear, or trauma is re-experienced, resolved and integrated for these patients. Wallace explains the benefits of arts for these children are that many physical and psychological skills are learned through making and processing art images. The confidence and greater self-esteem of these children is proof that the arts have power in healing. Wallace goes on to explain how Art therapy is beneficial to children with learning disabilities because offers visual and tactile self-stimulation, and is visual, concrete and hands-on. It also helps treat imagination and/or abstract thinking deficits by allowing freedom to experiment with the materials.
 * Rating (5/5) **
 * Walker discusses how the arts can be used to build a community. Art also strengthens the value of one’s own culture and this pride encourages participation. He suggests creating a survey to see the interests and talents of the community. From there it is all about reflecting the community by the use of art. Celebrating the diversity of the community should be something that everyone has a chance to take part in. As a whole community the voice is louder and petitions for the arts can reach the ears necessary for action to happen.

__ Informative Words and Famous Quotes __
 * Rating (4/5) **
 * "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' -//Eric Cooper, president/founder of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.//


 * “In my own philanthropy and business endeavors, I have seen the critical role that the arts play in stimulating creativity and in developing vital communities….the arts have a crucial impact on our economy and are an important catalyst for learning, discovery, and achievement in our country.”–//Paul G. Allen, Co-Founder, Microsoft//

// - Richard W. Riley, Former US Secretary of Education //
 * “I believe arts education in music, theater, dance, and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. They (children) have an enthusiasm for life a spark of creativity, and vivid imaginations that need training – training that prepares them to become confident young men and women.”

–//Dr. Richard Miller, Executive Director American Association of School Administrators//
 * "In the push for quality math, science, technical, humanities, and other programs, please be sure that the arts are not ignored or pushed to one side. Provide your political support for the total curriculum. The arts enrich all of us."


 * ". . . the arts have been an inseparable part of the human journey; indeed, we depend on the arts to carry us toward the fullness of our humanity. We value them for themselves, and because we do, we believe knowing and practicing them is fundamental to the healthy development of our children's minds and spirits. That is why, in any civilization - ours included - the arts are inseparable from the very meaning of the term 'education.' We know from long experience that no one can claim to be truly educated who lacks basic knowledge and skills in the arts." //–National Standards for Arts Education//


 * “The Arts and Sciences, essential to the prosperity of the State and to the ornament of human life, have a primary claim to the encouragement of every lover of his country and mankind.”–//George Washington//

–//Lyndon Johnson, on signing into existence the National Endowment on the Arts//
 * “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.”

**__ Ten Lessons the Arts Teach __**
 * By Elliot Eisner **
 * 1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.**

Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it

is judgment rather than rules that prevail.
 * 2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution**

and that questions can have more than one answer.
 * 3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.**

One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
 * 4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving**


 * purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.**** Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
 * 5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know.** The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
 * 6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.**

The arts traffic in subtleties.
 * 7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.**

All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
 * 8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.**

When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
 * 9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source**

and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
 * 10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young**


 * what adults believe is important.****