A teacher's day is filled to capacity each and every day. Anytime there is a way to integrate subject areas that is definitely a win in my book. While reading about Integrated Art, PE, and STEAM it made me think about things that I'm doing in my classroom as well as things I'm neglecting that are crucial in students' educational day.
Honestly, in my mind, art is typically just drawing and coloring but I've realized it's a lot more than that. Art is letting the students show their creativity in all subject areas. When the students can create something it helps their success level and can keep discipline down. If teachers or schools' curriculum doesn't have integrating arts some recommendations are to look into professional development that will assist them on implementing it as well as reaching out to other schools that are successful with this way of teaching. Integrating art works great with STEAM and PBL because it lets the students collaborate, have differentiated instruction, and develop problem solving strategies that will build career readiness. NAESP suggests that educators integrate art by doing these three things: 1) collaboratively engage students in open ended problems that are relevant to their lives, 2) address standards from each of the cross-curriculum disciplines, and 3) have students practice the design process, which includes multiple assessments, redesigns, and communication for continuous improvement.
Not only can we integrate art into academics, but we can also integrate academics with PE. PE teachers and classroom teachers can work together to integrate subjects into their PE time. For example, a 2nd grade standard in skip counting. While students are doing their excises, they can skip count instead of counting by ones to work on this important life skill. It's important for the classroom teacher to communicate with the PE teacher as well as administration making sure the right things are happening in the gym. Like teachers, PE teachers are required to have written curriculum, structured lessons, actively involved students, and meaningful objectives and outcomes for all students ability level as well as small groups. PE is not disengaged students and only athletic students playing games, everyone can participate. PE teachers are responsible for teaching physical movements as well as helping the students gain knowledge to live a healthy life.
STEAM is providing an opportunity for students to be actively involved by being engaged, exploring things, explaining, evaluating, and extending their learnings. STEAM prepares students to work in today's society. Teachers need the opportunity to be STEAM teachers by participating is professional development, collaborate with other teachers to align standards with activities, and plan lessons to implement the strategies. According to Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM, there are six steps in creating a STEAM-centered classroom. The six steps are focus, detail, discovery, application, presentation, and link. First, focus is the essential question that will drive your instruction. Next is details, which are the elements that will help you answer the essential question. Then you move on to discovery, which is student research and the teacher facilitates. Now the students go on to the application part which is where they begin creating their design. Once their creation is complete, the students will present their work. Finally, is the link step. Students will reflect on their work and make improvements where needed. Ultimately, teachers should strive to implement STEAM into their classrooms. Let's get away from quiet, textbook reading and get into classrooms that are full of students collaborating, problem-solving, being creative, and reflecting on their own learnings. This is the 21st century way of teaching and we must implement ways for students to be successful as well as college and career ready.
References:
Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM. https://educationcloset.com/what-is-steam-education-in-k-12-schools
Watson, A. (2017). What is STEAM and Why Does It Matter? https://www.naesp.org/communicator-october-2017/what-steam-and-why-does-it-matter
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