DAN 420

For all of you education majors here is a class you may want to look into for future semesters. It is called dance 420: creative dance and learning. This is not quite a dance class as you might expect. It is more like a movement class. It is a class based on movement in educational settings. As a part of the course you will be writing lesson plans that involve movement using the michigan content standards. This is a good course to take in your earlier undergrad years simply because it exposes you to lesson planning and content standards which in the michigan state education program you dont get until the fourth year. I am taking this class right now and I wish that I had taken it last year. Either way it is still a great course to take.

For example right now for my final lesson plan I am planning a lesson on the growth of apple trees. The students begin in a seed, grow into a sapling, then finally a tree. It goes through the seasons and stages of growth. Lastly apples are picked, leaves fall, and the trees rest for winter. The students will get to act out these movements while learning how apples and apple trees grow.

There is also a course called THR 420. This is the theater version of this class. I dont know much about it but it involves teaching theater in educational settings using lesson plans. I would recommend both of these classes to education majors.

Museum Trip

I know this is a late post but I was recently reminded of our trip to the museum. during that same week I took a trip to a different museum to focus on how as a teacher I can make field trrips fun and educational. I found this correlation to be helpful in my general understnading of how to incorporate diverse groups into the curriculum. A field trip like this can be beneficial to the students in diverse school districts such as Lansing. The students can learn about the heritage of their fellow classmates or even their own. This can also be beneficial to students who are in a less diverse school district. They can learn about cultures that they dont have much contact with and develop a better understanding of different types of people.

More specifically focusing on our trip to the museum I enjoyed the mali exhibit. The pictures were very intimate and detailed. they all told of story of the lives of these teens. It gave and insight into anothe culture and showed how those in that culture live. While it showed the differences in culture more importantly I think it highlighted the similarities.

The other exhibit was very inspirational. It took a look at the lives of many Latino/a men and women. they all came from many differnt walks in life and all have achieved many high successes.

Speech disability Books

In preparation for my final project I began looking for children's books that deal with speech disabilities. Unsurprisingly I didn’t find many. Also I am finding it hard to figure out which books portray the disability in a good light and which portray it in a bad light. I have been going on Amazon. com to search books. I read the short except front and back cover but it does not provide me with as much information as I would like. Some of the books don’t even have that short excerpt. One book that I did find is called Taking Speech Disabilities to School. I noticed that this is one of a collection of books. These books include: Taking Autism to School, Taking Deafness to School, and many more. These may be helpful in some of your final projects.

One book that I did find was Hooway for Wodney Wat. This book should be familiar with most of us but I never made the connection to speech disabilities until now. This is a good way to introduce speech disabilities to a younger audience subtlety. After searching a little harder and a little longer I began to find a lot of useful books for my final project. I am excited to begin working on this....now I just have to figure out how I’m going to get a hold of all these books. Wish me luck!