William Paterson University 11th Annual PDS Conference

The 11th annual PDS Conference at William Paterson University was held on 

Thursday, May 23. The keynote speaker was Clint Pulver, "The Millennial Speaker" and musician who spoke about "The Power of One Multiplied" to the several hundred teachers and administrators from the WPU PDS Schools network.

Mr. Pulver stressed during his keynote speech and remarkable drum performance that,  “It’s not about being the best in the world…it's about being the best for the world."

Dr. Heejung An, Simone Sandler, Triada Samaras, and Patricia Kaminski conducted a workshop entitled, "Use of Music Integration Across the Curriculum to Cultivate Creative Thinking." during the afternoon session of the conference. This directly linked to the morning activity presented by Mr. Pulver, who handed out drums to the entire audience and led an audience based performance and experience.

In this workshop, the four presenters defined arts integration for the audience as interdisciplinary teaching practice through which non-arts and arts content is taught and assessed equitably in order to deepen students' understanding of both. (NJPSA & Dodge, 2017) Dr. An, used Poll Everywhere to discover the audience's connotations of the word creativity. Below are the visual results.

Afterwards, Simone Sandler discussed making handmade musical instruments. She covered using recyclable materials and natural objects in the construction process of the instruments. 

Above, WPU Art PIR Simone Sandler discusses arts integration utilizing instrument creation with teachers

After that, Arts Integration PIR Triada Samaras and Don Bosco Technical Academy art teacher Patty Kaminski presented "Arts Integration with Music and Science at Don Bosco". They explained to the audience how the project was accomplished in an interdisciplinary manor involving Ms. Kaminski, music teacher Mr. Hayden, and science teacher Ms. Post, with Ms. Samaras directing. 

Patty Kaminski, left, and Triada Samaras during their presentation

They engaged the audience, asking them to invent science/drumming activities for the classroom using the drums painted by Ms. Kaminski's students.

A full description of this arts integration lesson was completed at Don Bosco during the school year with a drumming performance for parents on Report Card Night. Please see this link for more details.


Ms. Kaminski and Ms. Samaras had a super day at the conference

Arts Integration: Paterson School 12 Visits William Paterson University

On April 29, 2019, third graders from School #12, of the Paterson school district, went on a field trip to William Paterson University. They visited the Ben Shahn Gallery at WP and learned about the life and art of Cuban born painter Rafael Soriano (1920 -2015): LINK

The students discussed his early work, which consisted of geometric abstractions, or paintings featuring rectangles, triangles, squares, and circles. Then, they examined his different representations of the human head, which featured organic or natural shapes and luminous colors of red, orange, blue, purple. The students shared their reactions to the paintings’ imagery and colors and talked about how colors evoke different emotions.

The students also participated in a workshop conducted by teaching artist Deborah Guzman Meyer. They created a project which explored emotions evoked by different colors, while making portrait silhouettes of their inner selves. Students also learned about the “resists” technique, using oil-pastels and water color paints to create their artwork. The color psychology chart they learned about can be found at LINK

After lunch, the students visited the WP greenhouse and athletic field to get some exercise. What a great way to end the field trip!

Talking with Don Bosco Students about the Benefits of Arts Integration

Earlier this year two teachers from Don Bosco Technical Academy: Ms Patti Kaminsky, art teacher, and Ms. Jennifer Post, science teacher, created an arts integration science/art lesson for a class of sixth grade students on the topic of planets and the solar system.  Each teacher formulated separate learning objectives in this content area.  However, these objectives were simultaneously taught during the same lesson period.  LINK 

On Tuesday, April 30, Don Bosco Technical Academy 6th grade students had a chance to look back and to reflect upon their process of learning in the this arts integration lesson. 

LINK 

Students spoke in detail about their learning and their experience in this Science/Art collaborative lesson, They had positive and favorable recollections 
about this lesson.

Above:  Ms Post writes the students' comments on the board.

Ms. Post, Ms. Kaminski, and WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras asked these students to reflect deeply upon, and to describe in detail, why they seemed to definitively prefer learning science content along with art content simultaneously.

Above:  Students work in groups during the art/science integration lesson.

Students offered a wide variety of insights and made the case for arts integration.

Their observations were thoughtful.  Among these were:  

The integration of the science and art lesson:

1. Gives them a physical picture of things they are learning.
2. Enables them t see how the science content is designed by imagining it in their minds.
3. Helps them see and understand the subject.
4. Enables them to work and learn together and brainstorm in groups.
5. Helps them enjoy learning science more.
6. "I could not enjoy myself so much in science if it did not have art too."

ART PIR Triada Samaras asked the two teachers whether they had each achieved their learning objectives for this collaborative lesson?  Each one agreed they had not only met their learning goals, but had exceeded them.  They would like to continue collaborating in the future as well.