As a Spanish teacher I have noticed that my students have memorized vocabulary, grammar rules, and sentence structures more efficiently when studying through song. Music provides a creative, dynamic, and integrated method of learning a foreign language. I want to incorporate music within my classroom to help support student comprehension and engage student interest. I still remember many of the songs I learned in my high school Spanish classes because they were fun, upbeat, and I felt a sense of accomplishment once I learned them completely. After searching the web, I found many sites that help simplify Spanish vocabulary and grammar through song. I hope to continue to research Spanish music to support Spanish vocabulary and grammar in the future. Listed below was a helpful websites I found:
This website provides songs on almost all subject areas from Spanish 1a students (colors, numbers, months, days of the week, food)
In addition to Spanish I also teach 6th grade English and History. I am always trying to find new ways to engage student interest when studying the ancient civilizations- Rome, India, China, Greece, and Egypt. Many of my students feel as if these cultures are so old and have no real connection to our lives today. This past May, I had the opportunity to travel to New York and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was shocked to see all of the history we learned throughout the year presented through artifacts and art pieces. When given this assignment I was wondering how I could bring my experience at the Met to my students here in California. After some online research I realized students could search the online museum database to find art and artifacts from each civilization. I realized this resource could allow the students to learn about the civilization through an artistic viewpoint. For each unit, I hope to have students select an artifact or art piece, from this website, that they found particularly interesting and explain how it relates to the characteristics of the culture. I am excited to try this art/history integration within my classroom next year.
This website will allow students to search the different art collections throughout the museum which happen to correlate perfectly with our 6th grade history curriculum.
There are many values to interdisciplinary teaching and learning. First, by combining multiple lenses or perspectives on a certain topic, students are presented with a well-rounded holistic viewpoint. Interdisciplinary learning also supports multiple intelligence theory, by combining many learning styles to assist the learner through a variety of resources. However, one challenge of interdisciplinary learning is the factor of time and preparation. Teachers must have a strong background knowledge in those specific areas and combine the different domains appropriately. They must then reflect on the unit integration, to ensure it is actually improving student understanding. Interdisciplinary teaching takes more preparation; however, is so beneficial when organized and implemented effectively.
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