Whole Schools Initiative Summer Institute teaches art integration

Teachers on the Gulf Coast were back in the classroom today. News 25’s Caroline Eaker takes us to the conference in Gulfport where teachers are learning to teach ordinary subjects with a little creativity.
School is out, but teaching and learning is a year round mission for these teachers who have teamed up this week at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. More than 200 teachers from throughout the state are spending this week in the classroom, sharing and learning new ways of teaching that go beyond the textbook.
It’s all part of this year’s Whole Schools Initiative Summer Institute, put on by the Mississippi Arts Commission. Mississippi Arts Commission Executive Director Malcolm White said, “What we will do is act out or write or sing about a subject in order to more fully engage the student.”
Teachers are picking up on this new style of learning, called arts integration. This year’s event is magical, literally, led by teaching artist Kevin Spencer. As Spencer demonstrates, magic tricks can do wonders in the classroom, helping students better understand math concepts while also developing their motor and social skills as well as flexible thinking. “When you actually do the trick, this aligns to Mississippi 2.1 in science, 4.1 and 2 in science, and 6.1 and 2 in science and when you get into high school it actually ties to their physics curriculum. Embedded into this little trick are 22 physics vocabulary words and nine physics formulas.”
Teachers have integrated things like dance to teach science, magic tricks to teach math and song to teach history. Milam Elementary Teacher Kim Brumley said, “ We did an original painting for each student and then they calculated the percentage of each color on their artwork.”
These workshops wrap at the end of the week, but will equip these teachers with more creative methods for capturing the attention of their students.