Art Inside the Classroom

During my years in elementary school, art has held a major role in the classroom.  Unlike many schools that I have read and heard about, my elementary school classes strived to make art a core curriculum in the classroom.  Many of our classroom projects were centered around art projects.  When reading a book in History or English, we were required to draw pictures of what we imagined when reading these stories.  One major project that I had that included as much art as writing was my poetry project in third grade.  We had to create an art piece for every poem that we created.  Each art piece had to be unique and involve different type of drawing utensils.  This project was elaborate and expanded my knowledge of poetry and art simultaneously.
Besides art in the day to day classroom, we also had "Meet the Masters."  "Meet the Masters" was when an artist would visit the classroom and teach the students about a particular artist.  After learning about the artist's life and drawing style, the students would draw in the same matter that the painter would have.  This event allowed me to learn more about artists and the different drawing and painting styles that each one contributed to our world.
When listening to Morgan Appel's lecture, I realized how much art can have a role in the classroom.  Art brings  improvement in creativity, critical thinking and reading into the classroom.  When children are thinking creatively, they are going to have an easier time of recalling the information.  This moves past rote memorization, which is practiced in most classrooms.  Rote memorization does not allow information to move from short-term memory into long-term memory.  By also using art in the classroom, it allows for deep thinking with teacher participation as well.  By applying Morgan Appel's suggestions for art in the classroom, I know my future students will flourish.