College of Education

In the news

12/19/2008

Arts enliven learning … and the holidays


Combining a creative exercise with seasonal cheer, Assistant Professor Pauline Sameshima assigns students in her fall semester arts integration class to create the College of Education's holiday card. This year's winning design came from the imagination of elementary education major Amber Engel.

In the style of artist Eric Carle, Engel used a silk flower to make designs on green paper with tempera paint and then cut out curvy-pointy shapes and glued them in a circle. She then used a roller to put silver paint on the card and glued on a bow she made out of ribbon. To see a podcast in which Engel describes the process of making the card, click here.

Students in the arts integration course experience dance, drama, visual art, and music, and discuss ways of using the arts to enrich learning in other areas of the elementary and secondary school curriculum.

"I like the class," said Engel, daughter of Karen and Wayne Engel of Kennewick, Washington. "I've learned a lot of helpful ideas and techniques for my future classroom, and I've been shown how to meld subjects together to add `artiness' to otherwise bland subject matter."

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