BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- One woman jiggled the keys in her pockets by swiveling her hips back and forth.
Teachers try to write their names with their bodies at the Fitton Center for the Creative Arts in Hamilton.
(Dick Swaim photo)
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Another rhythmically kicked a radiator with the heel of her foot, while another one pressed the buttons on her cell phone to produce different tones.
The three women were creating an unconventional rendition of "Three Blind Mice." But, more important, they were learning different ways to teach music in their schools.
"I'm hoping to leave here knowing new, innovative types of activities to keep my students interested in music classes," said Charlene Elam, the key jiggler, who teaches music at Madison Junior School in Middletown. "Music is many sounds and it's everywhere." These women were among 20 participants in a weeklong, annual Summer Arts Camp for Educators at the Fitton Center for the Creative Arts in Hamilton.
The event, designed to help teachers learn better ways to teach the arts and to assess students, is supported by grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. A grant from the Hamilton Community Foundation pays the arts camp tuition of Butler County teachers.
The arts camp is for teachers in pre-kindergarten through high school. It focuses on music, dance, drama and the visual arts.
"You come away from something like this with so many new ideas; you're rejuvenated," Mrs. Elam said.
"I'm always looking for new ideas in the classroom to make music more interesting," Mrs. Elam said. "I want to help my students develop an appreciation for music."
Dance instructor Darlene Szuhay of Columbus directed the teachers in her class through many dance exercises and creative routines. "Experiencing the exercises is a way for the teachers to understand what the kids are going through," she said.
Too many people underestimate the educational value of the arts, said Jackie Quay, director of the Fitton Center's educational outreach program, Arts Basic Center for the Development of Educators (ABCDE).
Besides being a valuable form of communication in themselves, the arts employ disciplines and concepts that can be applied to other academic areas, she said.
"We can look for ways for general classroom teachers and arts teachers to collaborate with each other," she said.
Math, for example, has many applications in music, with its half-notes and quarter-notes, and in art and dance, with their shapes and angles, said Joni Sherman, an instructor at the camp and a visual arts teacher at Van Buren Elementary School in Hamilton. "Music, art and dance answers the question, "Why do we have to learn fractions?' " she said.
George Rathman, a Xavier University graduate student in elementary education, is taking the dance segment even though he won't be teaching the arts.
"I wanted to learn how to integrate the arts into science, math and social studies," he said. "This has given me a good idea of how to do that."
