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Teachers forge bonds across disciplines [UPDATED]
Published 3:41pm Tuesday, August 10, 2010 Updated 3:43pm Tuesday, August 10, 2010Sporting protective gloves and safety goggles, Rothsay teacher Chris Thysell lifted her arms and swung a hammer down onto a hot metal rod straight from the forge.
Thysell and other teachers from across the region braved the blazing August temperatures to spend time in a blast furnace, working with hot iron forges and hammering and pounding metal.
The metalworking was part of new three-day workshop called “Forging Bonds Across Disciplines Through the Arts,” presented by the Perpich Center for Arts Education, a state agency based in Golden Valley. About 35 teachers took part in the seminar from Aug. 9 to 11 at New York Mills High School, spending time both in the classroom and in the makeshift blast furnace.
The teachers worked with teaching artist, sculptor and metal worker Marcia McEachron, who used portable forges and anvils to instruct the teachers in metal craft, iron sculpting and welding. Their project for the three days was making a metal poker out of a plain rod.
“It creates experiences that people have never had before,” McEachron said. “It’s all about a metaphor and opening up your imagination, thinking about different approaches, learning about group dynamics — what works, what doesn’t. This is all group work; you have to help each other.”
Teachers participating were from all grade levels and subject areas. Along with the hands-on instruction, teachers studied collaborative learning techniques, drafted lesson plans and developed curriculum with a focus on integrating arts into education in all disciplines, which the teachers will use throughout the school year.
Perpich Center co-founder Pam Paulson said teachers who continue learning create more dynamic classrooms, which is linked to student achievement. Part of why the center chose welding and metalwork for this workshop was because it’s something the teachers have little or no experience with, allowing them to feel like students themselves and remember what it’s like to be a learner.
It also teaches them how to work as a team, Paulson said, and helps them understand how to bring a collaborative teaching approach back to their own classrooms — art teachers could show students how to sculpt metal, science and math teachers can link metalworking to earth science and engineering and students in a history class can learn about the history of blacksmiths or metallurgy.
“It’s a way to get students excited about all subject areas,” Perpich Center instructor Zane Schaefer said. “Our goal is to engage them and get more kids excited about learning.”
The workshop is part of the Perpich Arts Integration Project, funded by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Ten schools in the Lakes Country region were selected to participate.
“The teachers are the future. They’re the ones that are going to take these ideas back to their classrooms and sustain this work,” Paulson said. “They’ll take it back to their classrooms and that’s how this work will keep going. They’ll still know what it feels like to create art and hook it on to another subject area, so the best part is the fact that the teachers learn something that will stick with them.”
Tags: New York Mills, Perpich Center
