Hello All! My name is Kaitlyn and I am currently in my fourth year
of teaching mathematics in a NYC, Title 1 high school. This is also my first year of simultaneously teaching a visual arts class to my students who have never had a visual arts class in high school, which is pretty exciting. I have pretty much known I wanted to be a teacher since second grade, and spent all of my free time helping behind the scenes of a school growing up, as my mom worked in a school. I could never see myself doing anything else.
I have recently decided to build upon my education certifications and combine my passion for teaching mathematics with my passion for the arts by joining City College of New York’s Art Education graduate program. This has been one of the greatest decisions I’ve made yet, and has helped me to broaden my horizons and think about the arts, and my teaching style in contexts that I had never considered before this program. It has also led me to currently writing my thesis with a focus of what happens to student engagement when the arts and mathematics are integrated in high school classrooms.
I have been conducting this research primarily in my own classrooms of 10th grade geometry and 11th and 12th grade visual arts. I began with a pilot study that asked the students what their idea of engagement was, and used their own words to formulate my definition of engagement for the study. I have since been giving the students in each class a brief survey at the end of each lesson asking them to rate their engagement on a scale of 1-4. Some of the lessons have integrated maths and arts, while other lessons have isolated the subject based on the course (i.e. solely the arts in my art class, and solely the math in my math class). The plan is to continue this collection for the next few weeks, and then ask students to write about their personal narratives of the most engaging lesson we have had yet in the class. Simultaneously, I have been observing my students’ body language and actions in class to see if they match their descriptions of engagement — focused, actively discussing the work with their peers at appropriate times, asking questions, excitement, etc.
When this study all comes together, I’ll be curious to compare the results of their engagement surveys, observations, and narratives when art is brought into the math classroom, as well as the results of when math is brought into the art classroom. I am hoping the results of this study can serve as a foundation to help bring more arts opportunities into my school and foster creativity in all of our classes.
If you would like to learn more about some of the influences for my study and how other programs are integrating the arts with mathematics to engage students, feel free to check out the links below:
- https://simpsoncenter.org/projects/axiomatic-creativity-math-art
- http://stemtosteam.org/
- https://artmuseumteaching.com/2015/10/12/thinking-space-connecting-art-math/
