Learning accompanied by a steady beat

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

all parts of their brain at the same time.”

Parks said the steady beat method engages kids who are auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners. “You’re getting the whole gamut of learning styles by doing it, and hopefully it sticks,” she said.

Her students wrote their own rhythmic definitions of math terms to a steady beat, which they can chant to themselves when they encounter them on an assignment or a test.

“I’m noticing they’re remembering because these beats kind of get stuck in their head,” she said. “And they’ve created the beats themselves, so they’re more likely to remember. It’s not something I just gave them.”

Jahnsen said the activity was a great example of partnering academics and music.

“I was really impressed with the vocabulary that they had in there and how well they were thinking about how it fit into the measures,” she said.

Jahnsen works with students each week and regularly collaborates with teachers to tie-in music, art and movement activities to their curriculum.

Advantage Arts Academy Charter School has 315 K-6 students enrolled. The school opened three years ago and is not yet up to full capacity, but some parents are already beating a path to the door.

Jennifer Myers drives her two daughters all the way from Eagle Mountain each day to attend the school, where she said her fifth-grader, Lily, has really blossomed.

“She is very artistic and she seems to really focus when she gets to do things with her hands and be more involved,” she said. She said Lily makes better connections and is better able to show what she’s learned when there’s an art project involved.

Lily’s writing and reading skills have improved and she recently took the initiative to write a story about her teacher’s pet, a fish named EGBDF, and have her friends act it out for the entire school. “It was just for fun,” Lily said.

Principal Kelly Simonsen said AAA teachers bring tons of experience and talent to their classrooms. Some teachers have advanced degrees in drama, others are accomplished singers or have extensive experience in the visual arts. Bateman is one of the Utah Jazz Dancers.

“I think we’ve got a great collection of artists and artists-at-heart who want to share that with the kids,” Simonsen said. “The arts, the dancing, the moving, the singing—it just speaks to everybody, no matter how old you are. It is easy for teachers to get caught up in the lesson plans and the grading papers and the not so fun parts. But in our trainings, we really try to encourage our teachers to have fun with it, to make their class a place they would want to be as a child.” l

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