"'Tis only the paint that gives a house color. It's the love inside that makes it shine."

Five College of Education professors put their creative minds together to form a painting of true artistry. Dale Johnson, Bonnie Johnson, Joan Duea, and John Stiles from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, plus Glenn Nelson from Mathematics have created the Integrated Methods Professional Semester (IMPS).

The IMPS students are together throughout the semester from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday giving the program a "step-back-in-time-to-kindergarten" feel. This allows students in the College of Education an opportunity to complete all their methods courses at once. All five professors collaborate to cover a wide variety of topics, ideas, and suggestions while showing how curriculum areas can be integrated. "We started by integrating social studies and language arts, added science and mathematics, and then all four were integrated together with classroom management," explains Dale Johnson, head of the language and reading arts segment.

Approximately 60 students, subdivided into two groups, enrolled in the first IMPS course in spring, 1995.

The program also gives students an insight into varying teaching styles. Dale Johnson instructs with large servings of humor and establishes a classroom where no one fears failure. He, in turn, credits the students. "The chemistry between them was good, and it allowed them to take chances."

Bonnie Johnson, paints her ideas on social studies with large vivid strokes. "I was surprised at how well it went the first time through," she says. "The oral histories we did went well, and the theme parks the students constructed integrated many disciplines."

All IMPS students receive a taste of realism in Joan Duea's classroom management class. "I want to model the same personal interest, curiosity for learning, and commitment to effective teaching that I expect the IMPS students to demonstrate in the classroom," Duea explains. In her class, students learn that there is truth to being prepared, and that if they work for success, they can have it.

After lunch, all eyes focus on Glenn Nelson who shows students how to learn, create, destroy, and rebuild innovative ideas for mathematics lesson plans and activities. "In today's technological world, a good understanding of mathematics is critical," Nelson says. "Master teachers know how to structure a learning environment where students develop clear concepts and needed skills."

John Stiles, the science professor, continually offers students ideas and suggestions for the instruction of science in the elementary classroom. "There is nothing in a person's life that is not connected to science in some way," Stiles says. "Yet, science remains the most neglected area of the elementary curriculum. My job is to help future teachers realize that science is not only important, but anyone can feel comfortable teaching it if they know how."

There is more in a painting than splashes of color just as in the Integrated Methods Professional Semester. The professors teach from the heart and show that they care about what they are doing. Each is not only a teacher and artist, but a person too, just like the students in this class. This helps personalize all of the successes realized, goals met, and dreams accomplished. It creates a masterpiece that all can sign together.

Edited from Briefings Newsletter, UNI College of Education

David Christensen, Price Laboratory School, is now the science professor in the IMPS program.

"Because we know that everything in life is connected, it just makes common sense to integrate the methods courses for elementary education majors in the College of Education," explains Dale Johnson. "There's nothing new about integration - in fact the college used to have a Block sequence which was a similar idea."

But, the creativity comes in the following projects IMPS students tackle to gain firsthand knowledge of possible methods for teaching integrated knowledge.

• Construction Project. Construct a theme park, city, colonial village, or city of the future completely out of recycled materials. Students work in large groups, organizing themselves into committees, to design and construct the project, write tourist brochures, create bumper stickers and postcards. This semester the IMPS students are creating their projects with fourth and fifth graders from Black Hawk Elementary School in Waterloo.
• Out of the Ordinary Units. Students can't use standard topics like Plains Indians or the Rain Forest. They work in small groups to build an integrated instructional teaching unit that is out of the ordinary. Topics? Cheese, flies, bubblegum... and on.
• Oral History. Select someone 20 years your senior to interview and write an oral history. Students conduct one or two interviews and learn skills in interviewing, writing, and speaking.
• Write and illustrate a children's book. Choose a social studies theme and create a children's book. The project includes story mapping, writing, illustrating, and binding. Several students have submitted their projects for publication.

Johnson says the IMPS professors work to model integration experiences for the students. "We hope the ideas carry over into their student teaching experiences and regular teaching experiences. All knowledge is interconnected and it makes sense to teach that way."