PAT CRUZ

YA Education Director

Time & Money & Art & Music!
Elementary school teachers will learn how to reinforce concepts such as: fractions, time, and money through interactive strategies that integrate visual arts and music. Lesson plans, student handouts, and hands-on experience will ensure teachers are comfortable and motivated to teach math through the arts.

Arts for Learning: An Intro to Arts Integration

Participants will not only gain comfort, confidence, and experience in utilizing arts strategies with their students, they will also be able to recognize and identify connections between the skills and concepts in their curriculum, and the arts skills and concepts that will inspire and motivate their students to think, learn, and dream.

Participants will receive: Sample lesson plans, CD with Power Point/visuals for a sample lesson, and a resource list. Pat will meet with you to custom-design a program that best fits your school and district needs.

Technical Assistance/Consultation

Starting an arts integration initiative in your school/district? Training a new arts integration teacher/coordinator? YA can consult and support you and/or your team on many tasks including:

• Parent/Faculty meeting on the power of Arts Integration (research, rationale, success stories)
• Curriculum mapping
• Curriculum writing
• A series of interactive Arts Integration workshops for teachers and students
• Culminating community event to share learning and build support

Designing on Microsoft Word (without pulling your hair out!)

This workshop will give teachers the secrets and tips to unraveling this program – and many others. Learn to “group”, “ungroup”, and “layer” text and graphics to make student handouts, posters, and flyers.

ARIANNA ROSS

Storyteller

Discover the Power of the Written Word
This session is designed to give teachers the power to find their own “voice” and inspire students to discover theirs, all while teaching the writing process (in disguise)! Gayle will give you all the tools you need – including editing and revision techniques – to return to your classroom pumped, confident, and capable of writing, sharing, and teaching through slam poetry.

Math + Dance, Music and Theatre = Integrated , High Level Thinking

Through a series of specially designed games, participants will learn to use theatre, music, and dance to teach math in an accessible, fun, and creative way.

Playing through History

Enact history by telling its story. Using storytelling in the classroom has proven to be an empowering educational tool for both the teller/teacher and the listener/student. Storytelling has shown to improve self-confidence, literacy, group dynamics, and deepen your students’ understanding of history and other cultures.

Writing Stories from Our Imagination

Inspire a long lasting love of creative writing with your students. This workshop is tailored to each set of teachers and their personal curricula needs.

JON SPELMAN

Storyteller

Listen-See-Tell: Basic Steps in Creating and Telling Stories
Teachers learn the technique of ‘Listen-See-Tell’ to develop students’ abilities to tell stories. Teachers will be able to guide students in the oral presentation of a short personal story or folktale or other literature from your curriculum. The Listen-See-Tell technique is an excellent pre-writing exercise which will help students clarify, enhance, and develop their stories before setting pencil to paper.

Mythopedia: Creating Personal Tales Based on Classical Models
Teachers will learn how to guide their students through developing real life relationships and associations into ancient myths and legends. With this guidance, students will learn storytelling techniques that enable each student to create a three to five minute myth or legend of his/her own; and to orally present it for an audience.

Tell It Write: Using Oral Storytelling to Enhance Student Writing
Master storyteller Jon Spelman will share his secret tricks of oral storytelling and take you step-by-step through the process of utilizing storytelling as a way to engage students in developing, composing, and revising their creative writing.

Powerful Presentations
Discover a basic method of bringing the written word alive to enhance students’ understanding and appreciation of both fiction and non-fiction published writing.

What’s Not to Like: Using the Critical Response Process
Practice a six step critical process by which students can learn to take increasing responsibility for, and satisfaction with, their work in a variety of areas, including speaking, writing, social studies, and science. Students will be challenged to analyze their work, as well as each other’s, and develop an understanding for asking meaningful questions and providing constructive feedback.

SUE TRAINOR

Performing Songwriter

Writing Songs To Learn
No music training needed! This hands-on workshop explores the musicality of language, building on basic oral communication skills to enhance learning and address multiple learning styles. Songwriting exercises not only engage students in the writing process, they serve to motivate synthesis of vocabulary, facts, concepts, and relationships.

LAURA ZAM

Actress/Playwright

Using Storytelling to Resolve Conflicts and Increase Emotional Self-Awareness
Participants will learn to use monologue writing as a tool for understanding self and others. Participants will gain skills that foster self-awareness of one’s listening tendencies and learn “stress busting” techniques. This workshop builds community among teachers and can be easily replicated with students.

Building Student Resiliency
In this residency, participants will learn simple drama techniques that bring creativity to problem-solving tasks and situations. Ultimately, these techniques help all members of a school community deal with the daily stresses of work and life.