Workshop Details

Who should attend:
Experienced TAs steeped in one or more pedagogical approaches to arts learning, to see how your vocabulary and methodology connects with others

Emerging TAs who just know that the things they are doing that work in classrooms may have names and possibilities embedded in practice that can help them communicate with teachers and students what they are doing

Neophyte or hopeful TAs, who are looking for structures to organize their classroom practice and articulate their approach to potential employers, or who are seeking an arts learning home but aren’t sure what that home should look like.

Why you should join us:
The emerging profession of the Teaching Artist offers dozens of pathways for TAs to follow to become better teachers, deeper artists, and smarter communicators about their work.   You can choose from an array of short (60-90 minutes each) workshops that will introduce you to, or clarify for you, the principles underlying classroom practice for arts learning.  Each methodology is taught by local and national experts who offer courses of study that might be of interest to you as the field moves toward professionalization.

And you’ll meet some of the regional leaders in arts learning training and practice, network with fellow TAs and learn more about the growing community that is Teaching Artists Organized.   

What to expect:
The day unfolds with intensive explorations of various arts integration approaches in use by teaching artists and teachers today.  You will choose from a menu of arts integration pedagogues you may have heard of, including

• The Lincoln Center Institute for Arts in Education (practiced locally first at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts and now through the Creative Education Institute)
• Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge program (whose local partner is Cal Performances)
• Italy's Reggio Emilia philosophy (brought to us locally by Arlene Schmaeff, long affiliated with MOCHA)
• Visual Thinking Strategies (with local training homes in SF, San Jose, Palo Alto and Sonoma)
• Principles and practice of kinesthetic movement learning (practiced locally through an array of dance teaching artists, including Shawl-Anderson Dance Studio, Luna Kids Dance and others)

Plus discussions about why pedagogy matters, how to connect pedagogy with practice, and how to find training and professional development that works for you.