Add More Arts to Your Classroom: Virtual Professional Development
Join us for these 90-minute virtual sessions exploring the power of the arts in engaging students, strengthening comprehension, and bringing content areas to life. Part of the KS/MO Kennedy Center Partners in Education program.
The KS/MO Kennedy Center Partners in Education, comprised of the Midwest Trust Center at Johnson County Community College, Shawnee Mission School District, and Liberty Public Schools, provides free arts integration professional development and support for teachers. The arts integration topics presented at these sessions show teachers how to connect an art form with curriculum to enhance student engagement and deepen understanding.
Virtual Sessions Include:
Visual Art Through a Social Studies Lens: Integrating Art and History
Bonnie Thomas, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Tuesday, October 6, 4:30-6 p.m.
During this session, participants will learn strategies for incorporating art into the teaching of social studies. Drawing on the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, we will consider how works of art can function as primary source documents reflecting the time, place, and historical context in which they were made, and we will practice analyzing art alongside other texts to learn what art can tell us about the past and our present world. Social studies topics and themes addressed in this session will be especially applicable to secondary grades.
Opera, Musical Storytelling, and Social-Emotional Learning
Emily Bridges, Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Saturday, December 5, 10-11:30 a.m.
Lyric Opera of Kansas City defines opera simply as musical storytelling. Join Learning Department staff to explore how this art form serves as a vehicle for social-emotional learning, highlighted through their elementary school touring production, Maya and the Magic Ring.
From Reading to Creating: Activate Literacy Learning through Student-in-Role Techniques
Xinyue Zhang, The Coterie Theater
Saturday, February 6, 10-11:30 a.m.
When reading is active, students take ownership of their learning and are more motivated to engage and collaborate with their peers. How can drama and embodiment help students become active readers who are also storytellers and creators?
This interactive virtual session explores different applications of role-playing in the classroom, from individual to group work, and quick, spontaneous responses to long-term designed projects. Through experiencing these strategies and playful tools, participants dive into curriculum design that transforms the words (and pictures!) on the pages into worlds enacted and created by students. Teachers are encouraged to come to this session with a text (a story, a picture book, etc.) they are excited to explore with their classes. This session will end with an action-planning exercise that gets participants started with their own student-in-role lesson plan.
Open Wide: Puppetry for an Engaged Classroom
Heather Loewenstein, StoneLion Puppet Theatre
Monday, March 1, 4:30-6 p.m.
Join Heather Loewenstein, Artistic Director of StoneLion Puppet Theatre, for a fun, informative workshop on how to use puppetry to liven up any classroom. Puppets can be powerful educational tools that can transform teaching, providing interactive ways for students to safely explore ideas, express themselves, and what they know. Create a paper mouth puppet that can add a memorable, hands-on element to your lessons and adapt it to any subject matter – environmental education/science, literacy/storytelling, math, and more. Puppetry kits will be mailed to your door!
