We know that participation and reflection are key to shifting beliefs and mindsets. Our foundation course begins with simple routines to flex our creativity muscles and reflections to make our thinking visible. Then we delve deeper into arts integration design and technique.
After completing the foundation course, we invite teachers to attend a 2-day Summer Institute. Here, they experience three arts integration strategies: Visual Arts, Theater, and Music and Media Arts. They work together, take risks, and share in the joys of creative expression. Those experiences prepare them to begin enjoyable, invigorating, and low-stakes creative routines with their students.
Next, educators proceed through 100-level and 200-level courses on arts integration. Over time, we’ll expand our work to include courses that explore the intersection of arts integration for creative engagement and other important themes, such as social justice, culturally responsive teaching, and healing-centered practice. We’ll link it all back to learning in and through the arts to engage our creative resources.
This combination of online and in-person professional development is self-paced and personalized. It allows for individual reflection, exploration, and sharing in a way that fits flexibly into the demanding lives of educators. And our in-person sessions bring this work to life.
Together, these combined elements connect our partners to a community of practice.
As we continue to test and refine the makeSPACE approach, we’ll look for more partners within our current school sites. We’ll also seek out new educators and school sites throughout the Pacific Northwest.
More environments and educators testing, adapting, and expanding the makeSPACE process means more data and insights from educators and students. And more data and input leads to better outcomes and experiences.
Let’s see how far this project can go… and how great this community of creative engagement can become.