Sessions

• Getting Started With VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) ~ Workshop presenter:  Steve Hansen Audience: K- 6th grade

Session Resources: VTS Presentation, VTS Lesson Plan Handout, VTS Postcard Handout, VTS Writing Form Handout

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) transforms the way students think and learn by providing training and curriculum for teachers to facilitate   

discussions of visual  art that significantly increase student engagement, performance, and enjoyment of learning. "What's Going On in This Picture?" With 

      a detailed piece of art and  this simple prompt, students are invited to make meaning, practice providing evidence, and practice speaking and listening 

skills. 

Objective:  Participants will receive a basic introduction to VTS, we'll look at philosophies and desired outcomes, then we'll practice, practice, practice! 

Teachers will be given scripts and images with which to practice.  

• It's All Connected: Arts Integration Amplifies Learning in the Classroom  ~  Workshop presenter: Eileen Blodgett  Audience: Any subject, grade 

Session Resources: AIS Approach to Arts Integration, Session Ideas, Social Emotional Learning ~ It's All Connected Handout

Arts Integration amplifies learning in the classroom by being inclusive of our natural human desire to create, communicate and connect. This is an     

overview of approaching Arts Integration in almost all core subject content areas, including opportunities for building self awareness, social

awareness and relationship skills. Specific examples of process with core content and arts standards will be presented, discussed and expanded  

with breakout creative sessions for specific content groups.    

Objective: Teachers will come away with practical ideas and methods for integrating the arts, thereby creating a more colorful, inclusive, and 

engaging experience for all learners - and teachers alike.

•   Drawing Is Magical, But It’s Not Magic: How to bring drawing into your classroom even if you think you can’t draw (and why you should).

~ Workshop presenter: Samantha Jones Audience: K-12 teachers, specifically in subjects where students write, observe, or analyze.

Session Resources:   Presentation

Drawing increases content retention and improves vocabulary in student writing- both fiction and non-fiction. It can also support student self-awareness, social awareness and build relationship skills. In this workshop we will briefly discuss the research related to drawing, then we will make 2 drawings: a comic style person using simple shapes and a drawing using a step by step book. I will also provide resources: links to the research studies about drawing, materials I recommend, and suggested drawing books and videos to share with students.

Objective: Increase workshop participants' comfort and confidence in drawing with students through practice and resources. Outcomes: Participants will draw a person using simple shapes and draw from step by step drawing books. 

• Instant Improv: Theatre Arts in Your Classroom! ~ Workshop presenters:  Kim Ewing & Sandra Rockman     Audience: Any subject, grade

Session Resources:  Instant Improv Lesson Plan

Workshop participants will PLAY & DO a series of theatre arts warm-ups, Improv exercises, and games they can bring back to their classrooms to improve communication, to develop confidence in relationship skills & build teamwork.  This workshop is very interactive, focusing on keen Social Emotional elements like self-awareness vs. social awareness and responsible decision making. Theatre arts and Improv help foster SAFE SPACE and a place for creativity in ANY subject. 

Objective: The workshop objectives are to provide teachers INSTANT theatre arts and real life IMPROV as a means to build confidence, spark creativity, deepen learning, and increase capacity for skilled communication through warm ups, activities, and games. Teachers will leave with a list of games and how to use them in class. 

• Blackout Poetry ~ Workshop presenter: Lily Gicker                                  Audience: Any subject, Any grade 

Session Resources:    Blackout Poetry Presentation, Blackout Poetry Lesson Plan

In this workshop, participants will learn about "Blackout Poetry", where a poem is "found" in an existing text. After viewing a short presentation of both artist

      and student examples, participants will create their own blackout poetry, decorated with collage, enhanced with color art media, or simply graphic. Blackout       poetry can be used in language arts integration at any grade level. 

      Objective: Participants will learn what blackout poetry is, and experience the process of creating a blackout poem. Participants will leave with their own 

       poem.

• Fun With Fossils ~ Workshop presenter: Andrea Conte                                          Audience: 3rd-5th grade

Session Resources:   Fun With Fossils Lesson Plan

Using a photograph students will design a 3-D model of the original organism that later on turned into a fossil. They will use their observation to   

determine what type of environment the organism lived in based on their observation.  

Objective: Utilize the Visual Arts to understand the importance of Fossils when reconstructing organisms and environments based on factual observations and scientific inferences. At the end of this workshop, we will have recreated a 3-D sculpture of an organism based on observations provided from images of recovered fossils.