Workshops for Educators

 All workshops are participatory, connect to standards, provide assessment tools.

Duration of Professional Development Workshops: minimum 1-3 hours 

Other workshops are available or can be created upon request.

ARTS (DANCE) INTEGRATION SAMPLER

This interactive workshop explores how dance connects with and promotes learning in diverse subjects (science, language arts, and math). Participants will 

• Learn the definition and value of dance integration; 

• Examine how the elements of dance are used to develop lessons; 

• Participate in a variety of dance-integrated learning activities; and 

• Spark new ideas for integrating dance. 

Dance integration in the classroom is a unique learning experience in which students learn skills and elements of dance along with subjects in the curriculum in organized and meaningful ways.  Well-constructed dance-integrated lessons are standards based, develop knowledge in multiple disciplines, and foster opportunities for student discovery and creativity.  This workshop will provide an overview of a variety of dance-integrated lessons developed by Workshop Leader Laurel Shastri in an interactive and hands-on format along with specific connections between the topics being integrated and the standards (Common Core, Next Generation Science, Dance, etc.)

THE SCIENTIFIC DANCER SAMPLER

Designed to challenge participants to think and act as both scientists and as dancers, this workshop alternates interactive movement activities with open-ended questions and reflection.  Using a variety of scientific topics as examples, this workshop addresses: 1) Creative problem solving using movement and scientific inquiry, 2) Relationships between scientific vocabulary and the elements of dance, 3) Presentation of scientific concepts through dance.

Through this workshop, teachers will: 

• Experience several examples of science and dance integrated activities

• Explore ways in which science vocabulary relates to dance vocabulary

• Create short movement phrases that embody scientific concepts or vocabulary 

• Reflect on ways to adapt material to their own classes.

• Discuss ways to assess the creative product for understanding of science and dance

MEANINGFUL MOVEMENT: Connecting Dance with Reading, Writing, and Learning

Explore dance as a form of text through activities that engage body and mind in fun and unexpected ways. In the process of interpreting and communicating meaningful movement, participants discover how: 1) Watching a dance uses reading strategies (inference, connecting to prior knowledge, visualization, experimentation) 2) Creating/performing a dance uses writing skills (expressing ideas, sequencing, editing).

In this workshop, participants will:

• Experience the model lesson demonstration, ‘Greetings Through Movement’ 

• Explore relationships between parts of speech and elements of dance

• Compare structure and sequencing of texts and dance

• Create expressive movement phrases inspired by different kinds of texts (poems, stories, or personal letters) or to communicate ideas

• Examine connections to standards

GIANT STEPS TOWARD READING:  Exploring Fairy Tales Through Movement

In this participatory workshop geared for PreK-2nd grade teachers, participants explore the elements and structure of a 45-60 minute integrated Creative Movement class, including warm-up, development of skills, and creative activity. Using the fairytale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ as an example, a literacy component will be integrated into each activity. The workshop leader will:

• Introduce the Brain Dance warm-up and demonstrate ways to develop variations

• Provide strategies for classroom management

• Show how to develop movement and descriptive word vocabularies

• Lead activities that teachers can use in their classrooms to develop understanding of story elements, characters, and sequence.

• Provide opportunities to share ideas and consider adaptations of activities to meet specific classroom needs.

Curriculum connections: Language Arts, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Dance, Physical Education

BRAIN-BODY CONNECTIONS OF DANCE and its impact on early childhood development

This participatory workshop is especially relevant for elementary grade level and special education teachers. It explores how creative movement stimulates brain-body connections and examines issues of dance program development in early childhood education. Workshop participants will

• Gain information about early childhood development and the eight developmental movement patterns

• Experience a brain-body activity called the Brain Dance

• Examine different learning styles within the context of dance

• Participate in a creative movement class

• Identify important criteria to consider when assessing the quality of a dance experience and the impact on developing learners.

Curriculum connections: Language Arts, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Dance, Physical Education

DANCE-INTEGRATED LESSON DEMONSTRATIONS

Arts-integrated lessons teach art concepts along with other subject matter from within the curriculum. Choose from a variety of topics (see 'Residencies' page for a comprehensive list). A primary concern in developing an art-integrated lesson is that there is a meaningful connection between the art form and the curriculum being integrated. The workshop leader will:

• Lead a complete structured, dance-integrated lesson including warm up, creative problem solving, and development of concepts and movement vocabularies

• Review dance concepts

• Make clear connections between dance and the integrated topic

Participants will:

• Gain first-hand experience participating in a dance-curriculum integrated lesson

• Brainstorm strategies used for integrating topics and for classroom management

• Reflect on ways to adapt the lesson for their own classes

Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Math, Science, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Dance, Physical Education

Get in touch at laurelshastri@yahoo.com