Carien Q., a multidisciplinary visual artist and educator led professional development sessions for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers from all subject areas at Neelsville Middle School. She designed the session to have the teachers reflect on how they can integrate art making into their lesson plans and frame their student’s learning as well as their own teaching as creative practices. Carien guided them through a collaborative painting exercise, to reflect on the artist's habits of mind and how they are already practicing them in their subject areas, and to share how they can bring the painting activity into their classrooms. Our virtual classroom is designed to provide a similar space for skill-building and reflection because we recognize these kinds of professional development opportunities can be rare for educators.
Two of the artist habits of mind stood out to science and math teachers from each grade level: curiosity and persistence. The teachers shared that an artist’s curiosity and persistence, both necessary to start and move forward creative work, mirrors the way to want their students to approach a math problem or science experiment. The teachers were excited to think of these processes as creative, to help their students understand it isn’t necessarily the final product that is most important but the process by which they arrive at the answer. They reflected on how they can work with their students to approach each problem or experiment creatively and to try and try again as they move toward an answer.
Your support makes it possible for educators without access to arts integration professional development sessions to integrate new arts-based skills and tools into their classrooms, which are proven to help students improve test scores and be more fully engaged in learning. By helping educators everywhere access tools, resources, and space for reflection, the virtual classroom ultimately produces a ripple effect because the learning and tools stay with the teachers and are passed on to each new class every year. Because of your support to sustain and grow our virtual classrooms, students everywhere are more likely to reach their own potential.
If you have experienced an “ah-ha” moment in a professional development session or our virtual classroom, we invite you to share that experience with us on our Facebook page. As we approach the end of this calendar year, let's take time account for these moments and pledge to enter the year with curiosity and persistence.
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Story Tapestries just completed a two-week residency program at Pemberton Elementary School. This is the second year we have served Pemberton with artists-in-residence in language arts, history and math classrooms, performances, and professional development for teachers. Pemberton recognized the impact of our work with teachers and students last year and is committed to growing their professional development for teachers in all subjects. Yet not every school or educator has access to these resources. Our virtual classroom is meant to resource those schools and educators we cannot physically reach, to help them incorporate the life-changing power of arts integration into their classrooms.
In math classes, Story Tapestries artists used drama and dance to create choreographic movements demonstrating complex mathematical operations. Students also used creative writing exercises to write their own word problems. Teachers witnessed students in their other classes showing the mathematical movement to students who did not experience the residency. They danced through long division, not only remembering the steps for themselves but also gaining the skills to teach others.
We love sharing these stories because YOU helped create them.
Story Tapestries is grateful to be part of the GlobalGiving family and to be part of the #GivingTuesday global movement. Through corporate sponsorships, dollars from supporters like you are stretched further thanks to matching campaigns today, December 3.
Your support helps us to continue to develop our virtual classroom and provide professional development opportunities for educators everywhere. By integrating the arts into their classrooms, these educators not only unlock the potential of future artists but also foster their students’ academic achievement. Thank you so much for being part of the movement that brings the power of arts integration directly into your home and connects you with a network of world-class teaching artist experts!
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First established in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day, we celebrate World Children’s Day on November 20 each year, promoting international togetherness and a commitment to improving children’s welfare around the world. We uphold the ideals of World Children’s Day every day and in every program. Thanks to your support we are able to bring together educators from across the country in our virtual classroom and get them the arts integration tools and resources that help them engage their students and promote positive youth development. By incorporating these tools into their teaching practices, these educators promote creativity, communication skills, and collaboration, building their students’ capacities to be world citizens.
At the core of our work in youth and community development, we help everyone tell their stories. They may do this through a visual art piece, a poem, or a storytelling performance. They may perform or exhibit their work for all to hear and see. Or they may choose to share with only their close friends and family. Whatever the medium, we know these stories have the power to change the world. Stories are our superpowers that bring us together and make the world a better place.
Now through Dec. 16, we are excited to let you, our supporters, know about our My Story is My Superpower initiative. As a part of this campaign, we will also be posting fun ways to engage with the team of Story Tapestries staff and supporters through social media using the hashtag #StoryPower2019.
Be on the lookout for how to engage and share the power of your stories with us on our Facebook page and Twitter!
On November 20, 1954, the United National General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. For more information about World Children’s Day, you can go to the United Nations' webpage. https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-childrens-day
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We are at an exciting moment in the yearly arc of our programming as we get to see glimpses of the impact our in-school artist residences are making. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a residency session in a theatre classroom at Neelsville Middle School where teaching-artist Drew A., engaged students in discussions and writing exercises around exploring and breaking stereotypes. Drew invited students on stage to read and perform early versions of their writing, asking them to use the voices, imaginations, bodies, and ensemble (or V.I.B.E.) to bring the writing to life. We know teachers and teaching-artists across the country are not always able to sit in on sessions like these and learn from other practitioners. Our virtual classroom expands access to these resources and opportunities to bring arts-based tools into classrooms, workplaces, and communities.
My work with Story Tapestries began in summer 2018. I joined the team as a teaching assistant, supporting a visual artist to lead Neelsville Middle School students in Germantown, Maryland to design and create two murals for their school. One student in particular, “John,” stands out when I reflect on that summer program. John was incredibly quiet, didn’t engage with many of the other students, and never raised his hand when the group was asked a question. When we brought out the paints to start realizing our design, he worked silently on his corner, intensely focused. Cleaning spilled paint out of my hair (one of the tubes had exploded), I saw John working on his corner of the mural, intensely focused. I stopped and watched while he carefully applied the paint, blending from lavender to deep purple that just pulled you into the piece.
I flashed back to my middle school self as I watched John paint. I recognized his shyness in myself. I recognized his inability to easily engage with his peers, his hesitancy to raise his hand even though he knew the answer to our questions. At the moment, another student was walking behind John, stopped, and asked, “How’d you do that?!” pointing to the gradient purples. From that moment John became a consultant to other student’s mural sections. He helped others blend their paint, get a clean edge, and troubleshoot issues. I witnessed John become visible to himself and to his peers.
In my new role, every time I visit Neelsville Middle School to support our continued programming at the school and pass that mural, I see another section of John’s handiwork that I hadn’t noticed before. I always pause and take a moment to remind myself what incredible power arts experiences have for students (and had for me, when I was John’s age). I know for myself, the confidence and voice I found in my youth through artmaking supported me in all of my subjects, helped me connect with peers and teachers, and made me feel more of a part of the school community.
As we enter into the season of gratitude and giving, I am grateful for these moments to reflect on the impact your support helps us make in the lives of the young people and school communities we serve as well as the communities those who use the resources in our virtual classroom serve. These tools and resources support educators to help students find their voices, to connect more fully with each other and the content they are learning, and recognize that their contributions matter.
We would love the opportunity to connect as we approach the end of our calendar year. If you are local to the Washington Metropolitan area, mark your calendars for December 10 when Story Tapestries will be performing as a part of the World Holiday Bazaar in Silver Spring. If you are not local to the area, please join us on Facebook. Reach out, comment on our posts, or send us a note and let us know what you are grateful for!
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We recognize students come into our classrooms primed by conversations taking place in the world around them. Often, with a little prompting, they are excited to dive into those conversations. Through our residencies in all subjects, we welcome these opportunities to engage with students and integrate both local and national current issues into our lesson plans. I wanted to share with you an outcome from a recent event that highlights the necessity of supporting integrated educational models that tie learning back to the world around us. Your support of our Virtual Classroom allows us to provide educators all over the world with resources to support both academic and social emotional development of youth they engage, helping those youth add their voices to these conversations!
On October 5, 2019, a group of family, friends, new acquaintances, and strangers gathered at the Strathmore Mansion for our Amplify US! event. We were there to share in poetry, storytelling, and conversations about race, difference, and connection. In addition to professional poets, community members, and an excited audience, two youth performers who we have previously engaged in our programming lit up the stage with their poetry and storytelling.
It’s difficult to capture in words the feeling of the room. The conversations were not necessarily easy or without discomfort, but all were warm and caring. They felt urgent and necessary. Every person who showed up was meant to be there. People lingered longer than usual, already late for a Saturday evening. The performances and conversation created a kind of gravitational force and held us there. Primed by the performances, audience members leaped into conversation with each other, discussing aspects of their lives rarely shared with strangers. The conversations engaged intergenerational connections across race and nationality and the event spilled over its end time as audience members were reluctant to end their conversations.
Why this urgent need for dialogue?
In 2017 Montgomery County Police reported a 26% increase in bias incidents compared to the prior year (report linked below). Of the incidents reported, roughly half were motivated by bias toward religion and half were motivated by bias toward a race or ethnicity. Over that year, there was a 48% increase in the number of incidents in which a school or college was a target of a bias incident. Among known subjects of all bias incidents in 2017, the dominant offender group is males (44 of the 53 known subjects were males). Additionally, 33 of the 53 subjects were under the age of 18, a 267% increase over 2016.
We know the picture these statistics paint is not limited to our work in Montgomery County. The resources we currently provide through our Virtual Classroom and the future resources your support is helping us grow support educators everywhere to best support their students. I would like to invite you to follow our programming and the conversations the educators and students we engage are adding their voices to by joining us on Facebook, or following along in our blog.
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