CCSESA Arts Initiative



DesignsLanding page (drop downs still be updated in Invision) - teacher lesson page: on landing page Background Information Project Scope of Work Online Compendium Leadership TEACHERS Notes about contentIf content is staying the same, please include the link to the page(s) on the current site. If there are new teachers, lessons, downloads, please include with clear instructions. We need to know 1. What teacher the new downloads go with and 2. The files are named properly. 3. What page they go under (project overview, instruction, assessment, etc.) This filled out document + any additional content (images, downloads, should be added to the Lessons (Compendium) folder in Hightail. If there are more than one image we’re carrying over per page (instruction, overview, assessment, etc.), you’ll need to specify which image # should go on the top of the page. This image will also need to repeat wherever it is embedded on the current page. To find the image number, right click and select “save image as” – then you’ll see what the file name is. Note, when this content is migrated over, we will migrate the current formatting for things like bullets, italics, bolding, etc. Drop down categories (your tags) By Discipline MusicTheatreDanceVisual ArtsInterdisciplinary By GradeKindergartenGrade 1Grade 2Grade 3Grade 4Grade 5Grade 6Grade 7Grade 8Grade 9Grade 10Grade 11Grade 12By Last Name A – FG - LM – RS - Z By Region 1 234567891011For each teacher we need the following:NameTeacher imageShort title – 30 – 60 characters About Me About My Students Project OverviewInstruction Assessment Resources Other images (if new) - what section do they go in? Tag(s) – should match what is under the drop down categories Discipline (Music, Visual Arts, etc.) Grade(s)Last Name (yes, this is a tag we need as well)Region # or Region #’sTEACHERS:Robin AlcalaalcalaGeometric Shapes in ArtI am currently a fifth grade teacher at Madison. I have been teaching for about eighteen years. Before that I worked in the Army, the federal government, Fresno City Hall, and the Madera County Board of Supervisors. As the child of a career Navy service member, I moved around quite a bit. We finally settled in the Seattle, Washington area, where I spent my junior high and high school years. As a former spouse of an Army soldier, I have lived in Germany when it was still divided and spent several years stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. I now live in Madera. I have been a single parent with two daughters who are now grown with children of their own. When I graduated from high school, I expressed no interest to become a teacher. I thought teachers were underappreciated even back then. However, the events of life have a way of changing our thinking. While I was working for Madera County, I realized I would not make enough money to support my family if I stayed there. I enrolled at Fresno Pacific College and quit my job. I had some elective credits from prior years in college and worked hard to complete my BA and teaching credential in three years.I was blessed to be hired and joined the staff of Central Unified at Madison in 1994, and have been at Madison my entire teaching career. I started as a type of "middle school" science teacher with six science periods and a vocal music elective. Throughout my career, I have taught sixth, fifth, and second grades. I am NOT an arts specialist but have tried to fit arts activities into the curriculum aligned to standards as time permits. Some of my interests include participating in my church choir and productions and attending visiting productions and exhibits.. I was lucky enough to attend dress rehearsals of the grand opera productions for Carmen and Show Boat as a chaperone. I have visited exhibits at the Fresno and Madera fairs in the past and appreciate the talents of others.Demographics as of 2011/12 statistics:African American – 6%Filipino – 1% Native American – 1%Hispanic – 71%Asian – 10%White – 11%English Learners – 31%Special Education/Disabilities – 6%Socio-economic disadvantaged – 92%Madison, along with Central Unified as a district, has been program improvement school under No Child Left Behind. Over the last three-year period there has been a decline in CST scores at proficient and advanced levels in both math and language arts. Most of our students are bussed to school. We are not in a neighborhood, so no one walks to school. This means we are limited in our ability to keep kids after school or have them come before school to get extra help or discipline as needed to develop proper work and behavior habits.As for my class, I am the "GATE cluster" teacher. I have three identified GATE students along with a huge range of abilities in reading and mathematics. The reading ability average for my class is about mid-third grade. I have three special education students and five English Learners (all at intermediate level or above, but not reclassified yet). There are 34 enrolled in my class with these demographics:Hispanic: 23Asian: 5African American: 4White: 2They are basically a well-behaved group this year, but several are not motivated to do their best effort, and others do not have the ability to complete fifth grade standards/work to the rigor required by our district and the upcoming common core. Based on my observations, most have limited experiences as compared to students from more affluent areas. new imagesPrimary Tag – Visual ArtsSecondary Tag - integrated ELA, geometric, elements of artGrade 5AlcalaRegion # Susan Alexanderalexander A Sense of PlaceI am a veteran multimedia artist/educator who began teaching art 30 years ago as an artist/educator at Junction City School which had sixty students. I had no experience or training as a teacher but began to read Art Activities and School Arts magazines, talk to other art specialists, and take whatever professional development workshops were offered. During this time I taught art at every school in Trinity County, but following the earning of my teaching credential thirteen years ago, I now work at Weaverville Elementary School four days per week and at Junction City School one day per week. My personal art is visionary. I translate my images in the form of drawings, paintings, ceramic sculpture, and paper m?ché. We have a strong local arts community in which I participate regularly as an artist. This month I am showing in a National Competition in Redding, I have a painting at the Highland Art Center in Weaverville, and next month a drawing in the Women’s Invitational show at the 5 Windows Gallery in Weaverville.I teach visual arts at two elementary schools in and near Weaverville. Students targeted for this project are a class of twenty-two sixth graders attending Weaverville Elementary School (WES), a K-8 grade school in Weaverville, Trinity County. WES is 95% Caucasian, 4% Hispanic, and 1% Black. These sixth grade students are mostly visual, sequential learners, are cooperative, creative, and generally a pleasant group to work with. They have visual arts class 120-180 minutes per week. These students have been working in interactive notebooks for the first time this year.These spiral bound notebooks contain project lists, lesson rubrics, personal notes, examples of art projects, and student reflections. Students have experienced creating color wheels and finished Egyptian paintings using gouache previous to the introduction of watercolor for this project. Many paintings, prints, and postcards of Mt. Fuji by Japanese artists are on display and available for students to observe and study. new imagesVisual Arts, ELAGrade 6AlexanderRegion #Jackie Algazi- LM Added to WordPress, problems with headingalgaziLandscape, Seascape for Animal ResearchMy name is Jackie Algazi. I am a third grade bilingual teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Escondido, California. I speak several languages fluently including Spanish, French, and English, and I understand a few more. I have been teaching children for fifteen years. I was teacher of the year twice and bilingual teacher of the year for Escondido Union School District in 2010. As a teacher of several languages, I have learned that not all students learn the same way. Some students are kinesthetic, other students learn visually, and many students learn through music, especially second language speakers.Personally, I am a visual artist. I have created many murals and paintings at my school, as well as for several businesses in San Diego. I have been successful at creating an developing several school-wide assemblies using dance and theater to teach California standards and cultural diversity. I have used the arts to celebrate many cultural celebrations, including Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Day of the Dead and African-American month. I have helped other teachers develop better strategies to teach reading while using the arts.I am a firm believer in the arts. I have taught the arts in my classroom for many years. I participated in SUAVE (Socios Unidos para Artes via Educacion) through Cal State San Marcos and the California Center for the Arts in Escondido for five years. I am currently participating in the DREAM (Developing Reading Education through Arts Methods) project through Cal State San Marcos and the San Diego County Office of Education. Through the arts I have seen my students, especially second language learners, increasingly develop as active learners and express and communicate ideas in an aesthetic, powerful way. I have seen my students learn the core curriculum, including math, language arts, science and social studies, as I am able to quickly and efficiently utilize the arts as a tool for powerful instruction.Lincoln Elementary School has an average of 650 students a year. The population of the school is 90% Hispanic or Latino, 4% African-American, 3% white. We serve a population of 93% Socio-economically Disadvantaged, 78% of the students are English Language Learners and 13% are Students with Disabilities.My classroom is a dual-language classroom. I teach half of the core curriculum in Spanish and half in English. All of my students are English language learners. The ultimate goal for my students is to become academically fluent and bilingual in Spanish and English.My students' background and learning experiences in the community are very limited because of their low socio-economic environment. Every learning experience I provide my students gives them an opportunity to learn about our world, the arts, science, and social studies.Every year I have several students who are reserved and are extremely afraid of speaking, reading, and writing in their second language, English. By using the arts as a tool I have watched them develop, flourish, and take chances in their non-native language. My students love to perform, and use visual arts as a way to express their understanding of a lesson. new imagesVisual Arts, ELA, Science Grade 3AlgaziCarol Arendt –LM Added to WordPressCArendt_FresnoFinding a Writer’s VoiceI was born in Lima, Peru and immigrated to the United States when I was five years old. I was the oldest of four children. I began kindergarten in Oakland, California as a Spanish speaker immersed into a foreign language and culture. I spent the first three years of school trying to make sense of my school experience and live up to my parents' expectations. Fortunately, when I didn't understand something in class, I was allowed to draw or paint in the back of the class. Although this is not a sound educational practice, I discovered my solace in creating different scenes on large thin newsprint paper.The summer before fourth grade my life changed when my parents bought a home in the suburbs and we moved to the other side of the Hayward hills to the then-quiet little town of Dublin. That September, I was in Mrs. Mary Jane Hyde's fourth class. We were taught to play recorders, recite poetry, sing folk songs and at the end of the year we performed Gilbert and Sullivan's The HMS Pinafore. I learned to speak English in the context of a rich arts environment and that influenced the rest of my educational experience and the rest of my life.I began my teaching career as a bilingual teacher's assistant in a Special Day Class at Maie Ellis Elementary in Fallbrook, California. After a few years, I decided to get my teaching credential and upon completion, I returned to Maie Ellis as a bilingual teacher and used Visual Arts thematically to teach ELL students. This is my 17th year teaching and I continue to use the Arts in my teaching and always culminate the year with a literature-based musical theater presentation. Last year, it was Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar and this year my first grade class will join some upper grade students in performing an adaptation of Gary Soto's Chato's Kitchen.Outside of school, I challenge myself to learn a different art form over the summer. I recently learned to create broken china mosaics and decided to decorate my bathroom and kitchen cupboard doors with colorful mosaics. I go to VAPA workshops in Fresno County whenever possible to keep current on ways to infuse the Arts in my teaching.I teach in a low socioeconomic neighborhood school. Most students are within walking distance of the school. The neighborhood includes two churches. One of the churches partners with our school to provide school supplies for our students throughout the year and sports outreach events on the weekends. I teach 30 first grade students with a variety of learning styles and abilities. Their common strength is their openness to learn new things. My students are very active and need lots of movement to stay engaged during instruction. Over a third of my students are English Learners. Three of these students are Hmong and the rest are Spanish speaking. All of the Hmong parents understand English, but many of the Spanish speaking parents request that I communicate with them in Spanish. new imagesTheatre, Visual Arts, ELAGrade 1ArendtRegion #Anthony Arevalo-LM added to WordPressarevaloteacherPicComic Book Showcase My name is Anthony Arevalo and I teach out in the sunny Imperial Valley. I have taught for approximately three years at Finley Elementary School which is located in Holtville. I completed my bachelor’s in Liberal Studies at San Diego State University at our external campus, and I was fortunate to receive the award for the most outstanding student. I went on to pursue my credential with the same university and was hired as an intern student teacher. I began in the classroom at the age of twenty-one with no experience and a class full of thirty-five students. For the past year and a half, I have been working on completing my credential with the induction program known as BTSA. Also, at this time I have been working on Finley’s leadership team as well as presenting with Lori Campos to the Sequential Arts Network. When I’m not working into the wee hours of the night, I actually love to head out to karate practice and spending time with my girlfriend. Another hobby that I have been relentlessly pursuing is my black belt in a Japanese style of martial arts.My interest in the arts began at a young age; I began reading comic books and playing instruments as a young teenager. My true interests in the arts did not truly burgeon until I began working with our region’s VAPA Coordinator. As a participating teacher in the local Comic Book Project, I learned a great deal about the Visual Arts. Last year I served as an active participating teacher; this year I have become more passionate about the arts as a lead teacher to our Comic Book Project teachers. I truly enjoy attending the theatre, as well as reading comic books, and playing the guitar in my spare time.Like any typical day, students walk into the classroom and get to work on their Daily Oral Language (paragraphs with mistakes are rewritten and corrected by students). Then we move into our English Language Development program. Next is where the magic happens, we begin working on the comic book project. The class that I will be working on this project with consists of approximately twenty-eight students. The majority of these students have been deemed as English Learners. The classroom population consists mostly of Hispanic children with few Caucasians. The students that I have during this class have been classified according to their CST scores and fall within the realm of Below Basic and Basic. I also have more males than females in the classroom, and the majority of students tend to fall within the lower levels of the socioeconomic strata.The town of Holtville is very small and therefore has a very close-knit community. The majority of the community consists of a larger population of Hispanics as compared to other ethnicities. There are many after-school activities for students to partake in ranging from sports to music and tutoring. new picsVisual Arts, Social Studies, ELAGrades 4 – 6ArevaloRegion Loree Atkins-LM added to WordPress, problems with formattingatkinsCommunicating Through DanceMy name is Loree Atkins. I am the dance teacher at Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, California. I have been teaching dance at MVHS for the past ten years. I love to dance. It is my passion. It makes me feel alive. I started dancing when I was a little girl. My mother signed me up at the local neighborhood dance studio. I started in a ballet/tap combo class until quickly working my way up to the jazz class. I loved taking classes, practicing, and performing for family and friends. In high school, I danced in the Advanced Dance Company and was the president of the company my senior year. I taught several preschool dance classes at the local YMCA, as well as spending nine summers leading a variety of YMCA dance camps. In that time I also spent two years at California State University Long Beach studying dance in their dance program. By that point I was studying and thoroughly enjoying Modern Dance. It was an amazing experience that sadly ended due to double knee surgeries. At that point I had to reevaluate. I was never going to be able to dance at the level I was at, but my passion for dance never faded. I continued to dance, but on a much smaller scale. I started studying percussion and earned a degree in Theatre. In addition to dance, I have always loved working with children. At that point, I decided that I wanted to become an elementary teacher. Just before starting my first year in the classroom, I received a call from the athletic director at MVHS. He asked me to come to an interview the next day for the dance teacher position at my alma mater. That was ten years ago. Teaching at MVHS has given me such joy. I love being back at the school that helped shape me into the woman I have become. In the first eight years of my career I was fortunate to have five thriving dance classes. I taught three beginning dance classes, one intermediate class, and one advanced class. Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances, I now teach only three dance classes, two beginning, one advanced, and two PE classes. I am in the process of rebuilding the dance program. I love giving students a place to grow and create…to express and grow as young adults. I love how dance makes me feel so alive and connected. I try to provide my students with that same experience.My current advanced dance company is made up of students in 10th through 12th grades. Out of the twenty-one students, only two of them have been studio trained. The rest of the students have not had any formal training prior to attending MVHS. Because of their lack of studio training, they are strongest in cultural and street dancing. A variety of my dancers are also a part of other dance clubs on campus such as The Polynesian Dancers, The Step Team, The Hip-Hop Team, and The Si Se Puede Dance Group. Some of my dancers are also a part of Theatre, Choir, and Band. I work with a very diverse and well-rounded group of students. I encourage my dancers to experience as much of the arts as possible while they have the opportunity. Dance allows my students a means of expressing themselves and telling their personal story. - n/ano new pixPrimary Tag – DanceSecondary Tag – Force, ChoreographyGrades 9-12AtkinsRegionLaura Ball-LM Added to WordPressballAll Music Has MeaningI grew up in Colorado and attended Western State University before moving to California and finishing my education out here. I graduated from Chapman University with a BA in Music and have been teaching high school music for about fourteen years. I currently teach instrumental music at Wilmer Amina Carter High School in Rialto. I am a TCAP Fellow in the RIMS region and have been part of TCAP for fourteen years. I have been a TCAP teacher leader as an institute facilitator and coach as well as a workshop presenter and coordinator. I am part of the RIMS CAP Assessment Working Group. I continue to participate in RIMS California Arts Project and TCAP as a participant and teacher leader.The students that I teach are grades 9-12. There is no class separated by grade level, all classes are a mix of all grade levels. Several of the students stay with me for the duration of their high school education. This includes students in marching band and wind ensemble as well as the guitar classes. The students are all given the opportunity to take AP classes in all of the subject areas and up until this year they were also given the opportunity to take IB classes, as we were the IB school in our district. new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Composition, Music Elements, Create MusicGrades 9-12BallRegion Julie Benitez- LM Added BenitezTool and Building Basics for Technical TheatreIf you ask my mother, she will tell you I have had a dramatic flair for storytelling and holding an audience's attention since I was but a wee tot. I did the requisite shows at school and church growing up, theatre in junior high and high school, but it wasn't until my senior year that I really was introduced to something that has become a passion of mine: technical theatre. I asked my high school teacher, Mr. Doty, (who was a scenic designer himself and made full blueprints for each production) why he was spritzing blue paint onto the yellow flat I had freshly painted; the importance of spattering was explained to me and I have never looked back. In fact I have become somewhat of a spatter-evangelist and it warms the cockles of my heart when my students notice spatter (more often the lack thereof) on sets in other theatres.I earned a B.A. in Theatre with my teaching credential from Iowa State where I truly embraced the tech side of theatre (Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies!) and learned tons through trial and error in the scene shop. I also found another passion, stage management, which I think helped me be a successful theatre teacher more than many of my teaching classes. I received my M.F.A. in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State and I thought I was headed towards a career as a theatre education program manager.Luckily for me, I landed a job teaching at Monte Vista High School first. I realized that I was able to have a more direct effect on students in the classroom….and that teaching theatre was often secondary to being able to effectuate positive change in students' lives on a personal level. Teaching at a high school also means that I am a one-woman department, and I am responsible for scenery, lighting, sound, costume, and prop designs. I have been teaching beginning techies since 1996 and am always tickled when they proudly point out to a friend or parent what part of the set they created ("You see that wall? I painted it. And that molding around the door…that was all me.") How can you not love it when a student gets the immediacy of building something with their very own hands?I teach at a school that has a lot of spunk. Monte Vista High School is in Spring Valley, California, and has a pretty diverse cross-section of humanity: a real mix of every ethnicity. Our API scores have increased each year, but we are still labeled a "failing school." We are an AVID demonstration school, have really good statistics in number of students scoring well on Advanced Placement exams, and have many positive qualities, such as a full Performing Arts department. Nonetheless, many parents see the many shades of brown streaming from our campus when school is out, and opt to send their students to one of the more affluent, less diverse schools in our district.I teach a Beginning Technical Theatre and an Advanced Technical Theatre Performance (where they are also crew for the shows). The typical breakdown in my beginning class for about 35 students: 25 males, 10 females; 15 Hispanic, 10 Caucasian, 2 Pacific Islander, 2 African- American, 6 mixed categories or Other; typically 10 or so students with an IEP, 10 designated English Language Learners, 2-4 with a 504, and I often have around 5 or so students with discipline issues. I am not a typical classroom – the students are in the seats for about five minutes at the beginning and end of class and then during the rest of the class are working independently or in small groups on projects. The students are using a variety of power tools that can cause great personal damage, so safety is of utmost importance. The students are often working outside of my line of sight and so project management is also very important and I am constantly wandering from group to group to check on progress and answer questions.For the majority of my students, this is the first time they have ever picked up a tool let alone used it. I stress that EVERYONE must learn the proper way to use the variety of tools typically used and so have created the Fan Boat Project as a way to check for mastery of the skills needed in the class. I am particularly pleased when a young woman overcomes her fears of the tools and realizes she has the power to create using "scary" tools such as the big saw. Students also learn how to read plans, how to complete a project correctly (each group is often working on pieces of a whole, and so they must all be the exact measurements in order to all fit together seamlessly), and that if something isn't correct, then it must be corrected – there is no partial credit – only right or wrong that must be fixed. Some students really struggle with the "thinking outside of the box" that this class requires, but most reap great benefits from creative and problem-solving activities. new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Technical Theatre, Building for a SceneGrades 9 -12BenitezRegionJordana Benone-LM AddedbenoneMonodramas: Missing Voice, Social Issue, or BiographicalThe best piece of information I can give parents whose teenagers are spending hours in our theatre department rehearsing plays, painting sets, and preparing for performances is, "Don't worry – I'm absolutely not trying to turn your kid onto an actor!" Of course, if that's what the student wants, I'm here to guide and support, but there's another reason I've been doing this for almost fifteen years. I love teaching theatre because it is the only discipline that directly teaches a person how to empathize. In my classroom we are listening to one another, accepting each other's ideas, learning from one another's experiences, and creating things together. This, in my opinion, is the best kind of learning. I believe that schools can only grow to their full potential through the arts: where student imagination, creativity, and "outside the box" thinking is cultivated and nourished; where all types of learning styles are engaged across the curriculum; where teachers are both supported and held accountable to enhancing the creativity of their students; where teaching goes beyond the standards and into the real world; where students are equipped with the tools they need to succeed academically, economically, and personally.In my considerable time as a theatre arts teacher I've personally experienced how powerful a structured, demanding, and reflective arts education can be. Clearly the visual and performing arts are an invaluable form of expression, especially in this digital age, while the cultural and historical value is easily understood. Frequently recognized is the quantitative parallel between the arts and test scores – music and math, to name a common correlation. But beyond the obvious, the arts are a means of teaching empathy and self-discipline that is inherently lacking in other areas of study within our educational system. And that is why a strong arts education can be a powerful tool for success and growth in our students. As we are trying to guide the next generation into responsible, thoughtful world citizens, a sequential arts curriculum should be on par with and woven into the core academic curriculum.I've worn a lot of hats in my professional roles as teacher, director, mentor, and advisor. I have successfully managed the scheduling and technical aspects of anywhere from seven to seventeen productions each school year for over a decade now. I also direct several plays each year. A few years ago I began our school's only intervention program for struggling students. This has led me to work incredibly closely with teachers on lesson design and purpose, curriculum theory, project-based learning, classroom management, and basic pedagogy. In addition to an MA in Educational Administration from Concordia University, I recently finished my MA in Curriculum and Instruction, Integrated Teaching through the Arts through Lesley University. I worked with a cohort of teachers in San Diego completing coursework focusing on integrated teaching through the arts. I have worked with AP history teachers, algebra teachers, English teachers, health teachers, and JROTC sergeants to find ways to teach through the arts, using multiple arts modalities in order to strengthen learning across the curriculum. The most important thing I bring to the table is that I simply love the work of education.North High School is one of four comprehensive high schools in the Torrance Unified School District located in a suburban community of 140,000 in southwest Los Angeles County. The school's student body of 2,200 is one of great cultural diversity, made up of 14% English Language Learners (ELL) speaking many different languages. North's campus is north of Palos Verdes, east of Redondo and Hermosa Beach, south of Gardena, and west of Carson and Compton. This location leads to a student body of economic diversity, 30% of which receive free or reduced lunch.This lesson was designed for my Advanced Theatre class. These students range from grades 10–12, the majority of whom are juniors and seniors. They are thoughtful, creative, and fun people who are eager to rise to a given challenge. It is a class of truly diverse learners. Some are worried about their AP homework and honors teachers while others are juggling jobs and credit recovery courses in an effort to stay on track to graduate. This class is a tightly knit group whose teamwork is exceptional.Due to the diverse and accepting school environment at North, students in this class have an astute perception of the effects of culture and language. They have a clear and realistic perspective about how culture influences their interpretation of both classroom and real life events. They are also aware that they may be viewed by others in a certain way based on their own culture, and will at times emphasize certain cultural habits and attitudes in order to get a point across. From the first day I began teaching at North, I have been appreciative of the way that culture is a regular part of the teaching and learning conversations that go on at this school. In Advanced Theatre this conversation is especially rich and informs much of their work. new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Monodrama, Character Development, Plot Structure, Advanced TheatreGrades 10-12BenoneRegion Staci Block and Heather Gout-LM AddedteacherpicShort TitleStaci Block - In some of my past educational roles, I served as Curriculum Coordinator II at Ventura County Office of Education and the Region 8 CSESSA Arts Lead and a principal of an arts focused charter school. I’m a National Board Certified Teacher with experience teaching at both the elementary and middle school levels with specialties in reading / language arts and mathematics. My professional interests include mathematics instruction and reform, shared leadership, teacher inquiry and collaboration, arts integration, writing instruction, and effective instructional programs for English learners. I provide professional development for Ventura County schools in Project GLAD, mathematics, writing, English Language Development, arts integration, and creating collaborative teacher teams. My focus area is to increase student achievement by: analyzing student data, developing/deepening teacher knowledge in Reading/Language Arts and mathematics content, provide coaching and modeling for teachers, and developing formative assessments at the classroom level to inform instruction.Heather Gout -I have ten years of experience teaching second and third grades. This is my fifth year teaching at University Preparation School in the Primary Years Dual Language Program. Before coming to University Preparation School (UPS), I earned my bachelor's degree in psychology and my master's degree in education with an emphasis on Curriculum and Instruction.University Preparation School at CSU Channel Islands is a K-5 elementary charter school serving the students throughout Ventura County. The classrooms are led by Master Teachers-on-Leave from neighboring school districts who model best instructional practices. Multilingualism is the key component of UPS educational philosophy. There are two avenues that support students in acquiring second language skills. The Language Enrichment Program offers UPS students the opportunity to learn Spanish as a second language or to enrich Spanish for Spanish speakers. Spanish is taught in areas such as music and art. The Dual Language Program allows students to acquire literacy in two languages: English and Spanish. Both languages are learned through instruction in core curricular areas. There are multi-age clusters of students that support a developmentally appropriate environment. There are specialist teachers in art, music, drama, and physical education. There are “looping” opportunities for the students to remain with the same cluster master teachers for two to three years. new pixPrimary – Visual Art Secondary – RLA, reading, science, conservation, turtle, seascape, persona poemGrades 2-3RegionCaren Burgess and Danette Moser-LM AddedThumbnail_BurgessMoserRange of Student Expression on StageCaren Burgess - I have been teaching drama for over seven years now at Reyburn Intermediate in Clovis Unified School District. I have always had a love for the arts and a love for teaching. I feel very blessed that I get to work in the capacity of combining both loves. I feel that as a drama teacher I have a huge impact on helping kids be able to express themselves. I believe through self-expression children learn so much about themselves. Through self-expression they become more free and open to new ideas as well as to become more creative people. There’s no time better for this than in middle school when children are really struggling to form their identities and trying to set themselves apart. Theatre provides a positive outlet for this.Danete Moser - I have taught creative Drama in various forms for more than 20 years. Currently, I teach seventh and eighth grade drama at Alta Sierra Intermediate in Clovis Unified. I feel fortunate to teach in a district that has managed to keep arts instruction from kindergarten to twelfth grades. I wouldn’t say that our methods are perfect, but FAR better than having to cut programs. So my interest lies in doing my part in maintaining the importance and integrity of arts instruction in public schools.My students are precious angels - as ALL middle school students are.OK- seriously…no, my students are NOT perfect, but I am fortunate in that I have students that have had the benefit of arts instruction throughout elementary at some level. (Most of them have, anyway.) Furthermore, many of my students have actually chosen to take Drama as an elective (some are just put in my classes, because there are no other open elective classes for a certain period). Furthermore, I would say that most of my students are NOT “at risk” students in terms of academics or behavior. Our school demographic has some students with lower socioeconomic backgrounds, but I would not classify that as one of the challenges I face in teaching students. A good majority of my students come from homes in which one or both parents are college graduates, and language acquisition is not an issue.The students I have chosen to work with on this particular project are actually my second year students (most of them took Drama from me last year) that have a solid concept of theater, and have actually been in a full-length production. (That was our project last semester.) At first glance, you would say that I have an ideal group of eager learners with supportive parents in a district that supports the arts. And while all of that is true, believe it or not - there are still walls to hurdle. My goal in this project is to inspire my students to be more comfortable taking risks, being expressive, and simply being “playful.” I find all too often that because of my students’ backgrounds, many are so worried about “getting the right answer” that they are reluctant to just be kids and be playful. Standardized testing and the pressure to take every “Advanced” or “Honors” class can affect kids in a very non-creative way. It seems that much of the time, all they care about is, “How do I get an A+?” (Because…just an A isn’t acceptable, I guess.) Hopefully that will be one of the outcomes of this project - to encourage kids to let go, enjoy the ride, and lose themselves in the act of being playful and creative. - n/ano new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Character Development, ExpressionGrades 7-8Burges, MoserRegions Lori Campos-LM AddedcamposDramatization Through TableauxHi! My name is Lori Campos and I'm currently the Assistant Principal and First Grade Teacher for Ballington Academy for the Arts and Sciences in El Centro, California. I have been in education for the past 15 years. Throughout those years I have taught various grade levels, have been a reading coach, and worked as the visual and performing arts coordinator for Imperial County, California. I've always had a love for the arts and truly believe that art integration builds skills needed for our students in our classroom. Having gone back to the classroom after six years of being out, my belief that art is the intervention has been validated. I see students who are unwilling to take risks, students who do not know how to use manipulatives, and students who do not know how to communicate. It is scary. Through art integration, my students are being empowered. They are learning to work together, learning to stand up for their answer, and are feeling safe to try new things. I'm very proud of my art background and have always been the teacher who put on plays, painted, danced, and sang with my students. I hold two master's degrees: one in administration and another in arts integration. I have two talented and amazing children who light up my life. My daughter plays the violin and my son is currently building a box car. It is tradition that every year for my daughter's birthday, we take her to see live theatre. It's something the whole family looks forward to and enjoys. On my off time, I love to write stories, bake cupcakes, and go camping. My favorite show is Dancing with the Stars and I've seen the show live!Ballington Academy for the Arts and Sciences is one of two charter schools in Imperial County. We are comprised of 180 students. We have a 90% population of Hispanic students, 60% English Learners, and 30% Free and Reduced Lunch. Our school has two sites. The Imperial site houses kindergarten and one first grade class and the El Centro site houses first grade through fifth grade. I am the administrator at the Imperial site and I also teach. After second recess, our students are involved in ANT time. ANT stands for Advanced Natural Talent. Our students rotate through two art forms a day. Mondays and Fridays students rotate through visual art and music and Tuesdays and Thursdays they have theatre and movement. During this time we combine our students so that we have a mix of kindergarten and first grade students. My students are very animated and have a genuine joy for the arts. Because they are so young, they don't get embarrassed to try new things. It is my job to foster that safe and supportive environment so I empower them to continue that attitude throughout their education. Due to their Hispanic background, parents are very supportive and we work a lot on the English language. The arts provide the venue for them to do that. Our school sits amidst the highest unemployment rate in the nation so we ensure that school is a happy place. We are ten miles away from the Mexico border and many of our students go across the border on the weekends. We continually work toward building English skills and good attendance. Our students never want to miss ANT time and we are proud of that. new pixPrimary – TheatreGrades – 1CamposRegion Michelle Cannon-LM AddedcannonJazz and Miles DavisWhat a joy it is to introduce and instill an appreciation for various genres of quality music to students and witness in return the joy student's exhibit while participating in music! Although this is my second year teaching, this is my first year teaching in Clovis Unified School District. This is also my first year teaching both choir and second and third grades. I am refining my teaching craft in order to maximize student learning. This is why I decided to challenge myself to incorporate common core standards while exploring various teaching strategies for a variety of learning styles. Outside of my passion for teaching, I am a singer songwriter who enjoys performing at local venues.I feel lucky to be a part of Oraze Elementary School, the newest elementary school in the Clovis Unified School District, open only for its second year. My students are eager to learn, the staff and administration are very caring, and the site is absolutely beautiful! Statistically speaking, 26.5% Caucasian, 25.7% Asian, 35.8% Hispanic, and 3.6% are African American. Half of the students are considered socio-economically disadvantaged. new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Jazz, Miles DavisGrade 3CannonRegionGabriela Cardenas-LM Addedcardenas_headshotIntroduction to Printmaking with Mentor Artist – Katsushika HokusaiMy name is Gabriela Cardenas and I am a demonstration teacher in the Learning in Two Languages Program at UCLA Lab School. Before coming to UCLA Lab School, I was a founding teacher at Para Los Ni?os Charter Elementary School. At PLN I had the honor of working with international arts educator Malcolm Wray. Malcolm is a renowned arts educator from England who yearly spends a week providing intensive art instruction to the students at Para Los Ni?os Charter Elementary School. His coaching leads students to create artwork inspired by concepts learned in Science, Social Studies, or mentor artists. For me as an educator, working with Malcolm Wray has been life changing.Throughout my teaching career, I have sought to provide learners instruction that is meaningful, integrated, and accessible to each individual. In doing so, art has been key. I incorporate art as an inroad into studying big ideas and supporting concepts. It has been my experience that symbolic languages, including drawing, sculpting, dramatic play, and painting are great in assessing students' understanding, thinking processes, and theories. I have found the arts to be especially helpful for English Language Learners who might not have reading and writing skills to show what they know but can use representations to represent their understanding. Through my teaching experience and my work with Malcolm, I have experienced firsthand that the importance throughout these art experiences is the process not the product. The irony is that the work that comes out of this process is remarkable.The group of students who are involved in this project are 4th graders from Para Los Ninos Charter School. They come from various ethnic and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Eighty-six percent of the students involved were English Language Learners. At the time of this project, 75% of the students had been working with me for at least a semester. The remaining 25% of the students in my class had been with me since the 3rd grade. Many of the students involved in this project have been exposed to the visual arts ever since kindergarten and have been inspired by many great artists along the way.Para Los Ni?os Charter School is an elementary school serving the children of working families in downtown Los Angeles. 66% percent of the student population is made up of English Language Learners and 100% is considered socioeconomically disadvantaged.PLN strives to cultivate and to celebrate the potential within each child and equip students with the skills, knowledge and confidence necessary to pursue excellence and succeed in a multi-cultural world. The School provides a nurturing, safe environment that inspires critical thinking, imagination, self-reliance and respect for others. It is founded on the belief that every child has the potential to reach high standards of achievement, to ask good questions and to think critically. Para Los Ni?os Charter Elementary School is not only a safe haven for our city's most at-risk children, but it is a portal for children to discover a world of learning and a sense of hope. ()At Para Los Ninos we believe every child deserves the right to be an active participant in their own thinking and learning. We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to learn through rich experiences that provoke thinking and language such as the arts. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – Science, Print Making, Katsushika HokusaiGrade 4CardenasRegionJennifer Coull and Betsy Pavich-LM AddedjcoullDance MattersBesty and I are both 3rd grade teachers. Betsy has been teaching for over thirty years in elementary and the visual arts. I have been teaching for eleven years.Betsy is the art coordinator for Clovis Unified. She attends local and state wide art conferences. She enjoys painting but with the demands of her current position she is content to share the arts with her students.Jennifer has been involved with arts integration trainings through Fresno County Office, such as Arts Every Day and Keeping Score and now is employed as an arts coordinator at Fresno County Office of Education. She worked on a team to open an arts integrated Charter School. She hopes to find time in the future to participate in community theater.Betsy - My third grade class consists of 10 girls and 13 boys. Three of my students are below basic, five are basic, four are advanced and the rest are proficient based on CST results. The majority of the class is Caucasian with a few other minorities represented. Many of them are in my class because they are interested in art. Most are from middle class families that are very supportive and active in their childrens lives. This is a very verbal group that is becoming very familar with the vocabulary of the arts.Jen - My third grade class consists of 9 girls and 11 boys. Half of my class is basic or below basic, only a few are proficient and the rest are far below basic. The majority of my class is Hispanic with 1 Caucasian and 1 African American. My students have little to no art background. Most are from lower economic households with little to no parental support. This is also very verbal group that are excited to learn about the arts. new pixPrimary – DanceSecondary – Science, Writing, States of MatterJennifer Coull and Lorna Leslie-LM AddedteacherPic (painting, not the squares)Jennifer Coull - I have been a teacher for more than eleven years. I have spent most of my career as an intervention teacher with a focus on reading. I have only understood what arts integration means due to my training from Fresno County Office of Education. My goal is to grow in my knowledge and application of arts integration.Lorna Leslie - I am in my third year of teaching. I have a dual credential for general education and special education. My first two years were spent with students with emotional disturbances. I've always developed alternative ways to present information that will help my students express their own understanding.Jennifer Coull -I have 21 third graders in a regular education class. My class is very diverse. The ethnicities are Hmong, Cambodian, Hispanic, Mixtec, and Caucasian. I have 10 boys and 11 girls. My school has a high English learner population with 100% free breakfast and lunch.Lorna Leslie - I have eight students ranging from fourth to sixth grade in a special day class. The ethnicities are Hispanic, Native American, African American, and Caucasian. I have two girls and six boys. There are a variety of learning disabilities. My school has a high English learner population with 100% free breakfast and lunch. – DanceSecondary – Science, Writing, States of MatterGrades 3-5Coull, PavichRegionDarcy Curwin-LM AddedteacherPic (colored squares)Public SculptureI am a practicing artist that has been teaching secondary art since 1999. I have a bachelor of arts degree in art from CSU San Bernardino and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University at Buffalo. Additionally, I participated in the American Photography Institute at New York University and have done education course work at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Redlands. I am a passionate teacher who is constantly looking for new and interesting ways to engage my students. I hope to teach them to become analytical, critical thinkers and to use these skills both as producers and consumers of visual culture.I teach at an academic magnet school. Richardson Prep-Hi Middle School is a Blue Ribbon School, a California Distinguished School, and a Title I Academic Achievement Award winning school. Our students come from all over San Bernardino and are selected in a district-wide lottery system. Once at Richardson, they must maintain contractually agreed upon academic and behavior standards. Though last year’s Academic Performance Index (API) was 948, nearly 25% of our students take a math or language arts support class for their elective.A variety of fine arts electives are offered including beginning and advanced art, beginning, intermediate, and advanced orchestra and band. The music and art programs are very active and perform and exhibit frequently throughout the year.Approximately 65% of our students are Hispanic, 17% Caucasian, 13% African-American, 3% Asian. Though we have English language learners, they tend have intermediate or higher fluency levels. English learners receive their core curriculum in mainstream classrooms. This year, 60% of our English learners have achieved reclassification to fluent English proficient (FEP). – Visual ArtSecondary – Scale, Context, Intent, Photographic Composition, Public Art, PhotomontageGrades 7-8CurwenRegion Michael CushineteacherPic (Painted fish)TesselationsI have been working with the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District as a teacher since 1996. Over that time I've taught second, fifth, and sixth grades. During the past three years I've been the district sixth grade GATE teacher. I've served as a master teacher for our district and for the past seven years have hosted an interactive math television program for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. In regard to art, the past three years have been especially beneficial in that I've been able to place more of an emphasis on Renaissance and Baroque artists. In GATE we also study Impressionism along with the Modern art styles of Surrealism and Symbolism. While I don't possess an art degree, I feel that with collaboration over the years I've gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of multiple art styles.I have been working with the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District as a teacher since 1996. Over that time I've taught second, fifth, and sixth grades. During the past three years I've been the district sixth grade GATE teacher. I've served as a master teacher for our district and for the past seven years have hosted an interactive math television program for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. In regard to art, the past three years have been especially beneficial in that I've been able to place more of an emphasis on Renaissance and Baroque artists. In GATE we also study Impressionism along with the Modern art styles of Surrealism and Symbolism. While I don't possess an art degree, I feel that with collaboration over the years I've gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of multiple art styles. – Visual ArtSecondary – GATE, Tesselation, M.C. Escher, Geometry, SymmetryGrade 6CushineRegionJennifer Determan-Lewisdeterman-lewisGetting Beyond the Notes on the PageI began as an instrumentalist in the sixth grade. I loved to play in the school band, and that continued through my high school years. When I enrolled in college and struggled (as many young people do) to declare a major, I kept coming back to all of the wonderful memories I had of performing in my school bands. It seemed obvious that I should take my love of music and use that to inspire others.I earned my BA in Music Education and my Single Subject teaching credential in Music from CSU Fresno. Although my initial desire was to become a high school band director, during my coursework and student teaching I found that I enjoyed my time working with elementary age students most of all. My focus as a music educator began to switch from secondary instrumental music to elementary general music and young bands.In my thirteen years as a music teacher I have taught high school bands, middle school bands, elementary bands, and elementary general music classes. I currently teach fourth grade general music, fifth grade beginning bands, and sixth grade intermediate bands. I feel very fortunate that I have the opportunity to start young musicians with a good foundation of fundamentals. I strive to inspire my students to love music, take pride in their performances, and, in turn, inspire other young musicians.Sequoia Elementary School is located in Fresno, California in the Sanger Unified School District. My students are multi-ethnic. Socioeconomic status ranges from middle to high-middle income. Approximately 69% of our students participate in the free or reduced price lunch program. Roughly 24% of the students are considered English Learners. My sixth grade band students are very quick to pick up on new concepts. They love music, and many enjoy finding new songs to play on their own. – MusicSecondary – Instrumental Music, Band, Performance EnsembleGrade 6Determan-LewisRegionHeather DiMaggioheather_dBiographical PortraitI was born and raised in San Leandro, and have been teaching in San Leandro schools for over fourteen years now. I graduated from Cal State East Bay with a bachelor's degree in recreation, as well as a minor in marketing. Sometime later, I decided to change careers, began teaching in San Leandro, and decided to attend Holy Names College in Oakland for my teaching credential. I have taught first through fifth grades, with the majority of my time in fourth grade. I have taught at three of the schools in San Leandro. I currently have two young children. I have been very fortunate to participate in Teacher Action Research Institute (TARI) for the past three years. Through this experience, I have learned how to use art to successfully bridge gaps in my students learning, stretch their learning as they dive deeper into the curriculum, and provide them a strong foundation that enables them the ability to self asses, as well as reflect on their own learning. Through this process, I have also learned to adapt the assessment protocol, which has deepened my understanding of my students learning. Along the way, both my students and I have learned more about artists we thought we knew, and many, many others that we didn’t.The school I currently teach at, James Madison Elementary in San Leandro, has approximately 420 students and an Academic Performance Index (API) of 860. The student population is made up of over forty percent free and reduced lunch. We have a very active and supportive parent-teacher organization. We also have three Parent Facilitators, who are liaisons for parents who speak languages other than English and provide language support for students in classrooms.Within my classroom, I currently have 32 students, 17 of whom speak a second language, and several who are first generation Americans. Culture and language manifest themselves in our classroom on a daily basis across all curricular areas as students strive to make personal connections. My students are visual and kinesthetic learners. The more “hands on” an experience is the richer it is. “Hands on” takes place in many forms from drama to music to art to visiting places to interviewing people. It’s the experience that captures a student and allows them to connect, build, and expand what their learning. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – History, ELA, Journey to Topax, Japanese Internment Camps, Fred KorematsuGrade 4DiMaggioRegionHeather DowningdowningEmotion DrawingMy name is Heather Downing. I was born and raised in Fresno, California where I also attended California State University, Fresno. I taught third grade in Fresno Unified for a year and then started teaching kindergarten in Firebaugh Las Deltas for the past six years. I love teaching kindergarten and truly have a passion for it, which is a part of why I decided to volunteer to teach transitional kindergarten. They are the young kindergarteners; so they are energetic and have a passion to learn.I have been interested in the arts since I was young and my parents enrolled me in dance classes. I danced, played the saxophone, participated in color guard with the marching band of my high school, and continued it through college. I even met my husband in the marching band in college too! I enjoy going to his professional orchestral performances and am interested about getting more into the other areas of art that I'm not as familiar with such as drawing and painting.Since I teach kindergarten, I need to make sure my students have access to all subjects, including art. I like to try to weave it through books that we are reading or history and science I am teaching.I teach at Bailey Primary in Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School District. Our school has reached its AYP goal for the past two years. We are located in Fresno County, known as the richest agricultural county in the nation. Firebaugh's nearest urban area is the City of Fresno, which is forty miles east, with California State University at Fresno and Fresno Pacific College for post-secondary education. The town of Firebaugh's demographic population is representative of the majority of other towns on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley. Most of the employment in these rural communities is related to agriculture and the school district.Our school district enrolls approximately 2200 students from preschool through twelfth grade on several campuses located within the city of Firebaugh. The schools are as follows: Hazel M. Bailey Primary (Preschool - 3), Arthur E. Mills Intermediate (4- 5), Firebaugh Middle School (6 - 7), Firebaugh High School (9 - 12), El Puente Continuation High School (9-12) Community Day School and FACE Adult Education.Our purpose is to create a community for learning, where students, parents, and staff are joined in the pursuit of academic excellence and personal growth in a caring environment. Student achievement continues to grow according to our annual Academic Performance Index and our Annual Yearly Progress. The district staffs are committed to collaborating in Professional Learning Communities and through the use of student data to inform instruction, we will ensure that all students will achieve. The Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School District's mission is to provide an environment that maximizes student learning and high levels of academic achievement.I have 23 students in my transitional kindergarten class that are all very excited to learn and participate in art activities. Of the 23, 20 are English learners. Most of them are Spanish speaking and one is Arabic. I also have an autistic student in my class who needs lots of structure. He loves the arts and really tries his best most of the time. All in all, it's a good class most of the time. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtsSecondary – Emotions, ELAKindergartenDowningRegionMary Louise FrauchigerfrauchigerThe Primary/Secondary Color DanceMy dance background includes an extensive performance and touring career in Ballet Folklorico. I toured as lead dancer in Linda Rondstadt’s “Canciones de mi Padre,” a national tour which began in 1987 and culminated with a Grammy performance in 1989. Although I have studied various forms of dance, I have always found traditional folk dances most rewarding because through the dances I was able to learn the language, traditions, and cultures of the people. For the last 10 years I have studied Hawaiian dances, both ancient and modern Hula. In 2002, I placed second in a Hula competition. Currently, I teach and direct a Hula dance company in Los Angeles. ADD SPACEMy teaching career includes working with the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1990 as a bilingual, elementary classroom teacher. In 1999, I transferred to the Arts Education Branch when the Los Angeles Unified School District board adopted a resolution implementing the Arts ‘Prototype’ Program – now the Arts Program – toward the goal of every child receiving Arts education in kindergarten through sixth grades. I have served as a Mentor teacher for classroom teachers, Peer Coach for the Arts Program, Support for Beginning Teachers (BTSA program), District Intern Instructor for the Arts, and have provided professional development for many elementary schools.In 2002, I was an “Honorable Mention” recipient at the BRAVO Awards. The BRAVO Awards recognize teachers and schools for creativity, innovation, and excellence in arts education.Bushnell Way Elementary (kindergarten through fifth grades) is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District and is located in the Hermon Community. Hermon is a small community just north of downtown Los Angeles. It is situated in a half square-mile valley bordered by the Arroyo Seco and the historic 110 freeway to the west, Monterey Hills to the south, and South Pasadena to the north and east. It is primarily a residential community, with a small business district in the center. According to the school’s 2008-09 demographics, the student population was 91% Hispanic and the total student enrollment was 469, with 192 identified as English Learners (EL).The Students - I have selected Mrs. McLean’s first grade class to be part of the assessment project. There are a total of 21 students – 12 boys and 9 girls. The classroom teacher describes the students as being at two extremes. Academically, some students are beginning readers while others are reading 90 words a minute. Socially, about half of the class is extremely talkative while the other half rarely speaks. About half of the students are English Learners (levels 2 and 3). Emotionally, several children cry very easily. There are no major behavioral or physical problems, other than asthma. Regarding Special Education/Disabilities, one new student seems to exhibit autistic type behaviors (noises, difficulty relating to others, and reluctance to participate), and one student attends the Resource Specialist Program (RSP). new pixPrimary – DanceSecondary – Visual Art, Color, Science, ELAGrades 1-2FrauchigerRegionJasmin GarciateacherPic (close-up, head tilted, long curly brown hair, big smile)I am from Woodland, California and have lived there my whole life. I attended Sacramento City College for a few years before transferring to and graduating from UC Santa Cruz where I received a bachelor’s degree in literature. I planned to teach high school English. However, after college I took a year off and worked as a sixth grade tutor in an afterschool program, where I met Tony. Tony helped me see the potential that I had to inspire students at the elementary level. Therefore, the following year I entered the Urban Teaching Education Center through Sacramento State University. I specifically wanted to work with students in the urban areas of Sacramento. I was blessed to be hired at Castori Elementary in North Sacramento as a second grade teacher.I have always had a passion for the arts and integrating them in my everyday lessons with my students. When I was offered the job as an Arts Integration Specialist for Twin Rivers Unified School District, I gladly took on the task. As an Arts Integration Specialist, I work with teachers to take the Core California Standards and integrate Visual and Performing Arts Standards with their everyday lessons. I am not only blessed to work teaching students, but I also consider it a blessing to assist teachers in keeping their students engaged while at the same time providing students with critical thinking skills that they will need in order to succeed.As an Arts Integration Specialist, I have worked with San Juan and Sacramento City Unified School Districts, local artists, Sierra North Arts Project/The California Arts Project, the Sacramento County Office of Education/ Arts Esprit-District Leads and Specialists, and the California Department of Education to spread the word about how vital it is to integrate the arts within the schools. I am currently receiving my master’s degree through Lesley University in Integrated Teaching through the Arts, as well as numerous trainings with Kennedy Center Teaching Artists at the Changing Education Through the Arts Conference, Any Given Child Artist in Residence Program, and the Arts Integration Conference in Washington D.C. Lastly, I am the lead teacher and part of the curriculum writing team for our Sustaining Meaningful Arts and Reading Together grant from the U.S. Department of Education.Twin Rivers is located in a growing, ethnically diverse region characterized by a mix of suburban development and light industry, encompassing 120 square miles. I work with approximately 500 students and about 21 teachers each week. I am currently assigned to three schools for the 2010-2011 school year. When I go to the classroom to teach an integrated lesson, I focus on the current lesson that the teachers are instructing at the time. I work with seven teachers at each school for about eight weeks and then I rotate and work with a new group.Each one of my schools is unique in their own way and very different in regards to demographics. One of the schools consists of 40% African American students coupled with a high poverty rate and a significant amount of English language learners composed of Hispanic and Hmong students. Another school has a higher population of Russian and Ukrainian English language learners. The third site gives me the opportunity to interface with orthopedically impaired students as well as general education population.I have learned that all students, no matter race, age, mobility, or gender have a passion for the arts. I have seen these students grow from the beginning of the program and witnessed how they have improved not only academically, but in their behavior as well. I am confident that I have helped these students find a new passion in life as they have helped me find mine. new pixPrimary - Visual ArtSecondary – Math, Geometry, Music, ELAGrade 4GarciaRegionKaren GarrettgarrettBrining History to LifeMusic has been a part of my life since third grade when my older sister quit taking piano lessons, allowing me my turn at the art. An inspirational music teacher throughout elementary and high school cemented my career path as a music teacher. Growing up outside of Chicago I attended Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa where I received an outstanding music education. I started my teaching career in Iowa later, doing a stint with the Department of Defense schools in Germany. Upon returning to the U.S., I began teaching in Siskiyou County in California where I continue to teach to this day. I began as a general music/vocal music teacher but quickly realized that I would need to expand my horizons and teach band. I currently teach band, choir, and general music to fourth through eighth grade students. I have also added photography to my repertoire, a subject I also enjoy as a hobby.Outside of my teaching hours I am the director of music at the Yreka United Methodist Church where I direct the adult choir and lead one of the worship teams. I am an active member of our local arts advocacy group, the Red Scarf Society.I teach at Gold Street and Jackson Street schools in the Yreka Elementary School District. Our town of about 7500 people is located 15 miles from the Oregon border on Interstate 5. Since I began teaching here in 1989 that number hasn’t changed much. Our district schools, as well as the high school, are losing students because of unemployment. The employment opportunities our community offers include local and county government, law enforcement, and state and federal forest management.My project centers around California history so I will be working with a class of fourth grade students. It is a well-balanced class of learners. Our area in general lacks ethnic diversity with most students being Caucasian. Our school serves a high percentage of economically disadvantaged families. This class is no exception.Like many students, these kids enjoy lots of hands-on and performance experiences. They are excellent singers, which is a plus because the project is music-based. Many are very outgoing and willing to take chances. They are very excited about their participation in this project and look forward to a rewarding outcome. new pixPrimary – Music, TheatreSecondary – California HistoryGarrettGrade 4RegionDebbie George and Paula FlohrgeorgePic, flohrPicArt with a Message and Symbolic Self-PortraitDeborah George has a BA in Art and a MA in Art Education from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. She is currently a visual arts teacher at Sheldon High School where she has taught since its opening 13 years ago and was also a teacher at Elk Grove High School 10 years before that. Ms. George teaches beginning level Art 1 classes, Commercial Art, Honors and Advanced Placement Studio Art and Visual Communications–an ROP course through the Sacramento County Office of Education and the Elk Grove Unified School District. Ms. George has served as a mentor teacher in the visual arts and was Elk Grove Unified School District’s 1999 Teacher of the Year. She is a member of the California Art Educators Association and exhibits her students’ artwork in such events as the Elk Grove Western Festival, the Watercolor Association of Sacramento’s “Aspiring Artists” annual competition, the Congressional “Artistic Discovery” competition, California’ Youth Art Month exhibit and many other local, state and national exhibits and competitions.Paula Flohr has a BA in Art and a MA in Art Education from Sacramento State University. She is currently a visual arts teacher at Sheldon High School where she has taught since its opening 13 years ago and was also a teacher at Elk Grove High School and Kerr Middle School 18 years before that. Ms. Flohr teaches beginning level Art 1 classes, Art 2, Honors and Advanced Placement Studio Art. Ms. Flohr has served as a mentor teacher in the visual arts and was Elk Grove Unified School District’s 1994 Teacher of the Year. She exhibits her students’ artwork in such events as the California Junior Federal Duck Stamp competition, Elk Grove Western Festival, the Watercolor Association of Sacramento’s “Aspiring Artists” annual competition, the Congressional “Artistic Discovery” competition, California’ Youth Art Month exhibit and many other local, state and national exhibits and competitions.Tereze Lear, a Juvenile Court School teacher at El Centro Jr./ Sr/ High School will be providing artwork from her classroom. Her students are part of the Sacramento County Youth Detention Facility for incarcerated youth. Tereze has been a classroom teacher for 16 years, twelve of which have been with the Sacramento County Office of Education Court and Community schools. Tereze recently earned a MA in Curriculum and Instruction with an elective emphasis in Art Education. Tereze endeavors to bring art instruction into the curriculum through direct instruction and as an integration component with other content subject matter. When not teaching, Tereze enjoys exploring painting.Lydia Maerdian teaches 10th grade students with emotional disturbances, ADHD, and some specific learning disabilities at Leo A. Palmiter Jr. / Sr High School in Sacramento. She has a multiple subject teaching credential, single subject science and business credentials, and two special education credentials for mild, moderate to severe disabilities. She has been in education for over twenty years. Lydia is participating in a Professional Development Series, Doorways Through the Arts, for teachers in the Juvenile Court, Community, and Special Education classrooms in an effort to bring more arts instruction into the curriculum for her students. Lydia believes that art is an important tool for nurturing the creative and academic skills of children with special needs. She believes that it is one more tool that a teacher can use to help students access the regular education curriculum. Learning in the arts helps students develop eye-hand coordination and small muscle control, as well as increase their observational skills, and improve their abilities in written language and spatial relationships in math.For this arts assessment project, we will be submitting student artwork from Debbie George and Paula Flohr’s classes at Sheldon High School Visual Arts Program representing beginning Art I to the Honors Advanced Placement Studio Art classes. Sheldon HS has a population of 2500 students with a diversity of cultures of 20% each – Asian, Hispanic, African American, East Indian, and white with nearly 50% qualifying for free and reduced lunch.Student artwork from Lydia Maerdian’s class at Leo A. Palmiter Jr. / Sr. High School Special Education programs will be added to illustrate lesson modifications that can be made for students with special needs. These students are in the Emotionally Disturbed program with a range of behavioral and emotional disabilities. Students enrolled in the ED program at Palmiter are 63% socioeconomically disadvantaged; 25% are African American, 2% are American Indian, 7% are Hispanic, and 64% are White.Student artwork from Tereze Lear’s class at the Sacramento County Office of Education’s Juvenile Court School at El Centro Maximum Security is also added to illustrate the modifications needed for this population. The selection of materials used in art education learning projects for this population is carefully considered, as safety is a priority. Students in these classes have a range of abilities, most with limited exposure or experience with arts instruction. Students in this program are 100% socioeconomically disadvantaged, 22% are students with disabilities, and 1% are English Language Learners. BY ethnicity, 55% are African American, 22% Hispanic, 14% White, 5% Asian and 1.6 % are American Indian or Other. The highest amount of enrollment is in the 11th grade, then 12th, 10 and 9; there are a few 7th and 8th graders in the program. The average class size is 12 -14 students. new pixPrimary – Visual Art, Interdisciplinary Secondary – History, Social Science, ELA, Political Art, Self-Portrait, DrawingGrades 9-12George, FlohrRegionKristen GiardThe Tempest in Three Languages and with PuppetsI was born and raised in an artistic family and began my involvement in theatre when I was five when I starred as a palm tree in kindergarten. I actually was extremely shy and it wasn’t until my parents made me take theatre classes that I really broke out of that shell.I have a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from San Diego State University and a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction. I am finishing up my Master of Arts in Theatre Design through Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon.My dream in life was to be an actor – until I was told in college by an acting professor that I had no talent. As a result, I quit acting and became a techie. I was a stage manager for a few years and then became a teacher.I taught junior high for three years, and then got out of that insanity and leaped into the quiet calm of high school theatre (sarcasm intended). I have taught at Valhalla since 1992. In my career, I have worked with some amazing artists and educators. I am in awe of the creativity and artistry with which many live their lives.I was Teacher of the Year for Valhalla in 2000 and a Golden Apple winner in 2004. I have served as the president of the San Diego Educational Theatre Association since 1996.I continue to be amazed at the transformative power of theatre and its ability to make a difference in the lives of those involved in it. I have tried to walk away from teaching theatre and find that I want to continue to have the deeper connection with my students that being in theatre allows. I need the creative outlet, and I am so fortunate I do not have to teach the same thing year after year after year. Sometimes I feel I have the best job in the world.Oh yeah, in my spare time, I am the single mom to two wonderful teenagers.I teach in the East County of San Diego at a comprehensive high school with a population of 2,200. Valhalla High School is a high performance school, with all the test scores and API stuff that folks love to brag about. The community is a big supporter of the arts and in times of budget crises, the arts at Valhalla are never on the chopping block (so far, anyway).My theatre class is a Beginning Theatre course, open to all students in grades nine through twelve. This course fulfills the District Fine Arts requirement of graduation. It also meets the UC/CSU fine arts requirement. This is an introductory course, and while a handful of students move to a higher level course, most do not.The course section consists of 30 students. Of those students, 11 are multilingual with 5 who are beginning English speakers. The languages spoken in this class are: Spanish, Arabic, Chaldean and Armenian. I have one child with 504 accommodations and two with IEPs.This class is a funky group of humanity…They are loud, rowdy, and pretty funny. They are willing to take risks that some of my more advanced students are not willing to take. They are supportive of each other and their differences, and they have worked hard to incorporate the students who need assistance into the core of the class. new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Multi-Lingual, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Puppets, English Learners Grade 9-12GiardRegionSandra GonnermangonnermanIn Depth Study of a Master PaintingAnd NOBODY ever said I didn't have a sense of humor (and adventure)!Throughout my teaching career, I have sought to offer learners instruction that is meaningful, integrated, and accessible to THEM. And, though it isn’t entirely possible, it is my goal to put myself in their places so that I am able to view what I am teaching them through their eyes. The words of students are powerful and drive my teaching. After killing myself for the entire school year, several years ago, teaching about Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, trying to make what happened two and three hundred years ago meaningful for ten year-olds, I was aghast when one of the children asked, “So where IS Jamestown, anyway?” I had failed. I knew I had to make serious changes. The following year, in May, I took all the tables and chairs OUT of the classroom (and yes, the principal was the FIRST to notice and ask why all that “stuff” was out in the hallway). The last month of school was spent with students working in learning teams studying American paintings. Each group selected a painting and made a giant copy of the painting using butcher paper and tempera paints (they HATED me for this paint… getting the colors right was a nightmare). For weeks students worked on their painting, researched the artist, matched the artwork with a piece of music from the same country and time period, wrote a narrative to be read aloud (about the artist and the particular work) and collected costuming and props similar to those in their painting. As a group of two boys and a girl were struggling with “getting the faces right” in George Bellows’ “Members of This Club” their discussion became more and more heated. Suddenly the girl said, “Dammit! It DOESN’T MATTER! Bellows is conveying the FEELING…That’s what WE have to do! That’s all that’s important here!” I knew right then and there that they did NOT need me. The learning was done. And successful. In the end, we did a “performance” for the parents. The students posed (“Pageant of the Masters” style) on stage with their reproductions behind them and the music in the background as the narrator read to the audience about their artist and painting. This was the single most important learning unit I have done in almost 35 years of teaching. And I will do something this important once again with 31 seventh grade honors students at Tierra del Sol Middle School. And, besides this, things about me are not so important, but here it is. I have been teaching in Lakeside Union School District (San Diego County) for my entire career and was born about six miles from where I teach. I’ve taught intermediate grades (fourth/fifth), been the credentialed library/media teacher in both of our district middle schools and, for the past seven years, taught seventh and eighth grade English-Language Arts. Additionally I direct the library/media services in my district and am the chairperson for the English-Language Arts department at my school, am on the AVID vertical team and have attended teacher institutes at Colonial Williamsburg (where I was also a peer teacher), George Washington’s Mount Vernon, The National Gallery, and a great deal of art. (the "photography of the time" is included in the teacher learning experience at George Washington Teacher Institute and the National Gallery of Art). I am proud to be a National Board Certified Teacher and have served as the California State Team leader a couple of times in meetings with members of Congress in Washington, D.C. As always, it is my goal to integrate as many Visual and Performing Arts standards into my English/Language Arts curriculum as possible. Outside of school, my interests are cooking, sewing (I am crazy for historic costuming), running (good thing with all the cooking I do!), travel (a camping trip to France for three weeks this summer…searching for art!), camping, music, dance (I took ballet for many years and taught Colonial Dance at several of our elementary schools in Lakeside over the years), learning French and anything else I can find to do! My mom and I have traveled to New York every spring for the past twelve years. We eat, walk, see Broadway shows, visit art museums and attend the opera! She sang with the San Diego Opera and in other venues, professionally. The two of us saw “South Pacific” in Balboa Bowl in San Diego when I was five years old, and it made a lifelong impression on me. I am a member of the San Diego Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and am on the educational advisory board for the new San Diego Children’s Museum. I love Shakespeare, Chaucer, Noyes, and movies. I play piano and cello (at a fairly pathetic level) and, in high school, sang with the San Diego Symphony for a Christmas production. (And I perform opera in the car and in the shower daily!) I am an alumnus of Ron Jessee’s Visual and Performing Arts Council (SDCOE), and have had many guest artists working with my students over the years, including San Diego Shakespeare Society, La Jolla Playhouse, and through the Artists in Residence Program in San Diego County Schools. Several of my students displayed artwork in San Diego Museum of Art’s KidsArt (Art from Literature theme) in Spring of 2009. Each day I think about how fortunate I have been to spend my career as a teacher in the Lakeside Union School District where “The Arts” is alive and well - not just during the better of economic times. The world is an exciting place! I am NEVER bored and I love people and life.The honors students who I teach for a whopping forty-eight minutes per day are of varied socioeconomic backgrounds. There is a happy mix of cultures, including tribal members of the Barona Reservation of the Kumeyay Indians. Eager to learn anything and everything with supportive parents, these children are most cooperative with a high energy level. Some are agonizingly concerned with their grade, and some have a laissez-faire attitude about life. And there are many in between. Four of the students are reasonably fluent English Language Learners with Spanish as their native language. All of them have Internet access at home and are competent-to-advanced technology users. About 80% of their parents attended Parent Information Night at the start of the school year and a similar number attended the Parent Conferences last November. I receive frequent e-mails and communication from their parents providing information about their child, and asking my help with making up work from absences, behavioral/social issues around school, homework questions, grade questions, and general comments about what we are doing in class. Some of our work this year has been done in groups. Some of our work has been done individually (Study Island in our adjacent computer lab, and research and writing assignments). As a whole, they have a high skill level, compared to their peers in the seventh grade class. As smart kids often do, they enjoy a sense of humor and are enormously inquisitive. About half the class are exceptionally well-read and never without a novel in progress. The other half are comprised of good, but not avid, readers and a handful of them are downright reluctant readers. Our school day begins at 7:35 a.m. with the release time of 1:55 p.m. This particular class sees me from about 9:00 to 10:00 three days a week, and on Thursdays (block schedule day) they are with me for over an hour and a half. Generally speaking they are not the athletes of the school but enjoy and do well in physical education. Their attendance, with the exception of three of them (one who is physically disabled), is regular. Most of them follow the same schedule throughout their day, except for mathematics and elective classes. Approximately ten of them are in regular mathematics level classes; the rest being in upper-level Algebra. This means that they are mostly all together throughout their day at school. Unfortunately because of the size of Tierra del Sol Middle School and the scheduling of classes, one or two high-level English students who take part in our school instrumental music program are excluded from this honors class. All in all, they find friendship with one another and are a joy for me to be with each day.DEMOGRAPHICSPopulation: 56,225Median Age: 40-44Median Household Income: $46,639Housing: Total Housing Units: 18,142Single Family: 10,579Multi Family: 5,056Mobile Homes: 2,965Land Use: Lakeside is an unincorporated area of San Diego County, approximately 3,572 miles in size. Agricultural: 4.12%Commercial/Industrial: 0.91%Residential: 5.38%Public/Semipublic: 2.75%Transportation: 2.81%Undeveloped: 84.0% new pixPrimary – Visual Art, InterdisciplinarySecondary – Art History, Theatre, Painting, ELAGrade 7GonnermanRegionLindsay GonzalesteacherPic ()Leaf CreationsI was born and raised in San Francisco. I attended University of California at Davis and majored in Human Development. I attended San Francisco State to receive my Multiple Subject teaching credential. I have been teaching Kindergarten at Lafayette Elementary for four years.I work at Lafayette Elementary which is located in the Outer Richmond District of San Francisco, CA. Lafayette is a K-5 school with two deaf/hard of hearing classes. There are 531 students. Our student population is very diverse. The majority of the student population is Asian, Russian, and other white. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – Leaves, ScienceKindergartenGonzalesRegionSam GronsethgronsethAssessing Vocal Pitch and Rhythmic SkillsI teach vocal, instrumental, and classroom music in third through eighth grades in Paradise Unified School District in Paradise, California and have taught over twenty-eight years. I have served as President of The California Association for Music Education (CMEA) and served as state music representative for The California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE). I helped start the Mt. Lassen Chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association, and am a lifetime member of the American Choral Directors Association. Over the past years instrumental and vocal performance groups have consistently received superior ratings at region and section festivals. I have been recognized on a statewide basis with the CMEA Outstanding Service Award in 1994 and 1997. In addition to these responsibilities, I am active in local church and community events. Groups under my direction have performed for schools from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California for venues such as Disneyland, The San Francisco Giants, and state and local music education conferences. The groups are an outgrowth of a strong music education program at Paradise Elementary School, and are consistently invited to perform for schools, community organizations, and other events. I received my bachelor's degree in Music Education from Central Washington University in Washington State, with graduate work at CSU, Chico and CSU, Fullerton. I have also performed and directed music groups in 16 countries including Singapore, Poland and China. I am often invited as adjudicator or guest conductor in churches and schools throughout the Northern California area.Fourth grade students receive music twice each week for fifty minutes as part of the elementary school teacher preparation schedule. Families in Paradise are predominantly low and middle socioeconomic levels, with about 60 percent of the students receiving free or reduced lunch. All students have musical aptitude, but due to inspiration and opportunity, some develop it further than others. The students within this project are from a standard contained fourth grade classroom. new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Vocal Pitch, Rhythmic Skills, Tonal SkillsGronsethRegionBethanie HansenteacherPic ()Creating Original Improvisation CompositionsI currently teach High School Band classes at Woodlake Union High School, in the Central Valley. I am originally from Milpitas (the bay area) and hold a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education from Brigham Young University, a Master of Arts in Music from Southern Oregon, and am almost finished with a Doctorate of Music Arts in Music Education from Boston University.Overall, I have taught public school music for fifteen years. I have experience with fourth grade general music, fifth and sixth grade elementary bands, middle and junior high school band, percussion, and color guard, and high school band, guitar, percussion, marching band, pep band, jazz, color guard, ethnic percussion, and AVID. I have taught in Utah (briefly), Idaho, and California. I am also currently teaching online courses for University of Phoenix.My interest in the arts began with my father, who played an old cornet. He spent a great deal of time during my childhood practicing that cornet with the door shut, in the master bathroom of our house. His most frequently played tune was “A Trumpeter’s Lullaby.” I began taking piano lessons in third grade and played that cornet from fourth grade on. I spent a lot of time writing and arranging music in eighth through twelfth grades and enjoyed this as an effective means of communication and expression. I left for college intent on becoming a songwriter, but learned that music education was a much more satisfying path.My philosophy of education is that lifelong learning brings joy, and I hope to improve the lives of others through my participation in our profession. My philosophy of music education specifically includes a combination of aesthetics – (music has inherent value worth enjoying) and praxialism (all facets of music study – listening, writing, playing, etc., - are all integral components of music learning that build individual esteem and self-worth).Outside of teaching this year, I have spent most of my “free” time studying for doctorate qualifying exams and teaching an occasional University of Phoenix online course. I also enjoy spending time with my family, who make life worth living! Both of my boys are now taking piano lessons, and we enjoy music and other arts in our home every day.Our ninth through twelfth grade students come from a variety of cultures and family backgrounds. The high school serves 742 students this year, with an average student-teacher ratio of 24:1. Our band program serves over 80 students per year in concert/marching band, jazz, and color guard. Our school is comprised of about 22% English Language Learners, 79% low-income families, and 32% of students come from parents who attended/graduated from college. The school is in a rural area, with a small percentage of students traveling in from 30 minutes away in a rural mountain town. Arts courses taught in our school include: choir, guitar, drama, art (from beginning through advanced), band, jazz band, percussion, color guard, marching band, and Mexican folk dance.There are many wonderful personalities in our class. Some students are outspoken, and want to “have a say” in everything. There are others who desperately want to be creative, but need guidance to give it a try. Still others are afraid to make their own creative decisions, wanting to rely on everyone else to tell them how to be creative and expressive. In a concert band setting, students typically receive clear direction on how to perform and communicate through music — but through our unit of study, all of these students will have the wide-open opportunity to be in the “driver’s seat,” and make their own decisions. – n/aNo new pixPrimary – Music, BandSecondary – Concert bandGrades 9-12HansenRegionJames HatchimonjihatchimonjiteacherPicJammingI was born as the second of three kids, in Los Angeles in 1960. As I was finishing first grade we moved to Bangkok. While my father worked in Viet Nam, we lived in Thailand, attending International School Bangkok. In 1974 we moved to Rockville, Maryland. In 1978, I graduated H.S. and moved west to begin at Humboldt State as a Biology pre-major. By 1979 I had declared myself a music major. In 1983 I graduated from HSU and in ’84 I earned my music teaching credential. In 1985, I began my teaching career at Trinidad Elementary, Fieldbrook Elementary and Big Lagoon Elementary doing a three school route. I was doing three Christmas programs a year in those days, but I admit to some bluring of the memory. In 1988 I began at Pacific Union School, as a one school, full time music teacher.This school year, I am for the first time, a half-time music teacher and half-time a fourth grade class teacher. The music teaching is keeping our instrumental and performance ensemble music classes going but general music is no longer part of our music program.I began being interested in the Arts while I lived in Maryland. My friend played the banjo and his friend played the guitar and together, wow! I had to learn to play. Before that, I did not pay attention to the arts. I did some visual art, my dad played bootlegged music tapes in the house and he took us to a few musicals which I recall having powerful feelings at. But, the intimacy of my two friends pickin’ bluegrass changed my life. I was all set for a education in the sciences but I ended up being a music major. My thinking was simple. I loved music so much that I should study it and get a teaching credential so I could do music as a job. It worked.I have always played music outside of school, most passionately folk music, but really all kinds. For twelve years I played fiddle in a local bluegrass band called the Compost Mountain Boys. For four years I was the musical director of the Kitchen-Aires, a mostly senior kitchen band where my baton was a wooden cooking spoon and my performance attire was an apron and a cooks hat.This project targeted a fifth grade class. A portion of the students have attended Pacific Union from kindergarten and will have had general music once a week for 5 years by now. They played recorders last year , and we have worked on music reading using solfeg and rhythm syllables. The students have been exposed to standard music notation, but only those taking instrumental classes really have had any practice with it. The class is roughly 50/50 boys to girls and about 20% ELL. Of course, all of the students are nice, loving children!Our school currently has about 450 students in grades k-8. It is located next door to a hospital and near Humboldt State University. As a fourth grade teacher doing parent conferences this Fall, I found 25% of the class had parents with college educations. I wonder if this is a good representation of the level of education achieved by the parents school-wide. new imagesPrimary – MusicSecondary – Piano jamming, VampingGrade 4HatchimonjiRegionAmber HeldheldImprovisation to a Five Counts of Eight Dance SequenceSince the age of five, I have danced for recreation at a local studio and for school musicals in Los Angeles. As a freshman at Boston University (BU) I became more serious about dancing and studied with my first dance mentor in the style of "Morris," a tradition of English Folk dancing. In 2005 I studied West African dance in Ghana for five months and came back to the states with a passion for dance and discovered a natural ability to share movement when I choreographed a ten minute piece for BU's Dance Theatre Group, a performing group on campus. After graduating in 2006 I moved to San Francisco, where I started my career teaching Physical Education in the public school system; I currently teach Yoga, PE, Leadership, Middle School Dance, and High School Dance for University Preparatory Academy (UPA), a charter school in San Jose. Since 2007, I have been a company member of Mary Sano and Her Duncan Dancers in San Francisco, performing original works by Isadora Duncan as well as other classical modern and contemporary dance pieces in theaters in San Francisco and Tokyo. I am inspired to expand my artistic vision and professional development with involvement in a new movement system called Dance Alive, "a dynamic life training system that teaches you to live with vitality, confidence, and integrity" ().My students range in age from 12-14 years old and likewise they each vary in their attitudes. Most of them are excited to learn and they bring dynamic and raw energy to class. It is always refreshing to see the new ways they explore and perceive the dances that they work on. I bring new ideas and themes and they are open to learning the range of interests and styles of dance, including contemporary, modern, and Fosse jazz techniques as well as Michael Jackson style, improvisational, disco, hip hop, African and musical theater and styles.My students are mostly visual and auditory learners. They learn the best when they have things shown to them. This is a large advantage in having them in a dance class as most of the time I demonstrate the movements or guide them to watch an instructional or performance video to practice at home. This also helps when discussing formations – I draw them out. Their collective strength is their enthusiasm and willingness to take risks with adapting to new styles of movement. Their interests are embedded in popular culture. Some students have a strong adoration for Justin Beiber, or the latest Hollywood movie. When performing their solo or duet dances for their first semester final, each student picked from what they hear on the radio or from a movie soundtrack.There are many cultural ethnic backgrounds present in class – Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American, Indian, Asian, and one Islander. While the style of dance may differ, or likewise the definition of dance, each student dances. That is what unifies my students, no matter what, they will come to my class and try their best. Their dance skill levels vary from emerging to mastery levels in learning choreography, timing/rhythm, range of motion, and performance skills.UPA has a highly encouraging and positive learning environment with the focus on preparing students for college. The school's policies, events, and atmosphere integrate in a way that ensures that each student feels comfortable and works hard to get to the next level in their academic career. UPA's student population has a wellspring of artistic electives and the school has semester showcases presenting music, art, dance, and drama to the local community. new imagesPrimary – DanceSecondary – Choreography, ImprovisationGrades 7-8HeldRegionErick HendricksonhndricksonStory to ScriptI am fascinated with staging effects, and I always try to figure out how a show accomplishes a visual lighting technique. I grew up in the Midwest in and around Wisconsin and South Dakota and enjoyed many successful productions through my church, school, community, and college. It was at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where I really began to seriously apply my developing theatrical dramaturgy to acting and directing. My favorite high school role was playing Tony in West Side Story, and I challenged myself dramatically directing plays like The Stonewater Rapture by Doug Wright in college. I have enjoyed working community theatre and coaching students over the years with set construction and acting techniques. I have been a member of The California Arts Project, RIMS region, for three years. I have just become part of the RIMS CAP Assessment Working Group.My students range in age from 12-14 years old and likewise they each vary in their attitudes. Most of them are excited to learn and they bring dynamic and raw energy to class. It is always refreshing to see the new ways they explore and perceive the dances that they work on. I bring new ideas and themes and they are open to learning the range of interests and styles of dance, including contemporary, modern, and Fosse jazz techniques as well as Michael Jackson style, improvisational, disco, hip hop, African and musical theater and styles.My students are mostly visual and auditory learners. They learn the best when they have things shown to them. This is a large advantage in having them in a dance class as most of the time I demonstrate the movements or guide them to watch an instructional or performance video to practice at home. This also helps when discussing formations – I draw them out. Their collective strength is their enthusiasm and willingness to take risks with adapting to new styles of movement. Their interests are embedded in popular culture. Some students have a strong adoration for Justin Beiber, or the latest Hollywood movie. When performing their solo or duet dances for their first semester final, each student picked from what they hear on the radio or from a movie soundtrack.There are many cultural ethnic backgrounds present in class – Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American, Indian, Asian, and one Islander. While the style of dance may differ, or likewise the definition of dance, each student dances. That is what unifies my students, no matter what, they will come to my class and try their best. Their dance skill levels vary from emerging to mastery levels in learning choreography, timing/rhythm, range of motion, and performance skills.UPA has a highly encouraging and positive learning environment with the focus on preparing students for college. The school's policies, events, and atmosphere integrate in a way that ensures that each student feels comfortable and works hard to get to the next level in their academic career. UPA's student population has a wellspring of artistic electives and the school has semester showcases presenting music, art, dance, and drama to the local community. new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Script Writing, Folktales, ELAGrades 9-12HendricksonRegionJennifer IgramIgram_A_1 (terrible quality)Imani and Sight-Reading Jennifer Ingram, Band Director, Clear Lake High School & Terrace Middle School, Lakeport, CAFor the past eight years I have had the privilege of teaching music in Lake County. The last five years I have been teaching music at both Terrace Middle School and Clear Lake High School within the Lakeport Unified School District teaching Concert Band, Jazz Band, and Recording Technology. Recording Technology is an independent study course where students may work at their own pace to learn composing, recording, sound engineering, and light engineering in our state-of-the-art recording studio. On a daily basis I teach music to approximately 250 students, roughly one quarter of the entire middle school and high school student body. Teaching in Lake County has been a joy. I enjoy the rural small town atmosphere and find that students and families are eager to participate in the arts.As a youth, the arts both visual and performing arts captured my interests. I taught music lessons to younger students as a high school student and continued through college. Through school I enjoyed band from fourth grade through high school. I attended Santa Rosa Junior College after graduating high school where I enjoyed the small class size and one-on-one teaching style. The intricacies and depth of music theory captivated me and I was eager to share my joy of music with others. I transferred and continued my music education at University of Arizona (U of A) where I earned my Bachelor of Music in Music Education with an emphasis on instrumental music. At U of A I had fantastic music education professors who pushed me to attain higher levels of musicianship and truly gave me a vast array of pedagogical tools. My college education truly molded me into not only an accomplished musician but an inspired and lifelong learning teacher. I continue to enjoy attending and participating in live performances of all genres. In particular, I am very interested in observing fellow conductors and advancing my own conducting craft. I look forward to attending various concerts and seeing a wide variety of conductors and styles, as well as collecting numerous films of great conductors.My students for this project are 9th-12th grade Concert Band students at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport, California. Lakeport and the surrounding towns are physically beautiful with sprawling pear orchards, grape vineyards, rolling hills with oak trees, and the pristine waters of Clear Lake juxtaposed by the impressive Mount Konocti. A major element of the student culture is enjoying the landscapes and outdoors. It is common for students to spend their after-school hours tending to their farm animals as 4H members, jet skiing and boating on the waters of Clear Lake, hiking on Mount Konocti, riding quads and dirt bikes on Cow Mountain, and in general spending a great deal of time outdoors.The Concert Band is split into two class periods to rehearse, but they perform altogether as a 108-member band. We meet five days a week for roughly 50 minutes. Like many music ensembles, band includes a diverse range of students. Within our band some students are aspiring professional musicians, professional sound and light engineers, professional composers, their own garage bands, perform outside of school in local churches, as well as participating in music for the joy of music. Music at the high school level also provides unique social and leadership opportunities. It is wonderful to teach in a rural school district and students have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities on campus from the arts, athletics, and school clubs.Clear Lake High School has a total school enrollment of roughly 470 students. Our school is comprised of about 5% English language learners, 34% socio-economic disadvantaged, and 10% of students with disabilities. Our community demographic is roughly 66% Caucasian, 24% Hispanic, 3% American Indian, and 1% African American. Acknowledging that our school demographic is not significantly diverse, the largest minority group, Hispanic, brings a great deal of diversity and culture to the classroom. Students express desires to select Hispanic music, acknowledge and celebrate cultural holidays like Cinco de Mayo and Dia de Los Muertos. Lakeport is the county seat of Lake County, located approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco and west of Sacramento, and characterized by mountainous terrain. Its major topographical feature is Clear Lake that is the state's largest, natural freshwater lake. new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Concert Band, Imani, African Music, Sight-Reading, ApartheidGrade 9-12IngramRegionTana JohnsonjohnsonteacherPicSelf PortraitHi, I’m Tana Johnson, and I facilitate arts integration professional development courses and programs for K-12 and college teachers in Alameda County. I currently consult for the Alameda County Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership. I began my life as a dancer, from age 8 to 25, and then moved to San Francisco to pursue a master’s degree in arts education at San Francisco State University. During my M.A. program, I became a video and interdisciplinary performance artist. After graduating from SF State, I worked as a video artist in both elementary schools and high schools. During this intense learning time when I was teaching and making my own films, I also ran a community-based arts education program at Southern Exposure in San Francisco’s Mission District.From Southern Exposure, I moved to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where I ran High School M.E.D.I.A. (Multimedia Educational Directions in the Arts), a museum literacy program with a focus on media arts production at Balboa and Thurgood Marshall High Schools. When this project ended, I became the Coordinator of School and Teacher Programs and launched a teen arts program, SFMOMA Teen Visionaries, in which San Francisco teens worked on studio arts projects with visual and media artists at the Museum. I then produced interactive media for five years, including interactive features, artist videos, podcasts and a teacher curriculum site, SFMOMA Artthink.After ten years at SFMOMA, I decided it was time to return to teaching and learning. At California College of the Arts, I taught ArtsEd Teaching Methods and ran the CCA Teaching Institute for kindergarten through college educators. This program, called the Arts Integration Specialist Certificate Program, is housed at the Alameda County’s Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership. I teach arts integration and coach teachers in the Teacher Action Research Institute in San Leandro.About my students – n/a new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary –Self-Portrait, ELA, History, Social Science, Studio Habits of MindGrades 9-12JohnsonRegionKjrsti JordanjordanSelf-Portrait StatementsI have taught art and ceramics at the high school level for over thirteen years. My job is more than employment for me. I strongly believe that it is important to offer students a place where they can express their creativity and be accepted for who they are. I strongly believe that the cognitive skills developed through making art are often undervalued, and yet creativity and innovation are the tenets of the advancement of culture. My favorite part of teaching is when I am able to gently push a student out of their comfort zone, and consequently when they achieve more than they believed possible.The sense of confidence and pride that many students demonstrate about their artwork is crucial to their development in many areas of life, and studies have shown that reflective art practices result in increased growth in numerous academic areas.Kerman, California, incorporated in 1946, is located 225 miles north of Los Angeles and 185 miles south of San Francisco in a rural, residential area 17 miles west of the City of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. The population of Kerman is 14,064 as of January 2010 (excerpted from WASC self-study report, March 2012). The predominant economic base of the area is agriculture, but considering the economy, Kerman also has a small, but relatively stable local business base, with strong community sentiments to "shop local." The schools in general, and the high school in particular, host a variety of community events such as "Relay for Life," and sporting events are very well attended by community members. Community members and alumni are also very supportive of the school through their involvement in community organizations, and through many generous donations of scholarships to current students.As of February 1, 2011, approximately 81% of KUSD students are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program. A wide variety of different ethnicities are served at the school. My classroom is very heterogeneous, with a wide variety of different ethnic groups represented. The English language learners in my classes are predominantly Hispanic, but there are also students from other countries such as Yemen and India. In addition to serving regular education students and RSP students, a number of Special Day Class students also attend my classes with a regular education student serving as their transition tutor. I feel the inclusion of students with special needs in classes fosters a greater level of understanding and compassion among the vast majority of students on our campus.My classes are well-filled, with an average class size of 35. My students are respectful, cooperative, and a joy to have in class, and I feel very fortunate to work in a district with such supportive parents and strong community ties. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – Self-PortraitGrades 9-12JordanRegionHeather KarsevarteacherPic ()Learning Multicultural DancesMy name is Heather Karsevar and I teach Dance and Drama at Clovis East High School in Clovis, California. I earned my undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts/Dance from California State University, Fresno in 1999 and added a master’s degree in Dance at California State University, Long Beach in 2008. Aside from a formal Dance education I also attend conferences around the United States when I can, including conferences hosted by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) and Dance Teacher Magazine. I enjoy learning about what is cutting edge in the world of Dance and especially how I can add technology in my classroom.I began my career in Clovis Unified in 1996 when I began choreographing musicals for elementary, junior high, and high school Drama departments as well as coaching color guard and winter guard at the junior high and high school levels. When Clovis East High School opened in 1999 I was on track to receive my teaching credential and start my student teaching. I have been at Clovis East since their opening and have built a Dance program from scratch which now includes the following classes: Dance 1 (beginning level), Dance 2 (intermediate level), Dance Repertory (advanced company class) and Hmong Dance Repertory (performing class in the genre of Asian Dance). I also choreograph the school’s musicals and Broadway reviews. This past year Hmong Dance Repertory produced Mulan Jr., which I choreographed and directed.I started dancing later than most at age 14, but my interest in the arts began as a child. My parents always felt music and art had a place in our home. This philosophy rubbed off on all of the children in my family. We played musical instruments, took art classes, danced, sang, acted, and currently find a great interest in photography. Outside of school I find the Arts are still a large part of my life. When I have time I attend theatre events, visit museums such as the Getty in Southern California, participate in stage performances and dance companies, and enjoy taking classes in the performing arts. After the education I have received I even watch movies with a more artistic eye.I teach outside the box as my inspiration as an artist comes from so many venues in life. I teach my dancers they should not only attend arts events, but they should constantly be open to the world around them. Art is everywhere they look. They just have to open their eyes.The group of students who are involved in this project include the Dance Repertory company class as well as members of the following groups on campus: The Black Student Union, the Folklorico dance team, and the Hmong Dance Repertory company. The dancers involved in these groups are proficient in their own style of dance and look like our community here at Clovis East High School. They come from various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds as our school is located in a Title I area. These students have been working with me for at least a semester and are anxious for a new challenge. They are not afraid to go above and beyond to advocate for the arts.Clovis Unified is a conservative district which holds their educators and students to very high standards in areas of academics, ethics and morals, character, and professionalism. Clovis East High School not only follows these standards set by the district, but also exemplifies caring for, and being interested in, one another. Over the past few years I have seen, on more than one occasion, students in my class stepping outside themselves to help another in need. Sometimes it is a student who you expect this behavior from, such as a student leader or peer counselor. However, more often than not, I am pleasantly surprised at the students who quietly put themselves out there to make someone else feel better, physically walk up the stairs, or read an assignment in class. new pixPrimary – DanceSecondary – Dance Repertory, Multicultural DanceGrades 9-12KarsevarRegionJewell KellyteacherPic ()My VoiceI teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade visual arts. I teach one class of Introduction to Art, one class of Digital Multimedia, three classes of 3-D and Design and one Advanced Art class. I have taught at El Portal Middle School for five years. I volunteered several years to help students in the arts before getting my teaching credential.Outside of teaching art, I am a working artist. I have participated in art shows and gallery exhibits. I enjoy attending art events both visual and performing. I strongly believe that the arts are crucial in helping our students become smarter, well-rounded individuals.Our school, El Portal Middle School, is placed in a small town in the middle of a farming community. The community has a strong sense of pride and family values. The school has about 740 students in grades 6 thru 8, and these students come from 4 unique elementary schools. The school district pulls students from an area that extends 100 square miles, so art opportunities during the school day are very important, since most students board the bus at the end of the regular school day.I would not say that we are very diverse; we have primarily two races on our campus – Hispanic (42%) and White (53%). We have a lot of English language learners and a fair amount of low socioeconomic students.I would say that my students are enthusiastic, motivated learners who enjoy the arts. The students that were selected for these projects are seventh and eighth grade students that are in an Advanced Art course. These students have all completed an art course that has taught them the basic elements of art, including line, shape, color, value, form, texture, and space. These students have also shown individual artistic ability and an understanding of the concepts of art. This course is focused on building the unique artistic talents of each student, giving them the opportunity to work in a wide variety of mediums of their selection. Most of my Advanced Art students have not only taken Introduction to Art but also 3-D and Design class. Students continue to work on their knowledge of the elements of art, as well as continue to further their knowledge on the principles of design as we work on balance, harmony, unity, pattern, rhythm, and movement, as well as composition and art aesthetics. – n/aPrimary – Visual Art, InterdisciplinarySecondary – Advanced Art, ELAGrades 7-8KelleyRegionThao Le KhaclekhacWhere Are You, Polar Bear?I am Vietnamese-American, and I immigrated to America in 1975 when I was nine years old. I have spent most of my life in California and I live in Eureka, CA.I received my B.A. in studio arts in 1996 and my art teaching credential in 1999. This is my eleventh year of being an art educator in the local elementary schools. Almost all of my teaching jobs are funded through art grants for artists. I am also a working artist, a painter. I am very involved in our local art scene, and I am always working on growing my art business as well.I began teaching art through the California Arts Council grant for Artists in Schools in 1999. I believe that being an art educator is my purpose and role in our community. It is important to me to use my skills to provide the tools to support our students, to make them confident in their identity and their place in the community through the arts. Teaching diversity through multicultural art history is my passion…second to painting, of course. I strongly believe that multicultural art education is the key to bridging the gaps between an ethnically diverse world, and a path to the heart of humanity.My art teaching position is different every year depending on grant funding. This year I am working three-quarter time. I work three days at Washington Elementary (funded by the California Arts Council Artist in Schools & North Coast Cultural Trust grant), and one day at Garfield Elementary.This year I am working at two elementary schools with grades kindergarten through sixth. Washington has 520 students, and each student has art for an hour per week for 14 weeks. Garfield has 65 students, and each student has art for 1 ? to 2 hours, once a week for the entire year. My assessment project will take place at Garfield, a small rural school. There are three combination grades: kindergarten-first, second-third, and fourth-sixth. We have a full scale of diverse learners from gifted individuals to students with special needs and disabilities. Our students are from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, but we are not ethnically diverse. There is a strong emphasis on community building with students, staff, and parents. The classes we are observing are the fourth-sixth graders. There are 23 students, half are girls and half are boys. new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Music Composition, Science, Polar Bears, Poetry, Recorders, ELAGrade 4Le KhacRegionSarah KlackaklackaElements of the BluesEverybody asks me why I wanted to become a teacher, and I always give the same ridiculously idealistic answer: I wanted to change the world. After going through a ton of career ideas from doctor/ballerina, to detective/princess I decided that for me, the best way to do that was by teaching, making the world better one kid at a time. I graduated from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor's of Arts in Vocal Music and a Master's of Music in Vocal Performance. With my credential from San Diego State University, I went straight to the classroom with my head full of classical technique and my heart full of show choir music. I teach class piano and show choir, and provide musical direction and accompaniment for our school's spring musical. I continue to perform myself, singing in community theatre productions, so my students can see that those who teach, can do.Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, California, is an ethnically diverse campus with Mexican, African-American, White, Asian, and Pacific Islanders represented. Many of my students come to me having learned to sing in church choirs rich in the Baptist/gospel tradition and contemporary Christian music, as well as having listened to R&B and hip-hop; they have a natural feeling for flexibility and improvisation. Our sound is unique because I strive to begin with a basis of my classical technique to interpret Broadway and Pop music with the students' soulful instincts. Our award-winning show choir has achieved the national Gold standard at the Heritage Festival with superior rankings, placed first in our division, and received the adjudicator's award for favorite show choir overall, as well as numerous awards for solo singing from both the Heritage and Fullerton Jazz Festivals. – n/aNo new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Vocal Music, Blues, Gospel, riffsGrades 9-12KlackaRegionCarol KoepenickkoepenickteacherPicPerforming a Weathering ProcessI am a theater teacher for the Arts Education Branch at the Los Angeles Unified School District. We have a wonderful arts program that brings theater, dance, visual arts and music to elementary students (and their teachers) throughout Los Angeles. I have spread the joy of drama to students in the San Fernando Valley for three years now. Before coming to the Arts Branch, I enjoyed 15 years in the classroom, connecting the curriculum to theatre anytime I could. Now, I am doing it full-time and totally enjoying the ride. Theatre has always been an important part of my life. I studied theater in college and received my BA in Theatre Arts. My husband and I celebrated our honeymoon in London where we attended seventeen plays in two weeks. We run summer camps, are members of CETA (California Educational Theatre Association), and judge at the DTASC (Drama Teachers Association of Southern California) Shakespeare Festival. As you can see, theatre is an important part of my life both professionally and personally.My students live on the east end of the San Fernando Valley. This school is in a poor community with many families living at or below the poverty level. One of the schools I work at is a Program Improvement School where test scores are lower than the district average and have been for a few years. This particular class has many English Language Learners on 3 different levels (ELD 2,3 and 4’s). There are 2 students who are classified as English Only, 3 IFEP, 8 LEP and 13 RFEP. Two students attend a resource pullout program each day, and 7 students have been identified as gifted learners. We have worked together for 6 weeks and chose to integrate theater standards with science standards. We meet for one hour each week. This particular class is very verbal and enjoys discussing ideas and sharing their reflections. Most of the class has “looped” with their classroom teacher and were together in 3rd grade as well. new pixPrimary - TheatreSecondary – Science, Improvisation, Ensemble, TableauGrade 4KoepenickRegionGabie LayneteacherPic ()Personal MandalasI was born and raised in Modesto, California, graduated from Thomas Downey High School, earned my associate of arts degree from Modesto Junior College, and received my bachelor of arts degree from California State University, Stanislaus. This is my first teaching position and third year teaching (ever).My mother was born and raised in Hermosillo, Mexico, and came to this country when she was 18. My father has lived his whole life in the central valley. I straddle both cultures, feeling at home in both, although at times I feel I don’t belong to either one. Both my parents love to travel, so as a child I was exposed to many subcultures in the United States, as well as the extreme class divisions that are common in Mexico. I was profoundly influenced by visiting family friends in a cardboard shanty on the outskirts of Hermosillo.My first love is drawing. I have drawn everyday since I could hold a pencil. Outside of art, I enjoy soccer, reading science fiction and fantasy novels, anime, the cinema, American comics, and manga. I absolutely love to travel. Besides visiting Mexico and most of the fifty states, I have back-packed through Italy, France, Switzerland, Ireland, and Scotland. I have also had the great pleasure of living in London for six months.Although drawing is my first love, my true passion lies in teaching. I honestly believe I was put on this planet for one reason and one reason only: to teach art.Newman is a small rural community located in the central valley. Orestimba High School has a population of roughly 750 students. I see nearly 200 of those students in my art classes everyday. Demographically, we are split 60/40 between Hispanic and Anglo students respectively. Most of our students are on the free and reduced lunch program. Despite language barriers and socio-economic disadvantages the students of Orestimba are extremely polite, friendly and generally quite happy. There are no art courses offered at the junior high level in my district and so I teach students with very limited to no exposure to the arts. For this assignment, the students will be from my advanced art course: Art 3. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary –Advanced Art, Mandala, ELA, mathGrades 9-12LayneRegionChris Leeclee (there’s also a video embedded on the page - )Name: Christopher LeeSchool: A. B. Miller High SchoolSubjects Taught: Video Production (Levels 1-3)Class Web Site: Rebel Productions Born in Riverside, California. Grew up in a trailer. Played with Legos. Had a paper route. Joined the Marines. Stationed in the Philippines. Fought in a war. Surfed in Newport Beach. Played guitar in a band. Hauled hazardous waste. Gained perspective. Attended school in Redlands. Studied Film and English Literature. Published several short stories. Hired as a news reporter. Self taught. Went back to school. Hired as a high school teacher. Fell in love with teaching. Received a few awards. Fell in love with a woman. Honeymoon in Tahiti. Had two children. Wrote a few plays. Produced one. Had a big break. Directed a few films and a PSA about teachers being able to change the world. Found my calling. Produced a feature length documentary about trains and autism. Moving onward. Happy and content knowing that I can change the world every day I walk into the classroom.This project will utilize the students in the Advanced Video Production course at A. B. Miller High School. These students are 3rd year video production students who have taken the sequential video production courses beginning their freshman or sophomore year of high school. The Advanced Video Production course has 19 male students and 7 female students. Most of the students in this course are college or trade school bound. The above video encompasses the overall spirit of this eclectically talented group of compassionate and professional individuals who spend countless hours dedicated to this art form we hold in the highest regard.Accomplishments: Internships to NBC Universal in New YorkInternships to NBC Universal in San Diego (in both broadcast journalism and print media)Award-winning documentary “3000″ (Directed by Chris Uribe, Class of 2007, and Iris Ochoa, Class of 2008) was discussed on the floor of Congress by Congressman Joe BacaNHRA Video Competition FinalistRebel Sports Center is honored by SchoolTube (the award-winning national web site for educators) with Best Sports Feature ShowSenior Filmmaker Brenda Lopez is awarded the coveted GATES Millennium ScholarshipWorking with local government agencies and the Peer Leading program on campus, REBEL PRODUCTIONS produces the first place award-winning 15-minute production to combat drunk driving.Finalist for Omnitrans Public Transportation Ad CampaignExcellence in Color Photography Awards by NHRA (two years in a row: winning shots are permanently on display at the Wally Parks Museum)We recently took part in the Battle For Milkquarious. Check out a behind-the-scenes look below and the final video by clicking here:The Place We Call Home:The Fontana Unified School District is located in Southern California in what is known as the Inland Empire, a fast-growing community 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Our 44 schools serve students from preschool through adult education in a diverse urban/suburban environment. Fontana’s schools are recognized nationwide for their fast growth in student achievement. During the 2008-09 school year, A.B. Miller High School enrolled 3,006 students in ninth through twelve grade following a traditional calendar.Student enrollment includes 10.82% receiving special education services, 28.7% qualifying for English learner support, and 64.8% enrolled in the free and reduced-price meal program. Dedicated administrators, teachers, and school staff work as a team to support students efforts in acquiring the skills necessary to be successful in their future endeavors. A.B. Miller is an AVID School of Distinction; a national award and designation given only to secondary schools meeting rigorous benchmarks in preparing students for post-secondary education. Ninth grade students are randomly grouped into one of four teams; each team sharing the same group of three teachers.This structure, referred to as a smaller learning community, provides the time and resources for students to experience a more cohesive and consistent learning environment while providing teachers the resources and time to collaborate across the curriculum, better monitor individual student progress, and share best practices within their assigned teams to increase student achievement levels.A Little More Information About My Students:This project will utilize the students in the Advanced Video Production course at A. B. Miller High School. These students are 3rd year video production students who have taken the sequential video production courses beginning their freshman or sophomore year of high school. The Advanced Video Production course has 19 male students and 7 female students. Most of the students in this course are college or trade school bound. The above video encompasses the overall spirit of this eclectically talented group of compassionate and professional individuals who spend countless hours dedicated to this art form we hold in the highest regard. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – Video Production, ELA, Cinematography, FilmGrades 9-12LeeRegionAutumn LencionilncioniMask Making Research and PresentationsI am a Fresno native with a BFA in Photography and an MA in Studio Arts. I have teaching experience with various age groups, from youths to young adults. Currently I am teaching art at Duncan Polytechnical High School grades 9-12. I became interested in the arts while attending Fresno City College. I took a black and white photography class and was hooked. At the time I was majoring in Sociology but I concurrently pursued a Certificate in Photography. Eventually I made the decision to change my major to photography and moved to the Silicon Valley to attend SJSU. Outside of school, I am involved in a nonprofit photography galley called Spectrum Art Gallery. I have participated in many group and solo shows there and at various galleries throughout California.The students at Duncan Poly are ninth to twelfth graders that have applied and been accepted to our magnet program specializing in vocational education. We have pathways in business, agriculture, computers, construction, health, etc. We are a Title I school (100% free breakfast and lunch) located in central Fresno. Our students are bussed in from throughout the Fresno area. Many are English Language Learners who are re-designated to fluent at some point during their high school years. The majority of our students are Hispanic or Asian. Our school boasts a lower suspension rate than the district's norm as well as a high graduation rate.I teach Art 1A and Art 1B to mixed grade levels 9-12 and my class size averages 40 students. They have a variety of interests. Some of them are typical teenage interests like texting, shopping, playing sports, or being involved in clubs. Others get very involved in their pathways and gain paid employment during junior and senior years. A handful of students in each class period are enthusiastic about art and spend time outside of the class pursuing interests such as drawing or painting. Many express an interest in Manga and Anime. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary- MasksGrades 9-12LencioniRegionsKimberly LepreleprePicMusic – Listening To and Evaluating SoundtracksI am the band director at Hilltop Middle School in Chula Vista, California. I've been teaching since 2002, and my classes have run the gamut from elementary, middle, and high school band, middle, and high school choir, middle, and high school jazz band, Exploring Arts, and AVID. Currently my classes consist of Beginning and Advanced Band, all mixed with seventh and eighth graders.I am originally from Silverdale, WA, which is a small navy town about an hour and a half southeast of Seattle. I have played the piano since I was five and the clarinet since fifth grade, and I always knew I would be involved in music. I participated in band all through high school and really loved marching band (I played clarinet and mallets), while competing on piano in various local, regional, and state competitions. I was known for music the way Mike is the quarterback or Jen is head cheerleader.While my parents desperately wanted me to go to college to be a nurse or doctor or something involving the medical field, I stubbornly rebelled and chose Piano Performance. I attended the University of Washington to pursue that dream. After two long and lonely years stuck alone in a practice room for hours a day, I chose Music Education. I can say with confidence that it was the right choice. I have my bachelor of arts degree in music education and my master of arts degree in best practices of teaching.I haven’t found the time to perform or participate in the arts as much as I would like, but I still try to get my dose of music when time permits. My husband and I love independent and garage rock bands and love to go to shows at the Casbah, Belly Up Tavern, Open Air Theater, and other small venues in San Diego. My daughter recently turned five, so we will begin the music training as long as she’s willing and cooperative. I really look forward to her playing in my band someday, let’s hope she will feel the same way!Hilltop Middle School is situated in Chula Vista, California, which is about nine miles from the Mexican-American border. Currently approximately 1200 students attend the school, with the richly diverse population consisting of 80% Hispanic or Latino students, 11% Caucasian, 2% African-American, 3% Filipino, and the other 4% a mix. More than half of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch and 18% are English language learners. Our school district, the Sweetwater Union High School District, is predominantly Hispanic or Latino and continues to foster traditional music and dance with mariachi and baile folklorico. We offer a variety of visual and performing arts classes, including visual art, dance, drama, digital media, and music, although current economic conditions threatens the state of many of these programs.My students are dedicated musicians who absolutely LOVE being in band! This class of 55 students meets during 1st period, but you’d never know it by their energy level. In more ways that one I don’t run my rehearsals like other directors do, as there is lots of discourse from students helping each other out, high-fiving each other when they nail a section in the music, and occasionally some friendly competition and bravado. In all of my classes, I have a great rapport with the students and, while we spend a lot of time laughing at my stupid jokes and random comments, we also know how to get down to work. Several students in this class come in during lunch to practice, get extra tutoring, and enjoy impromptu jam sessions, even on songs they played as beginners. I know that not all of these students will move on to band at the high school next year, but I’m happy to know that I’ve had a positive effect on them during the tumultuous years of middle school.I will be conducting this lesson with my Advanced Band class, whose musicians have played for at least 1 ? years, during which time they’ve grown tremendously as people and musicians. This year they’ve participated in our district’s Band Pageant, marched in a local holiday parade, and performed at two concerts. This lesson will be taught in preparation for band festival, a performance at Disneyland, and our Spring Concert in May. These students have not been able to participate in class activities aside from rehearsal and sectionals, so this will be a great opportunity for them to tap into other creative juices! – MusicSecondary – Advanced Band, Musical ExpressionGrades 7-8LepreRegionCheri LloydteacherPic ()Split PortraitMy name is Cheri Lloyd and I have served as a K-8 visual arts educator and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Whitmore Charter School of the Arts and Technology in Ceres, California. I started my career as a third grade teacher in Wisconsin and continued to teach third grade for seven years in California before becoming a dedicated visual arts educator and beginning teacher mentor at Whitmore Charter School of the Arts and Technology. I enjoy finding new ways to integrate both the arts and technology in teaching and student learning.I grew up in the midwest where I had a credentialed art teacher and art classes from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I always liked art, but it wasn’t until I was in middle school and my art teacher gave me an artist award that I really started to get excited about it. In high school, I was quick to get involved in every art experience possible; choir, show choir, dance team, musicals, and art classes. These were the places I felt I could be me.I double majored in college in both Elementary Education and Art Education, and I just couldn’t decide which I favored. My first job was as a third grade teacher in Pepin, Wisconsin. The next year I moved to California to teach third grade…sight unseen.When I got to California, my vice principal gave me a tour of my new school. I asked where the art room was and he laughed. He told me that there wasn’t an art teacher and that I shouldn’t focus any time on it. “Those classes” (meaning Social Studies, Science, Art, P.E., etc.) were classes students would get in middle school. In elementary grades, students needed to learn how to read and do math first. Then he promised that they could actually understand Art, Social Studies, etc. So I gave it a year and watched my students. And not surprisingly, they didn’t know how to win and lose and line up. They didn’t know about the world around them. They didn’t know how to use problem solving in new situations. Simply put, they didn’t know how to think. Art teaches all those things.That day I promised myself that I would teach as long as I could stand it and move back home before I had my own children in the system, and that I would “sneak” as much arts into my lessons as I could manage.Almost four years ago, I heard of my current school. I taught third grade for a year and then convinced my principal that we needed a dedicated art teacher, and I was just the woman to do it! Right? The focus at our site is on the arts and technology, and guess what? Students are well-rounded and every part of their being is educated. The focus is on the whole child, and both teachers and students truly enjoy teaching and learning.My son started kindergarten this year…in California…at my school. I’m his art teacher.I teach kindergarten through eighth grade students in a charter school setting. My school has an emphasis on the arts and our students are creative and self-expressive. Whitmore Charter School of the Arts and Technology is a small school with only 22 students in kindergarten through third grade, 25 students in fourth through eighth grade, and only 2 classes per grade level. My students come from the town of Ceres and surrounding towns. My students come from low-to-middle income backgrounds. Our county is suffering from job loss and high home foreclosure rates.The elementary (kindergarten through fifth grade) students have weekly art, drama, music, dance, and technology classes. The middle school students (sixth through eighth grade) have the option of taking art, drama, music, and dance elective classes that meet daily.Students are very proud of their yearly musical productions where all four disciplines of the arts are represented. Students paint and help design the sets, sing in the choir, act and dance on stage, act as the junior music conductors, stage crew, ushers, emcees, and sound crew. They are also very proud of their yearly Fine Arts Gala where they showcase their visual art work and sing, play instruments, and act for the evening’s entertainment. – n/aNo new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – Self PortraitGrade 4LloydRegionsEllen Lynch teacherPic ()Writing and Illustrating a Short Story with Performance and Multimedia IntegrationI was raised in Santa Barbara County since the age of two, and grew up in an Irish Catholic home filled with music, poetry and song. My mother loved to sing and play piano, and she taught my sisters and me how to read and play music at a young age…it didn’t always work out that well, so we ended up taking lessons with a piano teacher across the street. During junior high and high school, I found another teacher, and traded babysitting for music and theory lessons. I later graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, with a degree in Liberal Studies.I’ve been teaching elementary grades for over twenty-two years. My first assignment was in Barstow. I moved there two days before school started and left the day after it ended. It was a crazy year, but I got my feet wet while experiencing the beauty of the desert. I spent the next two years in King City and learned a lot before moving on to the Bay Area where I taught in Marin County for six years. I’ve been back in King City for almost thirteen years. I’ve seen two very different sides of our public school system, and the inequities still alarm me.This is my third year teaching in an arts charter school. I moved here in hopes of re-creating a classroom where kids in this town get the education they deserve and a classroom where I feel proud to be. It’s been rocky…but I’m excited and hopeful.Outside of school, I find myself surrounded by artist friends, including my husband. We participate in the local art scene and attend art openings in the county. I love the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art whenever I’m in that area and have also developed a yearning for live opera, especially at the San Francisco Opera House. When traveling, museums are always top of the list.Ahh…my students. I have a class of 12 kindergarteners and 15 first graders. Eleven of the first graders were also my students last year in kindergarten. They are smart, excited, active, curious, loving, and funny…very funny.What kind of learners are they? Perhaps it’s due to their age, but I’d say they’re mostly interpersonal, kinesthetic, visual/spatial, and musical learners. I have 13 English-only learners (9 first grade, 4 kindergarteners) which is not representative of our district (mostly English language learners). The rest are English learners with Spanish as primary language. Seven of these kids are in the early stages of English language acquisition.Our school is an arts charter school in its seventh year of operation. We are not an independent charter, which means we are still ultimately governed by the district’s school board. So that means that we have to implement the district curricula, and follow a pacing guide which includes a predetermined assessment schedule. It’s a lot to “teach” and assess…not always meaningful/thoughtful stuff…oftentimes frustrating. I will provide photos (of the good stuff!) once I receive the releases.The community of King City is hard to describe and depends on who you are…where your place is. I lived in King City for 2 years in the early 90’s, but I now live 50 miles south. From my eyes, King City offers many opportunities for sports and 4-H/FFA opportunities. Our high school also has a band and drum line. A few years ago, an art/cultural center called Sol Treasures was formed by a group of local artists. They have a gallery and promote cultural venues. They have linked to our schools and offer art classes which we use as a day trip. They also offer art classes for kids, but charge a fee…which means most of our poorer kids cannot participate. Recently, a folklorico dance company has formed, providing another avenue for our kids. King City goes through periods of gang violence and then periods of calm. We have recently seen lots of violence…including a shooting outside our town plaza – right in front of our only movie theatre. In the many years I’ve worked here, I know that two of my former students are dead (that I know of). One very promising and bright child is fighting injuries from bullets to his head and back. Whatever the count, it’s too many. n/aNo new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – ELA, Multimedia, Elements of Color, Painting, IllustratingGrade 1LynchRegionCecilia LynnlynnPicMy Life as a SneakerI am a fifth grade teacher at Desert Garden School in El Centro. I have been teaching for ten years. I have also taught first grade, sixth grade, and kindergarten. I just recently earned a master’s in teaching from Grand Canyon University. I have two boys, Giovanni (7) and Aramis (5). My husband is not very creative, so I was worried my kids would be like him, but luckily they are turning out to be very creative! We have a Yorkie named Bowser and two tortoises named, Yoshi and Koopa. We also have a guinea pig named, Vader. I love to read and bake in my “free” time. I enjoy listening to music and hanging out and playing with my boys.I believe teaching the arts is very important. It helps students become more enthusiastic about learning. It gives those students who may be academically challenged to be successful in other areas. I have attended arts professional development and will continue to do so. I enjoy going back to my classroom and being able to share and teach my students the different projects/techniques I learned. It gets them even more excited about creating art.This year I have 33 students in my classroom. There are 16 girls and 17 boys. Half of the students in my class are English learners. Even though most are intermediate to early advanced, I have about five beginners. Most of my students expect to create art projects every day. I try to instill not only the love of art into my students but also to have confidence in themselves. What I enjoy the most about teaching art is that I get to see the lower academic student be a mentor to the higher academic student within some art projects.The class that I have this year is special to me. I taught half of this class when they were in kindergarten and I was pregnant with my second child. The parents and children that year were good to me. They even threw me a baby shower on my last day before maternity leave! It was nice during Back to School Night because instead of introducing myself to the parents and being nervous, I received hugs and appreciation and gratitude for being their child’s teacher once again.This group is fairly well behaved (of course there are always exceptions). They love to play around and talk but also understand that there are times in which we need to study. Most of my students enjoy creating art and take their time to do it well. Some just rush and get it done and it doesn’t turn out as well (which happens to be my pet peeve). I have a few students who seem to have never painted or water colored before in their lives but they are learning bit by bit and are blooming into artists!Desert Garden School is one of nine elementary schools in the district. It is a kindergarten through sixth grade school and houses 450 students. The population of this school is approximately 95% Hispanic and consists of 50% English Language Learners. Approximately 75 % of the student population falls under a low socioeconomic category. Desert Garden School is a neighborhood school with several apartment buildings surrounding the school.Desert Garden School is an underperforming school. It has an API of 794 with 34.7% of English language learners proficient in English language arts and 44% of the general population proficient in English language arts. In the area of mathematics, 57.8% of English language learners are proficient and 58.9% of the general population proficient in mathematics. – Visual ArtSecondary – Mixed Media, DrawingGrade 5 LynnRegionEric MabreyteacherPic ()Ad-Lib SolosI am the Music Department Chair at Olympian High School and I teach instrumental music and AP Music Theory for grades nine through twelve.I have lived in Chula Vista, California my entire life. I grew up as part of a musical family. The youngest of six kids, our family began performing as a local version of the Von Trapp family from the “Sound of Music.” At the age of four I was performing all around the area with my family. I’ve been lucky enough to be a big part of the music world here in San Diego County. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Diego State University in 1987, and my teaching credential in 1988. While in school, I performed as a professional musician on French horn, percussion, piano, and vocals, and continue to perform as a professional.I knew in junior high that I wanted to become a music teacher. From there I decided to find ways of learning everything I could. My junior high and high school directors encouraged me to compose and to direct. They gave me several opportunities to learn about directing and teaching. From that I started to develop the skills to be a successful teacher.I began teaching in 1988 at Chula Vista High School as the band Director. I taught Band for eleven years at CVHS, along with Psychology, Piano, and Health. After those years, I spent seven years teaching at CVHS in Music Theory, AP Music Theory, Piano, Health, Recording Engineering, Digital Video Production, Vocal Production, as well as Web Design and Computer Applications.In 2006 I started developing a new music program at our district’s brand new Olympian High School. I have spent four years as the band director, and have also taught Choir and AP Music Theory.I started teaching in the arts before I was actually hired as a teacher. I was an assistant director for a high school band while attending college. From this experience I was able to know that I wanted to be a teacher for a living.I have continued to participate as a professional musician. I direct and perform with a professional Dickensian caroling company around San Diego County (including SeaWorld) at Christmas time. I play for a community horn society called Hornswoggle, and continue to play piano wherever I’m needed. Currently, I’m playing as the drum sergeant for the House of Scotland Bagpipe Band, which competes throughout the western United States.I’m lucky to be an instructor in the arts (what art teacher doesn’t feel that way?!). Our students show us the joy and excitement of the discovery of their own creative abilities. My students are no exception. Like much of California, I have a mixture of cultures, socioeconomic levels, and motivation when looking at the makeup of my students. Some have strong home support driving them to be as successful as they can be, while others have minimal home support, and will admittedly do just what they need to get by. However, they all respond to doing more for success in our music program. It’s their “safe place” for being creative. The hope is that what we learn in our music class helps them become more creative and motivated in other courses or aspects of life.My school is a newer school that opened in August of 2006. The campus has a gorgeous layout, with a great open area in the center of campus, where all the students are together during lunch. Due to its size (54 acres), we have increased the time to pass from one class to another so students could get to class on time! The arts facilities, although not ideal, are very good, especially when compared to facilities that are found at many aging schools throughout California.When our school was being built, we were in a time when homes were selling like hotcakes! The projection was that the school would soon be surrounded by new homes. Soon after the school opened, the housing market began to plummet. This has continued ever since. As a result the enrollment didn’t increase as expected. Our boundaries were drawn to bring more students into the school and help ease overcrowding at nearby schools. We have several housing areas in our zone that are listed as “low-income housing” mixed in with the newer housing. Recently, a few new homes have begun to be built again, but if you look in all directions around our school, you will still only find homes in one direction, north.Our community demographic is largely Hispanic and Asian, with Filipinos making up the majority of the Asian population. The socioeconomic demographic also covers a variety of levels. new pixPrimary – MusicSecondary – Jazz band, percussion, soloGrades 9-12MabreyRegion Robyn MacNairmacnairFrom Story to BookI've been a teacher in Temecula Valley Unified School District for over fifteen years. During my tenure as a teacher, I've taught as a general education fifth grade teacher, elementary visual and performing arts specialist, and middle school visual art teacher. I've been a fellow of The California Arts Project, RIMS region for 14 years. As part of TCAP I have served in many different teacher leader roles, as an institute team, facilitator or coach, and workshop presenter and coordinator. I am also part of the RIMS California Arts Project Assessment Working Group, Arts Education Network, and have participated in many TCAP Statewide Leaderships.Gardner Middle School in Temecula has a population of about 1200 students. It's comprised of a diverse ethnic population with a small percentage of free and reduced lunch. I teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students as part of an "explore" rotation in a semester-long course (18 weeks). I see some students only one year and it could be in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. I could have students one semester during their middle school experience, or two or three semesters, and possibly not consecutively. I also could have a student in eighth grade for the first and only time. I may never teach some of our students given competition with other classes including a year-long band course, advanced drama, peer buddies, and ASB. Hence, the program is not uniform in its accessibility to all students. I am currently trying to restructure a program that addresses beginning, middle, and advanced levels since my classes are all mixed abilities and experiences, especially in seventh and eighth grades, and is more accessible to the whole population. The classes I used for this project were sixth grade, which are not combination classes. For virtually all of these students, this is the first formal art training they've ever experienced. There are huge gaps to fill with standards K-5 to get them to grade level. One of these classes is the RSP/SDC cluster with about 40% of the students qualifying as either/or. The other class has a few RSP students. new pixPrimary – visual ArtSecondary – Design Principles, Bookmaking, ELA, IllustrationGrades 7 and 8MacNairRegionsRus MillermillerImprovisational ComedyMy name is Rus Miller. I teach theatre arts at Wilmer Amina Carter High School in Rialto, California. It is my eighth year teaching drama at Carter, though it is my twenty-first year in Rialto Unified School District. I have also been a member of The California Arts Project since 1998. Over the years as part of the RIMS California Arts Project I have presented, facilitated, and coached in workshops and institutes. I have participated in The California Arts Project Leadership Events and continue to stay connected as a teacher leader and participant. I teach the following courses: Theatre I, Improvisational Comedy, Film and Literature, and Drama Production. We produce two full length plays a year, a fine arts fair, a senior project one act play, original play scripts, and five improvisational comedy shows per year.The students I teach come from a pool of the student body makeup, which consists of approximately 56% Hispanic, 26% African American, 12% Caucasian, and 5% Asian or other. There are approximately 54% of our students on free lunch and another 10% on reduced lunch. My improvisational comedy students are considered advanced students and have already taken and passed Theatre I as a prerequisite. new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Advanced Theatre, Comedy, Improvisation, Props, ELAGrades 9-12MillerRegionSuzana MontanamontanaCesar Chavez Reader’s TheatreMy name is Suzana Montana, I am a fourth grade teacher at Harvest Elementary School, in Fresno, California. I attended University of California Santa Barbara before returning to Fresno to complete a Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential and Master's Degree in Special Education at California State University Fresno.Throughout my teaching career I have always sought to offer my students instruction that is meaningful, integrated, and accessible. Art education is an essential component to that goal. Visual and performing arts have always been a passion of mine. Since I did not have a formal arts background, about ten years ago I decided to begin my arts education journey by participating in ARTSWORK Workshops with Dr. Terry W. Allen of Bonner Family Foundation. This journey continued by participating in ARTS EVERYDAY training facilitated by Robert Bullwinkel, Fresno County Office of Education, and Kim Morin of California State University Fresno. Through these amazing people I have learned that art is a process as well as a product.Since I firmly believe that we are never too young or old to learn, my personal arts education continues by seeking formal instruction from a respected local watercolor artist, Pat Hunter. I recently had my paintings displayed in a local Art Hop Night. I am so thrilled about all that I am learning and eager to share it with my students. I hope that I have helped my students find a new passion in life as much as they have helped me strengthen mine. The integration of the arts in the classroom inspires and motivates both teacher and student.Harvest Elementary School is located in Fresno County of California's Central Valley. Students attending Harvest Elementary live in either a rural or suburban community, encompassing approximately 8.5 miles. Harvest Elementary School is part of Central Unified School District with its 15 elementary schools, 3 middle schools and 2 comprehensive high schools. Central Unified School District serves approximately 15,000 students.Central Unified School District has grown and expanded in the last 10 years. My students are a microcosm of the district. Harvest Elementary is a K-6 school with 626 students enrolled. Harvest Elementary has 66% of its students on free and reduced lunch. The ethnic background of our school is 41.8% Hispanic, 10.2% Black, 22.4 % White, and 15.7 % Asian.Central Unified School District is located in the Central Valley region of California. It is surrounded by vineyards, orchards, and farms. We are part of the agricultural heart of California, the Central Valley is known for its rich soil and long growing seasons. It grows about half of the fruits, grains, and vegetables produced in the nation. It was here in the Central Valley that the United Farm Workers (UFW) union was born. Cesar Chavez, the leader of the UFW union, led the way to improve the wages and working conditions for all California farm workers.As a member of a former farm worker family I became inspired by Cesar Chavez. His tireless efforts to help improve the working conditions of farm workers provided the impetus in me to pursue a higher education. Cesar Chavez believed in social justice for all people. He was a great American hero. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtsSecondary – Social Studies, ELAGrade 4 MontanaRegionDuncan NeedhamteacherPic ()Historical Event MonologueIt was a spring afternoon, I think. I was about nine or ten years old and it was the mid-1980s. As I was tapping away on the middle C of our family’s mini-grand in the family room, I noticed a small, bronze plate leaning against a figure doll on a knick-knack shelf. It said, “Best Actress 1963, Pasadena Playhouse, CA.” It was my mother’s prize (with the trophy base missing) for her portrayal of the title role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? She was busy as an actress, my father as the scenic designer. When they both shared their experiences that night at dinner, the idea of being in performing arts caught my fancy.I have been participating in some kind of dramatic form since I was in the fifth grade. It was in high school when I was attracted to directing and was soon addicted to community theatre.During college, I risked not taking any kind of promising employment and worked as many as three stage productions at once. I directed, I acted, and I designed, whatever allowed my presence in a theatre and the comfortable setting of “make believe.” Most of my initial work was when I was part of a popular children’s theatre company in my hometown. I had a lot of creative freedom and was able to identify my art strengths, most of them in directing.I transferred to California State University, Fresno in 1997, and graduated in 2000 with a B.A. in Theatre Arts. After a semester in London, England studying mostly humanities courses and a memorable experience in Taiwan one summer learning how to tour a theatre production, I realized my passion was in teaching. I really wanted to share my knowledge of the arts with others. In addition, my goal has always been to keep the arts in schools, forever.I began teaching drama immediately after graduating from college. I was privileged to start working at a charter high school, where my liberal philosophies were somewhat appreciated; especially in integration of core subjects with theatre.In 2005, I found an opportunity to begin a new theatre curriculum at my current teaching position. I was able to invent new lessons using the California State Standards in Theatre. I teach a full load of theatre classes, ranging from beginning drama to advanced styles to a technical theatre course in the afternoons, which I co-teach with our technical director. One of the perks of my facility is that I have a new, state-of-the-art “Black Box” theatre, which seats 100 in stadium seating on three sides of a thrust stage. I plan to continue at my high school for years to come and continue the idea of integrating the arts with core subjects. I am the author of a new twelfth grade English elective, which will integrate film and literature into one invigorating school year.I try to participate regularly in theatre, by attending local and professional productions when I can (I am raising two children right now). One of my philosophies of teaching includes the importance of educational travel as learning; every two to three years I lead an educational tour with students to England to experience the history, humanities, and arts of that area.All of my students in this project are between tenth and twelfth grade. All of them have taken at least a year of acting and/or technical theatre. They have also all been involved in a main stage production. The course is called Drama III, but they like to be known as the advanced kids. All are very competitive individuals, each with their own special talents. I have the traditional actors, musicians, comedians, and the handful of dedicated “techies.”What stands out the most, however, is that the class represents a good number of Advanced Placement learners. They all have a wide range of kinesthetic and visual advantages to their learning. All of them have English as their first language. I do have a few students with 504 accommodations.I teach at Madera High School in Madera, California. It has a population of 2100 students. Most families in this region of the state are in the lower-to-middle class demographic. The school has a wide range of cultures and history. Our school is unique in that it functions like a university. It has four “career schools” that concentrate in separate fields of study: Humanities, Business, Engineering, and Heath Science. Each student picks a concentration and follows a career pathway during their high school tenure. The school has high spirit, with award-winning sports, academic achievements, and a strong API. new pixPrimary – TheatreSecondary – Monologue, History, ELAGrades 9-12NeedhamRegionsAlariza NevareznevarezIdentity MonologueI am a 25 year-old, third year teacher. I went to San Francisco State University as an undergrad and graduate. My Bachelor's Degree is in Theatre Arts, with an emphasis in performance. I studied everything when I went to school in theatre: directing, stage management, theatre tech, but mostly acting. I performed in six school productions, mainstage and studio. It was during my stay at SFSU in the Creative Arts Department I decided I loved theatre so much, I wanted to teach it to youth! I have continued to pursue my own acting career on top of my academic one. In the last year, I've been seen performing around the Bay Area in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Mountain View, Walnut Creek, Hayward, and Pleasanton.My job at University Preparatory Academy (UPA) is the first teaching position I had right out of credential school. In the (almost) three years I've been at UPA, I have grown a lot as far as teaching style as well as content mastery. I feel comfortable teaching the age group I've been given: both middle school and high school. Each group of students provide challenges for me, but every year rewards me in a new way the previous year didn't. I value the time I have with my students and I look forward to not only teaching them what I know, but learning something new from them as well.UPA is home to a huge diversity of students. Though our school has a small population (approximately 430 students), with an age span of six years, the students all have a lot to offer in each drama class I have. No two of my classes are alike. Each grouping of students has a different dynamic. We have students of different economic status, different learning needs, students with 504 plans, and students who work well under pressure.This year, I have a middle school drama class with 7th and 8th graders sharing the space. I also have a high school combined beginning and advanced drama class with students of all levels of experience, skill, and comfort for performing in front of peers. This class has 9th-12th graders and is the class I've picked for this assessment.I understand every student learns differently, so I make sure each of my lessons cater to multiple intelligences and remains differentiated. I always have my lesson written on the board, I go over the lesson out loud, and a lot of my curriculum consists of group work. Before instruction even begins, I always use the first week of school getting to know my students. We play ice-breaker games, and my class even came up with exclusive handshakes! I use this week to learn their names, interests, and which area in drama they are most interested in. I always have the students' interests in mind when teaching the content. Once I've initially given them the overall lecture or instruction, I usually give them a range of choices to choose from. The projects are very group oriented, as is Theatre. I know students remain interested because of the results I get. The impact this class is leaving on the kids is the hard work that goes into theatre, and I feel their respect for theatre, actors, directors, and me has grown. new pixPrimary – Theatre, DramaSecondary – Monologue, Identity, ELAGrades 9-12NevarezRegionsLisa Nowakowski aboutMepicArtful PoemsI grew up in the metro Detroit area and attended Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, where I received my bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. I began my teaching career in Pontiac, Michigan. Later, I moved to the California Central Coast where I currently live and work.I now teach second and third graders – as a classroom teacher – at King City Arts Charter School. It is a place where the arts are actively explored and celebrated. I am responsible for all standards for both grades. Finding time to integrate the arts is not easy when there are pacing guides to follow and district assessments to give all while teaching in a Program Improvement District with two grades!I have been involved with the performing, visual, and movement arts since a young age. As with any art form, I have carried them into my adult life and continue to explore new ones. My current favorites are writing, performing (behind the scenes these days), dance, photography, and anything tech.Harvest Elementary School is located in Fresno County of California's Central Valley. Students attending Harvest Elementary live in either a rural or suburban community, encompassing approximately 8.5 miles. Harvest Elementary School is part of Central Unified School District with its 15 elementary schools, 3 middle schools and 2 comprehensive high schools. Central Unified School District serves approximately 15,000 students.Central Unified School District has grown and expanded in the last 10 years. My students are a microcosm of the district. Harvest Elementary is a K-6 school with 626 students enrolled. Harvest Elementary has 66% of its students on free and reduced lunch. The ethnic background of our school is 41.8% Hispanic, 10.2% Black, 22.4 % White, and 15.7 % Asian.Central Unified School District is located in the Central Valley region of California. It is surrounded by vineyards, orchards, and farms. We are part of the agricultural heart of California, the Central Valley is known for its rich soil and long growing seasons. It grows about half of the fruits, grains, and vegetables produced in the nation. It was here in the Central Valley that the United Farm Workers (UFW) union was born. Cesar Chavez, the leader of the UFW union, led the way to improve the wages and working conditions for all California farm workers.As a member of a former farm worker family I became inspired by Cesar Chavez. His tireless efforts to help improve the working conditions of farm workers provided the impetus in me to pursue a higher education. Cesar Chavez believed in social justice for all people. He was a great American hero. new pixPrimary – Visual ArtSecondary – Poetry, ELAGrade 3NowakowskiRegion ................
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