Confluence
Aligning with Initiatives
CONNECTING CURRENTS that EXPAND the RIVER
“And then it becomes this sort of braided stream where so many people are involved and really dedicated to the process and the thinking and the importance of it, even with the rapids and the challenges and the struggles…. But the real core of that braided stream is still there, and people aren’t willing to give it up. They’re gonna hold strong.”
As more teachers committed to practicing artful teaching, they began to make connections with other educational endeavors in the community. Artful Teaching wasn’t seen as “one more thing” on a teacher’s plate, but instead as the plate itself: a vessel for shared educational goals and strengthened community efforts to make needed change.
ALIGNING with INITIATIVES
“Attending Artful Teaching workshops made me realize the tie in between the work we were doing with CLEAR (Collaborative Learning for Educational Achievement and Resilience) and being trauma informed as a group of educators within the school, as a staff, and how those workshops and CLEAR worked together. Arts integration and trauma informed practices really marry very well together: being arts integrated is also being trauma informed.”
“It spoke to me: I can use this strategy to help support this work I’m already doing around PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports). That brought me in…this connects to the work I’m already doing, and it is worth my time and energy.”
Anyone who has been on their own educational journey knows well the changing tides of popular pedagogy and whirlpools of adopted programs and packaged curricula. While it’s truly imperative that we evolve and adapt our educational approaches to meet the needs of the moment and reflect the latest research, we noticed palpable excitement (and relief) as teachers and administrators began to connect that Artful Teaching strengthened and amplified – rather than diluted or attempted to replace – all of the good work that was already happening in our district and classrooms.