Transformation boulders
Schoolwide Shifts
Transforming School Culture
As school principals and teacher leaders experienced the positive impacts of arts integration on staff and students, two elementary schools opted to expand their commitment into a school-wide adoption of arts integration. Structures included coaching and mentoring, site-based inservices and professional learning communities dedicated to arts integration support. Both schools – originally identified as low-performing – have experienced powerful shifts in school culture, student and family engagement and improved academic outcomes.
SÍTʼ EETÍ SHAANÁX̱- GLACIER VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S STORY
“Our school was given a TSI (Targeted Support and Improvement) rating, and it felt really bad. And because of that you have to do this very, very involved improvement plan. But by doing the improvement plan and putting steps in place, the state gave you this money to help you implement your plan, which was great. So that TSI money that we received and the plan I wrote was around building an arts integrated school. My thinking was that if what we were doing presently and what we had done in the past was continuing not to work, then we needed to really shake things up and try something new. I’d like to go on this adventure of trying to see if becoming a school wide arts integrated school would make a difference. I created an arts integration team at the school and I shared with them what I wanted to do and we started brainstorming what that could look like. There were some teachers that bought in right away. There were some teachers that weren’t so sure. What I knew was that like any big change, you have to go slow to go fast.
I’d like to go on this adventure of trying to see if becoming a school wide arts integrated school would make a difference.
I created an arts integration team at the school and I shared with them what I wanted to do and we started brainstorming what that could look like. There were some teachers that bought in right away. There were some teachers that weren’t so sure. What I knew was that like any big change, you have to go slow to go fast.
We were able to take advantage of the Artful Teaching grant because we had several different artists work with our staff at different in-services. When artists were in town for the workshops, I always invited them to come to school and do demos in the school and work with the teachers as much as I possibly could.
We worked to help students feel more at home so they could see themselves in their classrooms. We invited kids to share their culture with their class and have families in; it is a very multicultural school. We helped our students feel like school was a safe place and their learning could happen in different ways, and arts integration was a big part of that.
And we did, by the way, the next year, get out of TSI status.”
KAX̱DIG̱OOWU HÉEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S STORY
“When our school committed to starting the work with tableau as a whole school, it was just really exciting to see. Like, wow, the specialists can start using this in their classrooms, because now all the kids are well versed in it, they know how to do that. That commonality of people using the same language…that’s how you build your team: you find the things that bring you together that you all believe in. We were having art labs within our own building, with our people. And I think that was really exciting to be in the beginning of that or to be in that work.
We realized that in order to do this well, we have to all be in the same boat and we have to be going in the same direction and we have to be paddling at the same time. It’s okay to put pressure on someone and be like, this is what we do here. We’ve committed to this: our school team has committed, and our families have committed to this. You don’t have to, but then maybe this isn’t the right place for you and there’s somewhere else that you fit. And I think that that shift was big, too. We do need to know that everyone that’s working in this building believes the things that we believe as a school, that kids learn this way, that this is good for kids and that all of our kids can do this work – it’s meaningful to them.”
REFLECTION EDDIES
What resonates with you in these stories of the challenges and opportunities of taking a whole-school approach to arts integration?