This unique experience pairs classroom teachers with Teaching Artist Mentors for the full school year as they collaborate to design and facilitate fully arts-integrated units that directly connect to three student matinee performances at the historic Auditorium Theatre! Teachers are challenged to engage with their curriculum in new and exciting ways through the power of dance, theatre, and music, and leave the program with concrete skills and activities they can use to continue infusing the performing arts into their teaching practice for years to come! The program, including tickets and transportation to performances, is available at no cost.
Applications for the 2020-2021 Cohort are accepted on a rolling basis through August 1, 2020. Cohort is filled on a first-applied, first-considered basis.
We are looking for educators with a desire to grow in their practice and an open-minded attitude toward the possibilities of arts learning! You don’t need ANY previous experience with an art form to be an ArtsXChange participant – you just need to be willing to learn and explore alongside your students! Connecting all residency work to your classroom objectives, ArtsXChange will equip you with tools you can use to make arts learning a part of your daily teaching practice.
Note: The primary focus of ArtsXChange is to work with non-art classroom teachers!
We partner all of our classroom teachers with the Auditorium Theatre’s professional music, dance, and theatre Teaching Artist Mentors who have worked to successfully bring arts programming to schools around the city and country. These Teaching Artist Mentors bring their knowledge of best practices in arts integration and aesthetic education to the table as they work with you to create dynamic and rich residency experiences for your students.
ArtsXChange is designed for YOU – the educator! Your collaboration with a Teaching Artist Mentor will not only enhance your students’ experience of the three matinee performances they get to attend as a part of your participation in this program, but will allow you to create arts-based learning opportunities that enhance your daily teaching and assessment practices.
We know that classroom teachers complete most of their curriculum maps and unit plans during the summer months. We want to allow for you and your Teaching Artist to plan together, interweaving the arts throughout your curriculum. This is a time that you schedule to fit around your summer plans!
You will have the opportunity to collaborate with other participants in the cohort and learn what ArtsXChange will look like in their classrooms. We will use this time to analyze your classroom data and establish academic goals for your students.
These meetings help ensure that all residency materials are connecting to your current curriculum and truly enhancing your practice. These meetings are when the true work of ArtsXChange happens, as the discussions with your TAM allow you (the educator) to gain understanding and ownership of the arts-based learning in your academic day.
Scheduled throughout the school year, a Teaching Artist Mentor will partner with you and your students for five one-hour class periods during the school day.
These professional performances are 60 minutes long and occur during the school day, providing you and your students the opportunity to connect the arts concepts and vocabulary being explored in class with professional work. The anchor works provide touch points for arts learning throughout the year.
Held throughout the year, these evening meetings address your challenges or concerns during residency periods, and provide you with time to more deeply explore the implementation and assessment of arts learning in your classroom. Specific dates and times are announced at the start of the school year, allowing participants plenty of time to plan ahead for attendance.
At the end of the program year, get together with your cohort to celebrate and share all you have accomplished while working with the program!
ArtsXChange is a professional development experience focused on integrating arts-based learning into the school day. As such, teachers achieve greater success when principals are aware and supportive of the ArtsXChange work happening in the classroom. Please provide your principal this letter of information, asking them to sign it as indicated to return with your application.
