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It's not every day that teachers use hip-hop lyrics to teach poetry featuring hyberboles, similes and metaphors. It's not every day that teachers walk, gallop and skip around in a circle to combine basic locomotion skills and axial movement. It's also a bit odd to see a group of teachers learn how to make torn-paper collages to depict color, contrast, depth and shadow.
These are all activities normally conducted by their students. But on March 11, as part of The Arts in Your Classroom III professional development conference, teachers from throughout the Bay Area practiced lessons they'll be implementing in their curriculum.
"They're so animated and into it," said Katie Haggerty, Montalvo's director of education, as she watched teachers practice humorous improvisational skills and games designed to help enhance the creativity of their students.
With state and federal funding for arts education continuing to diminish because of budget cuts, three Silicon Valley organizations joined forces to offer K8 educators the opportunity to exchange ideas and enrich skills they can use to incorporate arts in the classroom.
"I wanted to be exposed to other teachers' experiences," said Sarah Olivo, who teaches K5 visual arts at Marshall Lane Elementary School in Saratoga. "This is my first time here, and I'm going to come back next year."
The Santa Clara County Office of Education, Montalvo Arts Center and Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley provided the free conference, which included introductory and advanced workshops in arts instructional methods, demonstrated by master teachers of the arts. The conference was also supported by a corporate grant from Applied Materials.
"They give you a handy binder with lessons you can actually do, and it's all across the curriculum--language, math, science," said Veronica Neumann, a third-grade teacher at Blossom Hill Elementary School in Los Gatos.
The binder is a visual and performing arts resource guide developed by the Santa Clara County Office of Education. It includes lesson plans that meet state standards for age-appropriate arts lessons and curriculum tied to core subjects. Dana Powell, with Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, said she wanted to help schools improve their art programs.
"We're providing teachers with the tools they need to bring arts into the classroom," said Katy Rees, Montalvo's spokeswoman.
Barbara Bersano, a Blossom Hill Elementary School third-grade teacher, said that through collaboration with other educators at the conference, she gained fresh ideas about how to reach those students in her class who won't stay in their seats. Bersano and Neumann participated in workshops that taught them how to incorporate movement of sports into dancing, and reading music notes with math and fractions.
Powell said art and music were eliminated from California's teaching credential requirements in 1970, so teachers today need the technical assistance to implement the arts into their curriculum. The conference also ties into March as "Arts Education Month."
"People really do value the arts," Powell said. "Our county is moving in a positive direction, even though statewide we're moving in the opposite direction. School districts today are trying to implement the standards."
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