For Schools
Teacher Professional Development
For more information on the Teacher Exploration of the Arts — T.E.A. grant click on this link.
For information on the Professional Development Grant click on this link.
The Montana Alliance for Arts Education will offer the following workshops at the 2007 MEA-MFT Educators' Conference in Belgrade, Thursday and Friday, October 18-19 at Belgrade High School.
CHERYL BANNES
Beans are Animal Bodies; simple shapes for drawing, Thursday, October 18th, 3:00-4:50 pm.
This workshop is based on the book "Drawing with Children" by Mona Brooks. By using basic shapes to create animals, students and teachers can successfully draw animals from pictures out of their favorite stories. Participant will learn basic shapes for drawing, how to simplify the subject into shapes and how to help their students learn to draw animals.
Real Art-Cheap! 3 Dimensional Art on a Budget, Friday, October 19th, 8:00-9:50 am.
Creating real art and learning real art process doesn't have to mean huge budget requests. We will create several sculptural projects using everyday materials. Learn to look at the non-traditional sources of art materials such as hardware stores, grocery stores, the great outdoors and second hand stores. Participants will gain an understanding of creating real art, not crafts, by using any materials available to them. Participants of this workshop will learn where to find art materials from non-traditional sources. They will create at least 2 projects during the workshop.
Leonardo Was More Than a Ninja Turtle, Thursday, October 18th, 10:00-11:50 am.
With the revival of the characters "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" this is the perfect time to tie art history into pop culture. Art History really can be fun and interesting. This class will look at ways to bring art history into the classroom and into other subject areas. The participants of this workshop will gain an understanding of the time line of art styles and artistic developments and ideas how to present art history information to young students.
CHERYL BANNES, B.A., M.A. in Studio Art, K-12 teaching degree, 2002-2007 Artist in Residence with Montana Arts Council's Artists in Schools and Communities Program currently working for VSA Arts of Montana, Adjunct Professor MSU Northern and U of M Western, 1999-2006 Education Director Lewistown Art Center, 1999-2002 Fergus High School art teacher.
BIRDIE REAL BIRD
Crow Dollmaking and Storytelling, Thursday, October 18th, 1:00-2:50 pm and Friday, October 19th, 10:00-11:50 am.
Participants will learn elements of Crow language, arts and culture to enhance their Indian Education for All curriculums. Teachers can transfer this information to their art, social studies and language arts units. Participants will learn to make Tipis, Crow dolls and paper cradle boards while hearing traditional language stories, and lullabies to go along with them.
BIRDIE REAL BIRD, M.S. is a traditional Crow craftsman, educator, and counselor for in Hardin, Montana. She is a traveling artist for the Montana Arts Council’s Montana Folklife Program and the “Cradle Board Project” which she created to bring Crow language and customs through the arts to the children of Montana.
ERIN ROBERG
Comedy and Improv in the Classroom, Thursday, October 18th, 8:00-9:50 am.
Comedy Improv is high-energy brand of theater using carefully designed games to create scenes and stories on the spot. The audience gives suggestions of a location for the scene, or a subject for the scene, and the actors then follow the rules of the game to create a hilarious improvised scene. The games are simple to learn, but the range of variations is vast. In this workshop, teachers will have an opportunity to learn several of these improve games and then brainstorm on ways to incorporate improve games into their curriculum. Comedy Improv games move quickly, so the actors don’t have time to think, plan or most importantly censor themselves. They have to trust the ideas in their head – which in practice teaches them that the ideas in their heads are worthwhile. And all the while they are having a blast!
ERIN ROBERG, After performing her whole life and earning a B.A. in Theatre in Minnesota, Erin moved to Montana. Since that switch of scenery is no actors' career move, she believes it must have been fate when she found Equinox and Broad Comedy in Bozeman. She couldn't be happier with this lifestyle change, for now she is a working actor who has traveled as one to Boston, Vancouver, and New York!
KAREN KAUFMAN
Dancing the Elementary Curriculum, Thursday, October 18th, 10:00-11:50 am and 1:00-2:50 pm.
This session assists teachers in enlivening the elementary curriculum using creative movement - both to assist students learning and to promote creative expression and higher order thinking skills. Teachers will experience the elements of movement and discover strategies for making interdisciplinary connections in the classroom. Highly suitable for mixed ability classrooms.
KAREN KAUFMAN, Head of the Dance Program at the University of Montana, has taught dance to people of all ages and abilities for more than 25 years. She was awarded a 2001 Montana Artist fellowship for her lifelong work in dance education and was awarded The University Montana Faculty Service Award in 2005. She has choreographed numerous pieces for children in grades K-5 that have gained national recognition and has toured the Northwest as a solo performer and artist in residence. Her most recent choreographic work A CoMotion in Motion links contemporary dance with physics and is geared for children in grades K-8. She is the author of Inclusive Creative Movement and Dance (Human Kinetics, c2006) and numerous articles in dance education. At The University of Montana Karen teaches Dance Pedagogy, Dance in Elementary Education and Dance as a Healing Art, and oversees two teaching labs. She is also a faculty member of The Creative Pulse, the University of Montana’s summer arts education graduate program.
DAVID COWAN
Imagine Yellowstone: Young Artists Discover Place, Friday, October 19th, 8:00-9:50 am.
Place-based education can employ the expressive arts to integrate subjects such as science, history, and politics. By activating heads, hands, and hearts simultaneously, young artists-explorers gain a full sense of place, and build a personal connection through which they discover “their own” place within it. Participants will understand the unique role that expressive arts can play in unifying concepts from disparate subjects. Participants will experience how the attributes and certain artistic materials and processes are best sulted to conveying specific concepts.
DAVID COWAN, B.F.A., B.S.E. has designed and presented place-based art programs for 23 years both as a park service artist, ranger and naturalist at Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone, and as an art educator at Bozeman’s Emerson Cultural Center.
LESLIE FONTANA
New Elementary Art Lesson Plans, Friday, October 19th, 2:00-3:50 pm.
Several lesson plans will be offered. Participants will complete 3-5 lessons, with plans offered for others. Lesson will include integrations into Science, Social Studies, including Indian Education for All, and will be aligned to Montana Standards for Visual Art. The objective of the workshop is to assist elementary classroom teachers with elementary art projects which teach Montana Standards for Art Education, are classroom friendly, and easy to manage. Lesson plans will integrate with content standards.
LESLIE FONTANA, M.I.S. is a certified art teacher with 25 years experience in art and elementary education. Additionally, she has 5 years experience with college level teaching.
