The Orpheum Theatre Group (OTG) is proud to be a Kennedy Center Partners in Education Team, in collaboration with Memphis Shelby County Schools. Through this program, OTG brings Kennedy Center teaching artists to work with teachers across the Mid-South. These arts integration specialists provide educators with the tools and strategies to transform classrooms.
Arts integration, as defined by the Kennedy Center, is “an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form.” Arts integration learning has shown to increase literacy, raise test scores, and help develop key communication skills. In short, arts integration makes learning fun while creating more enthusiastic, creative, and empathetic students.
Registration is now open for professional learning workshops through Kennedy Center Education’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program! These workshops provide educators with arts learning and arts integration strategies that give students an engaging way to experience active, joyful learning—no matter the classroom setting.
Workshops take place virtually. Space in these workshops is limited. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, so register today!
For: Teachers of Grades 5-8
Led by: Taylor St. John, theatre teaching artist from Tennessee
Fee: $20
Develops your students' media literacy skills by translating the news into a living tableau. In this workshop, participants will examine the news as their students consume it -- through TikTok and Instagram--and become active responders to what they see. Using improvisation and devised theater, participants will build a story that critically examines the way we receive and interpret information in today's world.
Dates: This is a synchronous, two-session workshop; participants must attend both sessions.
For: Teachers of Grades 3-5
Led by: Becky Sorto, dance teaching artist from Virginia
Fee: $10
In these ever-changing and challenging times, one thing remains constant--Earth's life cycles. Using the elements of dance, we will dive into various cycles in nature. Participants will explore methods for building community among students, providing social-emotional learning check-ins with students, and exploring Earth's cycles through creative movement and arts integration. Participants will demonstrate how to create a sense of belonging that inspires students to learn from within. We will provide creative outlets for students to perform and reflect on their choreography. Attendees will leave this session with strategies they can immediately implement in their classrooms.
Dates: This is a synchronous, one-session workshop.
For: Teachers of Grades 3-5
Led by: Henry Cardenas, music teaching artist from Illinois
Fee: $20
Learn how to synthesize character traits using digital music composition! In this workshop, participants will use tools from Google Chrome Music Lab, a free web-based digital music composition website, to create musical representations for fictional characters and learn how to talk about their compositions through supportive and engaging "artist talks".
Dates: This is a synchronous, two-session workshop; participants must attend both sessions.
For: Teachers of Grades 3-12
Led by: Trish Halverson, visual arts teaching artist from New York
Fee: $20
The "Mail Art" movement was coined in the 1960s and was centered around sending small-scale artworks through the postal service. This art form evolved into the New York Correspondence School which focused on artistic interactions and social interventions- eventually becoming an ongoing, global movement. In this workshop, we will use techniques that include collage, drawing, painting, stamping, and upcycled materials to create compelling envelopes and packaging for letters of all kinds. Integrating visual arts with history, civics, or English Language Arts content, educators will learn how "mail art" can be a vehicle to strengthen students' writing and communication skills, develop historical thinking skills and make connections to the past, and cultivate their skills for civic engagement. Students might write persuasive letters to school leaders or politicians on topics they find important, participate in written cultural exchanges with classrooms abroad, or develop personal narratives; the possibilities are endless. In a time when Al has begun to blur the lines for personal writing and there is so much going in our world to communicate about, the art of correspondence seems more important than ever.
Dates: This is a synchronous, two-session workshop; participants must attend both sessions.
For: Teachers of Grades K-2
Led by: Lenore Blank Kelner, theatre teaching artist from Maryland
Fee: $20
This workshop focuses on the drama strategy, story dramatization. Dramatizing a scene or story from a book actively engages students with a text. They are able to retell the story in the correct sequence, paraphrase the story in their own words, infer appropriate dialogue for characters, and demonstrate their understanding of the author's intent and theme. When they complete their dramatization, students are eager to interact directly with the text through reading and writing. Once teachers and students begin to work with story dramatization the classroom is forever changed. As one student said,"I have never been in a book before!"
Dates: This is a synchronous, two-session workshop; participants must attend both sessions.