Observing Seasoned Teaching Artists

I learned most of the teaching practices I know by watching others. But I also learned it's hard enough to schedule your own classes without trying find a time to watch others teach. Dale Davies (of the ATA) has helped solve this by posting the following clips of great teaching artists at work:

What is available on DVD, YouTube? A few I found just looking briefly:
Michael Freeman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygMyuhhfxFQ
Anndee Hochman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATKoPgN-EuU
Andrew Grueschow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN5gc5bR2Js
Tunde Afolayan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76oCBABUi0Q
Artist Teacher Debriefing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSzq88f7tbE
LaToya Wigfall, Alvin Ailey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5r2CEO0Os
Karen Wilson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyGOFLCAdUI

ATA will be posting these on www.teachingartists.com also. By sharing our knowledge and ideas we are working together to build upon those three essential questions: Who Are Teaching Artists? What do Teaching Artists do? Where do Teaching Artists Fit Into The Communities They Serve?

Superflux Collective

Superflux Collective is an "informal assemblage of professional artists and educators providing high-quality, low-cost training and support for teaching and learning in and through the arts...that creates opportunities for artists and educators to serve learners directly in both on-site and online contexts." In addition to hosting professional exchanges and low-cost PD's, they also keep a log of lesson plans here. One example: Multi-Discipline & Applied Arts & Geography, History, Social Studies- Form and Function in Word Art, Advertising and Urban Design.
Worth a look.

Great Depression and the Arts Lesson Plans

Thanks to Michael Wiggins and the ATA blog (http://www.teachingartists.blogspot.com/) for this...

The dizzying amount of artmaking and art-related documentation conducted during the great depression provides great opportunities to explore history through the arts.

The Great Depression and the Arts, part of the New Deal Network, provides a useful set of resources that will help you and your students do just that.
The site maintains a collection of four arts-oriented lesson plans developed by The National Center for History in the Schools and the Organization of American Historians. All of the material is designed to "impress upon students the varying effects of the Great Depression and New Deal on the lives of ordinary Americans." Teacher background materials, including related National Standards for U.S. History are also provided.I am exploring Lesson Plan # 2: Documenting the Migrant Experience.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Billy just revolutionized your life by sending this in. These are instructions to download most YouTube videos. You can finally show them in your class, even if YouTube is blocked at your school!

"Myths to Drama" Sample Curriculum

For those of you teaching HS theatre/drama, here is a great source for implementing myths into your curriculum. You'll find the entire "Myths to Drama" curriculum here, along with accompanying theatre exercises. Helpful if you're looking for ideas for an integration with an English or Social Studies class, or even as a theme for your studio or after-school.
www.srpt.org/education/myths_curriculum

Artistic Skills

We've all completed our curriculum by now and are well-versed in the difference between artistic, academic and citizenship skills.  Since it's the beginning of the residency for most of us, I thought it would be useful to focus on the Artistic Skill Set, which we should all by implementing at this point.   After looking at everyone's curriculum and some of my past ones as well, I've combined all our artistic skills to create a Top 10 list.   Use it a reference point in your starting units/lessons, and by all means modify it or give us your thoughts using the comments section. 

Here are your Top 10 Artistic Skills:

- Students will learn to project their voices

- Students will learn to speak clearly and powerfully

- Students will learn the importance of movement: moving with purpose, filling the stage

- Students will learn the importance of body language: posture, gestures and eye contact

- Students will learn the elements of what makes a scene dramatic

- Students will understand how energy affects performance

- Students will understand how a character is developed

- Students will understand the importance of pace and rhythm in performance

- Students will learn the basics of improvisation/brainstorming: using ideas to create dialogue

- Students will learn to communicate in a clear, concise and effective manner, on and off-stage