Join us for the
KS/MO Partners in Education
2024 Arts Integration Symposium
July 16 - 17, 2024
at Liberty high school performing arts center
Join us for a two-day symposium to explore the power of the arts in engaging students, strengthening comprehension,
and bringing content areas to life.
MEET THE PRESENTERS:
Lorena Cervantes
Lorena Cervantes has been the Dance Integration teacher at Bailey’s Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences in the Washington DC area for over a decade. She is also a national workshop leader for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and a professional dancer.
Lorena was born and raised in Costa Rica where she began her professional career as a dancer, was a professor of dance at the National University of Costa Rica, and the director of the National Dance Company. She moved to the Washington, D.C. area in the 1980s and received her MFA in dance from George Washington University. For more than fifteen years Lorena was a Master Artist for the Wolf Trap Institute Early Learning through the Arts program where she led residencies and professional development workshops throughout the United States as well as other countries.
Ms. Cervantes was the 2017 recipient of the Hispanic Teacher of the Year award and the 2018 recipient of the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation for Fairfax County Public Schools.
Creative Movement to Build Vocabulary
with Lorena Cervantes
An essential part of curriculum across grade levels involves understanding concepts and vocabulary. This workshop provides strategies that connect the elements of dance with various aspects of the curriculum.
Using creative movement to represent people, places, objects and environments helps students deepen their understanding of new vocabulary and facilitates multi-sensory learning, which explicitly benefits English language learners. Through repetition and movement, students can express their comprehension of key concepts and build more profound and meaningful connections to curriculum centered vocabulary.
Garrette Brown
Garrette Brown is a national teaching artist who specializes in cartooning, illustration, and sequential art (comic books). He earned a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Missouri Kansas City, where he resides with his family. He earned a master’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Missouri St. Louis.
While Garrett has over a decade of highly qualified experience as an Art Specialist, it is his years as a classroom teacher that give him an appreciation and perspective for designing projects that both students and teachers find engaging and worthwhile.
BOOM! BANG! POW! Exploring Cause and Effect Through Comics
with Garrette Brown
Kids and adults worldwide love comics! Join Garrett Brown as he invites you to bring this vibrant and energetic art form into your classroom. In this session, explore ways students can create comics that demonstrate the cause and effect relationships found in life science, language arts, and social studies. Participants will deepen their knowledge of the comics medium and have a chance to create a miniature comic book based on grade-level academic content!
Maria Schaedler-Luera
Maria Schaedler-Luera is a Brazilian-born educator and artist who studied with acclaimed director Augusto Boal and has taught classes and workshops that focus on Theatre of the Oppressed techniques for the American Repertory Theater, Harvard Extension School, Lesley University, and several other organizations. She worked at the Harvard Art Museums, developing and teaching gallery classes to immigrants in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
She is a National Arts Integration Consultant, one of the recipients of the 2019 Arts Leadership Award from The Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, and the winner of the 2022 Appleton Arts Integration Award from the Van Wezel Foundation. Maria has served as the Manager for Arts Integration for Any Given Child Sarasota at Sarasota County Schools. Maria is a seasoned improviser with extensive training and experience teaching students of all ages. She is currently a member of Florida Studio Theater Improv. She studied at The American Musical Dramatic Academy in NYC and has a Masters in Intercultural Relations and Arts for Social Change from Lesley University.
Thinking on Your Feet: Building a Creative Classroom Community Through Improv!
With Maria Schaedler-Luera
Improv games are a quick, engaging way to start the day, use between tasks, before tests, or even to change the energy after lunch or near the end of the day. This session focuses on quick, ready-to-use game-like learning structures that are highly adaptable and can be used to teach content, build classroom community, and develop cooperative learning skills. Join Focus 5 national teaching artist and “improv queen” Maria Tereza Schaedler-Luera as she gets your creative juices flowing in this playful session specifically designed for teachers.
Harlan Brownlee
Harlan Brownlee understands the transformational power that the arts have to improve the quality of life for individuals and the community. He possesses a passion for the arts, guided by a disciplined approach to change. Harlan has worked in the field of arts integration for 38 years. Beginning with Kansas City Young Audiences, Inc in 1984, he leads residencies for students K-12, presents workshops for teachers, and has led training seminars for teaching artists nationwide. Since 2002, Harlan has been a National Teaching Artist with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
He holds a BFA degree in dance with an emphasis in performance and choreography and a MA in Educational Research and Psychology. In 2019, Mr. Brownlee joined the Focus 5 team and that same year was awarded a Young Audiences National Residency Teaching Artist Credential.
Dance and creative movement are highly engaging and support modeling in the sciences. Harlan has been a presenter for Project Lead the Way’s (PLTW) National Conferences and specializes in the integration of STEM curriculum with creative movement and dance. Harlan has been an adjunct professor for Rockhurst University’s School of Education and the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Education and is a past Associate Editor for the Teaching Artist Journal.
For 13 years, Harlan choreographed and danced for City in Motion Dance Theater, a professional dance company that toured the Midwest and was featured at the World Expo in 1992 in Seville, Spain.
Empowering Minds, Moving Bodies: A Brain-Based Movement Workshop for Teachers
with Harlan Brownlee
Today, researchers are demonstrating that movement plays an essential role in the development of the brain. Physical activity is crucial to a child’s physical well-being and learning. Movement increases the number of blood vessels in the brain and strengthens neural connections, enhancing cognitive development. Join Focus 5 and Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, Harlan Brownlee, as he draws on his 40 years of teaching experience and guides participants in a series of brain-based movement exercises designed to help children improve concentration, retention, and academic performance. Dress comfortably to explore this toolbox of body and brain centering exercises to get your students focused and productively moving through the school day!
Alex Espy
Alex Espy serves as Education Director for What if Puppets, focusing on Arts Integrated Residencies that mentor educators while fostering the social/emotional development of young people. Prior to What if Puppets, Alex immersed himself in the world of early childhood development when he served as Artist in Residence at EarlystART Childhood Development Center. In addition to this work, Alex has spent the past 20+ years working in the field of Theater for Young Audiences. This has included creating original theater experiences for the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, narrating multiple concerts with the Kansas City, and performing and touring with The Coterie Theater.
From Fine Motor to Gross Motor: Using Sculptures to Support Social/Emotional Learning
with Alex Espy
Participants will create their own simple paper sculptures, and will work together to explore them with our bodies in a range of open-ended ways. Designed primarily for elementary educators, this workshop intends to break teachers free from product-based art projects, and into more process and student-driven experiences.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
Symposium Fee: $150
Registration Opens: April 1, 2024
Registration Closes: July 9, 2024 (or when spaces fill)
Call Carmen Eppright at 816.531.4022 ext.1011 with any questions.
Payment or P.O. due at time of registration.
Enjoy this recap from the 2022 Symposium!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kara Armstrong, Midwest Trust Center Arts Education Program Director
Johnson County Community College karmstro@jccc.edu
Megan Ellis, Coordinator of Visual Arts Curriculum and Instruction
Shawnee Mission School District, MeganEllis@smsd.org
Aaron Money, Director of Fine Arts
Liberty Public Schools, aaron.money@lps53.org
Carmen Eppright, Director of Arts Education
Kansas City Young Audiences, ceppright@kcya.org
Bill Thomas, Performing Arts Coordinator
Shawnee Mission School District, billthomas@smsd.org
SPONSORED BY:
Kansas Alliance for the Arts in Education
Hall Family Foundation
Liberty School District
Missouri Alliance for Arts Education
