Access
Creative Alliance Partnership
In the summer of 2016, I volunteered with Creative Alliance, an organization that brings communities and artists together. During my time there, I started thinking about the benefits of bringing some of these fabulous artists to my classroom as guest speakers. Creative Alliance teaching artists possess knowledge that I can only present secondhand from supporting resources. I often use a combination of these methods to provide my students with an additional level of expertise about a topic.
Bringing in a person with firsthand training and experience creates a unique moment in the classroom. Learning depends on having prior knowledge to connect with new knowledge. The teaching artists provided a prior knowledge experience that I can return to often when presenting material to students. The enthusiasm that guest visits create in my classroom cannot be replicated with a video or website.
Creative Alliance artists have become an essential part of the educational experience in my classroom. One significant benefit that is derived from having a partnership with Creative Alliance is the enhancement of presentations my students receive. They gain an understanding of the speaker’s career and daily routine. Another benefit is the link that students can make between what they have learned from a guest speaker and their textbooks. This helps students build meaningful connections between what they are learning and the real world.
Creative teaching artists come into my classroom offering something that I can’t provide my students; a different perspective. They can support topics that I know little about and can offer my students a diverse point of view, one that they may better understand. It gives my students and me the opportunity to learn something new.
What is Creative Alliance?
Eighty percent of the guest speakers that present in my classroom come from the Creative Alliance Partnership. Creative Alliance is a multi-purpose arts center that is dedicated to building up the Patterson Park neighborhood by bringing together artists and audiences from diverse backgrounds. They host a number of arts and education programs that aim to connect students and adults in the creative process. Creative Alliance provides support to area artists, promotes Baltimore as a center for original production, and acts as a positive force in our neighborhood.
Action Plan
I have worked tirelessly to forge meaningful partnerships between my school and Creative Alliance. Working with the Creative Alliance Education Director, I was able to apply for a grant that would bring different teaching artist into my classroom and even allow my students to perform on their stage. I convinced my administration that this was a worthwhile educational experience for my students by providing them with an outline of my action plan. The Creative Alliance partnership has strengthened and even transform individuals learning in my classroom. Creative Alliance has helped build up my students' confidence, establish their artistic voices, and helped shape their intellect. Professional teaching artists have transformed my lessons with movement, music, and art that all enhance math and literacy curriculum.
To the left, you can view a copy the Action Plan I created to secure the Creative Alliance grant as well as the grant acceptance letter from Creative Alliance.
Artesanas Mexicanas
Artesanas Mexicanas was the first Creative Alliance teaching artist group to come to my classroom. Artesanas Mexicanas is a group of talented women who are natives of Mexico and are current residents of Southeast Baltimore. They work hard to bring Latin-American traditions to the community by telling stories, sharing their culture, and creating folk art. Artesanas Mexicanas work with my students for two mini-units during the year. They taught my students about how to make traditional lanterns and pinatas. Before the teaching artist arrives, my class spends a week learning about Latin-American traditions. This helps all students make a strong connection with the material.
One-third of the students in my classroom are English Language Learners (ELL) from Latin America. In order to help support the ELLs' cultural traditions and language, I have built strong relationships with members of the community who can support cultural understanding for everyone in my classroom.
West African Drumming
In recognition of Black History Month, my students enjoyed two weeks of West African culture with dance, drums and historical folklore. Ibrahim Turay, a member of the Creative Alliance community, visited the classroom to teach the students. He provided my students with an authentic multicultural experience. His partnership broadened my students' perception of the world by taking them “into” the cultural expression of West African drumming.
Drumming is great for my students to work on coordination, concentration, memory, focus, teamwork, and self-expression. Creative Alliance provided drums for each student to play. This helped students build skills like sharing, responsibility, and teamwork through jamming together. Students learned to play rhythms from West Africa. They also learned about various ethnic groups’ history and the cultural context of their music.
I have a high proportion of African American students in my class. Our educational program aims to help students learn about, and gain an appreciation of, the exciting world of West African drum and dance. They have been able to benefit from learning about the backgrounds and traditions of African communities. All of my students can benefit from learning to appreciate another culture.
The program fits into state education standards for kindergarten social studies, English language arts, and math education.
Performing on Stage
For two days students had access to the Creative Alliance stage to practice and perform some of the art skills we learned from our teaching artists. This was the first time many of my students have ever been in a theater or on a stage. Through an introduction to the performing arts, my students have been able to develop invaluable presentation skills.
The skills developed while on the Creative Alliance stage, not only trained my students how to convincingly deliver a message but also built the confidence they need to take command of the stage.
Students had to rework and practice the skills they learned, which gave them a real-life reason to practice problem-solving. All this practice problem solving helped develop my students' skills in reasoning and understanding. This will help generate critical problem-solving skills necessary for success in any future career.
Most art disciplines are collaborative. Through the arts, children practice working together, sharing responsibility, and compromising with others to accomplish a common goal of performing a thirty-minute show for family and friends. Students worked together to decorate the theater and cheer each other as they performed.
Teacher Reflection
Working with Creative Alliance and their teaching artists gave my students the chance to learn about world cultures. Students had access to West African, Appalachian, and Latin American culture through arts integration. Students learned new ways to examine essential societal components like language, food, housing, clothing, and customs. Creative Alliance helped build my students' artistic voices and shaped their intellect. The culturally rich arts education programs improved my students' ability to problems solve and think critically. The experience gave them opportunities to imagine solutions that could create positive change in their lives and communities.