I am still amazed by the power a work of art has to impact me, whether it is something I am experiencing for the first time or a piece I interact with frequently. I was fortunate to be able to experience a performance by the San Diego Symphony at the Rady Shell and to see Hamilton again in Los Angeles. Both of these performances moved me deeply. I am sure each of you have works of art you turn to for comfort and inspiration. The California Arts Standards refer to this power of the arts as a means to well-being: “Artistically literate citizens find joy, inspiration, peace, intellectual stimulation, meaning, and other life-enhancing qualities through participation in all of the arts.”
I know things are challenging in ways we didn’t really anticipate back in May, and that is weighing on us. I have no idea how long these challenges will continue but I do want to remind you how important you are as an educator and as a human being.
Please remember I am here as a resource for you. You can reach out with your questions via email or phone and if I don’t have the answers I will do my best to connect you with someone who does.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share your best tips for sharing art you and your students create! Ideas that were shared include displays in the school office, the school library, and outdoor installations. Many people take advantage of youth exhibits and opportunities to share art offered by school districts and arts organizations throughout San Diego County. Utilizing social media, weekly emails to parents, and school websites were also popular responses. When sharing works of art from any arts discipline on social media, please tag the San Diego County Office of Education @SanDiegoCOE on Twitter, IG, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
If you’re on Twitter, connect with me @PCrooks_VAPA and others passionate about arts education on our weekly #CaArtsEdChat chats every Wednesday from 4 to 4:30 p.m. Whether you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before or are an expert, use this link to see the questions and learn how to join the conversation.
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VAPA Coordinator, SDCOE
858-295-8881
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Introduction to Arts Integration
Build an awareness of how arts integration using theatre strategies can activate your curriculum in any content area. This online, asynchronous course developed by La Jolla Playhouse will guide educators through a deep understanding of the value of standards-based arts integration, how to develop an ensemble mindset in the classroom, assessment through the arts, and ways to connect community arts organizations to schools. The course includes example lesson plans, teacher testimony, and resources to guide arts integration into standards based curriculum.
This course was designed in collaboration through the Kennedy Center Partners in Education partnership between the La Jolla Playhouse, the Chula Vista Elementary School District, and the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) with funding provided by the CCSESA Arts Initiative. Please use this link to sign up for this free course today.
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Leading with Excellence Through Equity in Action Series
Our free quarterly meetings address critical social justice and anti-bias education topics. Dig deeper into topics that matter to you and your students. These engaging sessions will help you learn more about school climate, instruction, classroom culture, and family and community engagement — all through the lens of equity. Register to attend the sessions from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 28, Nov. 16, Feb. 8, and April 5.
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California Arts Standards Introduction
The California Arts Standards Introduction professional learning is designed for arts educators, multiple subject teachers, school and district administrators, and teaching artists to deepen their understanding of the 2019 California Arts Standards for Public Schools and explore strategies for implementation. This professional learning is offered by the Fresno, Humboldt, Los Angeles, San Diego, Stanislaus, and Tulare county offices of education as part of the collective work of California County Superintendents Educational Services Association Statewide Arts Initiative - Creativity at the Core Module 22. This two-hour virtual professional learning will be offered two times this fall; select one professional learning session to attend.
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Directing Change Film Contest
The beginning of the school year comes with the usual challenges and stressors for our students and there will need to be an even more vigilant effort paid to youth mental wellness. Directing Change has resources for schools including a Back to School: Mental Health Thrival Kit to engage students, staff, and the larger school community and a monthly newsletter. To request or purchase kits please contact eddie@directingchange.org.
There's also tools to help youth create and submit a short film to the annual film contest. Through creation of short films and art youth learn about mental health and suicide prevention and create art that can inspire change in other youth. (And they can win up to $1000 in cash prizes!)
Students can also learn about crisis resources available to young people, and promote them through art, music, film, or any other creative ways they can think of through this month’s Hope and Justice Prompt, “You’re Not Alone.” Submissions are due Sept. 30.
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Equity Conference 2022 Youth Poetry Search
Calling all youth poets! Students are encouraged to share their original words at the 2022 Equity Conference: Equity is Love in Action on Jan. 20 and 21. Students can submit an audio or video recording of their original poem or spoken word to be played for attendees at the annual event on Jan. 20-21, 2022.
Submissions should be connected to at least one of the conference learning themes:
- Student voice and agency
- Culture and language diversity
- Family and community engagement
- Mental health and wellness
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion
The Equity Conference brings together hundreds of educators, parents, students, and community stakeholders to advance educational equity for all students. Find details, keynote speakers, and how to register to attend at the event website.
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Arts Education Curriculum Units
Whether you are looking for new units to use with your students, plans to share with a substitute, or curriculum for students in quarantine due to COVID-19, you will want to check out the SDCOE distance learning units of study in grades K-12. Focused on grade-level essential learnings in each content area, these units were purposefully designed to integrate content (including the arts), and provide flexibility and choice. These open-source units are being developed in Google to ensure maximum flexibility for teachers to use them with their district’s preferred instructional platform.
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Students Find Emotional Outlet, Gain Real-World Skills Through Arts Partnership
When school facilities closed in March 2020, arts partner Outside the Lens was able to immediately assist students in SDCOE’s Juvenile Court and Community Schools (JCCS) programs to continue their arts education virtually.
“The arts really spoke to the social and emotional needs of the students during this time,” said Amanda Wallace, JCCS visual and performing arts technician. So much so that Wallace said she heard from teachers that students’ interest in art remained high during virtual learning, even when interest in core subjects waned.
With its mission to empower youth to use digital media to create change within themselves, their community, and their world, Outside the Lens helps students across San Diego County learn real-world skills such as photography, digital media, and filmmaking. At JCCS, they collaborated with school staff to create projects that align and support subjects students are studying in class.
The organization started its partnership with JCCS more than five years ago at San Pasqual Academy (SPA). Currently they work with students in the North Region, as well as SPA and SOUL Academy. This year, they also worked with students in the Migrant Education program and at Victoria Community School as part of a grant through SDCOE’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education program.
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After completing a course on anti-smoking and tobacco prevention for teens, Victoria students wanted to create advertisements for an anti-smoking campaign aimed at teens and teen moms. SDCOE connected the students with Outside the Lens to help them develop the design, and with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, which helped place the ads on bus stops across the county. Students collaborated on the messaging and images, voted on the final design, and selected student Kimberly Reyes to appear in the ads.
The students said they enjoyed working in groups, being creative, listening to different points of view, and exploring and using cameras.
“We feel proud and empowered by the display of our work and every time Kimberly gets on or off the bus, people stare at her thinking she is famous or an activist,” the students said.
Outside the Lens also was one of several arts partners that supported students in creating and showcasing their artwork via videoconferencing as part of JCCS’s spring Design Jam. Students at Escondido Community School combined their studies on the human brain with graphic art to create public service announcements with important facts about the human brain and how it works. Students also participated in several self-reflection writing projects that included writing letters to the future or their future self, short narratives, or a pledge poem.
Having students feel connected and seen during a time of such isolation was really important and Outside the Lens was integral in supporting that, Wallace said.
Working with Outside the Lens and other arts partners is strengthening JCCS’s work to further integrate the arts into its curriculum and expand offerings to more students, something parents expressed interest in seeing during Local Control and Accountability Plan community forums.
“For JCCS students, the arts have turned into so much more than just the doing of the art, but it’s the mentorship piece, it’s the support, it’s the expression of social and emotional being — it’s all of that,” Wallace shared.
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Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month — Somos Amigos: Songs on Common Ground Virtual Field Trip
In Poway OnStage’s Virtual Field Trip, friendship is at the heart of this joyful collaboration between Mexican songstress, Sonia De Los Santos, and the Americana folk duo, The Okee Dokee Brothers. This bilingual program includes songs that span the musical traditions of North America and illustrate the collective power of singing together with a common vision of peace and understanding. Pre-show learning modules and extension activities included. Learn more about this virtual field trip and sign up.
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Teen Producers Project
Since 2001, Media Arts Center San Diego’s Teen Producers Project has been inspiring youth to be more than consumers of media as they become creators of media. Through our programs, students learn about filmmaking while producing documentaries and/or narrative films. The project’s mission is to educate youth in media arts and emerging technologies for use in self-expression, communication, media literacy, and social change.
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Classics 4 Kids Virtual Musician Meet and Greet
Available to all elementary students within San Diego County, this free, 25-minute, live, virtual Meet and Greet features an interactive musical performance by a Classics 4 Kids musician or with the conductor, an explanation of their instrument, and time for students to ask questions and share comments with the musician. This program can be utilized for students in the classroom or learning from home.
Each Meet and Greet is tailored to the grade level of the students in attendance and includes social and emotional learning components and diverse music selections featuring Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and female composers. Zoom platform is preferred. Spanish program is available by request.
For more information or to register your class, please email Classics 4 Kids Program Manager, Corrine Huber at chuber@classics4kids.org.
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Free Tickets for Educators to La Jolla Playhouse Performance
In appreciation of the extraordinary efforts of the community’s healthcare workers and educators, and in honor of the late Dr. Lawrence Friedman, La Jolla Playhouse trustee, UC San Diego professor and renowned physician, the La Jolla Playhouse is offering 1,000 free tickets to healthcare workers and teachers over the course of the run of the world premiere play The Garden.
The Garden explores the complex relationship between two “alpha” women: Claire Rose, an elderly woman, and her middle-aged daughter, Cassandra. After not speaking to each other for the past three years, Cassandra shows up unexpectedly at her mother’s garden gate, attempting to reconcile old wounds. It is a moving drama that tackles serious adult themes that some viewers may find upsetting.
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Get up-to-the-minute information about what's happening at SDCOE and in our districts across the county.
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