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VAPA Arts in Action header art
May 13, 2020
Why did you become a teacher? Was it the thrill of performing or sharing a piece of art you created with others? Was it winning awards and receiving well-deserved recognition? I know I enjoyed both of these and wanted my students to experience the pride and excitement that come with sharing art, but is this really why we became teachers?

Let’s try this again.
Why did you become a teacher? Was it the beauty and joy you experienced in the process of learning your craft itself? Was it the perseverance and determination you developed to master new skills? Was it the relationships you built with your peers in the classroom?

What about the excitement you first felt when you realized you could teach someone else a skill you had mastered? Do you remember seeing the light in their eyes when they understood?

The past eight weeks have been tough, and it can be easy to lose sight of the reasons we decided to become teachers. I completely understand the sorrow in canceling events and performances our students had been working toward. This is especially poignant for our seniors as well as as those students who will be moving to middle or high school next school year. It’s healthy to mourn these losses. While we do this, it is important to remember that our students need us to continue to teach them dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts.

We don’t know what our future holds, but we do know our students, families, and communities need the arts more than ever before. It is important for us to keep all of this in mind as we are asked to teach students the arts in ways we never imagined we would. Let’s continue to be role models for our students as we creatively adapt to our new reality. Who knows, you may find new reasons to love teaching students the arts.

Please email me or use Twitter to connect with me and others passionate about arts education during our chats each Wednesday from 4 to 4:30 p.m. Whether you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before or are an expert, please visit this link to see the questions and learn how to join the conversation. Search #CaArtsEdChat to see previous conversations on the new state arts standards, best practices, and the great things happening in your classes. I’ll see you then!

VAPA Coordinator, SDCOE
858-292-3547
VAPA arts in action news and resources section header
Arts Distance Learning Resources for Teachers and Administrators
SDCOE has put together a list of resources by content area to help support you with distance learning.

Arts Activities and Lessons for Parents and Families
We’ve put together a list of resources for dance, music, theatre, and visual arts with lessons and activities that can be done at home with minimal materials.  

Are you looking for resources to continue arts learning at home? Bookmark the page and check back regularly as resources are being updated weekly. If you have any suggestions for this page, please share them with me! pauline.crooks@sdcoe.net

Learning at Home Bingo: Think Like a Musicologist
The San Diego Union-Tribune and the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) launched Learning at Home Bingo, a partnership to support learning while schools are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning at Home Bingo is available each week in the Sunday newspaper and online, since not everyone has access to a device and the internet. The lessons integrate different content areas (math, science, English language arts, etc.) across all grade levels (K-12) so that the activities are accessible for all students and support teachers’ efforts.

On April 26, the activities for K-12 grade students were geared toward helping them think like a musicologist.
World Music Virtual Assembly: Brazilian Music and Rhythm
The Center for World Music is excited to offer our first world music virtual assembly to you and your students, completely free of charge! This assembly features teaching artist Stefanie Schmitz, introducing Portuguese vocabulary, Samba music, and exciting rhythms from Brazil. After students learn all of the parts of a song, we put it all together with a surprise collaborative performance from Stefanie's Brazilian ensemble, recorded live from their own living rooms.

We also provide a complementary written study guide to help classroom teachers prepare their students for the assembly, and include prompts for followup discussion and activities.
Feel free to distribute this link to classroom teachers, so they can share it with their students to enjoy and experience at home.

Celebrating Seniors with Music
The San Diego Symphony is planning a celebration of high school seniors through music. The symphony's Principal Trumpet Chris Smith has recorded the traditional graduation processional, "Pomp and Circumstance" and now it's students' turn to respond. High school seniors are asked to respond with original artwork, such as a drawing, poem, or dance, that shows a reaction to the music or expresses their feelings. The submitted artwork will be compiled into a montage. Project details will be released this week. Check the San Diego Symphony website or follow the symphony on Twitter. 
If you have any questions or comments about Arts in Action , plea se contact Pauline Crooks .
Get up-to-the-minute information about what's happening at SDCOE and in our districts across the county.