PD for the Arts

Arts teachers continue to interpret the National and State Arts Standards and the impact they will have on teaching and learning.  With a focus on the four anchor standards: Create; Produce/Perform/Produce; Respond and Connect, Creative Arts offers PD sessions specific to unpacking the standards. For experienced teachers this is a significant step to revising current lessons without ‘starting from’ scratch’. Templates provide teachers a chance to unpack present curriculum as to its alignment with the Arts Standards.

Learning Modules present the national and state standards within the site.  States can be added as needed to accommodate teachers anywhere under the ‘National Standards’ umbrella.  Resources include reshuffled standards lists that isolate each standard from k-advanced in each discipline to encourage teachers to check for scaffolding to align content vertically from grade to grade.

Arts teachers continue to interpret the National and State Arts Standards and the impact they will have on teaching and learning.  With a focus on the four anchor standards: Create; Produce/Perform/Produce; Respond and Connect, Creative Arts offers PD sessions specific to unpacking the standards. For experienced teachers this is a significant step to revising current lessons without ‘starting from’ scratch’. Templates provide teachers a chance to unpack present curriculum as to its alignment with the Arts Standards.

Learning Modules present the national and state standards within the site.  States can be added as needed to accommodate teachers anywhere under the ‘National Standards’ umbrella.  Resources include reshuffled standards lists that isolate each standard from k-advanced in each discipline to encourage teachers to check for scaffolding to align content vertically from grade to grade.

Teachers hear buzzwords and ‘next big things’ all the time, but rarely have a chance to find brief and relevant overviews of popular methods and curriculum design methods.  Within the C.A.C. website, teachers are introduced to UDL, PBL, Blended and Flipped Learning, 21^st Century Learning, SAMR, M.I. and Learning Styles, STEAM concepts, along with SEL terms and implementation.  If teachers are looking for inspiration to jumpstart their curriculum work, this section alone should help.

Alongside Best Practices, C.A.C. offers Learning Modules that highlight the most common indicators of rigor in curriculum design and teaching and learning.  Brief looks at the work of Eisner, Gardner, Piaget, Skinner, Bloom, Webb and other theorists allow teachers to look at bulleted lists of relevant points to consider as they design assessments and classroom activities that promote higher level thinking on a daily basis. Light reading with heavy meaning.

Teachers hear buzzwords and ‘next big things’ all the time, but rarely have a chance to find brief and relevant overviews of popular methods and curriculum design methods.  Within the C.A.C. website, teachers are introduced to UDL, PBL, Blended and Flipped Learning, 21^st Century Learning, SAMR, M.I. and Learning Styles, STEAM concepts, along with SEL terms and implementation.  If teachers are looking for inspiration to jumpstart their curriculum work, this section alone should help.

Alongside Best Practices, C.A.C. offers Learning Modules that highlight the most common indicators of rigor in curriculum design and teaching and learning.  Brief looks at the work of Eisner, Gardner, Piaget, Skinner, Bloom, Webb and other theorists allow teachers to look at bulleted lists of relevant points to consider as they design assessments and classroom activities that promote higher level thinking on a daily basis. Light reading with heavy meaning.

The concept of ‘backward design’ has been central to district curriculum templates since introduced by McTighe and Wiggins over 20 years ago.  C.A.C. bases our course work on the UbD system, but continue to look for ways for arts teachers to customize UbD documents to enhance their course documents.  Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions and other UbD requirements are given full attention throughout the C.A.C. site with supports, strategies, links, and templates to achieve high-quality curriculum units.  With a focus on UbD in the arts, teachers are exposed to a variety of ways to accommodate teaching topics and units over multiple classes (common in art education), and how to organize units into ‘non-sequential’ ways (common in instrumental music or any long-term skill based content area).

The concept of ‘backward design’ has been central to district curriculum templates since introduced by McTighe and Wiggins over 20 years ago.  C.A.C. bases our course work on the UbD system, but continue to look for ways for arts teachers to customize UbD documents to enhance their course documents.  Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions and other UbD requirements are given full attention throughout the C.A.C. site with supports, strategies, links, and templates to achieve high-quality curriculum units.  With a focus on UbD in the arts, teachers are exposed to a variety of ways to accommodate teaching topics and units over multiple classes (common in art education), and how to organize units into ‘non-sequential’ ways (common in instrumental music or any long-term skill based content area).

This is perhaps one of the most impactful sections of the C.A.C. coursework.  Teachers come away with a variety of strategies for designing both summative and formative assessments that provide student timely and useful feedback.  From designing in-depth multi-level projects or creating quick ‘on-the-fly’ checklists or student self-assessments – C.A.C has it covered.

With a major focus on Rubric design, teachers are introduced to criteria, indicators, levels of achievement, delineation, rating scales, weighted grading, and ways to apply them in assessing arts projects and performances in a more objective way. This in-depth area gives teachers many age-appropriate tools to connect learning outcomes directly to appropriate assessment documents. There is also a focus on adapting rubrics and assignments that provide accommodations as needed for special learners.

This is perhaps one of the most impactful sections of the C.A.C. coursework.  Teachers come away with a variety of strategies for designing both summative and formative assessments that provide student timely and useful feedback.  From designing in-depth multi-level projects or creating quick ‘on-the-fly’ checklists or student self-assessments – C.A.C has it covered.

With a major focus on Rubric design, teachers are introduced to criteria, indicators, levels of achievement, delineation, rating scales, weighted grading, and ways to apply them in assessing arts projects and performances in a more objective way. This in-depth area gives teachers many age-appropriate tools to connect learning outcomes directly to appropriate assessment documents. There is also a focus on adapting rubrics and assignments that provide accommodations as needed for special learners.

C.A.C. offers arts teachers practical options to design adapted lessons and assessments for Special Learners as curriculum is being written.  Instructional strategies and feedback are connected themes throughout the site.  As veteran teachers and administrators, C.A.C. has put great emphasis on Respond and Connect from the revised Standards.  By utilizing blended learning, flipped learning, adapted rubrics, and other tools, teachers can plan ahead to design differentiated instruction that addresses special learners as expected, but also provide useful instructional strategies to give arts teachers specific tools and proven methods to help with lesson delivery and classroom management.

C.A.C. offers arts teachers practical options to design adapted lessons and assessments for Special Learners as curriculum is being written.  Instructional strategies and feedback are connected themes throughout the site.  As veteran teachers and administrators, C.A.C. has put great emphasis on Respond and Connect from the revised Standards.  By utilizing blended learning, flipped learning, adapted rubrics, and other tools, teachers can plan ahead to design differentiated instruction that addresses special learners as expected, but also provide useful instructional strategies to give arts teachers specific tools and proven methods to help with lesson delivery and classroom management.

Creative Arts Curriculum prides itself on serving arts teachers exclusively.  Viewers will have access to topics categorized to make navigating to online materials quick and easy.  Tech areas include online class design, Google Suite, and many links to online curriculum platforms available to music and art teachers.  Art and Music resources are extensive with curriculum ideas, lesson and share sites, vendors of supplies and equipment (national and local), and a variety of historical, cultural, and other topics and links to explore for inspiration.

All Learning Modules throughout the site include a full set of online resources, videos, books, and research to go a ‘mile deep’ in any area a teacher (or district) finds of interest.

Creative Arts Curriculum prides itself on serving arts teachers exclusively.  Viewers will have access to topics categorized to make navigating to online materials quick and easy.  Tech areas include online class design, Google Suite, and many links to online curriculum platforms available to music and art teachers.  Art and Music resources are extensive with curriculum ideas, lesson and share sites, vendors of supplies and equipment (national and local), and a variety of historical, cultural, and other topics and links to explore for inspiration.

All Learning Modules throughout the site include a full set of online resources, videos, books, and research to go a ‘mile deep’ in any area a teacher (or district) finds of interest.