Six native teachers had been amongst almost 300 educators from greater than 170 colleges throughout Oklahoma who attended one in every of three Oklahoma Fall Arts Institute weekend workshops final month.
The intensive, four-day workshops, which additionally welcome grownup artists of all means ranges, are taught by nationally famend artists within the literary, visible and performing arts. The retreats are held on the picturesque Quartz Mountain State Park & Lodge in southwestern Oklahoma.
Each collaborating educator earned 18 hours {of professional} improvement credit score.
For Jennifer Butler, the music instructor at Sand Springs Public Schools’ Northwoods Fine Arts Academy, the workshop was virtually like going residence once more.
“I first attended the Arts Institute in 1989 as a high school student and played in the orchestra,” she mentioned.
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“I have attended the Fall Arts Institute for teachers four times, and every one has been a very rewarding experience.
“The teachers are incredible and give three days of great lessons and ideas for me to take back to my students,” Butler mentioned. “It is a chance to meet teachers from across Oklahoma in your field and also other arts areas.”
The nonprofit Oklahoma Arts Institute, which operates the retreats, estimates that it reaches greater than 50,000 Oklahoma schoolchildren annually by means of their teachers’ attendance on the Fall Arts Institute.
The workshops are meant to permit arts educators and artists alike to sharpen their abilities — or be taught new ones — in an immersive setting with innovators of their fields.
The program, begun in 1983, enhances the group’s flagship providing, the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, which has introduced highschool college students from throughout the state to the campus every summer time since 1977.
Anderson Public School artwork instructor Kristina Woodmansee mentioned she had “an amazing experience” throughout 4 days of intense artwork instruction.
“Our particular class made a ‘flutter book’ with different themes on each page, including poetry that was by others and original poetry,” Woodmansee mentioned. “These books were items we could take back and utilize in other methods at school, not just the art room.”
Woodmansee mentioned she discovered loads about totally different artwork provides that could possibly be used in addition to totally different methods.
“We worked between mealtimes and even worked past 10 o’clock at night because we wanted to see our work to completion,” she mentioned.
“We were blessed to have such a wonderful — and free to us — experience. All we paid was a small art supply fee. We wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise.”
Oklahoma public faculty educators are capable of attend the Fall Arts Institute on full scholarship. Teachers at personal colleges are provided tuition reductions. All meals and lodging are included.
Throughout the retreat, members are additionally inspired to participate in extracurricular actions and electives, similar to yoga, screen-printing and guided stargazing, amongst others.
The workshops themselves, in the meantime, are additionally diversified. This 12 months’s members had been ready to select from courses in storytelling, images, poetry, drawing, printmaking, portray, musical theater, ceramics and extra.
Workshops designed particularly for educators included “Visual Thinking Strategies,” an strategy to art-based dialogue; “Fall Flutter Book,” about visible arts and bookbinding; and “Musical Theatre: From Choosing a Production to Curtain Call.”
Christie Cannon, the artwork instructor at Sand Springs Public Schools’ Sixth Grade Center, loved making her fall flutter guide, which she mentioned integrated drawing, portray, collage and poetry.
“I can’t wait to try it with my sixth-graders,” she mentioned. “They were very excited when I returned to my classroom and shared my completed book with them.”
All three native educators talked in regards to the stunning environs of the lodge and the encompassing Quartz Mountains.
“The time to just focus on creating was refreshing,” Cannon mentioned.
Sand Springs Public Schools teachers Rebecca Stewart and Jennifer Burke and Anderson Public School instructor Dawn Jones additionally attended the Fall Arts Institute.
Rob Ward, the Oklahoma Arts Institute’s president and CEO, mentioned the Fall Arts Institute permits members to take dangers and check out new issues.
“If they approached their workshop with an open mind and a spirit of exploration, the challenging experience no doubt expanded their technique, knowledge and artistic vision while renewing their creativity and enthusiasm for their art form,” he mentioned.
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