The Mansfield site of the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education program will offer an arts integration professional development workshop for teachers on Thursday, March 7.
Sandi Hammonds, a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist and National Board Certified Teacher in Early Adolescence/Young Adulthood Art with 37 years experience, will lead the workshop, which is most beneficial for teachers of grades 5-12.Hammonds was a member of the writing team for the Virginia Standards of Learning in the Arts and has worked extensively on visual art curriculum for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. She has conducted a variety of workshops and in-service training programs for K-university teachers of visual art, English, foreign language, and social studies. She is currently an adjunct at George Washington University and George Mason University where she teaches courses in methods for teaching and curriculum development. Ms. Hammonds is a painter and printmaker, and her studio work involves research into the artistic/cultural connections of indigenous peoples to their land. Her current artistic focus is on Mexico, Central and South America and the related social and cultural issues, which she expresses through her paintings.
Ms. Hammonds’ Teaching Literacy Through Visual Art workshop allows teachers to examine techniques for helping students develop their questioning strategies, posing relevant questions to gather information and progressing to more in-depth inquiry about the artwork. Using visual art as the “text” with which to work, teachers will be able to help students engage in higher levels of thinking as they guide them in examining unfamiliar objects, and making inferences about the people and culture that produced them. The workshop is hands-on, and explores multiple options and entry points for students with learning, cognitive, and emotional disabilities.
The workshop will take place at the Renaissance Theatre from 4:30-7:30 on March 7 and dinner is included. Participants will receive up to three contact hours for professional development credit. There is no fee to attend, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Charles P. Hahn of Cleveland Financial Group, KeyBank Foundation, and additional support from the Ohio Arts Council. Registration for the educator workshop is available online at https://artreading.eventbrite.com
This workshop was developed in association with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is partially underwritten by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Committee for the Performing Arts. Mansfield was selected in 2010 to join the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in its Partners in Education program. Mansfield is one of approximately 100 sites across the country in the program. For more information on this professional development opportunity, contact the Education Department at 419-522-2726 ext. 252 or email[email protected].
Source: Renaissance Performing Arts Association
