Performing Arts workshops are held at:
Billerica High School, 35 River St., Billerica, MA
8:30-10:00 Elementary Visual Arts Job-Alike Working Session
This session will offer you a place to gather and discuss relevant successes and challenges you are currently experiencing; bring your toolbox of ideas and lessons that are successful, along with a few wonderings/challenges you might be having. Come prepared to engage and discuss!
8:30-10:00 Middle School Visual Arts Job-Alike Working Session
This session will offer you a place to gather and discuss relevant successes and challenges you are currently experiencing; bring your toolbox of ideas and lessons that are successful, along with a few wonderings/challenges you might be having. Come prepared to engage and discuss!
8:30-10:00 It’s Okay to Say “They”: Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Students in Schools
Christy Whittlesey, Mordy Vezina
Transgender and non-binary students are at extremely high risk for experiencing a wide range of academic, social, and health problems as they attempt to navigate educational systems that were not created with them in mind. Within this context, educators may want to support these students in their classrooms, but are unsure of how to do so effectively. This session will empower participants to create supportive environments for transgender and non-binary students in K-12 schools by providing educators with an understanding of issues that their transgender and non-binary students face, giving them practical tools with which to support a safe and supportive environment for all students, regardless of gender, and addressing ways that they can implement these tools in their classrooms immediately.
8:30-10:00 “Sparking Creativity”: Hands-on TAB Workshop
Jaimee Taborda
“Become a student in my TAB classroom! This immersive workshop engages the participant in a range of activities designed to promote creative thinking and original idea generation.”
Jaimee Taborda cares deeply about instilling the values of artistic thinking in her students through the Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) approach to art education. A high school art educator of twelve years, she bridges contemporary art practices with current education concepts to provide a rich and diverse learning environment. She continuously challenges herself to learn more, both as an educator, through professional development, and as an artist, through studio classes. In addition to working as an artist and teaching full time at Oxford High School in Oxford, MA, Jaimee currently serves as department head of Unified Arts, Adjunct Professor at Gordon College, and Secretary for the MAEA. Jaimee was named Massachusetts Art Educator of the Year in 2019 and is passionate about art education and strives to instill a love for the arts in all of her students.
10:15-11:45 Overview: The 2019 Arts Curriculum Framework
Dawn Benski
This workshop provides overarching information and increased clarity for arts educators as they transition to the newly approved Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework. Participants will find that the arts standards are user-friendly and represent current philosophies about the arts in education. During this interactive presentation, staff members from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) guide participants through an overview of major shifts in the Framework, including the concepts of artistic literacy, artistic intent and other re-imagined guiding principles. Participants examine and unpack the artistic practices and content standards to learn to align their curriculum and put the new art standards into action with their students.
Dawn Benski is the Arts Content Support Lead at the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). She came to the role with a decade’s worth of leadership experience in arts education, including coordinating PreK-12 arts programs in the greater Boston area, leading curriculum development, and moonlighting in higher education teacher preparation programs. Dawn’s leadership expertise is squarely rooted in her almost two decades as a practicing art teacher. She served as the NAEA’s Co-Coordinator of the 2019 Convention in Boston. Dawn’s artistic background is in oil painting, but her recent work focuses on food styling and food photography inspired by her love for cooking. Dawn is also an avid gardener, reader, and beach lover.
11:45-12:45 Lunch
12:45-2:15 CALM: Hands-on Art Session
Sarah Kiley
This hands-on workshop is a modern take on a classic icon. Resources shared are used to inspire today’s social media driven student population through diversity & acceptance of all. You will experience ideas to share with your students to help them keep calm in a creative environment and in our busy world. Attendees will be inspired by infinite design solutions and leave with a finished product to take back to their students.
12:45-2:15 Plaster (School Specialty Kit)
Danielle Milner
*IMPORTANT: this session requires all participants to bring their own 12×12 pizza box!
The Masters in Plaster Workshop-In-A-Box will allow participants to give their own twist in the form of texture and dimension to the works of master artists using the medium Plast’r Craft. These unusual art works use a pizza box as a canvas. Upon completion the box will become its own easel for displaying the work.
12:45-2:15 Teaching with Art & Objects
Emily Scheinberg, Museum of Fine Arts
Explore approaches for student discussions and activities around works of art and everyday objects. Enrich the art classroom with a range of examples of artistic work and visual culture. Promote students’ sense of discovery and wonder, while supporting critical and creative thinking skills, through museum education strategies for student inquiry, visual analysis, and engaging students in collaborative learning. You will also hear about current and upcoming exhibitions at the MFA, including “Ancient Nubia Now.”
12:45-2:15 BREAKOUT SESSION: Arts Frameworks
Dawn Benski
This interactive workshop provides an opportunity for arts educators to apply the newly approved Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework to practice. Participants will find that the arts standards are user-friendly and represent current philosophies about the arts in education. Staff members from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) guide participants through authentic activities that demonstrate the major shifts in the Framework, including the concepts of artistic literacy, artistic intent and other re-imagined guiding principles. Participants examine and unpack the artistic practices and content standards to learn to align their curriculum and put the new art standards into action with their students.
Dawn Benski is the Arts Content Support Lead at the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). She came to the role with a decade’s worth of leadership experience in arts education, including coordinating PreK-12 arts programs in the greater Boston area, leading curriculum development, and moonlighting in higher education teacher preparation programs. Dawn’s leadership expertise is squarely rooted in her almost two decades as a practicing art teacher. She served as the NAEA’s Co-Coordinator of the 2019 Convention in Boston. Dawn’s artistic background is in oil painting, but her recent work focuses on food styling and food photography inspired by her love for cooking. Dawn is also an avid gardener, reader, and beach lover.
