On October 21st, Community-Word Project staff convened at The Drama League for the opening reception of our 2016-17 Teaching Artist Training & Internship Program (TATIP).
Those present for the event included the 34 new trainees in the program, as well as a few special guests, members of the 2016-17 TATIP Cohort Jerry James of The Center for Arts Education and Anna Roberts Ostroff of Arts for All.
We spent the Friday evening getting to know one another, mingling, sharing, and prepping for an exciting year with TATIP.
The first day of training commenced the following Saturday morning, once again at The Drama League. This year, in addition to CWP staff members – Progam Director Patti Chilsen and Program Manager Katie Rainey – we’ve added three new facilitators to our training; Karla Robinson, T. Scott Lilly and Heidi Miller.
We got to know one another through a little game of “Mingle Mingle”, prompting responses from each other through questions like “Who is your favorite artist and why?”, “What inspired you to be a teacher?” and more.
We also discovered our various reasons for creating art and becoming teachers through graffitti wall prompts posted around the room.
After introductions and a breakdown of the morning’s opening rituals, we set about the day, spending the majority of the time exploring ourselves as artists. We translated our creative process to words on paper and shared them with our partners. We created artists maps that visualized that creation process as well.
We explored the different multiple intelligences of learning and tried some new ones out in a movement activity called “Nature Walk”, navigating the various musical, linguistic, kinestheic and visual intelligences within the activity amongst others.
We are so lucky to have these experienced and active facilitators guiding us through the field of teaching artistry. Strong educators are needed now more than ever and, with everything happening in the world right now, our students need the arts to strengthen their critical and creative thinking skills, improve literacy, create strong citizenship and community, and more. The arts provide those opportunities for students and enhance the way they experience the world.
It is a treasure to be able to share this room with this dedicated group of artists committed to strengthening the field and improving the world through the arts. Stay tuned for more updates on the fall training days and our trainees’ progression throughout the year!
