Three Workshops Announced for Classroom Connections

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Classroom Connections Inspires Educators (and Students) in Northeast Wisconsin! 
This school year, the FoxCities Performing Arts Center and Appleton Area School District (AASD) are teaming up to offer Classroom Connections, a series of professionaldevelopment workshops for educators.The Center and AASD were selected last spring for the JohnF. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Partners in Education program,joining about 100 collaborations across the country. 
Upcoming activitiesinclude three educator workshops open to all Wisconsin educators on afirst-come, first-serve basis. These hands–onworkshops will be presented by professional teaching artists and prepareeducators to integrate the arts into their classrooms.
Evidence shows that arts infused classrooms benefit students across all subjects. Infact, research by the University of New Mexico concluded that, “Artscontributed to analytically deeper, experientially broader, and psychologicallymore rewarding learning. These developments could have significant positiveeffects on students' general cognitive growth over time, particularly ifstudents experience arts-integrated learning in their classroom on a regularbasis.”

Educators may learn more about Classroom Connections and register forworkshops at foxcitiespac.com/educators.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
Character Interviews: A Dramatic Approach to ReadingComprehension 
Monday, November 5, 2012; 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Lenore Blank Kelner
For Educators of Grades 3-8
Fee: $20/AASD Staff or $25/Wisconsin Educators

Teaching reading comprehension takes on a whole new dimension as educatorsexplore an effective and engaging technique for involving students in theexamination of literature. Participants discover how to use an imaginary talkshow format called “Books Alive” to engage students in the learning process.Students are interviewed as they reenact characters from a book, while teachersbecome the talk show host. Lenore Blank Kelner teaches how to pose appropriatequestions that require the students to support their answers from theliterature and make predictions and inferences about their characters, as wellas analyze the text’s themes. Kelner serves as an education consultant to theMaryland State Department of Education as well as school systems and schoolsnationwide. She has trained thousands of teachers in how to integrate dramainto everyday classroom instruction.

The Drama of Science
Tuesday, January 15, 2013; 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Karen Erickson
For Educators of Grades 1-6
Fee: $20/AASD Staff or $25/Wisconsin Educators

Integrating the concepts of both science and drama into the classroom, KarenErickson, teaches educators how to transform science classes into active,student-centered explorations. Focusing on earth science, mechanical scienceand biology, educators will learn new techniques through expressive movement,drama and enacted story. Participants will also examine classroom managementtechniques and learn how to build group dynamics within their classrooms.Erickson, a theater educator from Chicago, will guide participants as theyexplore the common threads of science and art.

Writing the Hero’s Journey: Building WritingSkills Through Storytelling and Oral Language
Thursday,February 21, 2013; 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Stuart Stotts
For Educators of Grades 4-8
Fee: $20/AASD Staff or $25/Wisconsin Educators

Through this workshop, Wisconsin educators will discover how a focus on theartistic qualities of storytelling can open the literary world andintroduce students to a style of writing beyond the page. Oral storytellingallows organization, descriptive language, voice and sentence fluency to comemore easily for students as their creations become a living piece of work.Using the story form of a hero’s journey, Wisconsin native Stuart Stotts, willdemonstrate prewriting methods and teach a process for helping students developstories. His techniques will encourage students to draw on their creativethinking and oral communication abilities. Stotts is a Kennedy Center teachingartist as well as a nationally recognized, award winning songwriter,storyteller and author from Madison, Wisconsin.