By Katie Sill | Program Administration Manager
With only 1 day left in 2016, we're taking a few moments away from our end-of-year campaign to reflect on what we've accomplished over the last year and get ready for the year to come. We just hit 81% of our goal!!! This means we still have 19% left to go, or about $3,500. As we reflect, we are reminded that reaching our goal means empowering Story Tapestries to reach over 1,300 more community members with custom-designed arts-integrated programs, and many of those programs will directly support STEAM learning in our schools.
We've had some wonderful successes, and we've also had some wonderful "teaching moments," and both of those types of experiences are valuable! One recent success was a residency led by our Executive Director, Arianna Ross, in partnership with teacher Mary McGinn and other educators at Stedwick Elementary. Arianna kicked off the program with an assembly for the entire school, and then she worked with the individual third-grade classes over the course of five days using theatre, writing, movement, and visual art strategies to help students define elements within a story. Arianna and the teachers at Stedwick Elementary worked in true partnership to co-plan and co-teach in order to identify and best meet the needs of the students.
During the residency, it became clear that the students would be able to shape the lesson, and the teaching artist and instructors were able to act as a guiding force. Additionally, the teachers expressed that the process was successful in helping them feel valued through the successes of the students, making it clear that their efforts to integrate arts into their lessons were successful and meaningful.
Although this residency did not specifically focus on STEM subjects, it is a good example of how successful arts techniques can be when integrated into any curriculum, including STEM. By the end of the residency, the students had integrated all of the different curriculum standards into the creation of a devised opera that they will work on for the duration of the school year. At the end of the year, they will have the opportunity to perform their opera at The Kennedy Center, where it will be live-streamed to students in Spain! It was a true privilege for Story Tapestries to play a role in this project that starts with an individual school but will eventually cross national and continental boundaries to create a truly global connection.
Thank you so much for your support! Please continue to advocate for us by sending this report to friends and family that would love to be part of this project too.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
