Arts Learning

The quality and variety of arts available to Sheridan students was increased and connections were made through the use of northeast neighborhood artists and cultural artists reflective of students and families at Sheridan. Students and families at Sheridan Arts Magnet experienced, created and connected in school arts learning with artists in the greater community. This took place during the residencies, artist and student performances. These were evaluated through discussion between artists, arts staff and classroom teachers. Analysis of student work guided these discussions. Overall, lessons were more relevant and interesting, the program to improve social skills through drumming was implemented in lower grades, students have more positive outlets to express their views and feelings and parents and families are more involved in their children's education. Though these issues continue to need to be addressed, the arts have begun the work. Many different strategies were used. A classroom artist in residence model was used for much of the work. Smaller groups were put together to work with the artists in concentrated bursts of time. In some occasions the artists performed for the school. The Sheridan staff was trained in dance/writing and African drumming methods. The staff was resistant to training and I see limited evidence of them incorporating arts strategies into their classroom. The music department is an exception. The music teachers have incorporated African drumming into the general music curriculum. Some classroom teachers were resistant to arts residencies. Part of the problem was the amount of time and staff change from when the grant was written to when it was implemented. In the future I will be very careful about which classroom teachers have an artist in residence and do some teaching about how to have the experience work well. 2: Sheridan students were engaged in the arts! The Sheridan art crawl in May 2012 featured many performances and artist/student produced films including two films, Afro-Cuban dance and African drumming performance. The African drumming was ongoing from March 2012 through February 2013. Karla Nweje, dancer in residence picked up in the fall and worked with first, second and third grade classes including a second grade dance literacy integration that culminated in a student performance interspersed between a professional performance. Folk music and dance were sung and performed by kindergartners in the fall. African drumming was integrated into the general music curriculum while developing a permanent African drumming group. Rubrics were developed for some of the middle school arts projects. With the younger children the experiences were assessed through reflection in an arts planner. Almost every student at Sheridan experienced the arts through arts creation, performance and response. Sheridan has a high poverty, highly mobile school population who can feel that arts are for others." Specific perceived barriers include that the arts are done by other people and have no relevance to the student's survival. The arts staff is not culturally reflective of the students nor do they live in the neighborhood. Seyer Frey and Robin McGaliard Nelson are neighborhood artists. Students can see their work by the school. Sowah Mensah, Karla Nweje and Maya Washington are artists that reflect the racial makeup of the school. Students were able to see artists that look like them and have these artists teach how art is for everyone, including them There ended up being two filmmaking projects-Seyer Frey addressed the filmmaking project from a technical filmmakers point of view, Maya Washington addressed it from an actors and cultural point of view. The students were much more engaged working with Maya. In that case the cultural artist was more effective than the neighborhood artist."