Arts in the Schools
Arts in the Schools
Karla Nweje Interpretive Dance
John White: writer, photographer, retired journalist; Georgette Jones: literature teacher, theatre actor/director/teacher; Marilee Strom: musician, former art teacher, business owner; Kathy Fransen: musician, theatre, Rhythm of the River coordinator; Janet Olney: visual artist, Willmar Area Arts Council coordinator; Joyce Meyer: photographer, retired art teacher, Canby Arts Council; Kate Aydin: retired educator; Paula Nemes: musician, librarian, former coordinator of Marshall Area Fine Arts Council, Marshall Area Stage Company; Tom Wirt: artist, owner of Clay Coyote Gallery, Hutchinson Center for the Arts, past member of Hutchinson Public Arts Commission; Susan Marco: writer, former high school English/creative writing teacher; Kelly Muldoon: graphic artist, Prairie Music Association, Prairie Oasis Players; Dan Wahl: writer, visual artist, director, adjunct English instructor at Southwest Minnesota State University; Anne O'Keefe-Jackson: human resources director, bead and quill work; Cindy Reverts: visual artist, Rock County Fine Arts Association treasurer, Council for Arts in Humanities in Rock County; Brett Lehman: Worthington International Festival, Worthington City Band, Worthington Concert Association; Reggie Gorter: vocalist, theatre, voice and dance teacher; Dana Johnson: producer/filmmaker; Scott Tedrick: journalist, Granite Falls Riverfront Revitalization, theatre director/actor.
Ellen Copperud: writing, education; Cindy Demers: visual art, education, Joyce Meyer: visual art, education, Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Board; Kari Weber: visual art, education; Tom Wirt: visual art, Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Board.
ACHF Arts Education
1. Students in the core grade 2 groups will create an interpretive dance showing the life cycle of a seed. 2. Students in grades K-4 will be exposed to the art of interpretive movement with a professional dancer for an hour or two (depending on availability of time). 3. Students will have a better understanding of interpretive movement as an art form. One of our goals with this residency is to expose primary school-age children to the art of dance. Another goal is our on-going effort to increase awareness of the value of arts for both students and adults in the world around us and in the regular classroom curriculum. Each time children are exposed to an artist who is new to them, the children learn something new from that person. In this case, they will learn some creative movement that interprets something from the biological world. Evaluation of the success of our goals will occur both during and after the experience with Karla. During the week, classroom teachers will be observing the students as they participate in sessions with Karla. At the end of the week, the core groups will participate in a performance of their work and community members will have the chance to see and respond to that performance. After the week with Karla, students in the core group will fill out a questionnaire regarding their experiences and discuss the experience with their teachers. Students in K-4 will discuss the experience as a group with their teachers. Classroom teachers who supervised their students during classes with Karla and community members will be asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their thoughts about the residency.
Written forms were used to evaluate. The core groups (grade 2) answered individual questions on their own. Students in grades K, 1, 3, and 4 discussed their experience with their classroom teacher and the teacher filled out an evaluation sheet based on that discussion. All teachers filled out an evaluation form that gave opinions from their perspective of the residency. 19 of 19 teacher surveys were returned -- 95% of the questions were answered "strongly agree" or "agree" to positive statements about the residency. 14 of 16 K,1,3,4 discussion surveys returned -- discussions were very positive -- 100% said she is a great dancer and over 90% enjoyed see artist and her work and working with her. 39 2nd grade students filled out core group surveys -- 92% said "my dance class was fun" -- 77% said they "learned many new things" -- 90% "liked doing the movements with the students in my class" -- 90% "liked having a teaching artist working with my class" -- 77% "would like to do another dance class like this" -- 95% were "very proud of the performance we gave at the end of the week".
Other, local or private