Expired 2018 Mat-Su Arts Institute

Event Phone: 907-322-6669

AAEC Arts Institute:

Sustaining Best Practices:  Steppin’ Into the Arts

Mat-su SAMS (Summer Institute at Mat-su)

Wasilla, Mat-Su Career and Technical High School •  May 22 – 25, 2018

2 Ed 590 Credits available

Mat-Su Institute Flyer (237 downloads )

This 4-day Basic Arts Institute, is designed to help teachers enrich their curriculum and raise student engagement through hands-on arts and culture activities that lead to an enhanced ability to integrate arts and culture into their classroom. With the help of 3 highly qualified teacher-leaders, participants will explore theoretical, cultural and performance arts and adaptive visual arts activities, skills and techniques.

During the Institute attendees will be immersed in both reflecting on and participating in multiple forms of the arts, considering classroom application and arts integration. Participants will be expected to submit a final project by June 1.  This will either be a short lesson plan or a personal plan of action (PPA).

Intended Audience:  This Institute is being held in conjunction with the Summer Academy at Mat-su (SAMS).  Mat-su participants will register both with the school district and on this website.  Educators from across Alaska are welcome and need to register below.  It will also be necessary to register at the Mat-su site and it will be posted here once it is open.

Teacher-leaders for this Institute are:

• Donna Breeden, Drama  Donna C Breeden (Drama and Literacy) is the sole proprietor for ARTS with H’ART-Arts Education and Integration. She provides integrated drama lessons with a focus on literacy for schools in Alaska and Hawaii grades K-8. She has worked as an elementary school teacher and drama teacher/director for Juneau Douglas High School. She was the 1989 recipient of the prestigious Christa McAuliffe Grant-Integrating Expressive Arts Therapy Techniques into the Academic Setting of At-Risk Youth. She co-published a booklet describing this project through the Alaska Dept. of Education called, Believing in Yourself is what it is All About.” Donna worked for nine years as the Director of Drama Education for the Maui Academy of Performing Arts (MAPA) where she trained drama specialists to go into classrooms and model integrated drama lessons. Her latest Maui project has been to facilitate playwriting and production for Montessori Middle School. Donna holds an Interdisciplinary Masters Degree (Music Ed/Children’s Theatre/P.E.-Movement) from the University of Oregon and Master of Arts in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Allison Little, Mat-su visual art teacher and special education enthusiast  As Allison wrote:  I have had the pleasure of combing two of my greatest joys, Art and Teaching, which has resulted in a job that is rewarding on a daily basis. I graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I have been teaching for 15 years, taking a ten year break to raise my daughters and get my art career started. I have been at Wasilla High School for the last 9 years. Through the media and language of Art, I build relationships, confidence, and the next generation of artists. The daily variety of teaching art to my college bound AP Art students and then my Adaptive Art students simply reinforces the reality that art is a universal language and so needed in our schools. I balance school with a very busy home life of four daughters, one more away at Western Washington University. My metal artwork has been shown in local galleries and juried exhibitions around the state. All of this is possible simply because, I love my job, and my school.
• Nita Rearden, Yup’ik cultural teacher As Nita wrote:  I really enjoy teaching cultural arts as part of my special commitment.  One great thing I’ve done was to create Yup’ik art kits in beading, sewing dolls, weaving, creating grass art with a story, yo-yo sewing, and learning about oritins of Yup’ik colors in mask making.  These units have taught me how to specialize in grade leveloing, how to integrate cultural knowledge, and what it means to teach as a culturally responsive person.  I help teachers to become creative in their own style and lean how to connect to the indigenous cultures where they live.  I am open to communicating on how to work with indigenous people.

This institute is supported in part by the Alaska Arts Education Consortium and the Mat-su School Distict.

Mat-su teachers–Please register so that we can have you complete a survey.  The information collected in the survey not only helps us ready for the Institute, but data is used in applying for grants.  At the end of the survey hit continue and you will be done.  There is no fee for Mat-su teachers.

If you have questions about the Institute, please leave a message in the comments section below or email barbshort@gmail.com