Creative Arts Team
How can I practice reciprocity when building collaborative relationships with classroom teachers?
From 2015-2017 I worked in the Early Learning Program at the Creative Arts Team (CAT) in New York City. As an Actor-Facilitator in an innovative professional learning model funded by the New York Community Trust, I designed and facilitated year-long interconnected professional learning workshops and in-class curriculum that engaged classroom teachers in developing and practicing interactive drama strategies to support learners in building literacy skills. Over the course of my two years at CAT, I partnered with 26 different K-2 classroom teachers at 7 schools in both Queens and Brooklyn.
Online Resources
Our team at CAT developed a resource website with strategy descriptions and corresponding videos. You can view the full website here.
“Not easy to capture how amazing the story was….Cindy spoke about doing a Columbus Day thing – and that she wanted something that ‘spoke to the truth of the Columbus story.’ Unhappy with the many books she looked at, she decided to create her own story. Using “Let’s all say/do” she told a story about a persistent Columbus who wanted to get rich, went to Isabella several times to ask for money, sailed through storms and high seas, then landed to see all these things he wanted. Using still picture, Cindy had the young people create images of people on the land, how they would look if someone wanted to take their stuff. SO she got all the contradictions AND when she told us the story of the lesson and how her young people were engaged, she got a little teared up. She was excited to do something similar for Thanksgiving.”
— Helen Wheelock (CAT Early Learning Program Director), sharing a story about how one of my partner teachers was using interactive strategies six months after our work together.