SPA offers professional development opportunities to all K-12 teachers through workshops on incorporating the arts into any classroom setting, as well as expanding existing arts curricula. These workshops will be held in conjunction with this season’s performances of Compagnie La Baraka, Drumline LIVE, Diavolo Dance Theater, The Peking Acrobats, Ella and ScrapArtsMusic.  The amazing diversity of SPA’s performers will be reflected in the workshops, adding a fresh perspective that workshop participants may bring to their individual classrooms.

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Workshop leaders integrate various Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), including Art, Dance, Language Arts, Music, and Social Studies into the curricula, and the workshops provide yet another opportunity for the lifelong learning that teachers support and are involved in themselves. Teachers in Texas must regularly be involved in their own professional development to respond to the changing nature of education, schools, and students. Certificates for Professional Staff Development will be given to all registered participants for fulfilling requirements for the Texas Education Agency’s Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS).

The $25 registration fee covers parking, materials and lunch.

The following is the professional development schedule for the 2010-2011 school year.


 

Art Contest Teacher Workshop
Compagnie La Baraka
For all K-12 Visual Art Teachers
Friday, October 1, 2010
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Glassell Junior School - MFAH

This professional development session will also help teachers prepare their visual art students to enter SPA’s 13th Annual Student Visual Art Contest, sponsored by Wells Fargo.  The contest is held in conjunction with SPA’s presentation of Compagnie La Baraka.  This international, multi-cultural company of dancers from Lyon, France is under the direction of Abou Lagraa.  The dancers will perform to live music played by the Debussy String Quartet.  This latest work from Compagnie La Baraka entitled A World in Itself explores what we all are really made of, taking us on a fascinating journey, as dramaturg Gérald Garutti puts it, “from the creation of the world…through the exploration of generations, from primitive chaos to the latest complexity.”  In the beginning, there was emptiness.  But, from nothing comes everything.  These thoughts are at the core of Compagnie La Baraka’s A World in Itself.

This year’s art contest theme is Exploring the Fabric of our World: What are we made of?

Held at Glassell Junior School, MFAH, all visual art teachers are welcome. Teachers will learn more about how to incorporate the arts into any classroom setting and will leave invigorated, ready for both the contest and the new year!

 

 

Drumline LIVE
For 6-12 Music Teachers and Band Directors
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Jones Hall

Attention all Band Directors!  Drumline LIVE features a 40-member cast of colorful and flamboyant performers from America’s top Historically Black Colleges and Universities. It brings show-style, marching band performers to the theatrical stage, offering a glimpse into an American experience that many have never seen before! This historic tradition is alive with intensity!  Workshop participants will see the matinee performance of Drumline LIVE as part of this workshop.
 
 

Diavolo Dance Theater
For all K-12 Dance and Theater Arts Teachers
Friday, November 5, 2010
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Jones Hall

Diavolo offers a movement-oriented, professional development workshop geared to help the teacher take dance/kinesthetic learning into the classroom.  At the workshop, participants will receive handouts on how to take dance/kinesthetic learning into the classroom.  The Diavolo student-teacher ratio for our professional development is 15 students to 1 teacher. Participants, expect to return to your classrooms brimming full of ideas for your students, derived from this workshop session!  Better yet, couple your workshop experience with a visit to Diavolo Dance Theater’s performance. Matching the professional development time with the company’s performance further enhances teachers’ “take-away” for the classroom.
 

The Peking Arobats
For all K-12 Social Studies, History, Music and Dance Teachers
Friday, January 28, 2011
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Jones Hall

The Peking Acrobats are coming back to Houston with daring maneuvers, powerful precision and spellbinding contortion to perform new acts and twists to old favorites.  This elite group of gymnasts, jugglers, cyclists and tumblers roll 2,000 year-old Chinese traditions and exotic Chinese music into their performance. We will ensure that these traditions & music are rolled into this workshop, making for an enlightening professional development opportunity. Social studies, dance, music, and history teachers are welcome to take part in this workshop to learn more about the cultural influences in China.  Workshop participants will see the matinee performance of The Peking Acrobats as part of this workshop.

 

Ella
For all K-12 Music, Social Studies, and History Teachers
Friday, February 18, 2011
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Wortham Center

Celebrate Black History Month with a music lesson inspired by one of the most important vocalists of the 20th century, Ella Fitzgerald.  She was the most popular jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century.  In her lifetime, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush. 

Ella is a musical biography that turns into a concert in the second act. With a four-piece band onstage to back her up, Tina Fabrique leads us on a retrospective tour of Fitzgerald’s career, starting with her hardscrabble beginnings.  During this professional staff development session, teachers will integrate the Music TEKS into this educational and entertaining celebration of “The First Lady of Song.”
 

ScrapArtsMusic
For all K-12 Instrumental Music and Visual Art Teachers
Friday, February 25, 2011
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Wortham Center

ScrapArtsMusic features five extraordinarily talented and innovative drummers that excite the senses with intricate rhythms, raw energy, athletic choreography and the hottest – most inventive – reuse of materials on stage today. This Canadian quintet tours the world, transforming their stage into an eco-friendly musical realm vibrant with ingenious creativity and positive energy. Their music is created through instruments, each of which is hand-built from recycled materials ranging from accordion parts to aluminum scraps, and even artillery shells. The beautiful sculptures produce unique sounds and serve to enhance the visual entertainment!

Music, visual art (found art artists), and others interested in an eco-friendly world are invited to participate in this unique workshop.  Participants will get to view the instruments close-up onstage and learn first-hand from a ScrapArtsMusic company member.