Inspiring Our Educators

Partnership Inspires Educators with Arts Integrated Teaching Techniques

It's back to school today, and the Fox Cities P.A.C. has a wealth of inspiration for educators as they take their spots at the head of the class.

This school year, the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and the Appleton Area School District have teamed up to inspire educators with the arts in Classroom Connections. 

Educators in any subject, from any school in any district can benefit from Classroom Connections!

For ten years, the Center has welcomed students to daytime education series performances that tie to Wisconsin Model Academic Standards. Now, with the help of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the arts can make learning and teaching more exciting than ever right inside the classroom.

The Classroom Connections workshops listed below are open to all educators from any district. Discover how the arts can engage your classroom and make your job as a teacher even more fulfilling.

To reserve your spot, call (920) 730-3764 or

email education@foxcitiespac.com today!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Drama of Science   Workshop Leader: Karen Erickson For Educators of Grades 1-8 Date: Tuesday, January 15, 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Location: Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Fee: $20 / AASD Staff or $25 / Wisconsin Educators

Integrating the concepts of both science and drama into the classroom, Karen Erickson, teaches educators how to transform science classes into active, student-centered explorations. Focusing on earth science, mechanical science and biology, educators will learn new techniques through expressive movement, drama and enacted story. Participants will also examine classroom management techniques and learn how to build group dynamics within their classrooms. Erickson, a theater educator from Chicago, will guide participants as they explore the common threads of science and art.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Writing the Hero's Journey: Building Writing Skills Through Storytelling and Oral Language Workshop Leader: Stuart Stotts For Educators of Grades 4-8 Date: Thursday, February 21, 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Location: Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Fee: $20 / AASD Staff or $25 / Wisconsin Educators

Through this workshop, educators will discover how the arts can open the literary world and introduce students to a style of writing beyond the page. Oral storytelling allows organization, descriptive language, voice and sentence fluency to come more easily for students as their creations become a living piece of work. Using the story form of a hero’s journey, Wisconsin native Stuart Stotts, will demonstrate prewriting methods and teach a process for helping students develop stories. His techniques will encourage students to draw on their creative thinking and oral communication abilities. Stotts is a Kennedy Center teaching artist as well as a nationally recognized, award winning songwriter, storyteller, and author from Madison, Wisconsin. These workshops were developed in association with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and are partially underwritten by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

Three Workshops Announced for Classroom Connections

Classroom Connections Inspires Educators (and Students) in Northeast Wisconsin! 

This school year, the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and Appleton Area School District (AASD) are teaming up to offer Classroom Connections, a series of professional development workshops for educators.The Center and AASD were selected last spring for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Partners in Education program, joining about 100 collaborations across the country. 

Upcoming activities include three educator workshops open to all Wisconsin educators on a first-come, first-serve basis. These hands–on workshops will be presented by professional teaching artists and prepare educators to integrate the arts into their classrooms.

Evidence shows that arts infused classrooms benefit students across all subjects. In fact, research by the University of New Mexico concluded that, “Arts contributed to analytically deeper, experientially broader, and psychologically more rewarding learning. These developments could have significant positive effects on students' general cognitive growth over time, particularly if students experience arts-integrated learning in their classroom on a regular basis.”

Educators may learn more about Classroom Connections and register for workshops at foxcitiespac.com/educators.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

Character Interviews: A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension 
Monday, November 5, 2012; 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Lenore Blank Kelner
For Educators of Grades 3-8
Fee: $20/AASD Staff or $25/Wisconsin Educators

Teaching reading comprehension takes on a whole new dimension as educators explore an effective and engaging technique for involving students in the examination of literature. Participants discover how to use an imaginary talk show format called “Books Alive” to engage students in the learning process. Students are interviewed as they reenact characters from a book, while teachers become the talk show host. Lenore Blank Kelner teaches how to pose appropriate questions that require the students to support their answers from the literature and make predictions and inferences about their characters, as well as analyze the text’s themes. Kelner serves as an education consultant to the Maryland State Department of Education as well as school systems and schools nationwide. She has trained thousands of teachers in how to integrate drama into everyday classroom instruction.

The Drama of Science
Tuesday, January 15, 2013; 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Karen Erickson
For Educators of Grades 1-6
Fee: $20/AASD Staff or $25/Wisconsin Educators

Integrating the concepts of both science and drama into the classroom, Karen Erickson, teaches educators how to transform science classes into active, student-centered explorations. Focusing on earth science, mechanical science and biology, educators will learn new techniques through expressive movement, drama and enacted story. Participants will also examine classroom management techniques and learn how to build group dynamics within their classrooms. Erickson, a theater educator from Chicago, will guide participants as they explore the common threads of science and art.

Writing the Hero’s Journey: Building Writing Skills Through Storytelling and Oral Language
Thursday, February 21, 2013; 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Stuart Stotts
For Educators of Grades 4-8
Fee: $20/AASD Staff or $25/Wisconsin Educators

Through this workshop, Wisconsin educators will discover how a focus on the artistic qualities of storytelling can open the literary world and introduce students to a style of writing beyond the page. Oral storytelling allows organization, descriptive language, voice and sentence fluency to come more easily for students as their creations become a living piece of work. Using the story form of a hero’s journey, Wisconsin native Stuart Stotts, will demonstrate prewriting methods and teach a process for helping students develop stories. His techniques will encourage students to draw on their creative thinking and oral communication abilities. Stotts is a Kennedy Center teaching artist as well as a nationally recognized, award winning songwriter, storyteller and author from Madison, Wisconsin.

Five By Design Stops at Local High Schools

On Thursday, October 4 Five By Design's Club Swing turned back the clocks to the Big Band Era at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. The group is known for their velvet vocals, singing songs that have stood the test of time like “Cocktails for Two,” “Mona Lisa” and “Sing, Sing, Sing." 

The performance was a hit Thursday night, but before the curtain even rose, Five By Design was out and about in the Fox Cities, visiting with students at Appleton East High School and Kaukauna High School.

At Appleton East High School the group members Lorie Carpenter-Niska, Catherine Scott, Kurt Niska, Michael Swedberg and Terrence Niska sang with the students and gave them great advice on pursuing a career in music. At Kaukauna High School the group introduced students to the music of the '30s and '40s and answered questions.

Five By Design's performance and local student workshops were supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, which is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contribution from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Celebrating 10 Years of Adventures in Arts Education

It's back to school this week for most students in grades PreK-12, and at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, we're getting ready for another fantastic year as Northeast Wisconsin's largest classroom for the performing arts!

This year, the Bemis Company Education Series celebrates 10 years of adventures in learning with titles like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ImaginOcean and Walk On: The Story of Rosa Parks.
 

John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean (Grades PreK-2) November 1, 2012

Has your son or daughter's class been to the Fox Cities P.A.C.? More than 217,000 students have experienced the Center's special daytime performances, and now is a great time to share the 2012/13 Bemis Company Education Series brochure with your child's teacher.  

Tickets are only $5-$7, and a special scholarship fund is available for classes who need a helping hand to attend. For more information, educators can visit foxcitiespac.com/educators or call the Center's group sales department at (920) 730-3786 to make classroom reservations.

Just Released: 2010/11 Annual Report to the Community - The Four Seasons in Review

The Fox Cities Performing Arts Center is pleased to share its
2010/11 Annual Report to the Community – The Four Seasons in Review. 

Click here to view the report online!

It's Back to School at the Fox Cities P.A.C.

September 11-17 marks the second annual National Arts in Education Week, and at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, we are busy preparing for the 2011/12 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Education Series. With 14 titles ranging from Shakespeare's Macbeth to Nate the Great and Freedom Bound, each show supports PreK-12 classroom curriculum with the performing arts, impacting more than 23,000 students per year. This year, the Center is pleased to offer student and educator group discounts for many public performances. For more information or to make a reservation for your educator or student group, click on the Group Sales tab above. Did the arts play a leading role in your education? Tell us about your favorite arts teacher!