2009-10 Kennedy Center Workshops
Kennedy Center Workshops are professional development opportunities that provide educators with arts-infused strategies to enhance student learning and realize student achievement goals across various areas of the curriculum. 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 Bank of America Charitable Foundation.
Download a copy of the 2009-10 Youth Program brochure (pdf).
Dancetalk: Creative Movement and Language Development
Led by Kate Kuper
Thu, Oct 8, 4:30 - 7:30 PM
WISD Teaching and Learning Center
1819 South Wagner Road, Ann Arbor
Grades PreK-2
Hands-on, physically interactive classroom lessons are usually exhilarating for young students; in this workshop educators discover how to harness this joyous energy to teach sticky lessons about language. Using cooperative and kinetic education techniques, participants explore how creative movement can help increase students’ vocabulary, improve students’ verb and adverb usage, and build students’ comprehension.
After a successful career as a choreographer and performer in the 1980s, Kate Kuper turned her attention to becoming a teaching artist. Since then, she has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education for her work in education with young children, college students, and adult educators. .
Curriculum Connections: English, Arts
A collaboration with the Ann Arbor Public Schools..
Math + Dance: Exploring Sequence and Combinations
Led by Erik Stern
Thu, Dec 10, 4:30 - 7:30 PM
WISD Teaching and Learning Center
1819 South Wagner Road, Ann Arbor
Grades 3-8
Choreography traditionally happens in rehearsal halls or on stage. When it happens in the classroom, however, it can be a powerful–and accessible–way to help students learn fundamental principles of mathematics: sequences and combinations. Using everyday movements ("dance"), this workshop provides active strategies for enhancing student understanding of the mathematical concepts of pattern, probability, and permutations.
Erik Stern has a BA in biology from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA in dance from Cal Arts. He performed with Tandy Beal and Company for ten years and teaches at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. His duet, "Table of Content," appeared at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the American College Dance Festival National Meeting in May 2002.
Curriculum Connections: Math, Arts
A collaboration with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.