Professional Development
Together in Dance’s Professional Development programming is varied and comprehensive and includes various models and services. We facilitate PD series’ that help both classroom teachers and physical educators bring dance/movement into their classroom/gym. We train Early Childhood Coordinators to include movement into the pedagogical approach they present in their PD workshops. We also provide support to dance specialists through on-going workshop and inter-visitation series’ in order to deepen their understanding and utilization of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts. Many of our models include co-teaching/mentoring sessions as a follow-up to workshops. In addition, we also provide stand alone workshops and intensive Institutes designed around specific themes that develop targeted skills or examine a particular content area, such as leadership, community, or immigration. In order to develop effective PD models, we meet with the leadership stakeholders to identify and determine specific goals, and then design a program that best meets the needs of the constituents. The number and nature of the sessions vary according to the needs of the school and/or region or office. We provide training in integrating movement into the curriculum as well as dance as a discrete subject. Our models are team building, strengthening the relationships between participants within schools and regions, so that classroom teachers, arts specialists, and physical educators can help ensure that movement and dance continue to be an important element of every child’s education.
Schools, dance companies and/or arts administrators:
- Dance, dialogue, design: Structuring successful staff development
- Building community through dance Classroom teachers, physical educators, art and music teachers
- Integrating dance into the curriculum
- Music and movement
- Dance and early childhood
- Creative dance in physical education
Dance educators and teaching artists:
- Performing artists in the classroom
- Collaborating with classroom teachers
- Assessing student learning in dance
- Creating and Reflecting on student work
- Designing creative dance curriculum
- Teaching beyond the dance technique
