Full Schedule

In this talk, Susan Riley shares examples of how connecting our curriculum through the arts standards can be a pathway to achieving our most pressing and significant educational challenges. From addressing student achievement gaps to community collaboration, the arts offer an access point through which everyone can participate.

Creating through 3D design helps students combine art with STEM to create STEAM. Join the Science Center of Iowa for this session in using TinkerCAD to design images, objects or tools in 3D. Upload these files to Merge Cube and view them in augmented reality. 

Art and science are intertwined in ways students might not realize. Bring to life the ways in which real life scientists and engineers rely on art to communicate findings and understand new concepts by sharing picture books that model the practice. Come discover the close integration of art and science and leave with a collection of picture book lesson ideas that will spark your students’ creativity!

When given a chance to share what we see, we are given a gift to be seen in return. Last year 12 Des Moines Public School students took their way of seeing and created works that brought them attention for their voice, vision, and creative confidence. Learn about and from this inspiring My Voice program created in partnership with the Des Moines Art Center, By Degrees Foundation, DMPS Art Teachers and the Principal Foundation, presented by Art Center Museum Educator, Mia Buch.

Throughout an artist’s journey, the pressure to perform can impact how and whether full potential is realized. A new media struggle, a rejected submission, a creative block, each can cause self-doubt, anxiety, or frustration. How one thinks about and responds to setbacks can have long-term implications on how potential is transformed into actualized talent. What can teachers do to support artists’ tenacity, resilience, and pursuit of long-term goals? Participants will learn to reinforce psychosocial skills and affective development within the context of content curriculum.

Five part history presentation/group work focusing on the importance of music in shaping historic events in American History.  The five parts include: labor songs, war songs, social songs, generational songs, and civil rights.

Feel like the standards are asking you to toss aside learning experiences important to you and your community?  In this session, learn how you can use the standards to better teach the things you know and love.  The Iowa Fine Arts Standards are powerful tools for educators, whether in improving our teaching, discovering new potential in the things we already do, and yes, inspiring and developing new experiences for our students.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is inherent in the arts but it must be activated in order to have impact. If you want to influence the social and emotional wellbeing of your students, then SEL must be authentic and embedded into instruction. This session will include an overview of SEL, including its definition and history. We will discuss how to embed SEL into theatre curriculum in order to be most effective, and will share SEL embedded lessons and resources. 

In this hands-on session, participants will work through a 3-step sequence that can help us move from arts enhancement to arts integration. Participants will use examples of aligned content and arts standards to explore arts integration lesson development, implementation and assessment. Take-home samples and resources will be provided.

In ...With Special Guest, participants will learn about ways to improve their concerts by adding community involvement. Participants will leave with a list of band repertoire at many levels that could be used to increase community involvement.

Movement Session: Individual exploration of Words (verbs, adverbs, adjectives) as stimuli to initiate movement followed by the creation of short group movement/dance studies based on Words. Various dance structures (canon/round, theme and variation) will be included in session activities.

Nurturing mindsets, developing systems, and embedding the Design Process are key elements that pave the way for success with STEAM initiatives.  A team of staff from McKinley STEAM Academy will reflect on stumbles and triumphs in their school's journey and offer ideas to boost the effectiveness of your next steps.  This session is targeted toward both individuals and teams.  

How might neurofeedback technology and music combine to support students' social-emotional wellness? Sixth grade instrumental students explored this question in a collaborative residency inspired by the work of Creative Technologist Jason Snell that uses EEG data from brain waves to create electronic music. The students used his ME Station technology, learned simple mindfulness strategies to change their brain state, and composed their own instrumental piece to express what they’ve learned about the brain. Learn how the social-emotional and creative strategies impacted students and can be adapted for your classroom. 

This session will walk through the steps to develop a transdisciplinary lesson incorporating the visual arts, science and language arts. The attendees will walk away with a lesson and hands-on activity. 

Where does inspiration come from?  Learn how I encourage my students through actively playing, experimenting, and collaborating in their artistic process.  In this session, you will engage in multiple activities designed to enable you to find your artistic voice so you may educate, inspire, and empower others.   

Individual exploration focusing on the movement/dance concept “Shape” (symmetrical, asymmetrical, straight, curved, twisted) followed by the creation of short group movement/dance studies. Additional movement/dance concepts (level, speed, rhythm, energy) will be included in session activities.

In this engaging session, educators will explore several ways to excite learners. As a group we will explore hands-on activities that build bridges between all elements of STEAM. We will explore the arts with multiple "hats" on to show all the ways we as educators can seamlessly incorporate the arts into STEAM and subjects like science or math into the arts. This is education working smarter, not harder.

Adventures in Social Development’s all-inclusive, intermediary model utilized role-play strategies designed to increase opportunities for achieving successful outcomes with complex social situations. Through processes of re-enactment, rehearsal, repetition and modeling, participants explore multiple possible outcomes to lived experiences. In a safe environment, with peers, participants examine alternative solutions to unwanted behavioral consequences while receiving validation and contact reinforcement for performing the most viable, socially appropriate solution. Exploring alternative solutions changes attitudes and perceptions about complex social issues and augments social skills development. Our person-centered approach to adaptive behavior strategies and social competencies embraces diversity and inclusion within the community.

Music is a universal language! This hands-on session will feature folk songs, dances, stories, singing games, and activities to incorporate into your curriculum, with particular attention to non-European countries.

This session will give attendees practical and innovative ways to incorporate the four artistic processes of Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting into your large group lesson planning and performances. In addition to making your teaching more standards-based, this approach to large ensemble teaching will invigorate both teachers and students and enhance student learning and achievement.

STUDENT PERFORMANCES

AFTERNOON SESSIONS

This session will highlight one elementary grade level and how they integrated multiple art forms into one literacy unit of study. Arts integration strategies used include visual thinking strategies, tableau, and artist residencies. It will highlight how the art and music teachers at one elementary school were successful in collaborating with the grade level team and local community artists to benefit students.

Modern Band is a new and exciting learning opportunity that you can bring to your school!  In this session, experience a modern band lesson, learn about the basic principles of teaching and leading a modern band, and see how a modern band course worked in an Iowa school (hint: huge success!).  Best yet, participants will leave with a program starter-kit featuring classroom outfit suggestions, a modern band course programming proposal for administrators, a complete course curriculum you can use on day one, and more at no cost!

Give students what they NEED... the Crucial C's.  Learn a creative way to work on your student's mental health, SEL (Social Emotional Learning), and at the same time have the students WANT to learn more in your content area.  Kids sometimes are missing four necessities that each child must have to successfully meet life's challenges.  These are not rules, not something children have to master and consciously remember.  They are beliefs that teachers, parents, and other adults can foster in children that will serve them throughout their life.  Courage, Capable, Count, and Connect can give children and adults the foundation to meet life's challenges as they come and become great learners.

Attention educators, administrators, business executives, and people passionate about education: this workshop will teach you how to leverage your professional networks to support and spread transdisciplinary STEAM culture and climate in your district, schools, and classrooms. Dr. Yen Verhoeven, author of “REBEL Teaching: How Anyone Can Start a Repurposing Revolution in Education” and President of Qi Learning Research Group, will lead you through a series of exercises to help you develop a plan for your STEAM vision. You’ll also receive a toolbox of tips, tricks, resources, and strategies to bring that vision to life.

Incorporating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) into our classrooms doesn't have to be rocket science. Small adjustments to how we select literature and design curriculum can introduce our students to composers and musicians from various backgrounds, along with music from cultures from around the world. We'll also discuss common mistakes we make and how to avoid them.

What if you could help the diverse youth in your community to work together and learn self-expression while at the same time building their leadership and workforce skills?  That is what the creative and technical art of filmmaking can bring to your students.  With the Fresh Films program, which runs in the Quad Cities and across the country, we’ll share how film is not just about the camera, but the process - from developing a concept, to filming, editing and distributing it.  It’s a collaborative industry employing thousands of people with different skills  - and it’s accessible to students here in Iowa.

One Great Line combines STEAM and Literary curriculum with the performing arts, bringing live theater into the classroom. Students learn how theatre artists use the Design Process and explore how the technical and dramatic aspects of a production provide a deeper connection to literature. One Great Line utilizes "theater in a box" concept, allowing students to engage in lights, sound, set and costumes and dramatic direction. Students collaborate to dramatize "one great line" from literature, collaboratively developing technical and dramatic elements that bring the text to life. The presenters will guide participants through stations of each technical aspect. After the final rotation, the participants come together in a brief performance of their "one great line."

Learn how to engage older students by incorporating mini-history music lessons (from J.S. Bach to Snoop Dogg) into general music, choir, band, or orchestra curriculum. Understanding history is vital to learning, and nearly every question in a music classroom can involve history. From notation to gestures or technicality to aural listening - history can bring music to life for both performers and listeners. 

Put away your notepad, and get your head in the game! Theatre skills can do more than grow excellent productions; they are fantastic tools for building collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and active citizenship skills. The best part of practicing soft skills with games is that there are no life-changing risks to winning or losing, but games can still empower players to learn for life. It's all reward with no risk!

CLOSING SESSION