For many generations, teaching artists have been vital contributors to community-based arts education. In fact, teaching artists gave Benny Goodman his first clarinet lesson and Louis Armstrong his first cornet lesson!
United Arts seeks to cultivate strong teaching artists for Wake County schools and to help artists reflect on their teaching practices. The following resources are for artists participating in the Artists in Schools program for those who are beginning to think about teaching in schools. Check back back often for updated resources.
Arts Integration
Arts integration supports learning by integrating arts and non-arts disciplines. As defined by the Kennedy Center, arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both.
Teaching Theory
Good teaching, according to the 2011 study “Teaching Artists and the Future of Education," is:
- Student-centered. It starts with students’ interests and what they already know, offers them real challenges, choices and responsibilities, and features curriculum that connects, rather than fragmenting, ideas across subject areas.
- Cognitive. Learning is the consequence of thinking and making work that demonstrates mastery of meaningful ideas and compelling problems. Good teaching employs the range of communicative media — including the arts — and makes student reflection a regular part of the learning experience.
- Social. Students learn better together. The classroom is a community, and students are its citizens. Teachers nurture the community and provide intellectual, emotional, and social support to students.
Read the full report on teaching artists in schools.
Behavior Management
Implementing behavior management techniques is crucial to a program's success. Whether facilitating a hands-on program for a small group in a classroom, or presenting an assembly performance to a large audience, teaching artists should proactively establish and enforce expectations for behavior. When possible, learn a school's specific techniques and discipline methods, and collaborate with teachers to build on what is already familiar to students.
- Behavior management
- Establishing classroom rules (tips)
- Transitioning between activities (tips)
- Special education
North Carolina School Contacts
School District Publishing prints the North Carolina School Guide. This resource includes general contact information for public, private, catholic, and charter schools throughout the state, as well as region education service alliances schools, some selected educational organizations, and the Board of Education.
NC State Standards
North Carolina's Standard Course of Study defines the appropriate content standards for each grade level and each high school course to provide a uniform set of learning standards for every public school in North Carolina. This resource includes standard areas, Common Core State Standards, and the North Carolina Essential Standards.