ARTS & SEL

Image by Al Morales

SEL ORIGIN STORY

I never needed research studies to persuade me that the arts provide deep opportunities to grow in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, or responsible decision-making (key competencies of social and emotional learning, or SEL). By the time I was preparing to be a high school teacher, I’d had nearly two decades of experience with the transformative power of music.

With my mother Gretchen, c. 1979. When she was studying to become a Suzuki violin teacher, I was just old enough to be her guinea pig.

arts in my classroom

As a high school English teacher, I welcomed students every day with music, sometimes related to the work were were studying, sometimes marking the birthday of an artist or composer, sometimes suggested by students. Poetry writing got its own unit, but new poems appeared for a 15-minute encounter most Fridays. Drama process techniques and games were sprinkled throughout all units as warmups and energizers.

arts and alternative education

When I began to lead an alternative school, my first staffing decision was to arrange for a permanent Artist in Residence. Art teacher Roy Chambers and Project ’79 staff collaborated on dozens of projects over the years, most often attached to no grade at all, and targeted for students who didn’t (yet) see themselves as “artists.” We knew that some of our students weren’t always comfortable putting their thoughts into words—but every kid has ideas to share. A few favorite public art projects are collected in the video gallery below.

Roy Chambers and a student prepare for a knit-bomb-refurbished-bike-rack installation.

We estimated that our school’s bike racks were 50 years older than our students.

Science classes calculated how much gas would be saved if students rode instead of drove to school.

The knit bomb bikes installed at each refurbished rack dared students to ride and park nearby.

PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

PROJECT INVISIBLE

12th-graders stage invisiblility installations throughout the high school. Inspired by Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Chinese artist Liu Bolin, the installations evoked many informal exchanges about the reasons some kids feel invisible. (December 2012)

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EYES WIDE OPEN

High school humanities students invite the community to chalk up giant butcher paper canvases, completing prompts like “I wish …“ and “We fear …” and “I dream ….” over several months. Inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, canvases were accompanied by dozens of portraits of participants’ eyes. (2012-13)

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HUMAN CHESSBOARD

When chess fever strikes a school community, why not stage a tournament that culminates in students, teachers, and alumni becoming living rooks, bishops, pawns, and queens controlled by the grand masters? (April 2012)

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CUTE/COOL

What stories do our toys tell? How are we sold on what’s cute—or cool? Taking over a classroom and a courtyard, 11th-graders explore what we mean by “cute” and “cool” through chalk graffiti, music, photography, guerrilla theatre, and at least one diorama of Barbie’s prom house. Inspired by Gary Cross and WNYC. (Spring 2008)

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metal tree

Recognize undersides of the everyday: students lead a community effort to explore conservation as they rinse and repurpose aluminum cans. Inspired by artist Roxy Paine. (2010-11)

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LISTENING ROOM

What if you invited New York City to lounge around and listen? Here are podcast audio and YouTube documents of a very cool experiment in public listening undertaken by the New York Public Library. (December 2018)

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LOVE'S LABOUR'S LIT

Behind the scenes of Buffalo’s Shakespeare in Delaware Park, free and open for the public to engage. Hear how a thousand people gather for a picnic and a play breaks out. Podcast audio and video versions. (Summer 2019)

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NOTES FROM

the arts & sel: a synergistic pairing

In September 2020 Arts Education Directors from across the U.S. convened a virtual summit to think together about arts education and social & emotional learning, especially in light of the COVID pandemic they were just beginning to contend with. I was engaged to take notes and distill many brilliant ideas into two pages. Here’s what I came up with.

seadae summit data display

Background image by Roy Chambers @chambersartegrity

STUDY GUIDE FOR

THE NINTH HOUR

Over the summer of 2023 Kate Douglas and Shayfer James hired me to develop a study guide for a video performance of their musical The Ninth Hour (based on Beowulf) at The Met Cloisters. Featuring lyrics peppered with discussion questions and activities based on storytelling, poetry, design, drama, movement/choreography, and music, the 35-page guide engages competencies related to 11 National Core Arts Anchor Standards and 18 Common Core State Anchor Standards for English Language Arts. Click the button for more information.

THE NINTH HOUR STUDY GUIDE

RELATED PODCAST EPISODES

MAESTRO JOANN FALLETTA

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Joann Falletta maintains that music is an international language, and that young people in particular learn powerful lessons in self and social awareness from learning to make music together. (November 2020)

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DANCING BADLY WITH RINDE ECKERT

Rinde Eckert is an internationally renowned performer who excels at encouraging students to find their unique powers of personal expression. (March 2023)

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HOW TO CONNECT WITH TEENS WITH MAUREEN MAZZARESE

Maureen Mazzarese is a therapist and counselor with more than four decades of experience. In our conversation from the fall of 2017 we discuss “givens” of adolescent development, some basics of connecting with teens (and some things to avoid).

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DRAMA, DEMOCRACY & HAMILTON WITH OSKAR EUSTIS

Oskar Eustis is the Artistic Director of the Public Theater in NYC. With a hand in stage masterworks from Angels in America to Hamilton, he traces the relationship between drama and democracy to Greece in the 5th century BCE. (February 2018)

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MASTER CLASS WITH THOMAS HALPIN

Thomas Halpin’s disciplined and systematic, yet caring approach to my violin technique when I was in high school informed my approach to teaching high school English. (December 2017)

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ANCIENT GREEKS ON WAR WITH ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN

In my conversation with award-winning playwright Ellen McLaughlin from August 2022, we focus on her versions of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, exploring what the ancient Greeks have to teach us about the costs of war.

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