Youth in Arts is excited to be teaching summer school at several sites and mentoring teachers to incorporate STEAM learning. As with all of our programs, our goal is to help students find their voices and share their stories. At Davidson Middle School, Mentor Artist Tracy Eastman is making murals with nearly 100 students. “They are student-driven murals created around the idea of community art as a change-making tool,” said Youth in Arts’ Program Director Kelsey Rieger. “Students brainstormed about world issues and what message they wanted to share with their community, and will be creating their murals based on the solutions they come up with.”
At Bahia Vista Elementary School, Mentor Artist Cathy Bowman is teaching literacy to incoming first graders through the arts. Using visual arts, movement and sound, the goal for students will be to increase their knowledge and understanding of certain words and sounds, and to ignite a passion for reading that will inspire them throughout the school year. Some projects include making letters with our bodies and creating letter monsters in special sketch journals, where students reflect on and write about their work. Each session includes a book with a story that reinforces words learned that day.
“Our summer work is an exciting outgrowth of the programs we provide year round, ” said Youth in Arts’ Executive Director Miko Lee. “We know students learn in multiple ways, and we are using the arts to find innovative ways to reach all learners.”
We are also working in partnership with Agency By Design to mentor nearly 20 teachers who attended the STEAM professional development workshop recently with Youth in Arts, the Marin County Office of Education and other STEM experts. Those teachers are working this summer at Davidson, Lu Sutton Elementary School and San Jose Middle School.
The teachers were among the more than 60 educators who attended the weeklong STEAM program, which looked at how the environment impacts people and how people impact the environment. We asked K-12 teachers to envision how they could teach the California Environmental Principles and Concepts.
