0019 8 All right, let's go ahead and call our work session for Monday, March 9th to order. Um we'll go ahead and start with um a roll call for our forum. JC >> President Galith >> present. >> Vice President Müller >> present. >> Secretary Miller. Board member Murray present. Board member Barry >> present. >> We have a forum. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. We'd like to welcome everyone out. We'd like to excuse Beth Miller. Probably many of you know she's put in her resignation, but we'll talk more about that in the main meeting today. Um she wishes she could be here though with us. But we'd like to welcome everyone out. This is really fun. We've got so many um families and I know we have this big space I believe right for
002the kids to come in here in just a few minutes. So, I'm so excited about this actually. So, I'm super excited. But thank you everyone for taking time to be here with us today. Um, and yeah, we'd like Dr. D, welcome to Conserver. Um, so we will start tonight or this afternoon with approving our prioritized agenda and proposed time allocations. I can get a motion. >> Board member Muller. Motion to approve the agenda and proposed time allocation. Board member Barry second. Motion second. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Okay. Um so our first item and only item today is to go over this board work session for integrative arts. Dr. Cleveland, where do you want to start things off and then hand it off over to to your directors? A couple
003of years ago, uh we began to look at some uh possibilities for some magnet programs or specialty programs that um we thought might offer parents more choices. We live in a world today of choice and uh the more choices that you offer people uh we find that parents are more satisfied with that. that we were looking even more importantly. Was there some ways to increase student engagement and student academic performance? And were there schools that were accomplishing that by using maybe some different approaches and some different techniques? And we did um we had some folks do a lot of work over the last two years, but we identified some schools that we wanted to visit. Uh we took a group including parents to uh the Denver area and observed some schools there and came back
004and and after a lot of discussion and having discussion with the board um decided to move forward with um this year a pilot a pilot program for uh integrated arts and then to move into implementation this year. And so they're going to share with you um kind of where we've come from, all that we've accomplished, where the program is now, and then maybe more importantly, what are the things that need to happen for this program to move forward from this point on. And so it's um we really want to thank everybody that's been part of the process, certainly um under under the the leadership of Dr. Kurt Schmid and and Jana Chanel and then the principles who have played a key role in that and and especially the staff uh who have really stepped up
005and and made this uh this an exciting adventure uh for uh for for their school. So so much time and effort and work has gone into it. Uh Beth was one of the ones that uh was part of the visit and uh came back very excited and also President Gworth also attended. Um but it was a really interesting group of folks and uh we had I found some just amazing parents who went with us on that first visit and then we have had some visits since then. So again um I'll turn it over uh who's going to make the introductions. Dr. Schmidt, you will begin uh this afternoon. >> Thank you uh President Gworth, members of the board, Drs. Cleveland and Dodd. Uh thank you for the opportunity today to talk to you about our
006arts integration journey over the last couple of years. As Dr. Cleveland said in a pilot situation and now we're looking forward to moving to full implementation uh in the coming years. So uh the next slide uh this is our team who's been doing the work. As you can see it's several people. It is uh myself. Morales, uh the school principles, assistant principles, instructional coaches, and uh special education instructional leaders. So, we are all I think most of us are here today, some of us in very fetching arts integration t-shirts, as you'll see. Um so, we're very excited, very, very happy with this uh this set of leaders. Next slide. So, by the end of this presentation, we hope you have a better understanding of arts integration. And I'd ask the board right now and Dr.
007Dod, just by show of thumbs, show me show me what you know about arts integration. Like, yes, I know arts integration. I can teach it. I'm not too sure about it or I know nothing about what you're talking about. Just show me, right? >> I mean, I'm with you, so I look pretty. >> No. Okay, great. So, hopefully by the end of this presentation, you'll have a better understanding of what what we're talking about. Um, you'll have a an idea of the history of our journey. Uh, Dr. Cleveland let you in and stole a bit of my thunder for one of the slides here but that's all right. Uh the successes, challenges and requests as we move forward. So what is arts integration? Uh there are a lot of different definitions out there. The one
008under which we operate is that which was developed by the Kennedy Center years ago. Um we have been in a partnership with the Kennedy Center and the Santa Fe Opera since 2012. And I'll talk more about that partnership later, but this is the definition under which we operate. And I'm going to read it to you, but I want you to to look particularly at the words in color. So 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. So I would ask I would ask the board and the superintendents uh what what words maybe those in color stand out and what are your first impressions of
009of those? Even President Guff can talk even though she's been on the journey. Anybody? I I love the connects an art form to another subject area that stands out to me >> of all the objectives. I like that. >> I like approach. It's approach to teaching, right? There's lots of different ways to do it. This is one of those ways that we can bring that to our students. >> Those again all all the points uh that are in color here are are are the key key aspects of this. But the broad from our standpoint, the main main idea is that it is an approach to teaching. It is not a curriculum. It is an approach to teaching. It's a tool in the toolboxes of teachers. Um and also it takes an art form another contact
010area content area you teach the other content area through the art form but the students learn something about both in the process. So um next slide please. So it might be good to see how the arts exist in the schools. Uh right now most of most of the time when you say fine arts or uh visual and performing arts in the schools you think of band, choir, orchestra, guitar, uh visual arts, dance, drama. Those those are uh self-contained disciplines that have their own sets of standards, their own skills and knowledge bases that we want students to know and be able to do to do. Very important part of the the curriculum. An arts enhanced curriculum is is something a little bit different. And the best way to describe this, I'm going to put the board.
011I'm going to put all the parents and students on the spot. Everybody up here. We are going to sing the ABC song. All right. So, do ready? Here's your starting pitch. Just do the best you can. Here we go. Ready? A B C D >> I don't hear everybody. Q R S >> T U V W X Y and Z. >> Bravo. That went off a lot better than I thought it would. >> Kudos. Kudos to you. Um, so if if I were to say a kindergarten teacher used this in her classroom, what what is the objective of of using that song? >> Teach them the alphabet. >> To teach them the alphabet, right? It's not it's not to learn anything about vocal technique. It's not to learn about melody or rhythm or the form
012of the small piece. It's not to know the the background of it. It was written by Mozart. All those things. The idea is to learn the ABCs. Uh that is that is arts. that is arts enhanced curriculum or arts enhanced approach to to teaching. Um, another another way of thinking would be a teacher saying after reading a a short story, draw me a picture of your favorite favorite character and maybe write a write a character description underneath. The teacher is not interested necessarily in in brush stroke and color color contrast and shading and things like that. The idea is to learn something about the character. that is arts enhanced um uh curriculum. An arts integrated curriculum is as we said before an approach to teaching where students learn have an evolving objective in both and
013they learn something about both. So one one arts integration example would be teaching the water cycle through dance. Students not only learn the water cycle and that science lesson but they also learn something about using their bodies expressively in a creative way. Um so they learn something about dance time. So that's kind that's that's how the arts operate in our school system and the difference between arts enhanced curriculum and arts integrated curriculum. There's often confusion between the two. So next slide. Uh one major misconception of arts integration is that it it supplants existing curricula. That is not the case. It is it is as we said an approach to teaching. It is a tool in the toolbox of the teachers and it is the how not the what of of instruction. And next slide. Um,
014so you might ask why why do we why are we bothering with arts integration? Well, there are a lot of different different approaches or different reasons that are laid out here. It offers a different way. It offers different ways to approach content, fosters student and teacher creativity, gets students out of their seats and moving, which is really important. Uh, provides alternative ways for assessment. And the next bullet point is very important. It provides students who may struggle with the written word uh for as a basis or a gateway into another content area. Uh students through arts integration, they have meaningful discussions with each other. They activate prior knowledge and on that basis they can move on to to the written and spoken written written word and and both reading and writing. And finally, studies show
015that there is a positive correlation between work and arts integration and other academic gains. And there's a link in this presentation you all have access to that that can take you to some of those studies. Um we want to we want to stress that the arts integration is not a magic bullet. We don't expect it we don't expect magical things to happen. We expect magical things to happen but not in its totality. Um this is simply a component to a well-rounded approach to teach our children. However, we do believe this is a very powerful component uh in the arsenal of teachers as they as they do the work teaching our children. So, Dr. Cleveland did mention a bit about the journey um that started in early 2024. Uh she had approached me and was talking
016about arts at arts magnet school and I brought up the idea that maybe an arts integration school would be good because we've done this work since 2012 under our partnership. Um, as it happened after our conversation and when I was doing some research, I went to an arts integration conference and was seated at a table uh for dinner uh with the principal and the instructional coach from the Belmar School of Integrated Arts up in uh Lakewood, Colorado. And I mentioned we were starting to look at arts integration schools and they very graciously invited some of us to come up and see the school. So the principal there designed a tour for some of us. So Mr. Schnol, Mr. Dodto and I went up in the spring of 2024, visited the BMAR School of Inter Granite
017Arts, which is a K through5 public school, Bell Arts they called themselves. Uh we also saw the uh the Studio School, which is a start charter school, and the Charles Burrell School of Visual Performing Arts, which is also a charter school. And we came away very very excited, came back, talked to Dr. Cleveland, and she says we took a large group that fall up to visit the Belmar School of Integrated Arts and Charles. So, and so what we um what we the takeaways we had from that visit were high student engagement, much student self-regulation, much student collaboration, student explanation of their own learning in their own words, a lot of a lot of studentto student talk, a lot of studenttoteer talk, uh alignment of arts integration and curriculum, a lack of negative behavior, and also
018most importantly, we saw really real joyful teaching and and learning going on. And there's a there's a link there uh to some photos Mr. Dodto took. He was our our resident photographer on that trip. Uh there there are a lot of pictures from those schools we visited in the spring of 2024. So uh we were very very taken with Belmar School of Integrated Arts. They they seem to have have gone through the stuff they wished us not to have to go through and they they suggest made some suggestions about where to start and what to include. So they have two foundational uh programs. One is acting right which we'll talk about in a minute. The other is reading art which I'll also describe. So next slide. Their first foundational program is acting right which is
019a behavior program. Uh first and foremost uh this this lays the groundwork for all future arts integration work. Uh it gets students out of their chairs active moving which is the type of work we want to see in an arts integration classroom. It also kills two birds with one stone since we are dealing with behavior issues. We thought another behavior program experimental behavior program that's tried and true could be used in our district. So the key one of the key components of acting right is that it believes the philosophy behind it is that behavior is a literacy that has to be taught. It's it's not something to react to. It's something we explicitly teach our students um you know how to behave and how to how to the teachers know how to react to emerging
020behavioral problems and how to address them. It also has um has the focus or the idea that we're we want students to be able to have a calm body, a focused mind and balanced emotions. That's a that's a those are stressed in the program. And um there are other other uh components here. The actor's toolbox, the concentration circle, cooperation challenge, and tableau, which we'll describe a little bit more in in detail. The one thing to to consider is that the acting right is mainly a behavior program. It does end in Tableau, which I'll define later, but Tableau is more of an instructional tool to be used in other situations. Next slide. So the other the other uh foundational program they have is reading art and this is um the premise here is that visual art
021is a text that that all students can access whether they struggle with the written word whether they're EEL students etc. Um it helps as a gateway into another content area. Uh students have conversations about the text about the content content of the of the artwork. uh builds background knowledge, helps those who might struggle with a written word build a foundation upon which to to further their own reading and writing. Um one I one example of this is uh the Civil War. So instead of just launching into a unit civil war, a teacher could bring out several portraits of famous figures in the Civil War um other other artwork about the Civil War. Students would have artistic discussions about these about these pieces of art, about the content, have rich discussions with each other, and then
022it gives them gives them activates their background knowledge before they launch into the the content proper. >> Can I add one more thing? Um, probably one of the best PD opportunities we ever have ever been to, but they also use it as here's several portraits. What do you think we're going to be reading about? So based on what they might have in common, it could be a portrait to a landscape, different types of pictures. They have to pull things together and try to figure out what am I going to read about exactly. And then there's different strategies, different things to look for. And I could do the song, but I don't think I would remember all the parts to it. And then after they they enter the text, then they come back to the picture
023and again, how do your how does your lens look differently at these photos now or the art now that you've read the piece? And they go back several times between the text and between the images. So, it was actually You're going to go this year, right? >> Yes, sir. >> It was pretty phenomenal. I think those of us who went found it to be one of the the best opportunities we had had. And we were at Crystal Bridges, which is an outstanding museum. >> Thank you. >> Um, so no singing. >> No singing. >> Um, the some some um background of the Belmar School of Integrated Arts. Uh, you know, we're basing ourselves on their their model. um some pretty outstanding statistics from them. Their attendance rate is 94%. After all these years of doing
024arts integration, their chronic absentee rate is only 1%. Um the year after they fully implemented acting right, the behavior behavior program, they saw a 75% decrease in behavioral referrals to the office, which is pretty substantial. The school did go through some major changes in 2013. there was some redistricting that occurred and um after that after the redistricting a third of their school both both students and staff were new had not had any background in arts integration. So the data over those years was a little wonky but they are starting to see it was flat before doing the work in arts integration but they are starting to see some background gains and again not a magic bullet but it is a component an important component of of success. So um u the idea of having two
025schools was Dr. Cleveland's idea. Um have two schools move this this model uh so that they can work with each other, lead on each other when they're doing this work. So we we decided on Enchanted Hills and San Die Vista for a number of reasons. The reasons we started here is that both schools have leadership with a real passion for the arts. Um we have very strong art and music specialists in those schools and the instructional coaches at these schools have they have themselves a background in the arts and both our drama have a drama background which fits in really well with with acting right which is a drama not basically a drama. Before we began this work we realized we have a lot of stuff in place already that that will assist this work.
026We have art and music teachers in every school every year um since the inception of the school district. This is real credit uh to the district. We have had full-time art and music teachers at every school site teaching kids art and music every grade every single year. So that that is a real plus in this work. We have partnerships. Uh we have the New Mexico Alliance for Responsive Teaching or NM Art. That's our partnership with the Kennedy Center and the Santa Fe Opera. And I should explain that a little bit right now. that partnership. Um the the Kennedy Center has said for for u this program which is partners in education or the PI program you need one cultural institution in a community and a school district and that's a partnership. Our partnership is the
027Santa Fe Opera which is the cultural institution and four school districts Rancho Santa Fe Albuquerque and Las Vegas city schools. So that's our partnership and what we've done since 2012 is offer free of charge to to to teachers um uh workshops in art arts integration. So we've been doing this work for many years now and the I the idea is that they have they go to a workshop in arts integration they understand what it is they're taught strategies that they can immediately return to the class and start losing. And this has been very a very popular program. We have managed to get every teacher at San Die Vista and enchanted hills to at least one of these workshops this year just so they have a taste of what arts integration is. So that's one of
028the partnerships we we have in place upon which we build. We have a partnership with National Dance Institute New Mexico and I'll describe those a little bit later. And we have a separate uh program with the Santa Fe Opera, a student produced opera program where teaching artists come in from the opera and they lead our students in developing student produced operas uh both liberty and and music for that. Uh we have an arts run from the community. We have guaranteed and viable curriculum. We have strong collaboration between the site uh instructional coaches. Um, and as I said, well, I'll describe some of these memberships a little bit more in detail later. So, the the structuring timeline we had in place, we came up with was that year zero last school year would be simply a
029year for education. We wanted to educate the board of education. We wanted to educate the teachers, the staff, the parents, the teachers, I think I said the teachers, um, the students just what art situation is. So, we it was our educational year. This year we call year year one which is our pilot year. We're wrapping that up. We have implemented acting right. That's the the foundational program we need to start with. We've gotten all the teachers through an arts integration workshop with our with our partnership with NM art. Next year year two we'll begin full implementation. We'll introduce reading art continue to work with acting right and continue the work with arts integration workshops. In year three, it will be all the above, but we'll add emphasis on public performances and displays of of learning.
030Excuse me. And the last line on here is what we're striving to do. Learning, trial and error, failure must be embraced. Innovation with permission to fail must be the culture. And we want teachers to take risks the same way we ask teach students to take risks. That is a little hard for teachers sometimes because they're rule followers and they don't like making mistakes, especially for their children. But we're we're asking them to to be creative, lean into that um and again be willing to take risks for their students. Next slide. Focus 5 is an organization of arts uh integration consulting and it's the the parent organization of acting of acting right and reading art. We we have been working with them uh for some time. In fact, the the two co-founders of Focus 5 are
031are Sean Lane, who authored Acting Right, and Melanie Rick, who authored Reading Art. So, uh, for for acting right this year, Mr. Lane has been out five times throughout the year to give, uh, it's give professional development to both school sites. Uh, one usually one or two to three days each time he visits each school site. Uh the staff have read this book and uh we have we've had online training modules in arts integration acting right and how to set up your classroom for arts integration work. Miss Rick will be here in May for an introductory uh session to the two schools on reading art and she'll we'll do some intensive work with her next year at those school sites. Um and again these foundational programs will be reinforced every year in professional development. I
032should also say we had um the the principal and instructional coach from Belmar School of Integrated Arts visit us just a few weeks ago for another set of eyes on the work and especially through the their lenses of having done this work. They gave some very important feedback on what they saw in our in our classrooms and and had great meetings with leadership. The instructional coach, our instructional coaches got to meet with their instructional coach for some intensive work, etc. So, um, by the way, I do have, um, I do have copies of acting, right? If anybody would like to have one, uh, just see me afterward and get you a copy in case you read that on. So, moving forward, uh, last summer, we did, as Mr. Schnel said, we did take, uh, several
033administrators and teachers to Benville, Arkansas to Crystal Bridges Museum uh, for a session on reading art. We also went to the focus five conference in Denver. Uh and at that conference there are a lot of different strategies that are are presented that we could bring back to our district. We're doing those same conferences again this year taking many more teachers uh again uh some district office personnel and administrators from the schools. And I could just add, I think unless you can see it somewhere else, it's kind of hard for people to understand. When we rolled this out, trying to explain it, even watching the videos online, it's very difficult to to really comprehend what this whole process is. But once you get to see it and you're I guess embedded within it, >> it's very
034different. And then it's like, okay, this is what this is about. I think we all kind of struggled at first, like, what does this look like? So it's really important for us to get people there in person so they can live the experience with other people who are from similar schools >> and to develop a lot of excitement. I think we all come back from these conferences really excited about this this high. >> Um >> can can I add just one thing there? uh you know it's when we first were beginning to look at this and there was a lot of discussion about why this particular area and what would why why why were we looking so much at integrated arts and we saw a lot of of really interesting studies on and most of
035us know that um the the positive impact that fine arts has on the brain the mind the thinking and u I don't know if you've ever read an autobio a biography or an autobiography um about um Albert Einstein. But Einstein and I'm just going to read this real short piece. Al um Albert Einstein's assert assertion was that his scientific insights were all driven by musical intuition alongside conceptual overlaps where both disciplines explore space, time, and structure. Albert Einstein famously stated that the theory of relativity occurred to him by tuition of music, specifically by playing the violin and the piano and it served as a driving force behind his his intuition and his belief about um um how things worked in in in the universe. He believed that music helped him build a mental perception fabric
036of space and time. And he would talk about when he would run into a problem he just could not could not move on, he would just put it aside, go away, and then go and he would either play the the piano, the violin, and after a while he playing it, he would go back and he was able to actually work through those problems intellectually. And so we we know we look at our students in the district and we see the impact of fine arts in terms of their academic performance and their success in many areas. And so we we knew that there there's there there has to be that tie there that would really help engage student. We're looking for engagement. We're looking for meaningful learning. And uh but it goes back to I I
037think it's just kind of interesting his story about um how it helped him solve the most some of the most difficult scientific problems uh of of the past century. So I'll turn it back to you, but I it's an interest if you ever get a chance read it because talks about the power not just of music but of other fine arts but particularly he was a passionate pianist and and violinist. >> Thank you. Thanks for that. Um we've also this year lead a lot on our partnerships. I described NMR2 and getting every teacher through to arts integration workshop. Um there also we've there also is a bank of lesson plans through the Kennedy c center's website where where teachers can simply go there download it review it and apply it immediately to the classrooms and
038these these are this work um together. So we were starting to brainstorm. So this is just an internal document that we came up with. We have the grade level the upcoming CKLA which is our um ELA curriculum and we have the the priority standard our common core standards. So again what we're doing with this is we're not changing what we're teaching. We're just teaching it in different forms. So, for example, here's kindergarten. Um, use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative text. Well, I don't know if you've been around kindergarteners lately, but um that's not their top priority. Um, so we thought, let's we're learned how to Tableau with acting right. Let's start integrating that in a really intentional way. Um, and so they can in small groups they're going to read
039theirformational text from CKLA, our published curriculum, and they're going to act that out and they can sequence it and then they c and then the writing piece comes in and then they label it. So I have an acting piece, an illustration piece, and then a writing piece. And so what we've done is we've looked at um our New Mexico core art standards. There are 11 New Mexico core art standards. Um and so we're starting to sort of delve into that evolving objectives and both which you noticed um in the Kennedy Center definition. >> Thank you. just that Amy and and Diana, both of the instructional coaches have done a really great job of instituting not just the priority standards work that our our CNI is rolling out with our teachers, but then being able to
040make it something that does not feel overwhelming as they start to look at the art standards to integrate with that. So, it's been really successful. >> I'm sorry, I'm Jennifer. I'm the principal at >> Thank you. Uh, next slide. So some of the successes we've seen this year, we've seen student excitement around the work. We've seen a common language evolve around the work. Um we're seeing teachers teaching behavior as a literacy as as intended. Um we're seeing a lot of movement opportunities for students. Um we're seeing seeing work that supports brain based learning and development as Dr. Cleveland mentioned the relationship with brain brain research. Uh we've seen various artistic celebration artifacts of learning around the schools etc. Did you want to ask about data from >> we've Yeah, we've heard from teachers that taught
041a unit um of the prior year without doing a tableau or without art integration and then the same unit the next year and the percentage of students that that aced that assessment was how much higher for >> it was about they quadrupled their level of proficiency. >> So they was pretty pretty strong by the way. Sorry. We know from brainbased learning that movement and a lot of particularly boys learn through time and space. That's that works for them. That's how they learn. And so this movement and being in a particular space and creating something when they go back they can imagine that and helps them remember what they've learned. So we're very excited about the brainbased piece and I know there's been some ties at Enchanted Hills and having some presentations with staff about how
042they go together. >> I should I probably should define tableau right now. We've used that word several times. So tableau, a French term, it simply means a a picture frozen in time um by a group of people, each member of the group showing a different part. So it might be a tableau on on Washington's crossing of the Delaware. It might be a tableau on the digestive cycle. It might be a tableau on the rain cycle, that sort of thing. So it's a it's a frozen picture using your bodies to to create a picture. We did this with my high school students after we went and watched it and it was fun. It was fun to do with my high school kids, too. >> And if you've ever been to Lagouna um at Christmas time, they
043have frozen um pictures that they do in their art community there and they have people that are all costumed out and they do Frozen pictures there during the I think the month of December. It's pretty incredible. You might heard the term tablo which which is a which was in the turn of the last century was a very popular theme get together and create these these these images. Next slide. So some work we need to continue on is teacher clarity and buyin. Um we need to we need to be very clear about what this should look like and what it should sound like and some teachers are still not sure about what they're doing. So we need to we need to keep working on that. We need to work on developing a fluency with our teachers
044with this work. Uh teacher comfort to experiment and take risks as I mentioned before and convincing teachers that this is not one more thing to do. It's it's not one more thing. It's how you do your thing as as Amy just said. And uh also talk about time for implementation and collaboration. And we we're there's some students coming. We're going to have a demonstration in just a few minutes. But uh just to wrap up my portion of it, our portion of it uh funding, we already have some funding mechanisms in place which which help this work. The fine arts education act or FAEA is a part of the SEG that supports fine arts in the in the elementary schools. So uh that covers art and music teacher salaries, supplies, professional development. It also covers our
045costs for our partnerships with NDI, the Kennedy Center, and the Santa Fe Opera. Um we have operational funds that cover GE teachers teachers uh salaries etc. And uh the biggest expense is for professional development. U research shows that professional development should not be a one-off. It should be sustained and supportive. Um and that's what we're trying to do. Make sure we want to make sure our staff has has all the all the tools necessary through through professional development insight. So during years one and two, we have been looking at alternative um areas for uh for funding. Um we we're a little behind in that work, although the school sites are looking at uh fundraising to raise some money for professional development to take over those costs. The original request, which was an estimate, um was
046for four $50,000 for four years. That includes both school sites. $50,000 for both schools inclusive. Um this was for is again an estimate. Uh funding commenced last year covered professional development for 175 staff members which was pretty good bargain and also 120 hours of professional development which we thought was pretty a good a good bang for the buck as it were. U it did cost it does cover some supplies and some books etc. And again, we're trying to offset this when we find alternative sources of funding. So the next slide, the Okay, so the next uh the request we have is for $130,000 for the next two years to wrap up wrap up um uh the the the implementation work. And again, this is a result of having a better idea now what it means
047to be successful. Uh I'm trying to hurry up because we have limited time. We will be doing a lot of assessment including surveys uh talking to teachers and students and parents uh to see where this work is is going how it's going. Uh we'll start comparing behavioral data, attendance data and so forth and achievement data in the future. So uh we have two videos we would like to show you. They're three minutes each. Uh there's one from Sandy Vista, one from Enchant Hills. It kind of gives you an idea of what what the work is like there. So, we'll start with those. We'll move on to some demonstrations. >> And kudos to our educational technology specialist who put these together for us. Control of my body. My voice, my imagination tries, my concentration, my focal
048point. I will cooperate and collaborate. Our hands are by our side. We are standing in neutral. Our eyes are on a focal point. They're not moving around. Hi, I'm Hillary Cervantes. I teach third grade. What I love about acting, right, is we come in together, we do that concentration circle. It's really great for my students because that's where they start to really get focused for the day. They're balancing their emotions. They're calming their energy and going into that work space. The challenges have been really helpful because my students know that when they're working at their desks independently that their focal point is now their work, their computer and they're blocking out all of the other distractions around them. >> My name's Killian. I'm in fifth grade. Whenever we come in from recess, we're like very
049worked up. So whenever we do that, we like concentrate and it helps us control our bodies and stuff. So when we sit back down, we can control ourselves and actually learn. >> When I count to six, I want you in four equal groups. So close, but not >> by the time I count to five, I want five equal groups. >> Excellent. You guys are successful going into the tables. That's probably my students favorite part, my favorite part. You're quickly able to see their mind start creating. They're looking at things in different ways. They're understanding content a lot deeper when they're introducing their tableau to the class. They're using that academic vocabulary and they're really gaining a deep understanding of what it is we're teaching and they're having fun doing that. And so I have really
050enjoyed being a part of acting right and arts integration and teaching it, learning about it and seeing my students perform. >> Hello, I'm Miss Ferrer and I teach fourth grade at San Die. I have really enjoyed the arts integration activities. really gets the kids engaged especially in building comprehension of the topics whether it be vocabulary comprehension or content. I really like doing like tableau cuz tablets are really fun by the way we learn through them instead of writing down on paper or trying to remember and you can get it like into our brain by showing it with tableau and our bodies to try to remember it. We'll watch both videos before we have a student demonstration. Um, I'm very excited to have integrated arts here at our school. I think it's been transformative in the
051classroom. Just recently we did a geology unit on uh volcanoes and geysers and it was very exciting to see the students being able to work in collaborative groups and show me the parts of the volcano and how it erupts and using the vocabulary that was taught. We also have incorporated the arts into our daily math lessons. The kiddos act out our word problems in math and work together to find the solution. This has increased engagement and this has increased the learning of difficult concepts. Kindergarteners are always on the move. So, integrating arts into academics has really improved the focus, the stamina, and the retention of all of our kiddos. field. The consistent language throughout the day and throughout every setting is what we have seen make the most difference. Students are making the conscious decision
052to make strong choices, demonstrate the ability to be the boss of their brain, and honestly call each other out if they're not doing the same. Our students have demonstrated a higher level of respect for their learning environment, and have developed the courage and strength to ask them for a calm learning environment from one another. While we as teachers are the leaders of the classroom, they have learned how important their contribution is to the feel and functionality of the classroom. Acting right has been an integral part of our school day and has taught students the benefit and importance of a calm, successful learning environment and has helped them to be much more self-reflective and aware of their own behavior and how it not only impacts their learning but that of their peers. with with calming myself
053down and and with taking deep breaths in and and with taking asking and taking for a walk. >> It brings our class together a lot and it those collaborate part it helps it makes people not each other anymore and just learn how to collaborate. Acting Right has all types of things for everyone to do. It's a completely different variety packed into one lesson. Like fruits in a bowl. You might not like pineapple, but you might love apple. >> So, um, we do have have several several students here going to do some demonstrations for us. I want to thank Miss Hillary Svantes and her students and Miss Adriana Tafoya and her students who are going to do some things. Um, let me I'll do some introductory uh things first and kind of describe what you're going
054to see. So, similar to the way when a fire bell rings, the bell or the alarm goes, students know exactly what to do. They know to stop talking, line up, be orderly, leave the building quietly, etc. The same thing with acting, right? The way this where the whole process starts is they'll you just heard some of the music. Some music will play. Students will know what to do. And so you'll see what they do. Once they once they gather, they will go through the the components of of acting, right? So first thing you're going to see is act the actor's toolbox, which is an old way of actors to remind themselves what tools they have at their disposal. They've got the tool of their body. They've got the tool of their voice. They've got the
055tool of their imagination. They also have a couple of other skills. uh collab sorry cooperation and concentration. So those five skills are reinforced with with the students. Um and by going through by going through the physical movements uh students sign a visual contract that they will as we say be the boss of their brains uh and control their bodies, voices and imagination. They'll be able to concentrate and cooperate. The next thing you'll see is the concentration circle, and it's designed to help students exercise and develop their concentration quote muscles, stretching them to concentrate for a given amount of time without distractions. And finally, you'll see the cooperation challenge, which helps students learn how to to collaborate collaborate effectively with any member of the group. And the goal here is that the team as a whole
056either succeeds or fails together. So, I'd like to introduce Mr. Vantis and her students. sign our contract. We're agreeing to be in control of our body, our voice, our imagination. Close your eyes. Take a quick trip. Open your eyes. Our concentration. Find a focal point. We will cooperate and collaborate with one another. Let's stand in neutral for me. Find a focal point. Get your lines ready. Okay, here we go. Keep your eyes on that focal point. Block out all the distractions. Everybody stay on that focus. Look out the direction. Great job. I feel like we are focused and balance on the counter. Take a deep breath and find your seat. One, two, three. So, our schools wanted to have you have a takeaway. That's the baskets in front of you. There's a variety of cute
057little artistic items, but in that you'll see um a page protector that has the um instructions for the tableau. It's a full page. It's in the back. Yes. And so, Mrs. Caboa and our pills fifth graders are going to come. There's also vocabulary words. They're going to actually be referencing those words for their tableau. >> I don't know. >> They have two tablets to do for you, but I'm not sure we're going to get to the second one. So, >> um, in efforts to make the the group even, we we borrow the siblings, so she's a little smaller. She is not she she graciously joined us. Um, so we do this every day with our vocabulary. And so, we have three vocabulary words that you see on your sheet. And you also have an expo
058marker. So you guys are actually going to play along with us and how we do vocabulary every day in our classroom. And so we go over the vocabulary and they write it down and they write the definition. This is very important that they um get to know the vocabulary and then I will give them their word and they will demonstrate that. So they're going to demonstrate that whole process for you guys. I will um have them sit once they plan it out. I'll have them sit and then I will call a group at a time and we will guess which vocabulary word they're presenting with their tableau. Group one here and make sure you speak loudly so we can hear your thoughts. Okay, cross your arms when you have an idea. You have one minute.
059Share. Okay. So, we could do a detail. Yes. Focus. >> I can't hear you guys. Yeah. So holding it like >> Make sure you have a sentence. You have 10 seconds. Three, two, one. Okay, go ahead and sit over here. I'll call your groups. All right, group two in five, 4, 3. Okay. So, make your expressions. Look at the boards because they're playing along over here. Okay. Three. Two. One. You are frozen in place. You are not moving. So, if you guys wouldn't mind looking at your sheet of vocabulary, writing the word that you think they are show demonstrating and holding it up in 9 8 7 to All right. And this is >> representing Ver 4. one. And then the board. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 one. Just hold it
060up for me. XBound. XBound. Xbound. I would do this with my whole class and um so they have to look back and forth at the definitions to really know what they're representing. Sentence are representing a straight detail. Pretty good job. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> So, another thing that we have done and the kids are um very excited about this one. They we give I give a very challenging question that they need to clarify the meaning of and so um you guys you can read the sentence and based on this they have to >> thank you um based on that they would have to find the definition in the morning this is our journal prompt to end our binder work and they have looking up definitions in the dictionary but don't let them touch their homes
061so they're looking up um definitions in the dictionary trying to figure out what this sentence means and then when we get back from specials um as a whole class we are to demonstrate this as a tableau. >> Thank you. Thank you to all the students and their parents who have sat through listening to me talk and uh for the end here. So thanks again for the demonstration. So uh that's all we have for you but we gladly stand for any questions for any member of the team. actually have any students or teachers you want to ask questions too. >> If we implement this so Shannon Hills becomes an integrated arts school. >> It is happening >> for the operational budget. Is it the same as it is now? Like are we adding more money to
062the school or is it is there a huge difference or just a little bit between like a normal operating school budget and an integrated art school >> for it's an it's an increase and the increase would be $130,000 inclusive of both schools. Uh that's to wrap up the first the remaining two years of the implementation. The idea is that we would find some other costs to to offset that cost unless the board wanted to continue funding at very high levels. Now, >> do we want to spread it beyond the two schools in the future like all the elementary schools in the district or >> I don't I was just going to say we have interest from other schools. They're very interested to see um right now we're in we're implementing, you know, a new math
063curriculum soon and we're also doing some other work through curriculum and instruction. And so I know they if we had more time they would speak how that's been a little challenging this year balancing all of that but they've done a great job working with CNI to make that happen but there are other administrators who would love to take this on. >> Does that change anything with peed and the points or units they give us for the way they grade us for the funding? >> I think it looks so good to other schools. I mean when I went inside you see that collaboration part right? You see kids who and I remember asking one of the young men when we were up in Colorado, you know, and he saw some of those boys there like, "Are
064you okay with touching each other? Like that's okay with you?" And he's like, "Yeah, like it's totally fine." Like at first I was a little worried, but now it's just fine. And I think it just teaches them these skills to work with each other. And that's what I love about it. And I think that probably have other administrators who see that and that these kids are working together. they're developing this vocabulary and expressing their feelings in a way that's very um very mature. So, I could see why other administrators would like to do that. >> Dr. D, do you had a question? Sorry. >> I think I forgot it. >> Go back to >> I had a couple questions and uh uh I guess so this is not going to be a magnet school. just
065for the footprint of the school communities. It's not for like any community member to sign up to join. Is that >> the the idea is for to reserve some seats at the school for uh for other other families in the district who want to go be part of this. >> Okay, so that makes sense. Um I wanted to know you you referenced a lot and don't don't misinterpret my question of skepticism, just curio clarity. Um this uh the Belmont school that's correct is that >> Belmar excuse me they uh it's a they had all these really good outcomes coming out of it. Is that because it's a school that's been doing that for a long time the students have self- selected to be you know with very supportive families to be involved with that or
066if you have families with more challenges do we see the reduction there? I mean, that's what I'm trying to parse out here, that that's a special school with a special mission and they have community members that go to that school and they self- select themselves. So, they often don't have as many challenges as maybe other students might have. >> That that could very well be. They they twothirds of them are are students who do not live in their boundary zone, but it is a neighborhood school. It's always been a neighborhood for the last 75 years. It's been a neighborhood school. So they started out that way, but they've opened up their doors and some some families select out, some select in, but then about two I think they said twothirds are are else come from
067elsewhere in the city. >> That makes sense. >> And that those are good points. I think um um whether they're self- selective or not, it it it shows the power of what what they're doing. If if twothirds of people want to be part of this, that's how I >> Yeah. Right. I guess I would just think that students may may really benefit from this. They may not be they may not have parents that you know push them to go to those kind of schools that can benefit. So I don't know how to >> Yeah, it's a good question. I'm not sure answer >> I would just assert sorry I would just assert that um we are completely a community school right we are serving the students that are within our boundaries primarily and the students
068that have already chosen before they even knew about arts integration and we've had very little push back and in fact a lot of excitement around that for all levels of students we incorporated in into our mediest special education programs and classes all the way up through our our gifted classes using it in our special classes and we've had a lot of interest and excitement around it and not a lot of push back or families trying to escape that. >> Yeah, I would expect that there would be escape. I was just curious about the you know if there's a discrepancy between what we saw at Belmar versus what we might see in a community but I didn't realize that it was a community school as well. So that makes >> it is it is a smaller
069school. It's about three or 400 students but smaller than our schools. Whether that that affects it in a way or not sure. >> Would you talk about a little bit about what the day looks like though? Um I'm doing this all day long. >> We do not do >> and so you know would you kind of talk about what the day looks like? >> Sure. I can speak to ours and then if Kirk would like to speak. So for us we have at Enchanted we have built in a block in the morning for every classroom. So immediately after we do announcements at 9:20, all of our classes except for fifth grade move directly into the acting right and actors toolbox section that you saw the Miss Cervantes show us, which is approximately 10 minutes of
070their day. In August, it that takes more time because of course we're training them into it, but by now it's 10 minutes at most and by 9:30 we're into content and curriculum. Um, Tableau is used throughout the day and throughout the week. So, it is implemented within their instructional unit. So, within that 120 minute lesson of ELA, they may pick to do 10 to 15 minutes as Mrs. Toya showed us to integrate Tableau or other mechanisms into whatever they're working for for their curriculum. So, it is very much peppered throughout their day and they start the day with it. And then fifth grade does it when they come back from their specials because as a fifth grader from Vista said they're a little crazy when they come back from those. >> You know, one of
071the things when we were visiting that I was I I thought was interesting I saw throughout the day was more movement since up and moving much of the time and and uh it's really hard for a lot of our kids to sit in a desk all day long. um is just um an opportunity to be physically um living. The other that I thought was really interesting that I observed was how much student talk there was the amount of time students themselves were talking and not just instructional staff alone and what they were talking about. They weren't talking about sometimes the things that you think you're going to see in schools where kids are just talking. uh they were talking about the learning and talking about the lesson and there was more student talk more words
072coming out of of of the students. And then we had an opportunity to talk to the kids and to their parents and to um and and they just talked about how much they like that opportunity to be more involved in their own learning and more responsible to their own learning. And then the last and one of the reasons we looked into this earlier was as we have been at all of our schools all levels um you know we've asked what's your greatest challenge right now what's your you know what what are you what are the challenges you're facing keep you from doing the job you would like to do and without exception not exception any of our school they said discipline and students ability to control their own behavior and they'll settle down and listen
073and learn and so you know you hear it once But then you hear it again and you hear it again and again and think, you know, how how do we help students in this world that they live in today with all the distractions and all things are just pulling at them come in and and learn and get their minds ready to actually hear what we have to share with them. And I remember one of the staff members that went with us, she was pretty pragmatic, but she said, "I'll try anything." because we have so many challenges today with getting our students to attend to um to to the to the the learning and and they got to do that in order to to be successful. So, we just saw some things and we heard from
074parents uh my um my child's more excited about going to school than maybe they had been in the past. The other thing I forgot, one of the things that really struck me in in the visit was I don't know if you saw it here, but I did. No, nobody gets left alone. There's nobody sitting at the back of the class, quiet, ignored, not part of the learning. And this one doesn't allow you to do that. You have to be part of it. And I've seen in in in in both here, but also there uh where students would reach out and find the one that wasn't in the group, was not part of the group of five or was not, and would bring them in. And in one of the classes, there was a a young
075lady who uh was brand new to English and really struggling with that the language piece. But through some of these things, she was able to participate. Students were talking to her and it was helping her um uh acquire the language uh more rapidly than she would have just sitting in front of a classroom uh trying to pick it up some other way. So there were just some things that we saw that and we thought you know this these are things that we would like all children to have opportunities to do. Move more, talk more, um behave better and but be attuned to the learning that uh the learning opportunities that our staff is providing for them. So that was just some of the observations of the early part. I think we're seeing those things play
076out in our two um in our two pilot schools. Um, real quick, I wanted to give Brook a chance to talk to if you want to to add something and then I know we're about to have a question and we have about five minutes before Claudia gets in that later. So, >> I was just going to echo what um, Mrs. Bartley said that fifth grade is a challenge, but hers might be at a different time, but ours um, is our time is built into our daily schedule as well. Um, very similar to what she's doing, except our fifth grade goes to related arts immediately as they come into school. So they do it later in the day rather than first thing in the morning, but it is peppered throughout the day. Um that Mr. Lane
077has said, you know, if there is a change um in structure or if there's a change in schedule, so if they're coming in for something, they need to calm down again or do something else or refocus. Um but we've been peppering um Tableau like Mrs. Bartley said through vocabulary throughout our day and throughout our curriculum. So, it's very interesting to see kindergarten through fifth grade um working through working through these challenges, working through um cooperating with one another and um being able to um interact with one another in a different way because as you know, most kids um come to school and they um they have a tablet or they have an iPhone or they're watching a TV in the car um and to be able to interact and engage with one another has been
078a challenge. And so we've had to very very um strategically teach those skills um again and especially in the classroom where we're um where we're focusing on a deeper understanding of what they're learning. And so that's that's really what we're we're trying to accomplish with this work is that deeper understanding and to be able to interact and engage with one another in the classroom in a variety of ways. Um and so we're looking forward to the collaborative partnerships that we've made um with Belmar as Dr. Schmidt said and also um with our grade level teams. But what's really interesting between both of those videos that you saw very very similar practices um in the classroom. So um we're trying to cook up this idea of you know if we had any of our kids from
079both schools um come together at a content area or grade level. we're kind of kicking that idea around um that they would be able to do this together because they've all had these same skills taught to them. Um that's something that's super exciting in our collaborative work hopefully moving forward. >> Thank you. >> I just had a question. So, have the teachers noticed that the students are doing better from I don't know if you had answer that already or is it too early to really tell at this point? >> Sorry. I think that the the biggest impact that I think that I've seen that maybe Mrs. Bartley has seen too is just um that engagement and being able to cooperate with one another, being able to have conversations, but having the tools to be able
080to do it that similar language um throughout both schools. >> This is tied really beautifully with the work we're doing around uh prioritizing standards and looking at how we instruct in the classroom to make meaningful engagement. So what we have seen is teachers relief and excitement around being given permission, if you will, um to look at the curriculum as a tool and utilize the content that's in there, but really leaving it to their instructional discretion to be able to reach their students and engage them in meaningful ways. And that can look different in different classrooms. So that permission to succeed or to fail forward in different avenues and what that looks like while still maintaining a a pretty strong structure that is consistent across the school has been very exciting. So what I've seen from
081our teachers was a lot of trepidation and fear initially like what are you doing and are you going to make me stand in front of other people and do it versus um now now we can walk into any classroom. Stephen and I were very surprised that all of our teachers chose to do Tableau with their observational cycles that we do with them. Even though we did not require it, they wanted us to see it. They asked for coaching cycles with our instructional coach. So, we are seeing increasing momentum and excitement around it at our site. >> Dr. U, first of all, thank you students. You were amazing. Uh, really appreciate it. AND I SHOULD interject really quickly. Students, there is a treat for you in the hallway as you leave to grab and grow. Grab
082and go. So don't forget to grab grab. >> Welld deserved. Um and and then the other thing I just want to thank our our teachers, instructional coaches, administrators. Whenever you implement a full school initiative like this, I know it's challenging and I know you've had to work really hard. One quick question, Dr. The $130,000 you referenced, is that mostly devoted to professional learning for staff? >> It is. It is. The vast majority is the only the only material expenses are really to buy books for new staff members, which will be few and far between. Okay. Shirts for them. Some little stuff, but but we want we want we want the money to go toward professional. >> So, it's really about us developing our people to do this. Well, >> exactly. And getting embedded in the
083schools, right? >> Thank you. And they do get one-on-one time with Sean when he visits. So it's not that he is in each of their classrooms giving them feedback every time he comes. And so they do get that time with him which is pretty valuable. >> Thank you. >> I I do want to thank everybody as well and I really want to thank these thank these folks for being the five years of taking this on because it was quite a quite a challenge and uh you were willing to step forward and and uh and make it work. Uh I do want to um you know we we're be we're closing out one strategic plan and Dr. Dodd plans to pick up and and begin with a new one and it's it's that time. But when
084we did the strategic plan the last time there were five areas that came up across the district that were high need and one of those was student engagement and get kids out of seats and and moving and learning. And so uh we we heard that and we heard it across the entire community not just from educators. We heard it from parents, heard it from the kids themselves. And so that sense of being involved in your learning, uh, we we've worked on that in many areas, not just there, in many areas. But again, thank you all for the hard work and time and effort you put into this because this was no five minute job, right? And and it continues to be a work in progress and and especially to our students. Thank you. Thank you
085for coming and sharing what you learning with us is was really uh it was really interesting and really enjoyable. >> Great. Thank you. Are we good? You guys question. >> Okay. So, board just feel free. I know we don't have a lot more time here, but if there are questions that you do have, you can um you can write those over to Dr. the to the right place if you want some more um some some more information on anything. But once again, thank you everyone. I can't even tell you. I love this program. I love watching it and it's so wonderful to see this and to see you guys doing that in our schools. I'm really excited to see some of the outcomes and I I really feel like they're going to be good. So,
086thank you all for coming. And with that, we're going to join this meeting. Thank you. And I'm going to go home.