An Innovative Inaugural Year with APLI!
By: Denise Davis
APLI Fellow Denise Davis speaks to other attendees at the Decolonizing the Classroom workshop led by storyteller TAHIRA.
Beginning in November 2019, a gathering of inspiring arts specialists, classroom teachers, teaching artists, and school administrators took place and it was amazing! We were the inaugural group of committed beings ready to learn how to bring culturally responsive arts education to NJ students. For eight months, we attended workshops and webinars that focused on delivering creative and relevant professional learning opportunities.
The APLI cohort was very well organized around the intention of addressing the topics below which are so critical at this time in education.
● Social Emotional Learning
● Arts for Disabled Students
● Trauma Informed Instruction
● Culturally Responsive Teaching
I worked as a Literacy Coach in the Trenton School District, at the time, in a middle school that was very supportive of experimenting with Arts Integration to engage urban students. For several years we received funding from Mercer Street Friends which allowed us to collaborate with McCarter Theater and their resident artist, Josh Campbell, who skillfully engaged urban students in theater techniques and social emotional skills. I was one of a few school administrators in the APLI inaugural program so my lens of a Literacy Coach and years in the classroom as a special education teacher provided a different way of assessing the experience.
Hopefully future cohorts will continue to have administrators in attendance so the options for engaging art specialists and teaching artists can expand. More students everywhere need the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge of these wonderful creative people. The option to express themselves creatively in a safe, supportive environment is more important now than ever.
The APLI cohort gave me the experience of diving deeper into the possibilities of artistic expression and validation of underrepresented and often overlooked populations. At one of the workshops I was challenged to consider the interactions of genders in movies. How are women treated? How are minorities cast? What subtle messages are being sent about each gender? Who benefits from these subtle messages?
Did you know there is a difference between trauma and historical trauma? Neither did I! Trauma is a major challenge in all facets of society and many students need culturally responsive educators to interact with so they will feel truly validated and understood. The workshops on trauma and culturally responsive teaching and the brain were mindblowing. But I feel bad singling out any specific workshop because the quality of the presenters at each workshop was awe inspiring. They projected a depth of knowledge and experience that was so invigorating! I felt privileged to be a part of their world for eight months and I loved every minute! I left each workshop inspired by the community that each one created with intention, validation, sincerity, respect, and acceptance. Every minute was filled with meaning and purpose.
Time is valuable and this experience did not waste anyone’s time! Covid-19 did interrupt us in the spring, and the schedule had to be adjusted with some workshops and the end of the year celebration being virtual rather than an in-person shindig. But Covid did not dampen the enthusiasm and may have actually strengthened and increased the cohort members' determination to meet our objectives. Each workshop was followed up by a webinar where members had the opportunity to discuss the topic of the workshop, the content and our takeaways. We shared creative ideas, resources, articles, books, videos, and lesson plans. It is difficult to pick one workshop as my favorite because I benefited so much from each one.
I tried to think of an area in need of improvement to include in this blog, but I’m sorry, I couldn’t find any! Well, perhaps there is one thing that would have improved this inaugural year and that would have been to be able to repeat some of the workshops and engage with the presenters for a longer period of time! I hope future cohort members have the same positive experience that I enjoyed in the inaugural year. I send each of you light and love. Best wishes and enjoy your APLI cohort experience!
Heidi Latsky Dance company leads a workshop on working with disabled students at the United We Discover workshop, February 2020.
