School+Administrator+Resources

= Things Principals Can Do to Build an Creative Arts-Infused School Environment: = // There is a lot that principals can do to promote and encourage their school building in engaging in and learning through the arts. //

1.Show enthusiasm for the process and encourage teachers and students.

2. Visit classrooms and school environments where residencies are taking place on a regular basis. Ask students and teachers what they are doing and learning. Ask them what they need. Encourage teachers and students in the building to document these through technologies to be shared with other teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders. Blogs, e-newsletters, Nings, wikis and Twitter are great ways to get the word out and recruit supportive parents. How are these being promoted in your building?

3. Act like an artist yourself. Most principals do not think of themselves as artists. Taking risks and engaging in the process promotes school creativity! Learning is about taking chances and risks which we ask teachers and students to do all the time. Principals are very influential in modeling arts risk-taking.

4. Show modeling of how "one highly visible adult does art, thinks about art, responds to art, uses art" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005). No one expects the principal to be an expert in the arts.

5. "Find your strongest art mediums and share them with children. Visit classrooms and read your poems or someone else's poems, show your cartoons or pictures, play the piano. Talk about the music or films you love. Lead a field trip to your favorite gallery or theater company, and talk about your involvment. If you are a graphic artist, pour some of that artistry into the school newsletter" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 211). Collaborate using wikis or use other online technologies in creating feedback forums for parents.

6. Many principals make self-deprecating excuses about things they can't do in the arts. We don't tell students we can't do math and we tell them they need to do it. The same is true in the arts. When we give up, we tell teachers and students indirectly it is okay to give up when we ourselves don't think we are good at something.

7. "Help your teachers become artists. Many teachers are art-phobic too, and they need chances to heal the shamed and silenced artist inside. There's one main way teachers can accomplish this rebirth: making art alongside a patient and generous artist who can help them recover their curiosity and confidence." Follow the lead of children and/or teachers and make art and/or engage in the arts with them (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 211).

8. Create professional development workshops led by teaching artists, teachers and specialists. Encourage teachers and students in the building to document these through technologies to be shared with other teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders.

9. "Be an audience for students. View kids' work on the walls and in classrooms. As teachers schedule culminating performances and exhibitions, attend as many as you can. Being a fully engaged audience, simply being a witness in the moment, is a powerful demonstration that the students' work is being taken seriously" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 212).

10. Encourage reflective journalling for teachers and students. Encourage "double-loop learning reflection" when you take the time to extend reflections to consider why they made certain choices taking into account their assumptions and values (Matthews & Crow, 2010).

11. Engage in #10 yourself also.

12. Share your reflections and noticings about what you are seeing around the building with the arts.

13. "Make sure classrooms have all the supplies and materials needed to support the arts" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 212). Resources determine what children get to do in the arts. In addition, encourage teachers to use recycled materials and other sources for inexpensive stuff. Look for grants to help support the purchase of supplies.

14. Contact your local arts council to find out what teaching artists offer and what arts resources and/or grants are available in the local community.

15. Use social media outlets to learn more about resources available and the latest research in the arts. Share this with staff and parents through one-on-one interactions, newsletters and online through social media outlets like Twitter, blogs or Nings. Create professional development opportunities for teachers to learn about grants, research and resources in the arts and how to write grants for supplies, resources and teaching artist residencies.

16. Use social media outlets such as Twitter, Nings and blogs to broadcast what is happening with residencies and other arts experiences in your building.

17. Make sure building-level arts experiences have appropriate spaces to work in. This includes good lighting, room to move and accessible sinks. Do teachers have appropriate technologies to support their work? Consider alternate spaces in the warmer months like outdoor spaces or community partners.

18. "Celebrate the arts in your school, building special events around them, and incorporating them into other school programs. Invite professional and community artists to perform or exhibit at the school. If possible, make the school a gallery, a studio, a rehearsal space. Create many occasions for displaying and sharing student work noncompetitively. Everyone needs an audience, not a contest with few winners and many losers" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 212-213).

19. "Involve parents and families in school arts programs. Obviously they are natural audiences for all kinds of school art events. Parents can also teach or perform when their skills match the curriculum; they can bring in their saxophone, brushes, or tap shoes and give demonstrations. When younger children need lots of help with complex or messy art projects, a few extra parent hands can be a real blessing" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 213).

20. "Rethink the role of arts specialists in your building. If art or music teachers are seeing hundred children a week, maybe a new model is in order. Invite the specialists to partner with some teachers--the second-grade team, the middle school faculty to design and teach long-range integrated curriculum projects together. Instead of trying to teach overwhelmeing loads of students in not nearly enough time, let specialists infuse the arts into studies of ecology, history, or literature. If this seems like too big a commitment to make, try a two-week pilot arts-integration program and see what happens" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 213). Specialists should be certified art teachers.

21. "Use your role as instructional leader, supervisor, and evaluator to let teachers know that the arts matter. In your classroom visitations, evaluate congruently: if teachers are incorporating the arts, let them know they are on the right track. When they are not, make suggestions, offer resources, link them up with teachers who are farther along"(Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 213).

22. "Work at the district level to support arts programming across the curriculum. In most school systems, the arts are in constant battle to maintain funding and their place in the curriculum, so it is vital that principals be art advocates. If you can testify about the impact of the arts in your school, do so. If you can pass along articles documenting the academic value of the arts, copy away. If you can refer a fellow principal to an artist who works well with students, great" (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2005, p. 213).

References:
Arts Education Partnership//. [|What school leaders can do to increase arts education.]// Dempsey, C. (TBA - to be submitted for publishing). Principals and culture shifting: Building an arts-infused school environment. Matthews, L. J. & Crow, G. M. (2010). //The principalship: New roles in a professional learning community.// Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., & Hyde, A. (2005). //Best practice: Today's standards for teaching and learning in America's schools.// Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Link to arts advocacy resources