Tags archives: After school
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10 years ago
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September has been another exciting month for AFP Arts Education. We have been forming alliances with a variety of other non-profit groups, as well as getting this semester’s programs under way. Teaching artist Elio Schiavo has been doing a great job with our new partner LACASA at P.S. 84. Elio is teaching four percussion classes per week to K-4 students.
I have hit the ground running at Humanities Prep this semester. In addition to having two great groups of kids in my regular classes, I have some very dedicated and focused students attending, and we are getting into some great stuff, including song analysis, learning how to identify the key or keys of a song, and some new improvisation techniques.
One of my favorite things about having the opportunity to teach at the same school for a third consecutive year is that new students have heard exciting things about my class from their friends. When they come to class in the beginning of the year they are eager and hopeful, they know the class can help them achieve goals that are important to them, and they are attentive and participate with less self-consciousness. Some students who have excelled and some who were slow to appreciate the opportunity actually request to be enrolled in the class for a second time. Whether they are expanding their repertoire or finally taking the class seriously, returning students are enthusiastic and focused without exception. Because there is a well established creative musical culture th[...]
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PHILOSOPHY
While public schools in New York City have been working hard to meet federal and state mandates for student test scores, arts education programs have become scarce. At Art for Progress, it is our mission to reverse this trend by delivering quality Arts Education programs to the students of New York City’s public schools. Our programs are designed and implemented by professional educators and teaching artists who have a wealth of experience in arts education in public schools and community-based after school programs. In addition, Art for Progress works closely with teachers and administrators at client schools to design programs for students that deepen their understanding of core subject areas. Through arts education, students make connections between material covered in class and their community; they will explore other cultures and examine human experience from a variety of perspectives and artistic forms.
In 2008 the our Arts Initiative became official when teaching artists began residencies in New York City public schools. The first beneficiaries of this innovative program were Landmark High School in Manhattan and Shorefront Y After- School Stars @ PS 225. At Landmark High our artist in residence designed a weekly visual arts elective for students in grades 9 and 10. In addition, AFP developed a multidisciplinary arts and humanities curriculum that worked in conjunction with Landmark’s Global Studies program. The purpose of this curriculum was to provide st[...]
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12 years ago
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Art for Progress arts education programs have been doing great work this winter, with visual arts programs in place at Landmark High School and Quest 2 Learn NY and music programs at Quest, Humanities Prep, Hudson High School for Learning Technologies, and, most recently, at James Baldwin High School, all in Chelsea.
The Humanities music program, led by teaching artist and musician Barry Komitor, has added an after school student/faculty jam on Tuesday afternoons to two regular classes per day, enabling students to apply the knowledge and skills they develop during school music classes. In a dynamic group environment, they learn an entirely different set of skills and considerations. The group has learned “Zombie” by The Cranberries, and “Twist and Shout”, among other songs, and has regular blues and freestyle jams. Komitor also teaches drums after school at Quest 2 Learn on Mondays, and has begun offering guitar and piano lessons after school three days a week, subsidized by grant monies thanks to the Sansom Foundation. These lessons are to serve students from former AFP programs in the Bronx and Brooklyn, which lost support or funding, including: Christopher Columbus High School Campus in the Bronx (which comprises Bronxdale High School and Pelham Prep as well as the Collegiate Institute for Math and Science [CIMS], all providing students that are participating) and The Academy for Conservation and the Environment in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Lessons are available one of the da[...]
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