Throughout the spring, HAI delivered its first Arts Mentoring Workshops to New York City Board of Education District 75 sites. Five series took place, reaching nine schools and eighteen classrooms. Outstanding feedback from Assistant Principals and teachers has exceeded expectations for this new HAI initiative. Teaching artist and professional dancer, Susan Cline Lucey, led the Mentoring Series at P396K. “The best program we ever had,” said Arlene Fineberg, Assistant Principal at P396K (Brooklyn). “We hope to have HAI back next year.” Karen Davis, a professional musician with a diverse musical and educational background, led the series at P75Q (Ridgewood, NY). While she now focuses on her career as a professional singer, she is also an experienced and certified Special Education teacher. Brenda Gallashaw, Assistant Principal of P75Q, declared, “The artist’s understanding of Special Education needs is phenomenal. The teachers and students love the activities. The artist has a wonderful aura and great ideas.”

HAI was selected by the New York City Board of Education as a vendor for professional development services that bring the arts into the public schools of New York City. The Arts Mentoring Program, developed by HAI, assists teachers in using the arts in their classrooms to enhance the teaching of the academic curriculum. The program emphasizes working with Special Education teachers together with students with disabilities through a series of diverse activities. HAI teaching artists lead professional development sessions open to the entire school staff – administrators, teachers and paraprofessionals. Individual sessions with selected teachers develop partnering relationships between teacher, paraprofessionals and the HAI artist that lead into classroom activities together with students, teachers and paraprofessionals. The hands-on classroom experiential learning for teachers and paraprofessionals also results in educational curriculum based activities for students to enjoy. In the current budget conscious environment, HAI has adapted the Mentoring Series to fit a school’s budget and the many diverse special education settings of the New York City Board of Education.

Teachers are introduced to techniques for practical hands-on arts-based projects that enhance the classroom teacher’s curriculum. Led by professional artists, the program serves the needs of teachers in Special Education classrooms, specialized instructional environments, inclusion classrooms and general education classrooms. Working in dance, music, performance, animation/video or visual arts, the classroom teacher and the HAI teaching artist collaborate on the development and implementation of activities.

HAI maintains a roster of professional artists with extensive experience working with people with disabilities. These professional artists have maintained both professional careers in their art forms and a commitment to community service. Most have developed skills in working with people with disabilities over more than a decade.They are in a unique position to provide classroom teachers with creative ways to reach students who, because of many diverse disabilities, are challenged to learn and need alternative methods to straightforward academic presentations.

Senior teaching artist Joan Merwyn assists in coordinating the mentoring series and teaches as well. She says, “Teachers benefit by learning creative group techniques engaging students in fun and beneficial activities. Movement games and exercises establish individual confidence, along with group rapport and trust, through a non-competitive, affirming group atmosphere. My approach helps to develop concentration, cooperation and communication skills while providing teachers with clear and simple techniques so that they may continue the creative process on their own.” In addition to sharing her art through participatory workshops for over fifteen years, Merwyn maintains an active career as a professional performance artist. She is the artistic director of Sound Image Theater and will soon be seen in the pivotal role of Cardinal Surin and Satan in “The Devils of Loudon,” a chamber theater piece by the experimental performance group Dzieci. Merwyn has been a long standing member of the Bessie award winning performance troupe, Adapters Movement Theater.

HAI believes that the arts provide a vital tool for reaching students with disabilities to improve response to the curriculum and their attention in the classroom. General education teachers can also be energized through very doable arts projects and techniques with practical assistance from specially trained artists who listen and understand the pressures placed upon the teacher in today’s classroom in working with Special Education students.

According to Andrew Buck, Arts Coordinator for the New York City Board of Education District 75, “Arts are essential to student learning. All students can relate to and identify with the creative process such as the act of listening to music, painting with watercolors, creating a mural or modeling clay. It takes creative and skilled teachers to reach students, especially those with disabilities. Good teachers listen to students, get to know their strengths and motivate them to learn. The Mentoring Program at HAI provides a structure where veteran or new teachers can engage in a dialogue with seasoned professionals. This partnership and reflective practice takes the quality of teaching and student learning to a new level.

At the conclusion of the HAI workshop series, arts-based programs can be sustained in the school community. Through a combination of meetings, curriculum planning, hands-on activities and resource materials, the HAI teaching artist leaves the teacher confident to continue arts-based activities and develop new projects in their classroom.

Betty Marks, Director of the Program said, “HAI is excited to bring its experience to people with disabilities to the New York City Board of Education. Through this program, we are sharing our extensive knowledge and skills with students and teachers in the schools of New York City to enhance the use of the arts in the curriculum.”