A free day of professional development workshops for PreK–12 educators

Join Rebecca Cuscaden Marvin, MASS MoCA’s Senior Manager of Education and Family Programs, and facilitators for a free professional development day of workshops for PreK–12 educators. Workshops will provide ways to enhance your students’ learning through arts integration activities and techniques such as Visual Thinking Strategies, Universal Design for Learning, and activity-based teaching.

Topics of focus will include how to utilize free arts resources, museum visits, and arts integration strategies to increase student engagement, curiosity, and understanding, as well as student development of 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication. Coffee, lunch, and gallery admission will be provided.

Educators will have the opportunity to receive five PDPs in the area of visual arts for participation. Lesson plans and resources will be provided after the workshops with the opportunity to complete additional work off-site to receive another five PDPs.

Agenda

10–10:30am: Welcome, Coffee & Introductions

10:30am–12:30pm: Teaching Contemporary Art with Larger-than-Life Artists

12:30–1pm: Lunch Break

1–3pm: Arts Integration to Support STEM Learning

Educators are then welcome to stay at the museum until 5pm for self-guided exploration.

Workshop Descriptions

Teaching Contemporary Art with Larger-than-Life Artists

Instructors:

Makda Amdetsyon, Art21 Education Coordinator

Rebecca Cuscaden Marvin, Senior Manager of Education and Family Programs

Co-facilitated by MASS MoCA and Art21, this workshop will discuss strategies for incorporating contemporary art in your teaching, both within the classroom and in museum galleries. This session will consider how artists like Louise Bourgeois and James Turrell explore colossal ideas in their works through form, aesthetics, and place. We will share free Art21 resources that you can use to incorporate these artists into your classroom lesson plans, as well as to support your students before and after museum visits. We will also visit works by both artists in the museum and share MASS MoCA’s pedagogy of how to engage students in deep discussions about these artists, their works, and the larger-than-life concepts they explore.

Arts Integration to Support STEM Learning

Instructors:

Rebecca Cuscaden Marvin, Senior Manager of Education and Family Programs

Beth Davis, Lead Museum Educator

Arts integration is a proven practice that supports student achievement and is particularly beneficial when applied to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) curricula. Utilizing MASS MoCA’s exhibitions that feature STEM topics, we will demonstrate our pedagogy and how contemporary art can be used to increase student curiosity and engagement in these subjects. Through discussions and hands-on activities we will explore how incorporating visual art into your lesson plans can help students visualize and understand complex and challenging topics in an innovative way. In addition to supporting curricular connections, we will also examine how this approach can help students develop a broader understanding of these topics as well as strengthen their 21st-century skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication.