Professional Development

Resource List: Native American Arts and Culture Resources for Fine Arts Educators

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In June 2022, the Virginia Department of Education fine arts program hosted an arts and culture Institute for Virginia fine arts educators to collaborate with and learn from the Chickahominy Indian Tribe in Providence Forge, Virginia. This resource list was used by the educator team to build background knowledge, and educators and tribal citizens contributed additional resources and suggested classroom activities. This resource page is a short collection of resources that can be used by fine arts educators to respectfully include arts and culture of indigenous people of Virginia in fine arts classroom instruction. 

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning Resource: Writing Fine Arts Curriculum

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This slide deck covers key considerations for writing a fine arts curriculum and key features of an exemplary fine arts curriculum. A sample approach to curriculum writing is offered, and curriculum resources are provided. This slide deck is intended to support division leaders and individual educators who are writing a curriculum aligned to the 2020 Fine Arts Standards of Learning.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Digital Learning with eMediaVA

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This webinar and presentation is a previously recorded session, Digital Learning with eMediaVA presented by Lindsey Horner.Webinar Description: This webinar presents information about media and educational resources from WHRO Public Media for fine arts educators. Lyndsay Horner, Manager of eMediaVA will led the one-hour session in July 2020. The session includes how to access eMediaVA and how to find resources to support student learning in fine arts areas of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Resources from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

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This webinar and presentation is a previously recorded session, Resources from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.Webinar Description: Join VMFA educators to learn about the new opportunities, resources, and supportive measures developed by Museum staff members in response to the challenges faced by teachers, students, and parents for the 2020-2021 school year. Learn about the major exhibition Treasures of Ancient Egypt: Sunken Cities, and find out about fall opportunities for online Professional Development, distance and digital learning options, remote access to VMFA’s encyclopedic collection, and more.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: #GoOpenVA for Fine Arts Educators

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Participants will learn how to use #GoOpenVA to locate arts-based lessons (many of which are also cross-curricular). All such lessons are openly-licensed so they can be adapted to your own students and purposes. Additionally, #GoOpenVA provides a community space for teachers to connect with each other in these challenging times, when everyone is learning how to approach teaching in new ways.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Digital Resources for Fine Arts Educators from the Library of Congress

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This webinar will explore the digital resources of the Library of the Congress for fine arts instruction. Engagement with primary source images, objects and documents can spark critical thinking, deeper learning and interdisciplinary connections for students. Join Sherry Levitt and Cynthia Szwajkowski from Teaching with Primary Sources, Virginia (TPSVA) for a lively, interactive exploration of the Library's rich, digital collections for in-person and virtual instruction. As a demonstration, special guest Carolyn Bennett, former Library of Congress Teacher-in-Residence, will model an activity using WPA Posters.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Studios, Stages, & Students: Real Reasons We Keep Coming Back

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Drawing on walls, banging on pots, dressing up, singing and dancing like everybody’s watching are ways we get ourselves out into the world. In this webinar, we’ll discuss creative thinking and joy in arts learning for students and teachers. We’ll laugh about best intentions, consider best practices in a new age, and celebrate transforming K-12 students into die-hard arts enthusiasts! Clayton Singleton is a Virginia artist, illustrator, author, and arts educator.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Interdisciplinary Connections with Theatre Arts

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Participants will gain resources and strategies focused on how the fundamentals of theatre can connect students to their learning, their peers, and themselves. Participants will understand how this connection creates a relevance and rigor that gives their students the skills necessary for success in and out of the classroom. Participants will also understand the role the state standards can play in creating these connections—specifically regarding the Five Cs.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Think Like an Artist in the Theatre Classroom

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Artist habits of mind help students reflect on their work by considering learning as a process. These frameworks make thinking visible and, with consistent and pervasive use, develop habitual cultures of thinking in the classroom. Artist habits of mind help students reflect on their creative work by considering learning in the arts as a multilayered process.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Theatre Arts Instruction Observations

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The purpose of this resource is to support school and division administrators in observations and coaching conversations for theatre arts teachers in Virginia public schools. The strategies listed support effective instruction connected to skills and concepts of the 2020 Theatre Arts Standards of Learning.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Fine Arts High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM)

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This resource is intended to be used by educators, school, and division leadership to evaluate instructional materials for quality. When lesson plans, unit plans, and other instructional activities are from outside sources, division staff and educators may use and adapt these key features to evaluate the materials. In addition, these key features can be used as a guide for locally developed instructional materials that support the curriculum. 

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: VDOE Fine Arts

Professional Learning: Overview of the 2020 Theatre Arts Standards of Learning for Theatre Arts Teachers

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This webinar provides an overview of the 2020 Theatre Arts Standards of Learning.The purpose of this webinar presentation is to provide background knowledge for understanding the 2020 Theatre Arts Standards of Learning, including the "big picture" and important background information and context of the Standards, and show the instructional and professional learning resources available to support implementation of the Standards in Virginia classrooms.This content was updated in October of 2023.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: VDOE Fine Arts