Showcasing the Arts
Showcasing the Elevated Arts Schools - Alvarado Elementary School
Alvarado Elementary School thought carefully about how the infusion of arts strategies would help their students make connections to themselves as learners with the school curriculum and community culture.
Caitlin Robinson, principal and her staff at Alvarado Elementary School applied for and were accepted into the first cohort of Elevated Arts Schools in the Albuquerque Public Schools. Their goals for 2019-2020 included increasing student engagement, extending student self expression and increasing their focus on authentic learning. Infusing arts strategies into their classrooms will provide students with fun opportunities to meet all these goals.
Last year, the school conducted a very successful partnership with the New Mexico Poet Society. Children wrote poems based on beautiful paintings from the Albuquerque Museum. The poems depicted how that painting made them feel. Children read those poems to family and friends. Many of the children went to the Albuquerque Museum and were video-taped reading their poems beside the actual paintings. Poetry came alive and that life experience impacted the children as it celebrated creativity and performance.
This year, plans include additional arts strategies for performance as they learn to digitally represent their learning from the social studies and science school standards.
Congratulations to Alvarado as they begin a journey to infuse arts strategies into every classroom to enrich educational experiences for their students.