Practitioner Exchanges create time and space for educators to connect, build a peer community, and explore issues of practice through informal conversations facilitated by Summer Institute alumni.
Get inspired with new ideas or perspectives, ask for help with your challenges, and share your own expertise. Each month centers on a different topic and a Practitioner Exchange is often paired with workshop offerings as an opportunity to integrate and revisit information throughout the year. Practitioner Exchanges are included in the cost of workshops as follow-up discussions. Take both Workshop and Practitioner Exchange for a full 4.5-7+ hour learning experience.
Practitioner Exchanges are held on the second Tuesday of the month, 4:30-6pm.
Upcoming 2019-20 Exchanges
SEP
10th
Creating Space for Child-centered Work
What does it mean to teach from a child-centered focus? How can I better listen to children’s voices & ideas and integrate them into my teaching? How do I balance children’s choice & inquiry with what I’m “expected” to teach? Join Oakland classroom teacher & Summer Institute alum Victoria Albaracin as she discusses these questions – and more! – in an informal peer-to-peer conversation that helps you get to the heart of your teaching philosophy. Bring your own questions & experience!
OCT
8th
Embodied Poetics: Writing & Dance
Dance Educator and California Poet in the Schools Amanda Chiado leads this invigorating conversation about the intersection of dance and writing. Join her as she explores such questions as How do dance and writing complement and inspire each other? How do I encourage my students to grow in both dance and writing simultaneously? How can dance help create writing that is more powerful – and vice versa? Talk with other artist educators and teachers curious about arts integration about how to play with both kinesthetic and written communication.
NOV
12th
Dance in Special Education & Inclusion
Join dance teaching artist Heather Stockton to discuss ways to move beyond compliance and into inclusion. She’ll be exploring questions like How can we truly facilitate an equitable experience for all children’s needs in the dance classroom, when the needs of each child are unique? What are some of the foundational tools that we can integrate in every dance class to be inclusive? Bring your own questions to this rich and casual conversation with your teaching peers.
DEC
10th
Creating Community through Dance
Daisy Valdivia is a dancer, classroom teacher, and community arts organizer. Join her in a conversation that addresses these questions: How does one cultivate and engage in a dance community? What conditions exist in one’s community to create and support a dance community? How can a dance community open up possibilities for healing, liberation and fulfilling a sense of purpose? What other possibilities can emerge? Share your own questions and experiences in building dance communities in the classroom, studio, and beyond.
JAN
14th
Aerial Dance & Creativity
Aerial dance pedagogy is still emerging and evolving. Join in this dynamic conversation led by Summer Institute alum and aerial dance educator Sonya Smith of Ashland’s Le Cirque Centre. She’ll be investigating the intersection of creativity and aerial dance technique and will ask questions like: Which elements of dance encourage the most unusual explorations in students? What are the most common movement qualities in aerial dance? What challenges do we face in expanding the qualities of movement students find accessible? How do we balance safety and creativity? At what age/skill level are you comfortable encouraging improvisation in aerial dance? What explorations and scores have you found effective? Bring your own inquiry to this informal peer-to-peer conversation.
FEB
11th
Dance & Self-regulation
How can creative dance support self-regulation – and what do we really mean when we say “self-regulation”? What happens when my student’s sense of regulation challenges my own line of “control”? How do I define chaos, control, and liberation in my classroom? How can dance be used as a tool to support the classroom environment? How can body awareness, music and movement support whole-child learning? Join early childhood educator and dance teaching artist Nia Fitzpatrick as she dives into these questions and more in this casual conversation amongst peers. Bring your own questions too!
MAR
10th
Dance Integration Across Curricula
APR
14th
Agency & Power in Early Childhood
MAY
12th
Cultural Relevancy in Dance
JUN
9th
Dancers in Leadership
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