NMArt Professional Learning Workshops for Educators

NMArt Professional Development Workshops

Follow the links below to register for the free professional development workshops offered by NMArt.  These workshops are open to teachers, administrators, counselors and teaching artists from all NM schools.

NMArt, the New Mexico Alliance for Responsive Teaching, is a partnership between the Santa Fe Opera and the school districts in Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe. This alliance came together as part of the Kennedy Center’s Partners In Education Program. The mission of NMART is to elevate creative, culturally responsive, student-centered teaching and learning through high quality arts and arts-integrated professional development.

• Workshops emphasize one or more of the following:  Arts Integration, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Social Emotional Learning.
• For in-person workshops, coffee and hearty snacks will be available 30 minutes before the start of the workshop.
• Each workshop will be followed by a feedback survey.  Three participants who complete the survey will be selected at random for a $20 gift card. In addition, teachers who attend three workshops and share documentation of using a technique or exercise from the workshop with their students will be celebrated as part of the NMART Vanguard in the summer of 2024.

Any questions or to cancel registration, please email Charles Gamble, Director of School Programs at the Santa Fe Opera, at cgamble@santafeopera.org if you cannot attend; another teacher may need your spot!

NMArt is the NM Alliance for Responsive Teaching
The Santa Fe Opera | Albuquerque Public Schools | Los Lunas Schools
Rio Rancho Public Schools | Santa Fe Public Schools | The Kennedy Center

SEPTEMBER

Engaging the Whole Child the Whole Way Through

with Randy Barron
Max 30 participants.

Santa Fe Public Schools
Tuesday, September 19,2023 – 4:00-7:00 pm, In Person. 
BF Young Building – 1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, September 28, 2023 – 1:00-4:00 pm, In Person.
RRPS District Office – 500 Laser Rd NE, Rio Rancho

For RRPS teachers, subs are provided for you to attend this workshop. After you register, please email Laura Council, Fine Arts Administrative Assistant, at laura.council@rrps.net. She will coordinate with your school administrative assistant to secure a half-day substitute for you.

REGISTER

Session Description

As educators know by now, lasting learning must be actively built, experiential, reflective, collaborative, evolving, and based in problem-solving. That approach to teaching results in students who are motivated, innovative, team-oriented, and self-confident. That also happens to be the evolving “portrait” of a successful New Mexico High School graduate, according to the State Public Education Department.

In this workshop, teachers of all grade levels will experience and actively work to build a compact set of crucial arts-integrated skills, ones that will set their students up for deeper learning in every subject area. Drawing on multiple art forms and the New Mexico Content Standards and informed by four decades of arts-integrated practice in classrooms of all descriptions, veteran New Mexico Teaching Artist Randy Barron guides teachers through a logical scaffold of strategies they can use to bring the power of the creative process into their students’ lives and learning.

This workshop is designed for all teachers who are interested in stretching their own creative muscles in the art of teaching. Teachers should come dressed comfortably for simple movement activities. Participants will receive a workbook handout, as well as links to online materials and resources that will connect to NMART workshops held later in the school year.

About the Presenter

Randy has danced and choreographed professionally since 1978 with ballet and modern dance companies across the United States. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, with minors in Chemistry and Psychology, and he is continually amazed at how often he uses that knowledge.

Since dancing has not always paid all the bills, Randy has also worked as an arts administrator, school bus driver, meeting planner, stage manager, bill collector, real estate assistant, lighting designer, high school principal, wild land firefighter, and emergency medical technician, among others — all while continuing to dance and choreograph professionally.

As a teaching artist since 1984, Randy has led over 500 professional development workshops in 40 states and Singapore. He has also designed scores of in-depth, arts-integrated residencies (one to four weeks) for schools of all types and grade levels.

Randy lives with his family near the village of Tecolote, New Mexico, about a hundred yards from the original Santa Fe Trail.

SEPTEMBER

The Win-Win Workshop: The Intersection of Contemplative Practice & Visual Art

with Roni Rohr and Erin Doerwald
Grades K-12. Max 32 participants.

Los Lunas Schools
Thursday, September 21st, 2023 – 4:15-7:15 pm, In Person. 
Los Lunas Schools Teacher Resource Center – 801 Coronado NE, Los Lunas

Albuquerque Public Schools
Tuesday, September 26th, 2023 – 4:30-7:30 pm, In Person. 
Janet Kahn School of Integrated Arts – 9717 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque

REGISTER

Session Description

In The Win-Win Workshop, mindful awareness and visual art practices address the experiences and challenges of educators first. This workshop is a collaboration between educators Roni Rohr and Erin Doerwald and will offer mindful awareness and compassion practices that explore the concepts and embodiment of introspection and self-regulation. This facilitation works under the research-informed assumption that what will serve us best as leaders of any form is cultivating our own aware and stable presence.

Roni and Erin will facilitate experiential exercises and offer theories that share how these practices can support educator sustainability and students’ social emotional learning as we meet collective challenges in our schools and lives.

Experiential activities will benefit the participants and the students they serve alike, creating a collaborative “win-win” situation. Short lecture and presentation components will complement the practices that will be offered and leave participants feeling nourished and inspired.

About the Presenters

Roni Rohr will share from her eighteen years of expertise as a highly celebrated visual arts teacher, keynote speaker and educational consultant who offers mindful awareness practices in the classroom and in community. Erin Doerwald brings in a lens informed by her work as a psychotherapist and mindfulness educator who has trained mental health professionals working on the front lines of educational and behavioral healthcare systems for over a decade.

Erin Doerwald’s Website

Roni Rohr’s Website

OCTOBER

Inclusive Creative Classrooms

with Kate Lee
Grades K-8. Max 35 participants,

Los Lunas Schools
Tuesday, October 17th, 2023, 2023 – 4:15-7:15 pm, In Person. 
Los Lunas Schools Teacher Resource Center – 801 Coronado NE, Los Lunas

Santa Fe Public Schools
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 – 4:00-7:00 pm, In Person. 
BF Young Building – 1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, October 19th, 2023 – 1:00-4:00 pm, In Person. 
RRPS District Office – 500 Laser Rd NE, Rio Rancho

For RRPS teachers, subs are provided for you to attend this workshop. After you register, please email Laura Council, Fine Arts Administrative Assistant, at laura.council@rrps.net. She will coordinate with your school administrative assistant to secure a half-day substitute for you.

Albuquerque Public Schools
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 – 4:30-7:30 pm, In Person.
Janet Kahn School of Integrated Arts – 9717 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque

REGISTER

Session Description

In this session, participants will learn how to apply creative activities and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to activate lesson-plans so they are inclusive and accessible (and fun!) for students who have a range of social-emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral capacities.

The workshop will model a lesson planned with creative tools and UDL. Attendees will be invited to participate and then identify and apply elements they could utilize in their own teaching. This workshop will be interactive and collaborative, with time for personal and group reflection.

About the Presenter

Kate Lee has taught theatre as both form and used it as pedagogy. She has designed and taught curriculum for the Educational Theatre Association (creating standards in devised theatre and Forum Theatre); and was a teaching artist in New York City Title 1 Public Schools for nine years, using theatre arts to teach literacy. She has participated in professional developments with the Lincoln Center and The Juilliard School and is currently working with GIVE, a professional development initiative between the New Victory Theatre (New42), Community Word Project and ArtsConnection for New York City cultural organizations and Department of Education teachers and teaching artists who are working in ICT (Integrated Co-Teaching) classrooms and with youth with disabilities. Kate’s key areas of expertise are educational theater (Process Drama and Theatre of the Oppressed) and theater making (devised theater). Creatively, she has performed internationally in Australia, Japan. London and New York City.

Kate Lee’s Website

NOVEMBER

Eyes, Objects, Emotions: Social-Emotional Puppetry in the Classroom

with Sam Jay Gold
Grades Pre-K-6. Max 35 participants.

Los Lunas Schools
Monday, November 27th, 2023 – 4:15-7:15 pm, In Person.
Los Lunas Schools Teacher Resource Center – 801 Coronado NE, Los Lunas

Santa Fe Public Schools
Tuesday, November 28th, 2023 – 4:00-7:00 pm, In Person. 
BF Young Building – 1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, November 30th, 2023 – 1:00-4:00 pm, In Person. 
RRPS District Office – 500 Laser Rd NE, Rio Rancho

For RRPS teachers, subs are provided for you to attend this workshop. After you register, please email Laura Council, Fine Arts Administrative Assistant, at laura.council@rrps.net. She will coordinate with your school administrative assistant to secure a half-day substitute for you.

Albuquerque Public Schools
Wednesday, November 29th, 2023 – 4:30-7:30 pm, In Person. 
Janet Kahn School of Integrated Arts – 9717 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque

REGISTER

Session Description

In this hands-on workshop, dive into the foundational principles of puppet manipulation and construction through interactive exercises, scaffolding activities, and creative use of simple materials.

Explore new techniques for accessing the emotional and imaginative impulses of elementary school students while building a supportive, collaborative classroom ensemble.

Whether you’re new to puppetry or a seasoned veteran, this workshop offers a fresh approach to merging visual and performing arts with curricular standards, placing a particular emphasis on adaptation and modification for neurodiverse classrooms.

About the Presenter

Sam Jay Gold is a puppeteer, writer, and arts educator based in Los Angeles.

Sam began his career as a puppeteer with the support of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, awarding him a yearlong fellowship to study traditional forms of puppetry around the world while exploring empathy and projection across the animate/inanimate divide. These experiences cemented Sam’s belief in the primal power of the puppet, of the shadow, of the not-quite-lifelike, as vessels for surprising, delighting, and engaging kids and adults alike with transformative storytelling. Sam’s original work onstage has been supported by the Jim Henson Foundation and featured at venues including Lincoln Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) — as well as in festivals in Europe, Asia, and South America. He is also Co-founder and Artistic Director of The Brothers Campur, a Balinese-American shadow puppet company presenting classic and contemporary Wayang Kulit across the US and Indonesia.

Prior to his recent cross-country move, Sam spent a decade teaching puppetry, acting, and play-writing in classrooms and communities throughout New York City, working for organizations including The New Victory Theater, Lincoln Center, and the Professional Performing Arts School. Through a partnership with the New York’s Department of Education, Sam provided in-classroom mentorship to elementary school teachers interested in bringing more theater-based curriculum into their classroom. He also helped to develop the GIVE Guide, an online resource designed to support educators and artists in their development and facilitation of inclusive arts curricula.

Sam continues to bring puppetry into the classrooms across the country as a nationally recognized teaching artist for the Kennedy Center.

Sam Jay Gold’s Website

JANUARY

When I Say Poetry, You Say ROCKS: Introduction to Slam Poetry

with Regie Cabico
2nd-12. Max 35 Participants.

Los Lunas Schools
Monday, January 22nd, 2024 – 4:15-7:15 pm, In Person. 
Los Lunas Schools Teacher Resource Center – 801 Coronado NE, Los Lunas

Santa Fe Public Schools
Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 – 4:00-7:00 pm, In Person. 
BF Young Building – 1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, January 25th, 2024 – 1:00-4:00 pm, In Person. 
RRPS District Office – 500 Laser Rd NE, Rio Rancho

For RRPS teachers, subs are provided for you to attend this workshop. After you register, please email Laura Council, Fine Arts Administrative Assistant, at laura.council@rrps.net. She will coordinate with your school administrative assistant to secure a half-day substitute for you.

Albuquerque Public Schools
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024 – 4:30-7:30 pm, In Person. 
Janet Kahn School of Integrated Arts – 9717 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque

REGISTER

Session Description

We will share our triggers and glimmers to create performance poetry geared for all grade levels!

Teachers will see how simple stem structures can create dazzling metaphors. We will address the performance techniques of vocal phrasing, physical gestures, and eye contact within a nurturing environment.

We will see how improvisation sparks our sense memory and emphasize positivity as we snap it up for lines that evoke humor and our deepest personal truths. This workshop is a space where students applaud and snap it up for poets as we conclude with a mini slam event.

About the Presenter

Regie Cabico is a spoken word pioneer having won The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and later taking top prizes in three National Poetry Slams. Television credits include TEDx, 2 seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, NPR’s Snap Judgement & MTV’s Free Your Mind. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Spoken Word Revolution & The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Mr. Cabico received the 2006 Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers for his work teaching at-risk youth at Bellevue Hospital. As a theater artist he received three New York Innovative Theater Award Nominations for his work in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind with a win for Best Performance Art Production The Kenyon Review named Regie Cabico the “Lady Gaga of Poetry” and has been listed in BUST magazine’s 100 Men We Love. He has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg and through Howard Zinn’s Portraits Project at NYU, has performed with Stanley Tucci, Jesse Eisenberg & Lupe Fiasco. Mr. Cabico is a teaching artist with The Kennedy Center Arts Education, The Virginia Commission for the Arts & The DC Commission for the Arts & Humanities. Mr. Cabico will perform his first solo performance show for young audiences, Mangos To Apples Tumbling Tumbling from A Filipino Rainbow, at The National Theater (Washington, DC) in 2023.

FEBRUARY

Drawing as an Exploration Tool

with Celine Gordon
Grades 4th-12. Max 32 participants.

Los Lunas Schools
Thursday, February 22nd, 2024 – 4:15-7:15 pm, In Person. 
Los Lunas Schools Teacher Resource Center – 801 Coronado NE, Los Lunas

Santa Fe Public Schools
Thursday, February 29th, 2024 – 4:00-7:00 pm, In Person. 
BF Young Building – 1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe
The Roadrunner Room

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Tuesday, February 27th, 2024 – 1:00-4:00 pm, In Person. 
RRPS District Office – 500 Laser Rd NE, Rio Rancho

For RRPS teachers, subs are provided for you to attend this workshop. After you register, please email Laura Council, Fine Arts Administrative Assistant, at laura.council@rrps.net. She will coordinate with your school administrative assistant to secure a half-day substitute for you.

Albuquerque Public Schools
Wednesday, February 21st, 2024 – 4:30-7:30 pm, In Person.
Janet Kahn School of Integrated Arts – 9717 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque

REGISTER

Session Description

Drawing is a foundational skill in visual art but can also be used as a tool to conduct research and uncover new information.

In this workshop, we will explore a series of exercises that explore drawing in the same way that engineers, designers, architects, scientists, and researchers do.

We will begin with a brief warm-up called “ugly sketches” designed to get students more comfortable with drawing and then create a series of analytical drawings such as diagrams, taxonomies from nature, topographic maps, and more!

These activities use minimal materials and are easy to integrate for classroom teachers.

About the Presenter

Celine Gordon is an independent artist, illustrator, and educator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The majority of her work with students has centered around using art and design as a lens to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). She was the director of a design education program called Indigo Moose in which she led and planned the curriculum for a six-week summer camp with over 100 students every year, conducted after-school programs with APS, facilitated teacher trainings, and hosted pop-up events for students at Explora. She currently teaches art workshops at Harwood Art Center for both kids and adults.

Celine holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Barnard College in New York City and worked as a designer for architecture firms for 5 years. Her work in architecture has deeply informed her approach to drawing as a research and analytical tool. In 2020 she received the SURFACE Emerging Artist award from Harwood Art Center and has been pursuing art and illustration full-time for the past 2 years. Her art practice is rooted in nature and ecology and is inspired by the rhythms, patterns, and connections found in our surrounding landscape here in New Mexico.

Celine Gordon’s Website

NMART is a Partners in Education Partnership Team of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. NMArt Workshops are sponsored by the School Districts in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Los Lunas with additional funding from the Santa Fe Opera. For more information, contact Charles Gamble, Director of School Programs the Santa Fe Opera, at cgamble@santafeopera.org.