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, Las Vegas City Schools, 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.  Two 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 2027.

Any questions or to cancel registration, please email Erin Blake, Administrative Coordinator for Community Engagement at the Santa Fe Opera, at eblake@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 | Las Vegas City Schools
Rio Rancho Public Schools | Santa Fe Public Schools | The Kennedy Center

The What and Why with Melanie Rick of Focus 5

All Grade Levels

This session delves into the internationally recognized definition of arts integration, exploring its core principles and best practices. Participants will uncover the essential characteristics of high-quality arts integration and examine how they align with effective educational strategies to enhance student learning across disciplines.

Santa Fe Public Schools
Monday, August 24th
4:00 – 7:00 PM
Sierra Vista Room, BF Young Building
1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Tuesday, August 25th
1:00 – 4:00 PM, In Person.
RRPS Board Rooms
500 Laser Dr, Rio Rancho

Las Vegas City Schools
Wednesday, August 26th
4:30 – 7:30 PM
Kennedy Hall Gallery,
NM Highlands University
905 University Ave, Las Vegas

Albuquerque Public Schools
Thursday, August 27th
3:00 – 6:00pm
M Building – APS Fine Arts 109A&B
912 Oak St SE, Albuquerque

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

REGISTER

About the Presenter

Melanie is a National Board Certified Teacher, certified reading specialist, and co-owner and Senior Consultant for Focus 5, Inc. She designs and leads workshops, in-depth courses, and summer institutes focused on aligning arts integration, best instructional practices, and current research in the fields of arts and education.

Ms. Rick works in art museums, schools, and art centers across the country, helping teachers develop their students’ visual literacy and critical thinking skills through the integration of visual art and poetry throughout the curriculum.

Melanie is currently a National Teaching Artist, course leader and instructional arts coach for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Art’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program in Washington, D.C. She also served as the CETA program consultant for five years, working with teaching artists to develop and evaluate workshops presented at the Kennedy Center.

Melanie holds an MA in Literacy Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Tech and a BA in Elementary and Special Education from Clemson University. She has over 25 years of experience integrating the arts with general education, special education, and English Language Learners. She has been a classroom teacher in 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th grades as well as an arts integration specialist in a Title I arts magnet school.

Scientific Thought in Motion with Randy Barron

Grades 3rd through 12th

Teachers can translate many basic concepts in science into meaningful, self-assessing movement activities that put abstract ideas into tangible, visible form. In lessons that engage students in movement, participants learn the elements of dance and how those elements relate to scientific content. Participants leave the workshop with a set of immediately useful movement activities for classroom study of cycles and systems, along with the skills necessary to adapt those activities to teach other curriculum ideas. Randy Barron guides teachers in easy-to-duplicate lesson plans, which draw upon students’ kinesthetic, visual, and musical intelligence to increase their achievement in science and strengthen their repertoire of learning and social skills.

Santa Fe Public Schools
Monday, September 21st
4:00 – 7:00 PM
Sierra Vista Room, BF Young Building
1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Albuquerque Public Schools
Tuesday, September 22nd
3:00 – 6:00 PM
M Building – APS Fine Arts 109A&B
912 Oak St SE, Albuquerque

Las Vegas City Schools
Wednesday, September 23rd
4:30 – 7:30 PM
Kennedy Hall Gallery, NM Highlands University
905 University Ave, Las Vegas

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, September 24th
1:00 – 4:00 PM
RRPS Board Rooms
500 Laser Dr, Rio Rancho

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

REGISTER

About the Presenter

Randy Barron 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.

Creative Data Storytelling with Dr. Amanda Galbraith

All Grade Levels

What stories in your community are waiting to be told? In this hands-on session, educators will apply contemporary arts practices to communicate stories from local social or ecological data. Educators will leave with strategies to support students to communicate stories through arts-based data visualization. The content and practices in this session offer possibilities to integrate a diverse range of materials, media, and technology. We will also consider connections to the New Mexico standards and ways to scaffold creative data storytelling for all grade levels and contents.

Santa Fe Public Schools
Monday, October 26th
4:00 – 7:00 PM
Sierra Vista Room, BF Young Building
1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Tuesday, October 27th
1:00 – 4:00 PM
RRPS Board Rooms
500 Laser Dr, Rio Rancho

Las Vegas City Schools
Wednesday, October 28th
4:30 – 7:30 PM
Kennedy Hall Gallery, NM Highlands University
905 University Ave, Las Vegas

Albuquerque Public Schools
Thursday, October 29th
3:00 – 6:00 PM
M Building – APS Fine Arts 109A&B
912 Oak St SE, Albuquerque

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

REGISTER

About the Presenter

Dr. Amanda Galbraith is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her research with the Arts-Based Data Visualization Project, a project funded by the United States Department of Education, explores how educators and students make sense of data through arts-based approaches.

She has served as a district lead teacher, K-5 art educator, and graduate instructor. The Tennessee Art Education Association honored her as Higher Educator of the Year (2025) and Educator of the Year (2019). She holds degrees from Memphis College of Art, Union University, and Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.

She and her family enjoy hiking, artmaking, and other adventures.

Bring Stories to Life: Theater Strategies to Support ELA Learning with Jeff Andersen

Grades 3rd through 8th

What if your students were begging to write? What if the kid who never participates was suddenly on their feet, fully engaged, and the reluctant reader was diving deep into stories? Theater strategies can make that happen, and you don’t need a stage, a script, or any drama experience to use them.

This hands-on workshop introduces teachers to powerful tools drawn from devised theater, a collaborative, artist-driven process for building original stories. Because devised theater is rooted in physical, visual, and collaborative input, it’s a natural fit for the diverse learners in your classroom. These strategies aren’t add-ons to your ELA curriculum. They are ELA, just taught in a way that gets kids out of their seats and into the story.

Participants will walk away with practical, ready-to-use strategies that support:

*Reading comprehension: help students explore plot, theme, and character motivation in new ways.
*Original writing: give students a genuine, intrinsic reason to want to craft their own stories, poems, and scripts.
*Story structure: deepen understanding of how narratives are constructed, from the ground up.

For example, one strategy called Story Statues can be used to help students map out plot points in a story they just read, step inside a character’s perspective, or spark ideas for their own original writing.

Whether you teach younger students just discovering stories or 8th graders wrestling with more complex texts, you’ll leave with a toolkit of multi-modal strategies designed to engage every type of learner.

Santa Fe Public Schools
Monday, November 16th
4:00 – 7:00 PM
Sierra Vista Room, BF Young Building
1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Albuquerque Public Schools
Tuesday, November 17th
3:00 – 6:00 PM
M Building – APS Fine Arts 109A&B
912 Oak St SE, Albuquerque

Las Vegas City Schools
Wednesday, November 18th
4:30 – 7:30 PM
Kennedy Hall Gallery,
NM Highlands University
905 University Ave, Las Vegas, NM

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, November 19th
1:00 – 4:00 PM
RRPS Board Rooms
500 Laser Dr, Rio Rancho

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

REGISTER

About the Presenter

Jeff Andersen has spent over 20 years using theater as a tool to help young people discover their voice and their love of reading and writing. With a B.A. in Theater Education from UNM and direct classroom experience spanning grades K-12, Jeff brings both the theory and the practical know-how of using theater strategies to build student confidence, deepen literacy skills, and make storytelling feel personal and powerful.

Jeff is the Executive Director of Arts Hub in Albuquerque, where he leads education programming, including smART Classrooms, which brings creative learning strategies into school settings. He previously served as Artistic Director of Blackout Theatre, where he used devised theater to create and perform original works, the same approach that forms the foundation of this workshop.

Jeff believes deeply in the power of art to transform a child’s life, and his work is driven by a conviction that every student has a story worth telling.

Creative Teaching Across the Curriculum with Jackson Knowles from MINDPOP

Grades Kindergarten through 5th

Creative Teaching is a research-based instructional approach that can be woven into your regular teaching practice, bringing joy and deep learning to your students in equal measure.

In this workshop, we’ll share instructional techniques rooted in drama, visual art and music that promote deep learning by asking students to generate ideas, analyze and synthesize information, explore concepts through multiple modalities, and contribute their own perspectives and voices to classroom learning.

You’ll experience these Creative Teaching strategies as a learner, then unpack the mechanics behind them: when and why to use each tool, which instructional moments they best support, and how they can be modified and adapted for your students.

This workshop is designed for teachers in general education classrooms in grades K–5. No prior arts experience is required — truly.

Santa Fe Public Schools
Monday, March 1st
4:00 – 7:00 PM
Sierra Vista Room, BF Young Building
1300 Camino Sierra Vista, Santa Fe

Las Vegas City Schools
Tuesday, March 2nd
4:30 – 7:30 PM
Kennedy Hall Gallery,
NM Highlands University
905 University Ave, Las Vegas, NM

Albuquerque Public Schools
Wednesday, March 3rd
3:00 – 6:00 PM
M Building – APS Fine Arts 109A&B
912 Oak St SE, Albuquerque

Rio Rancho Public Schools
Thursday, March 4th
1:00 – 4:00 PM
RRPS Board Rooms
500 Laser Dr, Rio Rancho

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

REGISTER

About the Presenter

Jackson Knowles has worked for 20+ years at the intersections of the arts, education, and community. As director of national programs at MINDPOP, she supports the design and implementation of creative learning systems across the country and is currently engaged with 17 school districts. Her work includes strategic action planning, professional learning design and facilitation, executive coaching, and system implementation support. She convenes national leaders in arts education to examine advanced topics in the field and has co-authored peer-reviewed research on the factors that sustain and inhibit successful school-arts partnerships. Jackson is a member of the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education advisory committee, an alum of the National Guild for Community Arts Education’s Leadership Institute, and has served on the boards of a variety of arts and education organizations across the country. Before joining MINDPOP, Jackson helmed community-based programs at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and was a co-founder of the Homer A. Plessy Community School. She began her career as a teaching artist and modern dancer with Rosy Simas Danse in Minnesota.