Professional Development for Teachers, Schools, and Districts

CLARA offers six Professional Development workshops to support teachers in providing arts-based learning in the classroom. Choose from one of the six topics below, or customize your own workshop to meet the needs of your school or District. All workshops are designed to serve TK-12 teachers in all subject areas and are available in-person or virtually.

  • Building Classroom Culture Through the Arts: Looking for ways to build relationships with your students in the first few weeks of school? Want to “set the stage” for a classroom culture that builds trust, respect and engagement among your students through fun and creative activities? In this workshop, teachers will learn how to deepen their relationships with students and provide the tools to help students learn to be thoughtful, engaged listeners among their peers. Participants will explore “The Three C’s” which help students to develop self-Confidence, understand and value their unique Character traits, and build Charisma through interactive theatre-based activities and guided conversation. The workshop will include a full lesson outline and access to digital materials so that the strategies can be introduced in the classroom immediately.
  • The Arts as a Pathway to Social Emotional Learning: Support students as they navigate peer relationships, develop increased self-awareness and reflection, and learn to understand and navigate their behaviors and emotions. Based on the CASEL Framework, this workshop will explore the 5 core competencies of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) through arts-based activities and resources that can be used directly with students, TK-12. 
  • Bring Academics to Life Through Arts Integration: Learn how you can bring academic subjects including ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies to life by integrating lessons and units with arts education. Based on the Kennedy Center’s framework of arts integration, this workshop will provide teachers with useful strategies to integrate arts (from all disciplines) into existing lessons and provide greater student engagement in the learning process. 
  • Using Media Arts as a Tool for Assessment: Looking for ready-to-use, engaging lessons that you can teach your students virtually or in the classroom? Interested in leveraging technology to give students a creative platform to demonstrate their understanding of a lesson? In this workshop, you will learn how to teach students the basics of stop motion movie making while also learning how to use stop motion videos as an assessment tool in your other assignments.  Stop motion video can be paired with ELA, math, science and more as a way for students to use digital technology to share ideas, tell stories, and demonstrate understanding in a diverse range of subjects. Workshop includes lessons, video tutorials and all digital materials necessary to implement the lessons the following week!
  • Rediscovering Your “WHY” as a Teacher: We all have our reasons for becoming a teacher. However, these past few years have added challenges to the profession that have likely made you ask, “Is this really worth it?” In this workshop we will work together to reconnect you (and your students) to your WHY. Inspired by Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle of Why, we will first focus on strategies to ensure long-term fulfillment for you as a teacher — even during challenging times. Then, in the second half of the workshop we will explore activities and approaches to learning that will help your students discover their WHY. These methods can spark increased curiosity in learning, deeper engagement, and intrinsic motivation to participate in class. Open to all grade levels and subject areas.
  • Lesson Design – Understanding the California Arts Standards: In 2019, the California Department of Education released new standards for the Visual and Performing Arts. In this workshop, we will explore each element of the new standards, share strategies to align lessons and content to the standards, and discover how the standards can be a useful tool in lesson planning and design.

To book your professional development training, please schedule a meeting HERE.

All workshops are led by CLARA’s Education Outreach Director, Emili Danz, with other local industry experts contracted for certain sessions, and concludes with purposeful conversation among attendees to foster meaningful connections and collaboration within our arts community.

Teaching Artist Training Series

The Teaching Artist Training workshops are designed to support artists interested in developing their leadership skills through the arts and/or becoming trained teaching artists in a classroom setting. 

Artists will learn the fundamental tools necessary to teach their craft while building personalized approaches to building community and culture as an arts leader. Workshop content will address specific topics such as strengthening relationships in the classroom, establishing procedures and capturing attention, and effective communication strategies in individual and group settings.

Click HERE to register for the 8-month workshop series.