They’re finding teaching tools by going through the motions

The teachers – nearly 40 of them – looked at one another and laughed nervously as they rose from their seats and clustered around Cissy Whipp, an artist and educator from Louisiana.

Onstage at the Reach Performing Arts Center at Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School, Whipp began to lead them through the motions: First, isolate a body part. Next, play with the timing of the beat. Then, as you weave your way around the space, wave at everyone you meet – low to the ground, high in the air, at waist level.

Within minutes, these simple movements morphed into a dance, and the nervousness melted away as the teachers lost themselves in the rhythm.

“I try to avoid using the ‘D word’ – dance – because it scares people,” Whipp said. “We’re talking about the use of movement for a real sense of expression.”

More important, however, Whipp was talking about the use of movement for real learning – not just in the arts, but across the curriculum. Her workshop, “Moving Ways to Read and Write About Images in West African Textile Art,” was the first in a series of professional development seminars for area teachers. Led by nationally acclaimed teaching artists, the series is offered by Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House and the Deer Isle-Stonington School District as part of their participation in the John F. Kennedy Center Partners in Education program.

Established in 1991, the program pairs community arts organizations with their local school districts to help “increase the artistic literacy of young people” through teacher training.

On this day, teachers from Deer Isle-Stonington, Blue Hill, Sedgwick and Brooklin participated. Those teachers, in turn, will bring what they’ve learned back to their schools and, it is hoped, pass it on to their colleagues.

To date, there are 104 teams in 46 states – in Maine, L/A Arts teamed up with the Auburn and Lewiston School Departments, and PCA Great Performances partnered with Portland Public Schools, both in 2003. As part of the program, representatives from the school and the arts center travel to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to take part in a four-day planning institute. Participants also have access to financial support, consultations, touring programs and resources over the long term.

Though the program requires an ongoing commitment from the school district and the opera house, Catherine Ring, the principal at Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary, said it’s worth the effort.

“The arts stimulate the brain and learning in ways traditional classroom teaching doesn’t always get to,” Ring said after Whipp’s workshop. “It’s very sensory, and we know when kids are learning things through their senses, that’s when they’re learning best. When you integrate learning, [for example] literature and art, the retention of learning is much higher. We know children with exposure to the arts do better in all subject areas.”

That has certainly been true for Whipp’s pupils at the J. Wallace James Elementary Arts & Technology Academy, an experimental school in Lafayette, La. She’s one of several artists on staff who work to incorporate their art form into traditional classroom learning.

“Our test scores have improved dramatically every year, particularly in the areas where we’re trying to integrate: math, social studies and language arts,” Whipp told the teachers in her workshop. “There are lots of ways music, dance and visual arts connect with the curriculum.”

To underscore her point, she gestured to a set of brightly colored banners hanging on the stage behind her. Each featured a “bold, graphic” symbol that the Akan people of Ghana have printed on textiles for centuries. The images, Whipp explained, are called Adinkra symbols, and they send messages about the person wearing them – a mark in the shape of a Maltese cross, for instance, conveys good fortune, while a moon and star signify faithfulness.

Her fourth-graders have created “identity sashes” emblazoned with the symbols, which they wear on Fridays as a badge of honor. But before they made the sashes, they learned about the symbols and their meanings through dance.

Again, the teachers rose to their feet, and in groups, they arranged their bodies in horizontal and diagonal lines – the symbol for “performing the unusual or impossible.” Whipp told the group that the image was inspired by a snake climbing a raffia tree – a feat that seems hopeless at first, because the tree is so tall and thin, and the snake needs to go back and forth, slowly zigzagging its way to the top.

“It’s the symbol for perseverance,” she said as they pondered their next move. “Keep going, keep your goal in mind. Even if this is making you uncomfortable, we’re going to keep persevering.”

In response, the teachers chopped their hands through the air, karate-style, and lifted their fists, triumphantly, shouting “Yes!” at the end.

When they were finished, Whipp asked the teachers to call out the attributes of their choreography – first with adjectives, then verbs, then synonyms. When the lists were complete, Whipp asked them to write a short essay about the most unusual thing they’ve ever done, incorporating as many of the words on the list as possible.

During a break in the action, Molly McMillan, Sharon Longley and Halina Nawrot of The Brooklin School sipped water and reflected on how the workshop dovetailed with their school union’s yearlong focus on Africa.

“I believe in integration – it’s so much richer,” McMillan said. She had planned to have her pupils write and perform folk tales, and the dance component will make the lesson that much stronger.

“Have them pick a symbol to invent their folk tale around,” Longley, the school’s librarian, suggested.

Nawrot is the school’s principal, but she also teaches language arts, and she embraces Whipp’s holistic approach to learning.

“It’s the difference between looking at things individually and looking at things in a broader spectrum,” Nawrot said. “We tend to think of things more globally. This brings the whole thing together. It’s a way to fabricate learning by bringing in all these diverse elements.”

That global – yet local – perspective is what drew Linda Nelson and Judith Jerome of Opera House Arts to the program. They have a deep respect for the Stonington Opera House’s historical role as a community gathering place and resource, and education is a large part of that.

“The integration of the opera house into the community and particularly the schools is hugely important to us,” Jerome, OHA’s artistic director, said. “This is where we build our audience.”

“We also know the power of the arts is integral to communities,” added Nelson, OHA’s executive director. “If kids are learning through the arts, that’s another way we can strengthen our community. … It’s our mission to incorporate arts into everyday life.”

Additional Kennedy Center workshops are scheduled for March 20 and 21 and April 14, and are open to educators throughout the region. For more information on the partnership, and complete course descriptions and registration forms, go to www.operahousearts.org/partnersineducation.html.