Arts Resource Faire illustrates how arts enrich other subjects
Paul Richard Alary and Heather Kenyon, as Julian Marsh and Peggy Sawyer, prepare for Peggy's big chance in 42nd Street, the centerpiece of Sacramento State's Festival of the Arts.
Sacramento State’s eighth annual Arts Resource Faire on Saturday, March 8, will show educators and others how to incorporate the arts into the classroom teaching of other subjects. It will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University Union. Admission is free.
The event, a project of the College of Education’s graduate program of Arts in Education, will feature musical, theatrical and visual arts presentations, and 60 “hands-on” workshops on integrating those arts into classroom curriculum. Vendors will also be on hand to discuss materials and services for arts instruction. Some 700 teachers, student-teachers, administrators, artists and parents are expected to attend.
The event opens with songs by Sacramento State literature for children instructor Francie Dillon and the Woodwind Quintet from the Sacramento Philharmonic performing “Carnival of the Animals.” There will also be a Wax Museum of Living History by Creative Connections Academy middle school students, a blues music history presentation called “Blues in the Schools,” and the band Horse Sense performing “Songs of the Western Soil.”
“It’s to show teachers how to teach arts, not just for the arts’ sake, but also to help classroom teachers integrate the arts into other subjects across the curriculum,” says College of Education professor Crystal Olson.
“It’s a fabulous event,” says Julie Giese, a Stockton third-grade teacher. “It teaches that, for example, if a student has a literature assignment, instead of filling out worksheet after worksheet, they may instead make a painting or write a play about it. It makes it more exciting to learn. I know my kids love it.”
Some school districts will allow continuing education credit for teachers attending the event, and it is worth one semester unit of academic credit from the Sacramento State College of Continuing Education.
Paul Richard Alary and Heather Kenyon, as Julian Marsh and Peggy Sawyer, prepare for Peggy's big chance in 42nd Street, the centerpiece of Sacramento State's Festival of the Arts.