SPEAC Professional Development Series

Professional Development workshop

We offer a workshop series open to teachers, parents and other interested adults. Ask us about PD Points.

2021 Summer Session:

The Eliot School for Fine and Applied Arts, Open Door Arts, and Wheelock Family Theatre are partnering to support teaching artists through a virtual summer intensive professional development series called Supporting the Processing of Experiences through the Arts during Crisis (SPEAC) that specifically caters to the current needs of K-12 students and teachers in the Boston and Springfield areas.

SPEAC is a virtual summer intensive designed to prepare teaching artists to guide students through online and in-person arts education that effectively supports students to process and express their lived experiences due to the current health crisis, ongoing racial injustice, and the racial awakening and opposition in society, therefore working toward personal and community transformation. 

Session 2: Tuesday, September 14- Wednesday, October 12, 2021. Occurring on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, each day will include 1 class per evening at 7:00 - 8:30 pm. 

RESERVE YOUR SPOT FOR SESSION 2

For each session, there will be 30-60 minutes of pre-work (articles, videos, and/or audio) given 1 week prior. All sessions will be virtual.  

Part 1: Susan Naimark and Dr. Keisha Green will explore the history of education in Boston and Springfield through the lens of race and trauma. By understanding this history, we can better understand and address the systemic challenges and bias that continue to occur in the virtual or in-person classroom.

Part 2: Open Door Arts will guide us through creating an inclusive space for students with disabilities.  By understanding the needs of our young people we can better provide a space for all to create.

Part 3: Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride and Dr. Rose Ashraf and will explore Trauma-informed approaches to better understand and meet the social and emotional needs of our students in person and online. 

Part 4: Tanya Nixon-Silberg and Zahirah Nur Truth will cover how to specifically use the arts to process the experiences of prolonged isolation, loss, fear, and racial injustice  

Part 5: Zahirah Nur Truth and Corey DePina will demonstrate how the different art modalities can put the prior teachings into practice by guiding us through inclusive and accessible abbreviated lessons in visual and performing arts

SPEAC is generously supported by Community Music School of Springfield, BPS Arts Expansion Fund* and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. 

*Funded in part by the Boston Public Schools (BPS) Arts Expansion, a multi-year effort focused on access, equity and quality arts learning for BPS students. The BPS Arts Expansion Fund, managed by EdVestors, is generously supported by the Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, Katie and Paul Buttenwieser, Klarman Family Foundation, Linde Family Foundation and other individuals. BPS Arts Expansion is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

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