Habla Teacher Institute, July 2010Into the Labyrinth
And I think that if I and other teachers truly want to provoke our students to break through the limits of the conventional and the taken for granted, we ourselves have to experience breaks with what has been established in our own lives; we have to keep arousing ourselves to begin again. Are you ready for a professional adventure? The Habla Summer Institute is a professional development experience in Merida, Mexico for all educators interested in activating their own creativity and finding new was to make the arts part of the daily life of their classrooms. Work with leaders in the field in the areas of arts integration, literacy, and language development at the weeklong Habla teacher institute. Habla documents and shares best practices for using the arts to transform schools and communities. At this institute you will experience these best practices, share your own, and learn ways to fuse the arts with literacy in your educational setting. What will we do?The Habla Teacher Institute 2010 will be led in English. No Spanish language background is necessary.The 2010 Institute will explore the essential concept of Labyrinths. In 2008 Habla partnered with the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University to pilot a teacher institute in Chalco, Mexico City. In Chalco we discussed a story by Argentinean writer, Jorge Luis Borges, “Los dos reyes y los dos laberintos” (“The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths”) and we responded to this short story through multiple art form. The concept of “labyrinths” was so generative we’ve decided to focus on this as a guiding themes for the 2010 Institute at Habla. Participants will collaborate with a team of international artists in multiple artistic disciplines to explore the concept of Labyrinths through contemporary and classical art works and literature. Participants will then create original work in various art forms considering how labyrinths resonate as a metaphor in our lives today. Through this process participants might envision how to transform educational settings into cultural communities rich with writing, reading, and art making. Unlike many professional development experiences, the Habla institute is not a series of disconnected presentations and workshops. A team of international presenting artists and educators collaborate on a continuous series of experiences, each building on the previous, modeling an integrated and continuous process of learning. Reading, writing, and creating through art forms are presented holistically inviting connections between disciplines. Ample time will be allocated for participants to reflect on the creative process. To learn more read the following comments about last year’s institute and download the 2010 itinerary. Who is the institute for?At the 2009 Teacher Institute, participants gathered from Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and Italy from a range of professional backgrounds including:
Although everyone of any professional background is welcome, the institute is especially relevant for:
Program Highlights
To see some of the teaching practices you will experience, visit Habla’s Handbook for teachers. PresentersThis is a current list of confirmed presenters. Patricia Sobral taught at Harvard University for five years in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and currently teaches at Brown University and is the coordinator of the Language Program in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. She is co-author of Ponto de Encontro: Portuguese as a World Language, a first-year language textbook, 2007. In fall 2009, Traveling through the Alphabet: An intermediate reader will be available by Focus Publishing, and in fall 2010, Brazil Via the Arts (tentative title) will be published by the same company. One course she teaches at Brown, Performing Brazil: Language, Theater & Culture functions as both a language and culture course and a platform for students to develop a solid foundation in education through the arts. Cynthia Weiss. Cynthia is an award-winning public artist, painter, and educator. She directs the Arts Integration Mentorship Project, Project AIM, at the Center for Community Arts Partnerships, Columbia College Chicago. Cynthia is co-editor with Amanda Lichtenstein of a new Columbia College publication; AIMprint: New Relationships in the Arts and Learning, and co-editor with Gail Burnaford and Arnold Aprill of Renaissance in the Classroom; Arts Integration and Meaningful Learning, 2001. Cynthia is fluent in Spanish, and always inspired by translations across art forms, language and culture. Kurt Wootton is a co-founder and director of Habla and one of the founding directors of the ArtsLiteracy Project in the Education Department at Brown University. He has piloted several lab schools in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico and worked with Boston, St. Paul, Providence, and Central Falls on multi-year, district-wide initiatives. Wootton is often called upon to give university lectures and keynote speeches including recent talks at Harvard University, the Arts Education Partnership, and the International Conference on Arts and Functional Illiteracy in Rio de Janeiro. The New York Times writes, "Mr. Wootton remains every bit as convinced of education's power to transform lives. He has changed his tool of choice, however, from a mirror in which students see only reflections of themselves to a window that opens onto the rest of the world." María del Mar Pátron-Vazquez is a co-founder and director of Habla and a PhD candidate in the Hispanic Studies Department at Brown University. She specializes on the intersection of community and Latin American literature and the arts. She has lectured internationally and led teacher workshops on language, art, and culture in partnership with the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University and the ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University. Arnold Aprill is the Founding and Creative Director of CAPE, comes from a background in professional theater as an award-winning director, producer and playwright. He has taught at the University of Chicago, National-Louis University, Columbia College, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is one of the co-editors with Cynthia Weiss and Gail Burnaford of Renaissance in the Classroom: Arts Integration and Meaningful Learning. He consults nationally and internationally on the role of the arts in effective school improvement. He has been recognized for exceptional leadership by the Chicago Community Trust and by the Leadership for a Changing World initiative supported by the Ford Foundation. Charly Barbera is a percussionist dedicated to Afro-Caribbean musical traditions. He has extensively studied the folkloric music of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. He is also dedicated to preserving and developing these cultural art forms and brining them to education programs in universities, schools, and community centers. Charly is a musician in several musical groups including Africaribe, EE, and Crystal Gravy. In addition to an expertise in folkloric music, Charly also plays with groups in the areas of jazz, hip-hop, fusion, rock. and other genres. Dates: July 10th – July 17th, 2010Cost:
We recommend staying at the home of one of our host families in order to have one of the best experiences getting to know the culture of Merida. If you would prefer to stay in a local hotel there are a range of options possible. If you prefer to stay in a hotel we are in the process of reserving one for the institute in order to get a better rate and to keep all the institute participants together. We can also recommend other hotels in the Merida area. Contact us for more information: contact@habla.org For more information on cost, payments, inclusions/exclusions, and refunds, please see our Teacher Institute Terms & Conditions. Have Kids?Our July Teacher Institute coincides with our Habla Summer Kids Arts program. The focus of the kids classes is sharpening students’ voices through multiple languages and artistic mediums. Taught by an international team of teachers, this program is offered for students between the ages of 8-13 years old. Your kids can participate in this program while you are participating in the summer institute. Contact us for more information. Partners for the 2010 Habla Institute Include:
Comments about the 2009 Teacher Institute, “Cabinets of Wonder”"The institute was so planned out and professional but also offered that personal touch. The environment allowed for immediate vulnerabilities to be shared and for long-lasting friendships to be forged. I am permanently changed as a person and teacher as a result of the institute - and that has not usually been the case with teaching seminars/institutes. I will be back!!!!!!" Kelly Lane, 1st Grade Teacher "When I reflect about the institute, I cannot think of it as divided by days and hours and sessions, moments of work, or conversation, or performance. In retrospect, it seems to be like a timeless intense moment in which we went from one layer of depth to another, guided by discovery and wonder. Working and collaborating on equal footing with everyone, regardless of who we were and what we did, was truly revealing, profound and inspiring for me. It gave me a glimpse of what could be achieved by working in this manner with our students and colleagues. I had never before had the opportunity nor the privilege of working with such talented yet humble, wonderful artists and other educators from different walks of life. It was as if all of a sudden, I had become another person or maybe the real me that had been hidden, fearful of showing itself to others. It was an experience of deep joy, peace, inspiration and energy." Nidia Schumacher, Director of the Language Program in Hispanic Studies at Brown University "I learned how well the exploration of text and writing could be enriched through work in the art forms. Sometimes we focus too much on the medium and technique in the arts – not on what you will use the medium to express. The opportunities to read and write during the institute gave me something I wanted to have images for. This was very apparent as everyone eagerly worked on their book projects. I was amazed in how rich and personal the final products were." Ruth Piispanen, Arts Education Director, Idaho Commission on the Arts "What I think it changed the most in my teaching, is the way I see myself now as a person in front of a class, how I am committed to the moment and the confidence to experiment and be more creative." Dani Evia Duarte, Language Educator and Yoga Instructor, Mérida México For more information:
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