Photoville Educator Lab: The Compassionate Classroom: Social Emotional Learning Resource Guide

[ educator lab ]

THE COMPASSIONATE CLASSROOM: Social Emotional Learning via Arts Integration

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 Abrons Arts Center, NYC

presented by

Photoville Believes...

That art is fundamentally a collaborative process between artists and their audiences, and public art creates the perfect conditions to foster creative exchange. Through free public art, educational programming, and professional development, we offer visual storytellers funding, mentorship, promotional and production resources.

Koren Martin:

Photoville’s mission is to provide the community with the opportunity to experience incredible visual storytelling in accessible public locations free of charge and to uplift and amplify diverse storytellers.

The Photoville Educator Lab began taking shape in the summer of 2023 with a central question, “What were some of the challenges that educators and students were faced with post-pandemic?”

As I pondered this question and consulted educators in our network about their classroom experiences, what emerged was an overwhelming reality that things had shifted drastically. The theoretical framework that guided the planning process for the educator lab was “Healing-Centered Engagement”, a pedagogy developed by Dr. Shawn Ginwright and Positive Youth Development. Each of these theories ask educators/practitioners to acknowledge our individual humanity and connect that to the students or young people we teach or collaborate with in out of school time programs.

WHAT IS EDUCATOR LAB? This workshop invites educators to explore the concept of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) utilizing various art mediums with an emphasis on visual arts and photography. This lab provides a space for educators to explore the evolving work within trauma informed care and youth development programming, and feature collaborative sessions giving participants an opportunity to explore relevant themes and connect with other educators.

The Beloved Community is where loving ties of care and knowing bind us together in our differences and collective consciousness builds space where the the possibility of remembering, healing and growing occurs.”

—BELL HOOKS

Public Engagement Manager for Photoville

A resounding word that is woven throughout the educator lab is ‘compassion’ and I decided that Social Emotional Learning would facilitate a day of intentionality, exploration and connection.

My hope is that the Educator Lab Resource Guide will serve as a snapshot of the experiences of the facilitators and participants.

Danny Arenas Director of Programs and Impact, Art Start DANNY ARENAS, is a CubanAmerican painter, photographer, and licensed social worker. Danny is the Director of Programs and Impact at Art Start. He earned an MSW Degree from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in 2014. Prior to joining Art Start, he worked with Urban Pathways as the Director of Social Services at a shelter in Midtown Manhattan. He began his career in Social Services as a Preventive Case Manager for the Institute for Child and Family Health.

He is well-trained in motivational interviewing and is a former cultural and diversity trainer.

Why do we need more healing spaces? Why do we need more community and collaboration?

To build aspirations in young people.”

— DA N N Y A R E N A S

Social-Emotional Learning Social-emotional learning is an educational method that aims to foster social and emotional skills within school curricula.

CASEL SEL FRAMEWORK

Healing-Centered Engagement Healing-Centered Engagement is an asset-based and culturally-rooted approach to healing and well-being for young people of color and their adult allies. The term was coined by Dr. Shawn Ginwright in 2018, and is based on more than 30 years of research and practice with young people, schools, probation departments, and social workers.

I am worth more than the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

— S H AW N G I N W R I G H T from the book “Black Youth Rising: Activism and Radical Healing in Urban America”

THE CARMA MODEL The Healing-Centered Engagement approach is operationalized through it’s five CARMA principles.

C | CULTURE The values and norms that connect us to a shared identity.

A | AGENCY The individual and collective power to act, create and change personal conditions and external systems.

R | RELATIONSHIPS The capacity to create, sustain and grow healthy connections with others.

M | MEANING The profound discovery of who we are, why we are, and what purpose we were born to serve.

A | ASPIRATION The capacity to imagine, set, and accomplish goals for personal and collective livelihood and advancement.

The exploration of possibilities for our lives and the process of accomplishing goals for personal and collective livelihood.

HEALING ART ACTIVITY Please think about a work/piece of art that resonates with you, and that you find healing. Please consider these questions and answer the best you can.

We will utilize the C.A.R.M.A. model to dig deeper into your choice.

A Piece of art that you find healing.

C | Represent or connect with your cultural and / or community identity?

A | Strengthen your agency, autonomy, and / or ability to create change?

R | Represent or remind you of transformational relationships in your life?

M | Help you make meaning and / or find joy and purpose?

A | Support your aspirations and adaptive mindset ( goal / growth orientation )?

Alexis Lambrou Arts Educator Bard High School Early College ALEXIS (she/they) is an arts educator at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan. She is interested in collaborations, exhibitions, and projects that connect students to the world around them through culture, history, and justice.

Her teaching aims to facilitate crossgenerational conversations and bring student work out of the classroom and into the world. Previously, she has worked with young people at Sarah Lawrence College’s Social Justice Collective, The New York Public Library, the International Center of Photography, Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School, New York City’s Parks and Rec Centers, Photoville NYC, and the YMCA on the Cheyenne River Reservation. She has received generous support for teaching through Brooklyn Arts Council, NYC SALT, Aperture Foundation, Magnum Foundation, and the Sioux YMCA.

As an educator, this is one of the powers of visual storytelling.

‘Speaking Portraits’ is one example of what it can look like in a classroom.”

—ALEXIS LAMBROU

THE EDUCATOR CHECK-IN PANEL The Educator Check-In Panel consisted of a conversation with photographer and educator, Alexis Lambrou and Bard High School students.

The conversation centered around their project “Speaking Portraits”, a photo-voice project, in collaboration with photographer Kyle Lui, which was awarded a Photoville Education Grant and featured in the 2023 Photoville Festival.

Participants received a bird’seye view of an educator and their students reflecting on their artistic process, key take-aways, and also defining moments in the project production process.

“EXISTENCE IS RESISTANCE.” — A SPEN, BARD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT

What is one thing that you feel like has stood out to you so far, in this whole day? It doesn’t have to be right now, but from this whole day, hold on to something that stood out to you or something that you really liked.”

— L AC R E S H A B E R R Y

Lacresha Berry Teaching Artist, Writer, and Performer LACRESHA BERRY is a culturally responsive educator, performance artist, and a multi-subject curriculum consultant.

She specializes her training and teaching in providing culturally responsive pedagogy with arts based, hands-on activities within multi-subject disciplines to increase student engagement, strengthen classroom management, and foster fun and creativity in classrooms across the country. Lacresha is devoted and committed to creating compassionate leaders who celebrate their own legacies and has been designing educational experiences and safe spaces for teachers, parents, students, and school personnel. Her research interests include work in cultural responsive pedagogy, gender equity, social justice in education,diversity and inclusion, arts in education, and anti-racist education. Her arts education lesson work and editing skills were recently published and featured in the new curriculum guide by Fresh Education, entitled, Fresh Ed A Field Guide to Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.

NOTICE

What do you notice?

What are your first thoughts?

RELATE Can you relate this to something else?

EXAMINE

What questions do you have?

<B iggie Smalls, King Of New York photograph by Barron Claiborne from the “Contact High” project

Contact Sheet A proof of all the frames shot on one roll of film.“ Getting access to the original and unedited contact sheets, shows the ‘big picture’ being created, looking directly through the photographer’s lens. Photographers typically don’t show their contact sheets. They’re a visual diary. Film negatives on a roll of analog film allowed these photographers (and now us) to see the full range of images in order to develop the “money shot.”

How does seeing photos from different platforms change the historical perspective of this subject?

Besides print magazines, where else do you see images of celebrities and events nowadays (blogs, instagram, snapchat etc.)?

Editorial Photographic Process Traditionally, a magazine would hire a photographer for an assignment to take a portrait of a celebrity.

The magazine would discuss the vision and creative direction with the photographer and the celebrity.

Photographers only had 24-36 shots per roll of film, so they needed to be thoughtful about each shot.

At the end of the shoot, they would process their contact sheets, and mark their favorite selection of images.

The magazine would pick the final image to be published.

Diamante Poem To create a diamante poem, use the poem frame below, which asks you to use different parts of speech to describe your topic.

topic (a noun)

adjective

verb

adjective

verb

verb

four-word phrase

adjective

adjective

remaining noun

PHOTOVILLE EDUCATION Photoville Education provides year-round programming to engage young people and educators with visual storytelling through workshops, resources, and field trips.

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ABOUT OUR LEAD EDUCATION PARTNER

PHOTOWINGS

PhotoWing’s mission is to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world. They help photography to be better understood, created, utilized, seen, and saved. They are dedicated to utilizing the power of photography to further deep thinking, communication, and action. The PhotoWings Outreach Program and their extensive media archive have myriad educational applications and possibilities, including projects from partners that cross disciplines, generations, and cultures.

They also create toolkits/curricula for replication, adaptation and/or inspiration.

www.photowings.org

Thank you for coming along this journey with us. Make sure you check out Photoville education lesson plans, artist videos and tool kits.

Thank you to PhotoWings and Abrons Arts Center.

For more information, visit www.photoville.com

Produced in partnership with:

Event photographs by Julie Thompson