university.nae.school
Rachel White-Hunt
Director of Performing Arts
Curriculum Fellow
British International School Chicago
South Loop
Another unique element of teaching development across our performing arts program is the work with our Juilliard curriculum specialists. These moments offer a couple of days in the school year where the performing arts department can work with a curriculum specialist, not only as an observer but as a thought partner, another professional to talk to, another view. The process of allowing a department to focus on their teaching and learning through team teaching and reflective conversation is invaluable- it is not often in the teaching world we get the luxury of doing this and it’s a process which I think all subject departments should try. As teachers we live for learning; having key opportunities in our year to explore and reflect on this with another professional offers a fresh, empowering way to develop our own practice. We ask our students to reflect and develop all the time- why not build time in for ourselves, outside the confines of sometimes impersonal “generic” criteria. Having time to work with another professional, to share ideas, to talk the “subject talk” and get excited about the “what if’s?” as a teacher is a fresh, modern perspective on improving teaching practice within a school and department.
Investing time in our teachers to help them explore their subject and make links across the NAE family has created a growing performing arts community. We know each other, share resources, and are excited to create opportunities for our schools and regions. We can work together to train and practice self-reflection to develop our own teaching practice.
We regularly talk about “engagement before information” across our Juilliard training sessions and it’s exciting to know that we are also using this philosophy to train and develop our teachers as well as our students. You only have to look at the Juilliard twitter feed and NAU community to see the effects and benefits to both students and teachers.
If you would like to explore the ideas in this article further you can visit the Juilliard area of NAU, the Be Ambitious area, or perhaps you'd like to take our Be Ambitious course which takes you through the
research behind Be Ambitious including the
Grown Mindset.