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Change of Heart:
Artistic Alternatives to Violence


The Arts build self esteem... can you think of a better way to stem the tide of violence?

Change of Heart:
Violence Prevention Package

Timeline:
  1. Initial Planning Meeting: The success of the Change of Heart requires a unified effort. Therefore the initial planning meeting of 45 minutes to 1 hour requires a Program Planning Team which includes, at minimum, the following stakeholders: the CES coordinator of the program, the school principal or assistant principal, the school guidance counselor or SAPIS, and either the school parent coordinator or other parent representative. Goals for the meeting include:
    • understanding of the goals of the program and the individual components of the Program Package;
    • Initial scheduling of all components;
    • Recommendation for program evaluation procedures.
  2. Teacher Manuals: Printed material is meant to support the staff development provided next, and give teachers a reference which may be used after the artists are gone. Students workbooks are provided for participating students. The basic Package includes: 30 copies of Change of Heart Curriculum Framework, 30 copies of the manual Teaching Curriculum Through the Arts, 30 copies of the manual Sunrise at 602: Enlightened Classroom Management and 90 copies of the student workbook Play with Purpose.
  3. Staff Development workshops: The first hands on activity with participants includes 4 workshops with up to 30 teachers. These are up to 3 hour workshops on the following topics:
    • Change of Heart, Artistic Alternatives to Violence;
    • Applications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences;
    • Teaching Curriculum Through the Arts; and
    • Enlightened Classroom Management.
    Each of these four workshops is described above and is accompanied by the Teachers Manuals or student workbook described in #2, immediately above.
  4. Show: (Odyssey, The Dream Rehearsed, The Folklore Festival, depending on the grade level and school preference.) A 5-day show component is scheduled over a tightly compacted period of time. Five consecutive days is best, but there is flexibility here. Goals include:
    • introduction of elements of the program to the school participants (students, teachers, administrators)
    • building self-confidence in school participants
    • establishment of the artists as credible experts and role models. Maximum number of participants in Odyssey and The Dream Rehearsed programs: 30. Maximum number of participants in the Folklore Festival: 50. One teacher will serve as school coordinator. Culminating show on the fifth day may be for audience of up to 250 students. Student participants and the teacher coordinator will fill out final evaluations on the program component, identifying feelings, insights and principles learned.
  5. Artist residence/ mentoring: Artists engage with teacher-partners in a residence to demonstrate the approach of Change of Heart, and to mentor teachers in applying the principles of the Change of Heart approach and to design their own curriculum activities. The basic Package includes one artist working with 3 classes a day (maximum size 30 students) for a total of 3 contact hours per day with students. The artist works for 12 days with these classes, visiting with a frequency of at least twice per week. Before the residence program begins, the artist engages in a planning meeting with the teacher-partners to
    • clarify the goals of the program
    • design the curriculum and
    • review evaluation procedures.
  6. Parent Workshop: One parent workshop will share with parents the activities and approach of Change of Heart. The workshop will be up to 3 hours in duration, and include up to 30 parents. Each participating parent will receive a copy of the Change of Heart Curriculum Framework.
  7. Evaluation meetings: The artist, the three teacher-partners, and the guidance counselor, principal or assistant principal, and the parent coordinator or parent representative will meet with the CES program coordinator after every fourth residence session to discuss progress and make recommendations for the future which the artist and teacher-partners will then implement. There will be three such meetings during the course of the residence. The final meeting will include a overall program evaluation.

    Evaluation: Teachers will be required to fill out evaluation forms at the end of each staff development session. These will be reviewed by the Program Planning Team. Students and participating teacher-partners will be required to maintain Journals which will be collected before each Evaluation meeting and will be used to develop the final program evaluation. Journal entries will be required after each session, describing
    • what participants learnedclarify the goals of the program
    • their responses to in-class sessions, andclarify the goals of the program
    • any issues they have or problems they are experiencing which they wish to see addressed.

    The full program costs $16,860

    For more information on this powerful program, email us at programs@creativeeducationalsystems.com

    To receive a free copy of the Change of Heart Curriculum Framework email us at programs@creativeeducationalsystems.com

    To look at other types of Preventions Services of the Change of Heart program click here

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