Through an in-depth materials review and a series of on-site focus group assessments, Connexionarts:

• reviews your existing education programs and written resources, including teacher's guides, concert materials, and curriculum resources

• explores the capacity and potential of your education programs, and determines how these programs might be integrated into a larger, more unified education plan

• forms an overview of the state of arts education in your district schools

• reviews the profiles of your district schools, becomes familiar with their curricular and testing requirements, and identifies district-wide initiatives

A successful project design builds from needs and priorities identified in the assessment process. Careful consideration is given to the wide range of school cultures and their varied leadership and instructional styles. Our design strategies are founded in the understanding that children learn when their emotions are engaged and when learning is interactive.

Connexionarts builds the project design using components that may include teacher and artist training, artist and teacher collaboration, classroom presentations, and school-wide concerts. How the components are selected and combined depends on the needs of the stakeholders as determined in the needs assessment phase.

Through a process of capacity building, Connexionarts provides you with the tools to continue your program development and implementation.

Flexibility in service delivery is key to Connexionarts' design services. With our highly skilled and experienced team of writers and designers, we are able to:

• Facilitate curriculum mapping with schools and artists

• Lead your in-house writing teams

• Write resource content for student, teacher, and family guides

• Design supporting digital tools, assessment formats, blackline masters, and information sheets

• Develop lesson plans

• Create resource kits

• Provide design and production services

The Connexionarts team's experience as educators, authors, performers, presenters, and directors makes us uniquely qualified to conduct workshops in:

• developing educational materials

• curriculum design

• arts-based teaching strategies

• literacy and arts integration

Arts-based teaching strategies are not taught as isolated activities, but as purposeful, comprehensive, instructional strategies clearly aligned with current educational research such as differentiated learning, growth mindset, and brain-based learning. Connexionarts will:

• model specific lessons that have been either developed by us for teachers, or jointly developed with teachers

• work with teachers to develop arts-based teaching skills, such as presentation techniques and performance communication skills

• work with teachers to increase comfort levels and confidence in using the arts in the classroom

Artists are the tangible link to the classroom. Artists have a lasting impact on teachers and students when they successfully engage and interact with their audiences. Connexionarts training focuses on:

• presentation techniques

• communication skills

• program design

Connexionarts develops programs to accompany student visits to museum exhibits, ballets, operas, theatre, symphony, art galleries or any cultural/artistic event. These programs are aligned with district education content standards and include:

• repertoire selection

• educational materials

• concert scripts

• teacher workshops on how to present the material