Arts Education @ PS 3

We are committed to providing all of our students with sequential standards-based arts education and have earned a well-deserved reputation in the New York City arts-in-education community for effectively doing that.  Our staff includes two full-time Visual Arts teachers, Michael Cooper and Damon Harris, who together serve all of our students.  We also have one full-time Music teacher, Ahmed Abdullah, who also directs The Bedford Village Ensemble chorus and band, and two part-time teaching artists, Ellen Reid and Shanna Whitney (from our long-time partner Education Through Music) who provide Music education to all of our students.  As Cultural Enrichment specialist, Lenora Walters teaches Dance to her Early Childhood and 3^rd grade classes.

Additionally, we have an Arts Education Coordinator, Stephen Mohney, who works with our partner arts-in-education organizations to schedule in-school instruction by arts teaching artists and museum educators, class visits to museums, and class trips to concert halls.  Besides Education Through Music, our arts-in-education partners include the Brooklyn Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, Forces of Nature Dance Theater Company, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Weill Music Institute of Carnegie Hall.

This year we are pleased to add the New York City Opera to our list of partnerships with their Education Department “Opera is Elementary” initiative: Cinderella Stories.  All Second grade students will take part in this exciting program that will be supported by our music department and librarian, Susan Dowling, of our Library/Media Center.  Also, we are expanding our long-standing partnership with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s to include all Fifth grade students, who will learn to compose music.  Once again our annual Family Day (May 17, 2008) will be co-sponsored by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Museum of Modern Art.

All classroom teachers and other curriculum specialists also provide arts experiences for students throughout the year that may include, among other things, opportunities to: write creatively and make books; draw and/or illustrate their writing, reports, experiences, and concepts; design and color tessellations in math using geometric shapes; take photos and videos with digital cameras, and then use computers to edit images and make movies; design web pages, computer-generated artwork and graphic design, and multimedia presentations; make crowns for the Three Kings Parade; participate in theatrical productions that involve drama which may include dance and scenery design; rehearse students to sing or play instruments in musical performances; and respond to visual and performing arts experiences.