In January, the Connected Arts Networks (CAN) announced the selection of 70 teacher leaders in visual and media arts, theatre, music, and dance. Of the 17 dance teachers named nationwide, two are New Jersey educators and NJEA members. They are also members of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), which identified them for CAN’s teacher leader program in May 2022.
Rebecca Visintainer
Elizabeth Zwierzynski
Rebecca Visintainer is a dance educator at North Plainfield middle and high schools. Elizabeth Zwierzynski is a dance educator at Trenton High School.
CAN brings together dance, theater, music and art educators nationwide to build a sustainable model of professional learning seeking to strengthen pedagogy, instruction and leadership skills. The work is grounded in developing best practices in equity, diversity, inclusion, and social-emotional learning in order to serve students better.
These 70 arts educators from around the country, including Visintainer and Zwierzynski will spend the next four years engaged in virtual professional learning communities (PLCs) through one of the four partnering arts education organizations: National Art Education Association (NAEA), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), and NDEO.
In the first year of the project, teacher leaders receive specialized virtual training to build their capacity to address social-emotional learning and equity, diversity and inclusion within arts instruction. They will conduct action research within virtual PLCs centered on problem solving for their classrooms and deepening their own practice.
By equipping teachers with skills in these pressing areas, CAN believes it can both support educators and positively impact students. Members of the four initial PLCs will begin to form and facilitate their own virtual learning communities of arts educators and maintain these communities of support until the end of the project.
For more information about CAN and NDEO Teacher Leaders, visit the CAN website at arteducators.org.
CAN invites participants to next phrase in PLCs
CAN invites educators in visual/media arts, music, theater, and dance to apply to be part of a professional learning community. Right now, CAN is recruiting up to 600 arts educators—150 per art form—to serve as PLC participants. These PLCs will meet virtually each month of the school year from January 2024 through June 2026 and will focus on professional learning in the areas of equity, diversity and inclusion; social emotional learning; and teacher leadership through standards-based arts instruction.
Connect with colleagues nationwide through online Professional Learning Communities. Together through the arts, we CAN make a difference in student learning!
Visit arteducators.org/promo/can to apply. The deadline is Oct. 16.