What happens at the Joan Oates Institute?
Networking. Collaborating. Learning creative processes. Practicing art. Stretching and growing:
“By coming to the Institute and doing the different activities, and working with the actual artists at the Institute, I can see myself as an artist as well. And that is something I want to be able to translate to my students.” – Nicole Rowland, MS Science Teacher
The Joan Oates Institute (JOI) is an annual summer training at the University of Richmond, offered by our Institute for Integrated Learning. The course incorporates local, regional, and national community experts and institutions. Educator participants are stretched and empowered through learning various art forms and technology tools. They leave feeling reinvigorated to inject their classroom with the techniques and attitudes learned at JOI.
This results in deeper relationships in the classroom, more meaningful learning experiences, and more student engagement, because “it makes you dig deep on topics and makes you be vulnerable” as Assistant Principal Dr. Chantea Wright describes. The weeklong course is hands-on and collaborative both among teachers, and with community partners.
“There was a skill that I was presented with, and I learned how to take my own creative process and put it into a new mode of learning, to a new way of expressing myself. That was confidence-building.” – Kate O’Neil, Special Education educator
