The Paso Del Norte Fine Arts Academy was the only school in Texas and one of five schools nationwide selected to participate in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) National Pilot Program in June.
The CETA program has been providing intensive professional development in arts integration for teachers since 1999. This year, the CETA program sponsored six teachers from five schools across the nation to attend its conference from June 24 to 26 in Washington, D.C.
“Our goal as a fine arts academy is to have the full integration of the arts throughout our curriculum,” said Paso Del Norte Principal Melissa Smith. “The CETA program works on training our teachers on integrating the arts so that they can have that professional development for our students.”
Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students build and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Teachers at the conference learned techniques to connect art with other subjects to meet learning objectives.
Opened in 2022, the Socorro Independent School District’s Paso Del Norte Fine Arts Academy is the region’s first elementary fine arts academy, and one of six SISD elementary academies open to all students in El Paso. Additionally, the Ernesto Serna Fine Arts Academy opened in 2023, further expanding access to fine arts education in El Paso.
Students in SISD’s fine arts academies receive specialized instruction in the visual and performing arts along with traditional core instruction.
At the CETA conference, teachers like Vanessa Keyser, a PDN theater teacher, attended workshops on teaching the arts and integrating the arts with other subjects such as math, science, and reading language arts. Workshops were led by expert teaching artists and arts educators who equipped teachers with the skills and resources to seamlessly incorporate the arts into core curriculum subjects and foster deeper student engagement and learning.
Teachers explored techniques such as tableau, which enables students to make connections to history and improve reading comprehension through dramatizations. Other workshops explored arts integration between math, music, and dance, as well as between science, choreography, and dance.
Keyser attended workshops on neurodiversity and strategies for engaging students on the autism spectrum or with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, through the fine arts.
“I believe in this,” Keyser said. “I believe that this is the future of education. I believe that this is how we are going to change students’ lives and make them lifelong learners because they're going to become so passionate about learning through the fine arts.”
The Paso Del Norte Fine Arts Academy has been developing its relationship with the CETA program over the last couple of years. Since the school opened, teachers have attended virtual workshops on arts integration hosted by CETA.
Smith said being selected for the pilot program was a wonderful opportunity to further the professional development of the school’s teachers. Smith plans to roll out the training with the school’s Pre-K, first and second grade teachers. She also is looking forward to hosting a teaching artist this fall who will visit the school and train teachers on an arts integration lesson.
Additionally, Smith said the school has partnered with the University of Texas at El Paso's art department, which has enriched the educational experiences of the students. This past school year, a university intern helped the children with their art projects, and the students also had the opportunity to visit the art department's lab.
“When the kids are starting to be able to use their voice, and are starting to use the movement, they are able to start synthesizing this information,” Smith said. “And that's what we want because we want kids to become critical thinkers, and they're able to start doing this.”