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Fund A Need 2017: Our Art and Music Teachers and Librarians

New! $5,000 Dollar-for-Dollar Match for the next $5,000 in gifts to Fund A Need!

LIBRARIANS: Teaching Critical Thinking for a Global Online Future

Our librarians teach students to separate "fake news" from factual research. They teach how to navigate social media with digital citizenship programs. They strategize new additions to the collections to show the broadest range of human experience and information so students find materials that reflect themselves and their world. Our librarians’ programs grow our children’s understanding of their world and develop their judgment and skills to thrive in an online world with global reach.  

MUSIC EDUCATORS: Growing Skills for Learning and Connections to Cultures

Not only is making music fun, but the practice and play in music develops academic learning. Our dedicated music teachers make sure children thrive with this different modality of learning – guiding kids to develop perseverance and attention while allowing the chance for students to shine in a forum separate from classrooms and academics. When our music teachers teach the basics of rhythm and timing they are also equipping students to share a community identity that is both local and global. Music educators give children an entrée into a world of challenge and joy.

ART TEACHERS: Helping Children Learn from Mistakes and Become Visual Thinkers

Art class develops our kids’ motor control and attention, and with a good art teacher it can offer even more: an unparalleled way to make and learn from mistakes. Developing this important intangible is the heart of “grit” and our art teachers guide children to rise above frustration to correct and even restart until a work achieves its purpose. Art teachers also build their students’ visual analysis, a central skill in learning to read and, later, seeing the “big picture” meaning in complex information. Artists are not born great – they work for mastery. So do our students.