Artist + Teaching + (…) = Teaching Artist

This post is from Ulung Tanoto. It's always fun to see which instruments Ulung brings into a classroom - guitar, drums, flute, saxophone, harmonica, and instruments from his native Indonesia have made appearances thus far -- and we still have a dozen days of residency work to go!


We are actors, musicians and dancers. And we are also teachers. Is that what makes us teaching artists? It's not that simple. After our first residency at Shuford Elementary, our manager, Rebecca Nussbaum brought us a piece of paper that, I have to admit, shocked me a little. That paper (contains information) about levels of art integration - how deep does art integration can reach the effectiveness of learning. (A lot of questions appeared in my mind. Have I done everything right? It seemed so difficult to achieve the top level of art integration in just 2 weeks of residency. Will the kids ever get it? I knew that (the point of showing us that paper) is to encourage us to be a better teaching artist team. And that's, to me, is the key that define teaching artist. Teaching artist has to know the art of teaching and keep exploring the way of art integration. I believe that we are a good teaching artist team because we have strong art background (and we are always challenged to always explore our artistry???). And, I feel more and more confident doing what I do as days gone by, thinking that I'm not pursuing an immediate result. (Instead, we are) planting seeds of creative learning to these young minds in a fun way.

Actor's Tools have Many Uses

This post comes from the wonderful, luau-dancing Andrew Jernigan. Andrew is pictured here leading a class in residency work.


After graduating from the Drama Department of UNCSA in 2010, I was well equipped with what the faculty described as a "toolbelt" of techniques to help further my craft in the performance arts. These included methods for enhancing clarity of voice, engagement of body, and active use of the imagination. When combined, the stage can be filled with stimulating story-telling. Of course, no one mentioned that these tools were applicable to teaching elementary students.
When dealing with the short attention span of students aging anywhere between seven and twelve years old, one must be quick on there feet to maintain the interest of the unforgiving geniuses. I try to maintain succinct and articulate speech because a mumbling voice is the first to lose the confidence of listeners. This goes both ways however, as I constantly encourage the children to use their "actor voices" during discussions in the circle, reading aloud the vocabulary words, and while narrating and performing in skits. Whether using a clear voice or not, circle discussions are most often the moments during a class that invite fidgetiness. To regain the focus of the class, I jump up and try to enliven the lesson by using my body as an interactive example. Whether I morph into a Volcano, an organism in a specific ecosystem, or even a jackhammer, suddenly the children remember why learning can be a fun part of there daily routine... Even if it does mean making a clown of myself. However, both the voice and body exercises are useless if there is no imagination backing them up, which is what brings me to the most important tool of a teacher artist. All of us constantly throw ourselves into imaginary circumstances when teaching, knowing that children's imaginations work exponentially faster than our own. So, as long as we create a fully visceral beach in the classroom when learning about sand, there shouldn't be a problem with wandering interests. And if all goes well, the reward will probably be an awesome dance party at a Hawaiian luau... Aloha!

Season Update and Stay Tuned!

This post is from the lovely Danielle Rennalls, a recent graduate of the UNCSA School of Drama. She is pictured here, battling Demeter, in the role of Diana.


We began on August 8th, dividing our 9 am to 5 pm workday between the two projects: "Peril..." and the beloved "Adventures of the Open Dream Ensemble" web series.

In between the table work, music rehearsals, and fight choreography tutorials (3 years of combat training at UNCSA and I'm STILL getting the hang of it (0: ), we devoted any spare time to transition rehearsals and introductory teaching artistry training.

If this sounds like a lot, it was!

And yet, having recently graduated with a degree in Directing, I couldn't have been happier diving in to it all: To get the opportunity to finally get up from behind the table, to leave my analytical brain behind and to just, as Caroline Kava would say, "do the doing!" I must say it provided a renewed sense of confidence in my craft as well as in my ability to work hard in a group setting. Before the month of August came to an end, Open Dream Ensemble had pieced together two very different, very lively pieces.

After wrapping filming for the web series our attentions turned to teacher artistry. And trust me, they call it artistry for a reason. Our group learned about multiple intelligences, stages of child development by grade level, and classroom etiquette prior to any lesson planning. Along with the "mini" T.A. sessions during August rehearsals, these concepts helped form a solid foundation for new cast members like myself.

While I initially harbored some anxiety I soon learned (with reassurance/encouragement from my cast mates and Rebecca) that this, like every other craft, would take practice and it was okay if I didn't get something perfect the very first time my teaching artist partner and I taught a class. There would always be room for growth. Our 1st residency of the season took place in Conover, NC at Shuford Elementary. William and I constantly worked toward finding what kept our students engaged and what didn't, tossing out activities or tweaking them. One major challenge I faced, and still face, was relaying the science content in a manner that meets essential standards while simultaneously engaging with the students on a fun, creative level. We were lucky to observe some of the other teaching artist groups in action, using any helpful tidbits or ideas they'd have to match creativity and educational standards. By the end of Week 2, not only did we gain another member to our teaching artist team (Mr. Adrian aka Dr. Boogie), we managed to budget activity time more efficiently within the classroom without sacrificing content or fun.

We've spent the last two weeks touring "Peril" at schools around NC and VA, working on Kindergarten and Grade One lesson plans, and presented a staged reading of Michaela Morton's "Big Shoes."

These days we're in our second residency at Wendell Creative Arts and Science Magnet Elementary School in Wendell, NC. Stay tuned!

Learning, Laughing, and Living!

This post comes from Marissa Byers, an amazing clarinetist and fire dancer (yes, really!) Marissa is a high school graduate of UNCSA School of Music and first-year Open Dreamer.


The Open Dream Ensemble is one of the most significant reasons I'm glad to have moved from Manhattan back to my home town... The ever lovely, classy and bohemian, arts and history packed town of Winston Salem, NC. It's thrilling to witness the world class standard of excellence that resides right here in Camel City. The Open Dream Ensemblers rep-re-sent. What a driving, rocking, energetic and crazy fun cast of characters! Haydee, Julianne, Danielle, Ace, Adrien, Guy, William, and Ulung... It is safe to say that we have reached sibling status by now.

The first month of this season was incredibly demanding for all of us. I mean wow. Wow. Between learning and memorizing lines, music, choreography and stage direction for the show AND the six episode web series, and diving into education training- to learn classroom management, state standards, daily lesson planning to devise theater, music, and dance activities as our means to teach students about science ... Not to mention learning elementary school science(which is not that elementary), THEN teaching it as we embarked on our first residency AND performing our show Peril on the Red Planet(we are also the load in and load out crew)... I'm stunned that I still remember my own name.

Can I just mention now- after my rant- that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT?! Everyone in this group works hard and is phenomenal at what they do. We're all divas and we know it, but the generosity, humor, and sportsmanship of this ensemble is astounding. To the gorgeous brain mama of it all, Rebecca Nussbaum, hats off to you ;)

A lot of learning going around

This post is from the green guard robot, Guy Kelpin. A multi-talented fellow, Guy is a graduate of UNCSA School of Music in trombone performance and School of Filmmaking in film composition.


The first two months of the Open Dream Ensemble season have been a whirlwind! My brain kind of hurts a little. The amount of information we've covered in such a short time astonishes me, and it impresses me to realize that we mounted two productions while simultaneously tackling the elementary school curriculum. It seems each day brings a new revelation to me as both an artist and as a teacher. I feel like I'm just trying to keep up with all the activity, and I hope to be contributing as much as I can. I have to admit it's been pretty overwhelming! Luckily for me, I had already been pretty familiar with the curriculum material; however, the concepts of being a teaching-artist presented the highest learning curve for me. I have a relatively introverted personality, so perhaps my biggest learning experiences have been my own self-discovery. Let's hope my own new understandings will help have a positive impact on our students. Certainly, there is a lot of learning going on around here lately!

US vs Indonesian Education

This post is from the multi-talented Ulung Tanoto. Ulung hails from Indonesia and came to UNCSA to study film composition, graduating last year form the School of Filmmaking. Here he is teaching a fourth grade class in Conover.


It looks so fun! That was the first thing that came up to my mind when I was asked about my impression about elementary school in United States (US). Is it true? Well, what do you think? Colorful interior, fancy playground, indoor gym, fun library are things you commonly find in every elementary school in US, right? I am honestly jealous with the kids here for having schools that are very facilitating because I didn't grow up experiencing that. Being a very-developed country, it is not surprising that even in a remote areas, every school must meet a certain standard. Let's take a look at the curriculum. I have a feeling that it is less depth than my elementary experience. I could be wrong, but only couple of multiple choice questions after two weeks of training, come on?! That's too easy! I remember did hundreds of questions in a daily basis when I was in elementary school. However, from my point of view, in US curriculum, the understanding of the concept is more emphasized and creativity is triggered rather than giving too much extra. I actually like that. Again, I could be wrong, but that is my honest opinion.

One thing that is really interesting is the existence of A+ schools in US, which is very brilliant. I have never heard of it before I had this "teaching artist training" with Open Dream Ensemble. The way it uses multi-intelligence approach through arts-integrated curriculum can be more effective than the traditional-verbal training, in my opinion, of course if it's implemented correctly. Did I mention OPEN DREAM ENSEMBLE? I really respect how this group has a noble commitment to bring a high standard arts-integrated teaching through their teaching artist residencies program. I am glad to be part of it. Plus, I get to visit schools in US and take the positive values from their education system. I'll talk more about how I feel being a teaching artist in my next blog. To be continue…