Please fill out the application below to join the learning cohort!
Do you have questions? Want to talk through anything? Please email Raji Ganesan at
raji@risingyouththeatre.org or call 480.370.8599.
Program Information:
Rising Youth Theatre & the Demand to Learn campaign of the ACLU of Arizona have been working together over the past three years to shift the way we approach the alarming issue of student push-out by building power with young people and strengthening teacher & student relationships. We believe that young people & teachers are the main stakeholders of education policies that come to life in the classroom.
Through a collaboration between Rising Youth Theatre, the ACLU of Arizona's Demand to Learn Campaign, and Black Mothers Forum with support from the Vitalyst Health Foundation, we brought together a team made up of young people, educators, organizers, researchers and artists to co-create a teacher learning series to engage directly with teachers in learning strategies for ending student push out through the strengthening of teacher/student relationships. The resulting program is now called Creative Interventions, and we are seeking applicants for our pilot year learning cohort of teachers!
In Creative Interventions, 10-12 teachers who work in K-12 classrooms will meet for monthly learning sessions over the course of the 2019-2020 school year. Teachers in the Learning Cohort will work together with the support of youth and adult facilitators to learn, unlearn, and shift how their teaching practices at the classroom level can reduce rates of student push out. Each month in our learning series we will cover topics like conflict & restorative justice, trust building, power & accountability and more and will give teachers tools and creative interventions that they can implement in the classroom immediately. We are looking for teachers that are committed to actively build stronger relationships with their students. Facilitators will also work with teachers in the cohort to schedule classroom observations to support teachers as they try out strategies learned in the program, and take action to build restorative relationships with their students.
This is a paid professional development opportunity for all K-12 educators in the Phoenix metro valley area. Learning cohort members are required to attend a minimum of 80% of all scheduled activities in order to be paid their full stipend. Childcare is provided free of charge, and childcare providers carry valid fingerprint clearance cards.
For a detailed program description and program outline, click here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pQV3lqQs7XW1KR8dtlhwOFd_jzQ3XeryvgBO0hYoDMw/edit?usp=sharingBelow is a timeline of activities:
Application opens: October 8th
Open info session and introduction event: October 22nd 5pm-7pm
Application deadline: October 25th by 11:59pm
Selection process/interviews with applicants week of: October 28th
Cohort notification: November 1st
Learning sessions:
November 9th
January 11th
February 8th
March 14th
April 18th
May 16th
Open Learning Sessions (Bring an educator friend to these drop in learning sessions- there will be food, fellowship, and guest speakers!)
December 3rd
February 18th
May 5th
