Impact Beyond the Classroom: An Educator's Reflection
For more than 20 years, Arts for Learning WNY has partnered with Waterfront Elementary School to bring Teaching Artists into classrooms and make learning more creative, engaging, and meaningful. Read below as fourth-grade teacher Dawn Hill shares what this partnership means for her students.
"Every spring, my fourth graders begin studying the Erie Canal, and every spring I watch something happen that no textbook could create. When our teaching artist arrives, history stops being a chapter to memorize and becomes something my students step inside of. They become canal workers, mule drivers, and engineers. They write songs, build scenes, and debate whether the canal was worth the cost. Most importantly, they are excited to come to school, eager to participate, and proud to share what they are learning.
For many of my students, these experiences are particularly meaningful. I teach a high-poverty population that includes many low-income families and students who are non-native English speakers. Opportunities to participate in enriching arts and cultural experiences outside of school are not always readily available to them. This residency helps make those opportunities accessible to every child, regardless of their family’s circumstances or language background. I have watched students who may initially be hesitant to speak or participate find their voices through music, acting, writing, and hands-on learning. One student who rarely spoke during discussions volunteered to perform a solo line in front of the class. Her classmates cheered, and she has participated with confidence ever since.
People often ask how this differs from a field trip. A one-day trip is exciting, but it is a single moment. Our residency unfolds over weeks, so students build relationships with their teaching artist, practice skills, take creative risks, and deepen their understanding of the content day after day. Last year, that learning culminated in our trip through the locks on the canal. Because students had spent weeks living the history, they arrived with real knowledge and genuine wonder. They weren’t just seeing the locks; they understood them. Their excitement was unmistakable as they recognized places, connected what they were seeing to what they had learned, and proudly shared their knowledge.
This partnership has changed me as a teacher, too. I have watched my students grow in engagement, creativity, literacy, and math, and I have seen improvements in attendance and behavior. I have learned to teach through the arts and carry those strategies into every subject, long after the residency ends. The experience has reminded me that when students are given meaningful ways to learn and express themselves, they can accomplish far more than they sometimes believe possible.
Yet I know my classroom is not the only one that could benefit. Every child deserves the chance to experience the excitement of discovery, find their voice, build confidence, and fall in love with learning. For students from low-income families and for those learning English, programs like this can provide opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach. Arts for Learning WNY helps ensure that a child’s economic circumstances or language background do not determine whether they have access to these transformative experiences.
Your gift matters because it puts these experiences within reach for children who need them most. It gives a student the opportunity to discover a talent they didn’t know they had, the confidence to speak when they once stayed quiet, and the excitement of realizing that learning can be joyful. It gives children who may not have many opportunities to experience the arts outside of school a chance to create, perform, explore, and belong.
When you support Arts for Learning WNY, you aren’t simply funding a teaching artist or a classroom program. You are investing in a child’s confidence, creativity, curiosity, and future. You are helping make sure that every child, including those from low-income families and those who are still learning English, has the opportunity to experience the kind of learning that makes their eyes light up and makes them excited to come to school.
Please consider giving today. Your generosity can turn an ordinary classroom into a place where history comes alive, where every child has a voice, and where students begin to see themselves not just as learners, but as creators, performers, problem-solvers, and people capable of incredible things. That is the lasting impact of your gift."
Dawn Hill
4th Grade Teacher
Waterfront Elementary School
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