Teaching Artists as Partners in Whole-Child Learning

When a Teaching Artist walks into a classroom, they bring more than paintbrushes, scripts, or instruments. They bring a philosophy: that every young person deserves space to be seen, heard, and challenged to grow. At Arts for Learning WNY, that philosophy is backed by intentional professional development, national research partnerships, and a deep commitment to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) as a cornerstone of every residency we facilitate.

As educators, you already know that students enter school carrying the full weight of their lives. They need classrooms that build skills not just in reading and math, but in self-awareness, collaboration, resilience, and joy. Arts for Learning WNY believes the arts are one of the most powerful vehicles to building these skills, and we invest deeply in ensuring that our teaching artists are equipped to deliver that experience with intentionality and expertise.

Investing in Our Teaching Artists

Professional learning is not a one-time event at Arts for Learning WNY; it is an ongoing commitment. We invest in our Teaching Artists so they can continuously refine their craft, deepen their understanding of the students they serve, and bring national best practices directly into Western New York classrooms. In practice, this translates to connecting our artists with the leading researchers, frameworks, and networks that shape the field of arts in education at the highest level.

Through our national partnership with the RAISE initiative, we have established a partnership with ArtsEdSEL to actively inform how our teaching artists plan, teach, and reflect on their residencies.  

ArtsEdSEL: A Framework for the Intersection of Art and Social Emotional Learning

ArtsEdSEL is a research-based framework designed to illuminate the natural intersection between arts education and social emotional learning. Developed by SEL and arts educators, the framework maps over 50 SEL and arts learning connections across the core artistic processes of creating, performing, responding, and connecting, alongside the five SEL competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

For classroom teachers, this framework offers a powerful lens into understanding why arts-integrated instruction works so well for the whole child. When students write and perform a monologue, they are not just practicing literacy and public speaking; they are building self-awareness, practicing empathy, and exercising creative agency. ArtsEdSEL gives us the language and the structure to name and measure those connections intentionally.

RAISE: A National Model for Responsive, Trauma-Informed Arts Education

Arts for Learning WNY is also a proud participant in RAISE (Responsive Arts in School Education), a five-year, multi-state initiative led by our national network, Young Audiences Arts for Learning, and funded by the U.S. Department of Education. RAISE is built around a vision that arts education residencies can and should be trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and deeply attuned to the urgent social and emotional needs of today’s young learners.

Through RAISE, our Teaching Artists participate in intensive professional development covering topics including Introduction to Social Emotional Learning, Healing-Centered Engagement, and Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Pedagogy. They receive individualized coaching, connect with a national network of peers, and co-design school-based residencies with classroom teachers and school support staff. The result is a collaborative model of instruction in which the teaching artist, classroom teacher, and school community serve as true partners.

Seeing It in Action: A Site Visit at Waterfront Elementary

This spring, the work we have built through these national partnerships came to life in a meaningful way when Dr. Scott Edger of ArtsEdSEL visited Teaching Artist Melissa Miller at BPS #95 Waterfront School. The visit was part of our RAISE grant work, which connects professional learning directly to classroom observation and reflection.

Dr. Edger observed Melissa’s 7th grade social studies residency, an eight-session program in which students researched women artists throughout history, then wrote and performed original monologues from the perspective of those artists. The residency blended literacy, history, performance, and student voice in a way that is difficult to achieve exclusively through traditional instruction.

The observation was guided by a set of core practices that ArtsEdSEL has identified as hallmarks of high-quality, SEL-integrated arts education. Dr. Edger looked for evidence of each of the following during Melissa’s lesson:

• A welcoming routine that set a positive tone from the moment students entered

• Redirection strategies that gave students space to self-correct rather than simply being corrected

• Structured opportunities for student collaboration centering joy as an explicit and intentional goal of the learning experience

• Practicing student accountability in a supportive environment

• Practicing teacher accountability, modeling the same standards expected of students

• Meaningful opportunities for student creativity and self-expression

• Student-created artistic work that emphasized student voice and choice throughout

• Opportunities for student leadership, ownership, and freedom within the creative process

• Student self-reflection built into the flow of the lesson

• Explicit opportunities for students to practice real-life skills through the art form

The purpose of this visit was not evaluation in the traditional sense. ArtsEdSEL’s model is rooted in professional growth and collegial support. Following the observation, Dr. Edger provided Melissa with concrete, realistic feedback on which of these practices were already deeply embedded in her teaching, and where small, intentional adjustments could deepen the SEL integration even further. This kind of specific, asset-based coaching is exactly the type of investment that elevates teaching artistry from good to transformative.

What This Means for Your Classroom

When you welcome an Arts for Learning WNY Teaching Artist into your classroom, you are not simply adding an enrichment activity to your schedule. You are partnering with a practitioner who has been trained in trauma-informed approaches, coached on culturally responsive pedagogy, and observed and supported by national experts in SEL-integrated arts education. The residency your students experience is the direct result of that investment.

We also know that the most powerful residencies happen when teaching artists and classroom teachers work together. You bring knowledge of your students, your curriculum, and your classroom community. We bring deep arts expertise, SEL-informed instructional strategies, and a genuine commitment to centering your students’ voices. Together, we can create learning experiences that your students will carry with them long after the residency ends.

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If you are interested in bringing an Arts for Learning WNY residency to your classroom, or if you would like to learn more about how we integrate SEL into our programs, we would love to connect. The arts are not a break from learning. For our students, they are often the place where the deepest learning happens.