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Become A Teaching Artist

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Share Your Talent and Passion with Children!

Springboard Teaching Artists are professional artists with the complementary skills and sensibilities of an educator, who engage people in learning experiences in, through, and about the arts. The Teaching Artist may perform for students and teachers, may work in multiple 45-60 minute workshops, may engage in long-term or short-term residencies in classrooms or in a community setting, or may lead program development through involvement in curricular planning and residencies with school partners. Springboard Teaching Artists serve the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, eastern Missouri, and southwestern Illinois.

Essential Functions

Teaching Artists design and implement a program for one or more of the following formats:

 

  • A Performance combining the excitement of a live presentation with audience participation for up to 300 students. These 45-minute programs bring educational topics to life and introduce young minds to the artistry and talent of professional performers. Performances usually take place in a gym, auditorium, theater, cafeteria, or multi-purpose room.

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  • A Workshop incorporating masterful demonstration with hands-on activity for up to 25 students. These programs give participants the opportunity to meet with a professional artist and learn about their art form in a classroom setting. Workshops are 45 to 90 minutes. They usually take place in a classroom or multi-purpose room.

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  • A Residency allowing individual classrooms of up to 25 students to explore topics in greater depth through several sequential, workshop-style sessions with a Teaching Artist. Each project is planned in collaboration with teachers and customized to fit the curriculum. The length and number of sessions with students and other details vary by teacher and theme. Most short-term residencies include 3 to 5 sessions (40-60 minutes each) with each classroom in a grade level. Long-term residencies, where the Teaching Artist is scheduled one day a week for 8-14 weeks, are also available.

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  • Educator Workshops are 60 (or more) minute seminars that feature engaging activities designed for adults to take back to the classroom. Artists work with the Springboard program staff and school/district representatives to tailor each program to the specific goals of the educator group. Workshop participants can learn how to integrate the arts across the curriculum, accommodate different learning styles and levels of skill, or learn new approaches to classroom subjects.

Position Qualifications

    • Teaching Artists are selected based on artistic merit, educational effectiveness, and the ability to communicate and productively engage with young people.
    • Teaching Artists must be available for either in-person or live virtual work which occurs either during the school day, after school, or during the summer school season.
    • All Teaching Artists are required to have updated vaccinations as well as a criminal background check through the State Highway Patrol and Children and Family Services.
    • Teaching Artists providing long-term residencies in a St. Louis Public school are required to be fingerprinted, have a tuberculosis (TB) test, and to produce: 1) an official school transcript, 2) two letters of reference, and 3) employment authorization.

How to Apply

Please complete our Teaching Partner Artist Application and send a resume to:

Springboard to Learning
1310 Papin St., Suite 402
St. Louis, MO 63103

Or email Senior Program Director Steve Sandbothe at [email protected]. For more information, please call 314-768-9673.