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A Chat with Molly Stanley, A4L’s new Learning & Community Engagement Manager

October 28, 2021 By Cindy Sherwood

When Molly Stanley first saw the job listing for this new role at Arts for Learning, she grew excited. She and her husband Ethan, a lieutenant in the Navy, along with their newborn baby, were in the process of being transferred from California to Hampton Roads. As someone who had worked as an arts teacher and who had a master’s degree in arts administration, Molly found the opportunity intriguing. Plus, as a new mom, she was searching for a career with greater flexibility.

“If I wasn’t going to be teaching, I still wanted to work in education because that’s what I’m most passionate about, along with arts administration.

This position was like marrying the two things—arts administration and teaching art.”

Molly began her teaching career several years ago when she worked as an art teacher at a Title 1-designated elementary school in North Philadelphia. Although she grew up less than an hour away, it was a different world from her rural home in Blandon, Pennsylvania.

“I gained a lot of perspective and learned a ton while I was there [teaching]. It was a really hard year. I thought because I knew my craft and knew how to teach art that I could do anything, but I wasn’t aware of what trauma responses looked like in the classroom and so my classroom management definitely wasn’t good.”

From Philadelphia, Molly became an art teacher at a middle school in Maryland.

Molly helps a student at her middle schoolin Maryland
Molly helps a Vietnamese-American student translate a passage at the middle school where she worked in Maryland.

The school also was in a high poverty area, but she says she had many more “tools in her toolbox” and learned how to be a successful educator while forming close relationships with her students and her partner teacher.

During her second year of teaching, she and Ethan married.

Molly says goodbye to the preschoolers she taught in California.
Molly says goodbye to the preschoolers she taught in California.

As a military family, the two first moved for a few months to Washington state and then to southern California, where Molly taught preschool and worked on her master’s degree on-line, earning it a week before she gave birth in May to baby William. That coincided with Ethan receiving orders to come back to the east coast for what is expected to be a long-time assignment.

Molly started at Arts for Learning in September, where she’s been putting her curricular knowledge to good use, writing classroom guides for our Spread Kindness (Not Germs) video project and more programs. She has big goals for her time here.

I’m hoping to be able to put out quality content and curriculum that aligns with what teachers need, as well as what the art form is, whether it’s a music program, a dance program, a visual arts program, or some other art form.”

“I want to be able to provide a smooth transition into either a teacher being able to take that content and teach it themselves or assisting teaching artists in making that content as relevant as possible to what the kids are going to need,” she says. “Specifically, like with Spread Kindness (Not Germs), the first project I was given, I made it my goal to try and make sure it’s as user friendly as possible and that anyone could teach it.”

So far one of the most satisfying parts of Molly’s new role has been pitching the Spread Kindness project to fine arts supervisors from different school divisions and discovering how enthusiastic they are about implementing the music videos in their classrooms.

As for the hardest part?

“I’ve never not been a teacher. I’ve always been a teacher, and I know what to expect as a teacher. But it’s also been the best part because I’m learning how to function in an organization that isn’t a school. So it’s been interesting getting acclimated to the job and also at the same time it’s super exciting because there hasn’t been one part yet that I haven’t enjoyed.”

Fun Facts About Molly:

#1 Though she doesn’t have much time these days between the new baby and new job, Molly is a visual artist who typically draws using colored pencil. Architectural portraits and landscapes are favorite subjects.

#2 She’s primarily of Irish descent, and even though she comes from a “big, proud Irish family,” she’s never had the chance to visit Ireland. Her maiden name was Molly McKenna Flannery.

#3 William is her first human baby, but she and Ethan first had a fur baby named Dixie, a Labrador Retriever, who now adores baby Will and wants to be by his side constantly. Dixie looked especially pretty decked out in flowers for the couple’s wedding ceremony.

Filed Under: Arts Integration, ArtsEd, Staff Spotlight Tagged With: 757 arts, art teachers, arts curriculum, Arts Ed, arts education, arts programs, curriculum, military families, new staff member, Spread Kindness (Not Germs), Teachers

A Salute to Teachers

May 27, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

Anna Frassmann-Swadinsky works with studentsAs the end of this most unusual of school years comes to a close, we want to recognize the educators who are vital partners in our mission of arts-integrated education. Teachers have experienced challenges they never could have dreamed of, as they were forced to leave their classrooms and teach students via video technology.

Special education teachers have had extra challenges in connecting with their students when they can’t see them in person. Anna Frassmann-Swadinsky is a program specialist for Norfolk schools, but she also works as a teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Mary Calcott Elementary School. Her caseload includes a first-grader who is profoundly deaf and two third-graders—one is profoundly deaf but has a cochlear implant that allows access to sound and another who is hard of hearing. Frassmann-Swadinsky offers her students a weekly Zoom check-in, where they may read stories or do math problems together. But the normal techniques she uses when she teaches her students face-to-face, such as tapping on a desk to get their attention, don’t work on video.

“For my students who are deaf and hard of hearing, the biggest challenge is being able to engage them through video chat technology when you don’t have the ability to physically redirect their attention.”

Like many other teachers, Frassmann-Swadinsky is concerned about her students in this distance-learning environment.

I miss knowing that they’re okay. I worry about their mental health and being isolated.”

“I have one student who doesn’t have any siblings so she’s the only little girl in her house and doesn’t have anyone else to play with. I really worry about her,” Frassmann-Swadinsky says. “I miss being able to actually teach. I’m so terrified of how much we will have lost and where we’re going to start when we finally return to in-person class.”

Despite the challenges, Frassmann-Swadinsky has praise for families who are trying to educate under difficult circumstances, mentioning one family whose home-schooling includes fun science experiments and trips to places like the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. Still, just about every parent now has a greater appreciation for their children’s classroom teachers. Teachers may not be risking their lives during this pandemic, but they’re showing up every day for their students and facing unique challenges.Anna Frassman-Swadinsky

Every teacher is trying to find a creative way to keep their students engaged and learning and to remind them that we’re still there for them.”

“The idea of calling ourselves essential workers almost sounds arrogant, even though when you look at it from an abstract perspective, we are essential,” Frassmann-Swadinsky says. “You almost feel bad about saying it—‘Oh I’m not a doctor, I’m not a nurse, I’m not on the front line.’ But I am essential, because there are millions of kids in the United States that need to learn.”

Arts for Learning wants to salute hardworking essential workers in our state in the way we know best—through art. Children can draw, write a story or poem, play music, dance, or use any other art form they choose as a way to say “thank you” to our essential workers. Click here for full details of how to enter our Artful Thanks contest!

 

Filed Under: ArtsEd, ArtsED for Exceptional Students Tagged With: 757 nonprofit, art contest, Arts Ed, Arts for Learning, Arts for Learning Virginia, arts-in-education, deaf students, essential workers, Mary Calcott Elementary School Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Norfolk Public Schools, Special Education, Teachers, Zoom teaching

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Main Office
Arts for Learning
420 North Center Drive
Suite 239
Norfolk, Virginia 23502
Phone: 757-466-7555
Fax: 757-455-9859

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Main Office

Arts for Learning
420 North Center Drive
Suite 239
Norfolk, Virginia 23502
Phone: 757-466-7555
Fax: 757-455-9859

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Arts for Learning Style)

No, we’re not talking about this year’s Best Picture winner (although we DID love it!) We’re talking about springtime at Arts for Learning where we have so much going on—new residencies, workshops, public performances, and more for students from Pre-K to 12th grade! Residencies Strings Impact: Fourth through sixth graders at three elementary schools in […]

Join the A4L Mailing List!

Sign up to receive the latest news on arts integration from Arts for Learning! Thank you for supporting arts-in-education.

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By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Arts for Learning, http://www.arts4learningva.org. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

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