Course Description
The arts are the foundation of any society. They foster our humanity. The arts are a universal language that allow us to communicate across societal boundaries to deepen our understandings of self and others, and affect positive change. Each individual art form has unique qualities and together they are a powerful means of representing and critiquing our world while creating a more empathetic, harmonious, socially-conscious society. It is in this spirit that OELC’s course, Secondary Arts: Inspiring Leadership, has been created.
The focus of this course is to develop leadership skills through the many mediums of the arts, including music (vocal and instrumental), dance, visual arts, and drama. Students in this course are not required to be proficient in their chosen art form; rather they will build on their passion and creativity to explore their own personal leadership styles and skills and how to use these skills to create positive impact and change within their school and home communities.
Leadership Development Sessions
Specific leadership development sessions give students opportunities to explore various components of leadership: leadership styles, effective communication, group dynamics, problem-solving, organizational skills, and risk-taking in a non-threatening and encouraging environment and through well-planned experiential learning activities.
The Arts
- Students will apply their leadership skills across all art forms as well as within their chosen art form.
- They will be provided with meaningful experiences to address social justice issues and explore strategies for creating and promoting positive change through the arts.
- Additional art-based activities may include workshops specific to individual art forms and related to topics of importance in today’s schools, collaborative art experiences across all art disciplines, and large group events such as massed choir.
Other Activities
- Round Table Discussions: Students will develop topics and then lead the discussion in this very powerful student voice session. The goal of the session is to allow students to speak freely about their issues that greatly affect them. At the end, students create 1-3 action statements that can affect change in the lives of themselves and others.
- Through a wide variety of arts-based evening activities, leaders have the opportunity to apply their leadership skills, and to showcase their talents for others
- Students will be engaged in learning about team dynamics and team building through many cooperative events and activities.