About MakeSPACE

Funded by the US Department of Education, the MakeSPACE project is an initiative to enhance the creative resources of K-12 educators and facilitate innovative arts integration strategies for creative engagement in student learning. Educators from three districts in Western Oregon, arts integration specialists, researchers, and instructional designers are collaborating to develop, refine, and study an interactive, hybrid approach to professional development—online courses with experiential in-person learning, modeling, and coaching. Courses and resources will be available for other educators and schools inside and outside Oregon starting in 2020.

Online Courses

  • Foundations for Creative Engagement - Available Now
    Learn about your creative strengths and the necessary conditions for creative engagement in your classroom. Learn how to implement creative routines to develop your students’ creative habits. Understand cross-cutting techniques in metaphor and reflection. Envision early stages of arts integration. Connect with other educators in a growing professional learning community.
  • Visual Arts Integration: Making Thinking & Feeling Visible - Available Now

    Imagine your students making found-object sculptures as an exploration of a complex concept in your class. Their whole bodies are engaged. Their hands are connecting one material to another. Their minds are playing inside structured uncertainty. They’re using relevant vocabulary to sort through ideas. You sense a different quality of learning in your classroom. As your students experiment & reflect, you can hear and see understanding taking shape for them.

    Pre-requisite: Foundations for Creative Engagement
  • Music and Media Integration: Exploring Sound and Story - Available Now

    Participants will develop tools for analyzing sound, practice approaches for active listening, experiment with story finding, and explore rhythm making routines. We will attend to ideas like perspective taking, curiosity, gratitude, and resourcefulness; engaging in creative routines around the concepts. This course lays the foundations for our 200 level work of generating rich, multidimensional audio and video content in a classroom setting.

    Pre-requisite: Foundations for Creative Engagement
  • Theater Arts Integration: Embodied Learning - Available Now

    How could you explore and represent complex concepts such as photosynthesis, democracy, metaphor, or algebra using only your body? In this course, we will delve into how theater and embodied learning can increase access to the curriculum and learning objectives in your classroom. You will learn to design and facilitate theater-integrated lessons that support cognitive and affective learning targets. No theater experience is necessary! This is truly a foundational course that will support you to build the confidence and skills necessary to get your students out of their seats and into a collaborative, embodied process.

    Pre-requisite: Foundations for Creative Engagement
  • Advanced Visual Arts Integration Design - Coming September 2021
  • Advanced Music and Media Arts Integration Design - Coming September 2021
  • Advanced Theater Integration Design - Coming September 2021

In-Person Training

  • 2-Day Summer Institute with Experiential Engagement and Guest Artists
  • 1-Day Winter Institute and Exhibition
  • School-based integration design, coaching, and support from specialists
  • Schoolwide professional development workshops
Photo: Teachers at in-person training

Summer Institute 2019

Teacher’s from four Oregon schools met for two days after taking the online Foundation Course to further their understanding of arts integration for creative engagement

Summer Institute 2019 Images

  • There were a few times I got really, really frustrated, and like 'I can't do this... I can't do this drawing' and then thinking 'try it, and see what happens', because that's a lot of what we're asking kids to do.
    Mark, Woodburn Arts and Communication Academy, Oregon
  • I think it makes us human for the kids to see that we're not good everything. We have to try things out to see what we can do and what we can't do. And sometimes we think we can't do it until we try.
    Mara, French Prairie Middle School, Oregon
  • It was exciting for me to think about the ways that I'm going to re-approach what I do, to provide more places for kids to make their own spaces and also the implications for just being 'open'.
    Michael, French Prairie Middle School, Oregon
  • It feels like a shift in thinking of how can I make this more personal, and real and more connected. Being open to that is super powerful and can go a long way.
    Kim, Monroe Grade School, Oregon
  • I can see the students disengaging when you take out the book and say 'open to page something-or-other'. Learning through seeing and doing and experiencing all the gifts that they have, is definitely a way that they will see learning as being real for them. It paints a picture in their minds.
    Marie-Louise, Monroe Grade School, Oregon

Contact us

If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity to see if your school may be a fit for MakeSPACE, please use the form below to contact us. We will get back to you as soon as possible. All fields are required.