Teaching Lab Collaboration
For 16 years University Theater (UT) has partnered with schools and social service agencies throughout the South Side of Chicago on drama, Dance, and now technical theater programs through the School Partnership Program (SPP) serving children ages 7 to 17.
With the the 2009-2010 academic year, we begin an exiting new chapter in UT Outreach. As Teaching Lab Collaborations (TLC), UT/TAPS recently renamed outreach programming is being re-imagined as a laboratory in which University of Chicago students are given training, support, and first-hand experience in order to become teaching artists in the South Side community.
Our pilot year of TLC is divided into three sections, corresponding with our three academic quarters: Training, Implementation, and Assessment. A small cohort of dedicated students will receive training from professional teaching artists and other members of the community in the fall. Then, during the Winter Quarter, students will work in pairs to implement our “Adaptations” curriculum in a variety of community-based settings. The Spring Quarter is dedicated to assessment – not only of the classes taught by the students, but also of their personal experiences and responses, and the program as a whole. This step closes the circle often left open in teaching artists’ work, and allows for a true praxis – the blended benefits of practice and theory.
We are eager to work with a variety of community-based sites from Chicago public schools to private institutions to neighborhood organizations, having a breadth and depth of organizations as participating sites will assist us as we explore and refine this new programming.
If you have questions about TLC or UT/TAP outreach, please don’t hesitate to contact Jessica Hutchinson, Director of Outreach by email or phone:773.702.4872.
