7. Notes of Innovation: Robyn MacNair on Transforming Arts Education

Are you ready to redefine your understanding of the role of music in early learning? We're thrilled to welcome Robyn MacNair, the electrifying Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts, to our podcast. Robyn opens our eyes to the transformative power of music through an in-depth look at the PK-TK Music Program. Learn how this carefully structured program uses music to promote positive behavior, hands-on learning, and active engagement for preschool students. With an inclusive approach, it's also proven effective for students with special needs, as it aligns perfectly with the desired results, developmental profiles, and data-driven strategies for behavior management.

Hold on, because the conversation gets even more enlightening as we shift gears to discuss the profound impact of funding on arts education. Robyn takes a deep dive into Prop 28 and how this additional funding has liberated educators from a scarcity mindset, paving the way for an abundance mindset. Discover how this shift in perspective has fueled strategic planning, long-term foresight, and collective impact. With an emphasis on inclusivity and student-led learning, arts education has been transformed, creating a profoundly uplifting learning experience. Join us in this riveting episode packed with invaluable insights for educators, artists, parents, and those passionate about the arts and their transformative power. We'll uncover how creativity and innovation in education are within everyone's reach. Tune in for a journey that's as enlightening as it is inspiring.

Visit us at our Buzzsprout site for more ways to listen, links to our social media sites and any referenced materials, and complete transcripts of our full-length episodes: https://bit.ly/SAUSDAmplifyingLeadership

Transcript

Bianca Barquin: 0:06

Welcome back to SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership. I'm your host, Bianca Barquin, and we have the incredible Robyn MacNair, Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts, joining us today. Robyn is a passionate artist and a beacon of innovation in education. Robyn has not only been at the forefront of expanding arts within SAUSD, but has also led and co-created major events like Boca de Oro in Santa Ana, to create pipelines and pathways, spaces and places for our kiddos to own their city. Today we delve deep into the significant topics of early learning and music's role, the one-time block grant funding and the groundbreaking Prop 28. So, whether you're an educator, artist, parent or someone simply passionate about the arts and their transformative power, this episode is for you. Robyn, welcome to SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership.

Robyn MacNair: 1:10

Thank you, Bianca. I'm so excited to be here with you.

Bianca Barquin: 1:14

Okay, let's get into our first topic: early learning and how music supports positive behavior. So, question for you: how does the PK- TK music program's emphasis on structured routines and hands-on learning contribute to fostering positive behavior among preschool students while engaging them in musical exploration?

Robyn MacNair: 1:39

I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this because I listened to your last podcast and I was inspired by that and the way that we have invested as a district in music for every PK-5 student across the district as not only part of our early learning and supporting language, literacy, numeracy in all of our students, but also as part of the whole academic support plan and well-being, and it's really critical that we support starting younger and the things that I've witnessed in the music classes have been spectacular with our littles.

Robyn MacNair: 2:12

In particular, they have a very set structure routine that they focus on. Things like a hello song and a goodbye song helps the students understand and follow routines and the things in between, and those positively influence behavior. In addition, the kids are in joyful learning, so in that they're up and moving fast-paced it's , it helps them to constantly be engaged while mitigating some of the behaviors. So when a student starts to sort of roll around on the floor, the teacher's right there in proximity to lean up into them and engage them in singing, look them in the eye. There's also things like singing songs that say your name and students have an opportunity to say each other's name, their own name, and to be witnessed and recognized in class. All of that speaks to supporting positive behavior in the music classroom, not to mention that we do engage in total physical response activities. There's a lot of movement along with the music and that helps to improve their physical engagement, along with their energy that they're channeling to improve the behavior.

Bianca Barquin: 3:19

It makes me think this is so intuitive. It is exactly what teachers should be doing. I am appreciative of all of this. So I have a follow- up question for you here. Are we training other teachers, or is it only music teachers that engage in these types of lessons with the littles?

Robyn MacNair: 3:38

We are creating spaces to engage our general teachers to have skills and competencies in music and also dance, theater, visual and media arts. We're going to expand our support so we provide a lot of professional learning and supports that help our regular teachers continue and extend what the music teachers can do because the music teachers are there 30 minutes once a week. The fact that teachers can be in the classroom and witness what the teachers are doing, or we provide other spaces for them to get these supports. For example, we have district wide memberships to the Orff Organization, which is a music organization in California. Any teacher within SAUSD can attend those workshops and get skills that allow music and movement to be fostered in themselves, but also attending to things like students with disabilities and students of all abilities to strengthen them in the classroom and their behavior too.

Bianca Barquin: 4:36

Thank you, Robyn. That's awesome, and those are some resources that we may not know about. Question number two for you. In what ways does the program's alignment with the Desired Results Developmental Profile, which we affectionately call the DRDP data-driven and improvement strategies enhance behavior management and promote effective learning experiences?

Robyn MacNair: 5:00

Last year we started and piloted with the PK Music Program and I had a phenomenal team come on board and they spent a lot of time working with the ECE team because we like to integrate and connect to everything that's going on. So they spent this time to look at what those standards are and then what the music standards are and to intentionally design lessons that are tied to that and then work with the, especially preschool, teachers to determine are we meeting those goals? And we created our own dashboard, if you will, that has the results and to show. And the teachers that were engaging in this practice were engaged in lesson studies. So they went out and they tried some things and they came back and they realized we're going to improve on this. So they've set a body of work that everyone can build on. All of our music teachers and then also the general teachers have access to that. But we're discreetly surfacing how we're meeting those DRDP standards and that's us collecting data that's informing instruction.

Bianca Barquin: 6:05

An d the dashboard you said is accessible to everyone? Robyn MacNair Absolutely. Bianca Baquin-- Fantastic, thank you. Next question. Could you elaborate on how the inclusive nature of the program, serving students with special needs and encouraging engagement through physical activities, contributes to a supportive and positive behavioral environment in preschool classrooms?

Robyn MacNair: 6:26

I don't know about you, but as an adult I have a hard time sitting in attending to space for a long time. So we are mindful that when we get kids standing up, sitting down, moving around, interacting with each other, this absolutely improves their behavior and gives them less time to get bored or start to wander off. Additionally, we're thinking about what students can do and we give them a space to show engagement at multiple levels. So if they are limited in their capacity, of physical capacity to move, there's still places for them to be engaged as well, and we're mindful of that and those hands-on learning experiences where you have a little egg shaker or you have a scarf or you're interacting with a puppet and you're singing the song, "Hello, hello. Hello and how are you? I'm fine, I'm fine and hope that you are too."

Robyn MacNair: 7:19

That gets stuck in my head all the time. And then they do the Hickety-Pickety song, which won't you say your name with me? Those kids are constantly engaged for an entire 30 minutes. Now, that is not necessarily what a general teacher is going to experience. Those strategies can last all throughout the day as they engage and use them to capture kids' attention. Puppets, by the way, are very magical.

Bianca Barquin: 7:45

I love it. So for me it sounds like it's not only developmentally appropriate for the child, but it's also personalized in a way which is exactly where we're moving towards, right, in really making sure that we're learner-centered and shifting that paradigm. Next question. How does PK-TK early childhood learning fit into the broader vision of fostering creativity and innovation in education, and what specific benefits does it offer to young learners?

Robyn MacNair: 8:19

Well, in SAUSD Arts we're always thinking about Universal Design for Learning, intentionally creating for students of all abilities, thinking all the strategies that we engage for every ability is going to help every student and yet, like you said, try to make it personalized. So we're examining the things that students need to reduce frustration, to make learning really clear, to be really repetitive and say things over and over again, to be patient and soft-spoken and non-reactive. And that helps by offering these structured experiences along with outside adults and when we're bringing other people into the classroom through the music, for example, that's allowing the regular teacher to have a partner to help support them in their work too, and the kids can learn from multiple adults.

Bianca Barquin: 9:12

I love it. So the structures are really those beautiful routines and procedures, but done in a really creative and engaging way. Okay, now I want to transition into our second and third topics: one-time block grant funding and Prop 28. So we've had some excitement around funding for arts education in SAUSD as the state has begun allocating resources for the arts. There are two big things that happen: the arts and music, one-time block grant funding and then Prop 28 legislation that was voted into law with a resoundingly overwhelming majority of the voting public. Could you please tell us about each of these and how SAUSD is leveraging these resources to support our students for high- quality arts learning and enrichment experiences?

Robyn MacNair: 10:04

This is so exciting. In my entire educational career, I've never experienced anything like this. It's an abundance and a total shift in arts education from this place of scarcity, if you will, where we're not ever going to have enough, we're always fighting to keep the arts and oh no, we're going to have to cut things again, oh, there goes another arts program, to the state itself and the voters have said yes, this is what we want.

Robyn MacNair: 10:30

Prior to that, the governor had allocated funds from the statewide LCAP distributions that would be going to music and arts block grant funding, and thank you to you and the leaders, the Board, for supporting us keeping those funding for the arts, because we have a lot of infrastructure that needs attending to.

Robyn MacNair: 10:50

Our district, being the oldest in Orange County and having a lot of facilities to go way back, has been undergoing a lot of renovations and modernizations and we need to include our facilities as it pertains to the arts. So we're giving kids better experiences by shoring up all of those performing arts spaces and the growing performing arts spaces that we have and investing in that. In addition, we're investing in our students and materials and resources that they need and providing resources that will bring us up to a good baseline, if you will. Then that's to shore up. But then with Prop 28, which is the opportunity to invest in teachers primarily, it also has some funds to help us sustain what's happening, so we don't have to experience those cuts again if we plan and implement strategically and this is all in support with educating and collaborating with administrators, art staff, general teachers, all the district departments of how we together collectively support our kiddos in their whole learning, including the arts.

Bianca Barquin: 11:59

I love it, Robyn. So you've started to talk about it in general, but how about if we get a little bit more specific? Tell me specifically what are some of the highlights of how this funding will be spent.

Robyn MacNair: 12:12

Thank you. With the instructional classroom material, like I mentioned, that includes technology in all the five arts disciplines, so it says music and arts. I think sometimes people get confused about what is arts and that includes dance, theater, visual, and media arts, in addition to music, and within music we have music production and technology, vocal music and instrumental music. So there's a lot of directions for kids to explore. And we also embrace literary arts as you know, we have our LitC on every year and other art forms. Because, as you know, out there in the expanding world it looks a lot different than being discrete disciplines.

Robyn MacNair: 12:52

So that's one way of providing instructional materials. Also lots of professional development. We know that the equity factor is investment in the teachers, and so we're spending a lot of time looking at and supporting teachers, again with pedagogy in their discipline, specific, but also looking at universal design for learning, really reexamining students at the center, how does the Graduate Profile manifest in our arts classrooms across the district and helping teachers unpack what their core values are, while also examining what are the values that students bring to your classroom and how do you leverage and amplify those. Those are a couple of things.

Bianca Barquin: 13:32

I love it. Thank you so much, Robyn, for sharing. Now let's shift a little bit. Could you explain how the grant funding and Prop 28 align with the vision of empowering educators to be architects of their teaching and learning practices? What kind of autonomy and creative freedom does this provide for both students and teachers alike?

Robyn MacNair: 13:55

While present conditions in the educational landscape hardly support the need and desire for arts education to be sustained and not only sustained but expanded to support SAUSD students in realizing their potential and being architects of their own learning. That includes a well-rounded education that prepares a creative workforce, that's tied to industry directly and indirectly, as outlined by the annual Otis Report on the Economy, which talks about the economic impact of the arts. And we sit in the US Creative Economy capital right here in Santa Ana, because that's Los Angeles and, by extension, we're part of that. We foster effective communication, broad literacy through the unique symbol systems in the arts, including, but not limited to, visual and media literacy, cultural literacy, artistic literacy, early literacy and civic and social literacy. We provide outlets for creative personal realization and an expression for a fulfilled life. We foster cultural competency. The arts are a conduit to history, culture and connections. They foster overall well-being and mental health. And did you know that engaging in an art project for as little as 45 minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter what your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by 10 years? And every seven years you're a new person. So when you have those salient experiences often happen in and through the arts. You're rewiring your brain. These arts help us flourish and nourish curiosity and creativity, and they provide a canvas for self-discovery and exploration, allowing us to understand what it truly means to be fully human.

Robyn MacNair: 15:37

So back to the original question it's really imperative that our kids have access. In the past we've had a sort of conservatory approach where it's only for the talented, a few kiddos. You know, you're naturally born with that. No, we all can learn. Does that mean we're all going to be part of the workforce as an artist-- no, and as you know, Bianca, as a scientist and an artist yourself, you engage those practices that help you and inform you in a beautiful whole life. So that's what we're trying to do for our kids. It's beautiful because the work that we do in the District through the arts department touches every single student. Whether you're going to be exposed to the arts and arts learning, whether you're going to be enriched by them on a little deeper level, or you're entrenched and you're going in that through college and career, we think about all those needs and all the things that kids want to have as part of their learning journey in the District.

Bianca Barquin: 16:35

You're so right, Robyn, and honestly, I think it's one of the things that I am the most proud of in SAUSD and you leading this work: the fact that the arts is for all students, not just for some, and that's the way it was in the past, right? And you have done incredible work, you and your team, expanding it so much. The reach. It's just so impressive and so needed, so thank you. Next question for you. In what ways has the funding supported educators to pause and consider how to spend funding in strategic and sustainable ways that support shifts of practices in greater collective impact, which we talk about all the time?

Robyn MacNair: 17:20

Right. Well, it's a whole mindset shift. I think I alluded to it before. This is a complete change where we're kind of worried about where's the next thing going to happen and how are we going to make this come to be, when we know the research supports that it's teachers and spaces that we invest in that augment and elevate the student learning. "Things help.

Robyn MacNair: 17:43

But it isn't all about the "things. So we're really deeply leaning into what is sustainable, what's going to live beyond what we're talking about right now and shifting from that scarcity mindset to this abundance. And we were engaging everybody in planning strategically and working with our site administrators, thinking about the collective across the district, because these funds allow us to leverage things across and instead of looking at it like I'm just going to grab for my school, what are the ways that we also consider all the things that are going across the whole district and whole district-wide programming and support. So kids who are at one school may not have access to this particular program, but they can at another school and we can create constructs for them to be given access to that. And so the teachers are pausing to think strategically and pausing to think about how they create spaces for the students at the center, and what resources and materials do we really, really need to be sustainable and then thinking long term?

Bianca Barquin: 18:48

It really is design thinking and systems thinking coming together and that true integration getting everybody to think about pathways and thinking about that future foresight, right, that we need to have to make sure that our kiddos have exactly what they need in terms of experiences. Okay, Robyn. So when it comes to the arts and arts advocacy, how has Prop 28 brought either a relief or a pause to rethink how arts education impacts academic achievement, students and the community at large?

Robyn MacNair: 19:24

It's given us a chance to pause and really examine, like I said, what is it that we're trying to do, as well as we're gonna have some relief to the pressure system of feeling like we don't ever have enough. Is this the complete answer? No, we always have to be strategic, just like you said, in thinking about sustaining systems and also leveraging all the collective resources that we have to combine them, for the whole. It's giving us a chance to really slow down, so we're putting infrastructure in so that when this goes, and it's gonna be big, in ways that it's growing and the demands. We're rethinking, what is curriculum? What are the courses that we're offering? What do students really want?

Robyn MacNair: 20:10

We have been listening to students and asking them their opinions about what are the arts do and mean for you.

Robyn MacNair: 20:17

What are the ways that you want to be architects of your own learning, what are the courses that we need to have and how do we as educators, rethink because there's a lot of paradigms in arts education around the traditional practice of being the sage on the stage, and that's important and also, how are the students co- creating their learning experiences, having opportunities to lead their own learning, and we are seeing that shift happening In several of our music classes that we get to support, but also this practice is happening in our dance, theater and visual art.

Robyn MacNair: 20:48

Did you know we have an adaptive dance class at Valley High School? They're adapting to inclusiveness of special education students. It's beautiful to witness these mentors of the, what we call regular dance students, but also integration of students with disabilities, who would not necessarily think of themselves as dancer, being part of this beautiful experience and that's uplifting and elevating everyone. In fact, Bianca, at the OCMAA words, the Orange County Music and Arts Administrator awards, this coming year, where you were recognized as an outstanding administrator last year for all your support of arts education at e'll be having our students in the Valley dance class, the students with disabilities, performing as part of the program this coming year.

Bianca Barquin: 21:39

Wow, I'm so excited, I can't wait. So inclusivity...you're making me think of so many things. It's so important, the work that we're doing, but I think what struck me the most is what you said about our students not only co-creating or co- constructing their learning experiences, but also leading their own learning experiences. I think that's beautiful and again we are shifting to that learner- centered paradigm. It's beautiful to see. Okay, so before we sign off, it's time for our Amplifier Acknowledgement segment. Robyn, if you could amplify the message or lesson of one educator who's made a significant impact in your journey, who would it be and what is that resonating message?

Robyn MacNair: 22:29

Well, I belabored this for a long time and I've listened to all your other episodes and I know others do too, because it's really hard to distill one. So I think of creating a composite work of art where I'm going to synthesize the attributes of so many of the beautiful leaders that I've been given the privilege to know, because I've sat in a lot of places and spaces to be uplifted by leaders-- at the state level and the California Art Education Association, at the national level, on the National Art Education Association board, at the City of Santa Ana, being the Chair of the Arts and Culture Commission, and many other learning and leadership opportunities. So there's wonderful, wonderful people and I think what I'm coming into space and places to push myself to have unusual conversations and engage in ways to stretch my thinking. I'm going to shift into my reverse mentors, which include our youth arts leaders, and having the opportunity to talk to students and hear from what their perspective is and how that informs where we need to go.

Robyn MacNair: 23:35

But I do also want to give credit to yourself and those who give us spaces to tell the stories, because these are really important, and right at the start of my administrative path, we're studying the works of Brené Brown and Dare to Lead, and so I've really leaned into the courage and strength to try to expand what it means for our kids here in SAUSD and then the city as a whole and, in abundance mindset, all kids everywhere. And last but not least, I appreciate that first person who said to me, "I'll be your thought partner, and that just popped my whole thinking like, oh my gosh, I've been isolated and alone and here's somebody who's going to sit with me and think with me through things, and that has changed my trajectory a lot too. So thank you to the composite of the leaders who have really informed me and I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you.

Bianca Barquin: 24:28

Such powerful acknowledgments. Thank you, Robyn. As we wrap up this enriching conversation, I'd like to extend my gratitude to Robyn for sharing her insights, experiences and vision for the arts and education in SAUSD. Today's conversation illuminated the immense potential and power of arts in shaping young minds, fostering positive behavior and creating an inclusive and vibrant learning environment. We also dive deep into the significant role of funding, both through the one-time block grant in Prop 28, in sustaining and expanding the arts and education. It's evident that, with visionary leaders like Robyn and the supportive community of Santa Ana, arts education has a bright and transformative future ahead. For our listeners, remember that art is more than just a subject. It's a language that communicates emotions, history, culture and so much more. It's a tool that fosters creativity, resilience and innovation, and we must continue to champion its place in our educational systems. Thank you for joining us today on SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership. Stay inspired, stay informed and continue to make a difference.