Manzanita SEED, Oakland Unified School District
Examine how all the stakeholders at Manzanita SEED are working together in a successful collaboration between the classroom teachers, the school’s Art specialist and the MOCHA teaching artist. We will look at the 2nd grades’ expedition on Sausal Creek, and the unique contributions that each provided as our example. Participants move from table to table for an in-depth conversation with multiple arts integration leaders about their roles and experiences working together. Workshop participants will also share with each other their own roles in supporting the arts at their individual sites.
Alexandra Kulka-Wells, MOCHA Teaching artist, is an Oakland native, and after 6 years as an OUSD classroom teacher came to MOCHA to focus more on supporting art education. She currently lives in Oakland with her family and is a graduate student at SF State University.
Kelly Doyle, School Programs Coordinator. Ms. Doyle provides program design, oversight and support for a staff of 30 teaching artists working at 50 different school sites. Among her many responsibilities, she provides ongoing support to the artists, participates in the recruiting and hiring of new artists, works closely with MOCHA program managers and school staff to coordinate residency and professional development programming, and contributes to funding proposals and reports. Ms. Doyle joined MOCHA in 2001 and has served as MOCHA’s School Programs Coordinator since 2004, taking on increasingly greater responsibility during that time. She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts and English from Southampton College.
Carrie Johnston grew up in California and has been a teacher for almost ten years, including one year in the UK and nine in Oakland. Carrie currently teaches at Manzanita SEED, a small Expeditionary Learning school in Oakland. She is a second grade teacher in a dual immersion Spanish-English classroom. This year, Carrie has been trying out a music curriculum she came up with for her class. In addition to that aspect of arts integration, she has enjoyed collaborating with the studio art teacher, Daphne Elin, and the guest artist from MOChA, Alexandra Kulka-Wells, in creating projects to highlight expedition content. While teaching is stimulating and fulfilling in many ways, Carrie finds great delight outside of school reading, sharing music, and hiking with her husband and her young daughter.
Daphne Elin is currently the Artist in Residence at Manzanita SEED where she provides visual arts education for K-4 students. She also offers an after-school visual arts program for students and their families. Prior to beginning at Manzanita SEED in its first year of operation, she taught visual arts at the high school level and has had several years experience as a classroom teacher in the primary grades.
Wesley J. Watkins, IV, Ph.D. is a California native who was raised in Oakland. Despite his initial dreams of becoming a marine biologist, Dr. Watkins graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in African & African American Studies, and obtained Honors in the School of Education. During his undergraduate years he developed a passion for both education and music. His undergraduate honors thesis research in music education began while attending Stanford’s overseas study program at Oxford University. Throughout his term at Oxford, he observed music education at both local elementary schools and world renowned secondary institutions like the Yehudi Menuhin School. His contacts in England eventually persuaded Dr. Watkins to earn his Ph.D. from the International Centre for Research in Music Education at the University of Reading. He is now an independent consultant in the Bay Area assisting schools in their efforts to integrate the arts into the core academic areas.
