Interdisciplinary Arts Approach to developing skills in Creativity, Cognition, Communication, and Culture
Program Offerings …
Educational Therapy – educational and therapeutic approaches for evaluation, remediation, case management, and communication/advocacy on behalf of children, adolescents and adults with learning disabilities or learning problems:
- Basic Tutoring Services in math and ELA
- IEP (Individual Educational Plan) Advocacy – helping families by interpreting educational evaluation reports, finding resources and joining with parent/guardian to attend school meetings (if helpful).
- Special Needs Social Skills Groups
Art Parties – creativity and self-care workshops in your home to help you 
pinpoint delightfully doable steps to experience more personal creative fun and fulfillment in your busy life! We customize lessons and workshops with YOU in mind:
- ZenTangle – meditative drawing and doodling with purpose
- Visual Journaling / Creative Journaling / Altered Books
- Book Making
- Mindful Coloring Workshop
- Personalized art projects
- Private/Small Group Art Experiences for those called to explore the deeper dimensions of self
- Private art lessons (watercolor and drawing) – any level
ESL Tutoring – Using the following principles of adult learning we will design a unique program to help learners of all ages and levels to better communicate: read, write, speak and listen in English:
- Respecting the experience of adult learners is one of the cornerstones of adult education.
- Learning is an exchange between adults who trust and respect one another as equals.
- Learning must be relevant to the learner’s life.
- Adult learners usually have a strong sense of what they want to learn. Adults learn best when they are actively involved in choosing and organizing what they will learn.
- Adults learn best from adult experience.
- Adult learners respond to positive reinforcement and a physically and emotionally comfortable environment.
- Learning begins with attention to the learner’s strengths and successes rather than deficiencies and failures.
Home School Enrichment and Curriculum Design / Coordination – grades K-12: 
- Full unit curriculum design
- Coordinating across discipline curriculum
- Helping find and utilize community resources
- Designing and managing meaningful and well-run field work outings
- Training for using classroom volunteers and tutors
- Aligning standards to active-based units and curricula
- Designing appropriate assessment tools
- Using Music and Arts in core subject areas
- Designing Service Learning programs
- Art Instruction – Watercolor and mixed media painting \ bookmaking \ paper crafts \ expressive journaling
- Core content curriculum and fieldwork design (grounded in Place-Based and Expeditionary Learning pedagogy ): “learning expeditions are a long-term investigation of a compelling topic that includes individual and group projects, case studies, field work, performance tasks, service learning and public presentations of student work
- Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship Projects
- Remedial skills in reading and writing and mathematical thinking
Professional Development and Training – presentations for your professional or parent group. They can be tailored for small and large audiences:
- Diversity and Inclusion in Education
- Universal Design in Education
- Creating School-Wide Positive Behavior Support
- Designing Reading Intervention
- Understanding and designing instruction for “Special Needs” students
- How to be your child’s advocate at school
- Empowering Parents of Different Learners for Academic, Emotional and Social Success
- Writing meaningful IEPs
- Designing Learning Expeditions and Place-Based Units of Study
- Integrating Service and Compassion in Everyday Learning Experiences
- SIOP – Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners
Neighborhood and Group Special Creativity Events: get-together and make something
Festivals | Upcycling | Team Building | Book Study Groups | Private Parties | Coaching | Summer Camp | Birthday Parties| Eco Field Work | Bridal Parties | Baby Showers | Senior Citizen Groups | Scout Meetings | Cheer Groups | Ba/Bar Mitzvah | Quinceañeras
For more information
on how we can support the excellent work you do with children!
Call 313-701-9856
At Art Works! Studio, we believe that people learn best when learning is taken out of the box and knowledge is constructed based on an individual’s own learning profile: strengths and weakness, interests and talents, learning style and unique language, learning and behavioral needs. In our experience, learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum but in the context of everything that happens in life. We see consider everything through the lens of creativity, cognition and communication and culture. It is all related.
Creativity: Opportunities for experiencing the benefits of art making and encouraging creative thought!
As Abraham Maslow pointed out, creative expression is one of the most enlightening experiences we can have as humans.
“If we change the way we look at things, things change.” Dr. Wayne Dryer
Creative expression opportunities are designed to:
- Promote an aesthetic awareness and appreciation of, and connection with the things in the world beyond the self (e.g., nature, others, stories, materials, artistic form).
- Develop skills and/or mastery in a wide range of fine art and craft techniques.
- Provide opportunities to experience the creative process – the imaginative transformation of feeling, image or idea into some material – such that the material becomes a medium of expression.
- Provide opportunities to find “flow” and “Zen moments” to decrease stress and increase well-being.
Cognition: Opportunities for experiencing success and academic growth through multisensory reading intervention experiences.
“Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way a car is driven.” (Edward de Bono, b.1933)
Academic Interventions are designed rooted in integrated or interdisciplinary arts education is considered a positive catalyst for personal, social, and educational growth.
Our teaching strategies are designed to maximize the full development of each individual child and recognize how they learn different subjects in different ways, utilizing their intelligence, or “smarts.” Our rich learning experiences are designed around Howard Gardner’s nine “Smarts” and the design principals of Expeditionary Learning and Outward Bound. Additionally, art experiences strengthen executive functioning skills. When you meet children where they are and build on their strengths, you develop competence, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity so that they can succeed academically! Students will develop skills in:
- Reading, writing and telling stories
- Logical reasoning, patterns, and numbers
- Expression through one’s body, movement, and physical activity
- Visualization, building, drawing, and design
- Rhythm, signing, and creating music
- Understanding through relationships with the physical world and living things
- Working in groups, sensitivity to others, leadership
- Understanding personal feelings and thoughts
- Connecting with the natural world and
- Developing ecological stewardship and social consciousness.
Communication (social/emotional): Opportunities for individuals with language and learning differences to practice and master listening, speaking skills, problem-solving, conflict resolution and cooperative learning skills.
Based on Reggio Emilia pedagogy, children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through environments which support “complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships between people, the world of experience, ideas and the many ways of expressing thoughts. We allow children to create their understanding by doing with ample opportunities to share what they know with others.
- Research shows that spending creative time with others builds community, personal confidence and strengthens decision-making skills.
Culture: Opportunities for individuals to develop and to find voice and cultural identity in a pluralistic and diverse democratic society through art, music, and movement.
- Cultural diversity and deficiencies in our understanding of how to communicate across cultures, or appreciate worldviews from other cultural perspectives, undoubtedly contribute to the complexity of the world we live in. Children need exposure and relationship with people who are culturally different from them.
- We provide the opportunity for learning through experiences of interacting and communicating with other cultures and activities to understand the roots and generative nature of our own culture.
- We provide opportunities to create community connections and counter racism and discrimination
MaestraSasha 