Welcome to the Statewide Art and Enrichment Roster, Hosted by CiTi BOCES
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This directory of artists, presenters and vendors is for contact information only. Please note that all
approvals are determined by individual BOCES and/or District criteria and do not guarantee acceptance of
proposed contracts.
Glenn Bentz
History of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Glenn displays a large variety of authentic visual items that assist in the learning process and coordinate with the lecture he provides. Some items which are occasionally passed around, if feasible. This integrates a tactile interaction that stimulates the minds of all ages and is always enjoyable. Children are the key to our future and our first priority is them. It is Glenn's pleasure to bring the experience of a field trip to your location offering you convenience, scheduling and cost effectiveness.
My flute and cello duo, Duo Envol, leads a guided exploration of music and its connection to visual media. We use famous examples and play along with video clips from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, K Pop Demon Hunters, Harry Potter, a Christmas Story, etc. to explore the emotional impact on us of no music, the wrong music, or different music used in totally different contexts. We will play a piece we commissioned for flute and cello called Cumulus Reverie and let the audience imagine what different shapes they're observing in the imaginary clouds as they're listening. Then, like reading the book before watching the movie, we will watch Tiny Planet LLC’s animation video to the piece. https://youtu.be/94GxetlvXVU. The workshop culminates in everyone painting what they heard in their mind's eye. It's an hour long program, and can be lengthened or shortened as needed.
Social Studies Songwriting Assembly with Mr. Nicky (Virtual Program)
Mr. Nicky is an accomplished songwriter and certified teacher bringing a fresh approach
to teaching social studies by creating parody songs. His YouTube channel (Mr. Nicky’s
World History Songs) has gained over 20 million views and 130,000 subscribers by
helping students recall and review their lessons on ancient civilizations such as
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Mr. Nicky’s virtual assemblies (via
Zoom/Google Meet/etc.) meet state learning standards in both social studies and ELA.
The students write a history song together throughout the course of the hour as Mr.
Nicky keeps the time fun and interactive by singing his hits, showing how he creates his
channel, taking questions and having a blast celebrating ancient civilizations!
My name is Leah, and I’m the founder of Brave Lion. I’m a certified mindfulness and yoga practitioner, and a true child at heart! Thank you for checking out my profile.
My program offers are listed below, but first, I thought I’d share some nice things educators and administrators have said about working with me:
“Leah brings this work to life, it’s not just another SEL lesson or worksheet. The way she is able to connect with students and help them embody this work is a gift.”
- District Director of Curriculum (North Country)
“Leah's love and enthusiasm for neuroscience mindfulness education truly engaged all the students. She had such a special way of making each child feel heard. Her style allowed for students to connect the learning to their own lives, which made it very meaningful. The entire lesson execution was extraordinary!”
- 3rd Grade Educator (Capital District)
“She was absolutely wonderful. Taught in a way that felt very inclusive and open. I was not very comfortable with the practice in my own implementation and she really helped me feel comfortable with trying a multitude of ways and that they were all effective.”
- Educator, Participating in Mindfulness for Educators (Capital District)
Here is who we are and some of the ways we can work together to cultivate a more mindful way of being in your school community:
Brave Lion offers students and educators with personalized and accessible
(neuroscience-based) mindful tools to bolster emotional, mental and physical well-being. These self-study tools result in reduced stress, improved emotional regulation, enhanced personal + professional relationships and holistic-minded resilience.
We bravely offer partnerships with schools and organizations including; in-class lessons (series or single topic), assemblies, educator professional development, parents education and consultation.
Programming:
Assemblies (Elementary K-2, 3-5)
School-based Mindfulness and Movement Programming
Physical Education Yoga (MIndful Movement) Take Over
Professional Development and Keynote Speaking
Digital Wellness + Taming Tech: Education and Coaching
1:1 and Group Mindful Mapping
Nurtured in Nature: A Guide to Connecting Students to the Natural World
If you’d like, you can learn more about the Brave Lion approach by viewing this brief presentation:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAGXxHcOjpk/FTp4xpFYDo4nE9N6WgWyjQ/view?utm_content=DAGXxHcOjpk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h6a09711bb3
Thank you!!
Be well and take care of yourself and others :)
Our mission at BIG INK is to encourage appreciation for woodblock printmaking: one impression at a time.
In 2012, Lyell Catongguay founded BIG INK to provide woodblock printmaking workshop opportunities for people of all skill levels. As a result, thousands of individuals have learned how to carve wood by following Castonguay’s online master class, and numerous community members have attended BIG INK’s workshops to witness the spectacle of large-scale woodblock printing. With its community-driven and public art education model, BIG INK is committed to ensuring a promising future for printmaking.
Hire BIG INK for a workshop at your school. We’ll travel to your location and set up The Big Tuna, our custom-designed giant mobile printing press. Does your group have limited woodblock carving experience? That is okay. We’ll be your guide!
5 Loaves Farm is a unique urban farm that serves as a living classroom where we teach hands-on, minds-on lessons about science and social topics relevant to students in grades K-12. We love working with teachers to provide experiences tailored specifically to your curriculum needs. Our unique position as a farm that includes fruit trees, greenhouses, chickens, bees, and so much more, right in the middle of an urban neighborhood, provides the opportunity to connect various areas of study into meaningful learning experiences for your students.
You Inc provides engaging programming for K-12 to encourage students to develop good money habits and growth mindsets about money early on and continuously throughout their development. Topics related to money and personal finance should be introduced to students at each grade level. Just as math and reading have several different facets and sub topics for children to master from kindergarten to 12th grade and beyond, personal finance also has its own nuances and categories that can and should be mastered early in a child's development and continue to evolve into more complex topics and subtopics as children grow and develop into young adults. By doing so, we develop a generation of financially secure adults who experience better financial outcomes due to making better financial decisions.
Our workshops help students understand the basics of earning, saving, budgeting, and giving back. For younger children, we use interactive activities and storytelling to introduce financial concepts in a fun and relatable way, laying the groundwork for good habits and smart decision-making. For older students, we dive deeper, covering topics such as goal-setting, smart spending, credit, and pathways to building wealth—all tailored to prepare them for the responsibilities of adulthood. We also emphasize the importance of financial independence and provide students with tools to break free from cycles of financial instability that they may see in their communities. Our culturally competent approach ensures that all students see themselves reflected in the material, and we prioritize empathy, understanding, and real-life application in a way that fosters financial inclusion for all. Our team is certified in financial education from the National Financial Educators Council with over a decade of experience teaching financial literacy across New York State. We are also a certified NYS Minority and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE). Our goal is to help K-12 students gain essential life skills and grow up feeling confident and capable in managing their financial lives. Let's inspire a generation of students who are not only financially aware but also equipped to pursue their dreams with a strong, sustainable financial foundation.
In addition to k-12 programs, we offer Family Finance Programs for the entire family unit, including parents and caregivers. These one day programs can take place in the evening and students attend with their parents/guardians and two separate workshops take place simultaneously, equipping the family ecosystem to elevate their money conversations in the home, and providing tools and strategies to help parents optimize their family finances while nurturing a culture of healthy financial habits in the home.
The mission of The Vanaver Caravan is to inspire, through dance and music, the harmonious co-existence of world cultures and traditions, to promote peace and celebrate our humanity. Artistic directors, Bill and Livia Vanaver, have dedicated over 50 years to learning and sharing dance traditions from every corner of the earth. They have traveled across the globe, creating lasting life-long friendships along the way. Our international collective of professional Teaching Artists are trained with an extensive knowledge in our world dance and music repertoire. All of our faculty learn The Vanaver Caravan's holistic, gentle teaching philosophy: keeping students focused and disciplined in a positive and respectful way. Students are given space to learn and grow in an environment that fosters curiosity, creative thinking skills, and self-esteem through kinesthetic learning.
The Science Chef offers STEM education with or without a cooking/food based option! Providing hands on workshops, both in person or virtual with materials delivered, provides an engaging activity for your students. Our workshops are also standard appropriate, and we can provide the list of standards each workshop can help meet. Each workshop comes with a take home project, associated with the theme of the chosen workshop. The non-food workshops are $199 per one hour workshop, up to 20 participants.
Our food based workshops are 75-90 minutes depending upon the theme, and the class is mostly the science based workshop, with a food based activity based on the workshop's theme. For example, our Volcanos and The Rock Cycle workshop is all science, and the students prepare lava cakes at the end to take home and microwave. The cost is $229 for up to 10 participants, and includes both the science take home, and the food take home per student.
Our assemblies are not hands-on, but provide the WOW to bring some educational fun to your students! Intended for groups of students up to 100, we have several different options to choose from, and are always happy to provide a recommendation based on your student's ages and the space you provide us.
Please note: scheduling with me is something that should be done in advance. I am a full time anatomy & physiology professor, and The Science Chef programming fits around my classes and breaks. Contacting me via e-mail or text is the best option, as I will not answer a phone call during any classes, whether the college or The Science Chef! :)
I offer hands-on creative writing workshops in poetry and prose (3-5 days each---3 workshops per day---across a chosen grade level, where each class gets 3-5 visits each). I meet with teachers to discuss their curriculum needs and thematic requests, suggesting various workshop ideas tailored to their requests. Teachers then choose what works best for them---for example: Assistance with reluctant writers, adding details, word choice, adjective strength, voice---in whatever current learning theme is paramount, such as animals, environment, feelings, character development, social studies, etc.
I support teachers throughout the residency where they will be present and interact whenever their insight is needed as I teach. During and after the residency, I check in (over lunch, etc.) to ascertain how teachers are feeling about their students' progress, and also to offer many resources from both my books, stories, poems, and teacher oriented publications (nine books with Scholastic Professional Books for teachers) where they might copy any lessons they wish to use in the future.
I also offer follow-up ideas at the end of every residency for those who wish to continue using the writing "tools/ideas" I present to their students. And there are always numerous options! I love to work with the core levels to help develop a stronger writing momentum with students (for example, 2nd grades in fall, same students in 3rd grade with different themes/format the following year, 4th grade added on or begun simultaneously--always building on previous workshop skills, etc.
Districts have booked me in various schools for 25 plus years, often having me conduct workshops from year to year in multiple levels, as teachers love the support and boost my energy brings to their classrooms and students from which they springboard after I leave. The sky's the limit! I am here to serve educationally and creatively.
Rumbón Dance Studio, LLC is a dance studio that teaches Colombian-style salsa dance for beginner- and intermediate-level dancers. We also offer cardio classes and performance choreography in various dance styles.
Partner and solo salsa dance develop personal skills such as patience, respect, self-awareness and emotional expression, physical skills such as balance and stamina, and musical skills such as rhythm and phrasing. Workshops and classes are perfect for work with students in school musicals, ice-breaker, team-building or social-emotional learning activities, after-school programming, as well as staff development and events.
Fun and learning go hand-in-hand when you book a fall field trip to Ellms Family Farm. Pick pumpkins, explore a maze, attend the educational “chicken show”, and so much more. Students from pre-k and elementary school, all the way through sixth grade, enjoy the mix of agricultural learning experiences and old-fashioned barnyard fun.