INITIATIVE 01
Arts District Learning Lab - Taking advantage of the school's strategic location in the largest arts district in the country, the Advisory Board has facilitated the launch of a breakthrough program: the Arts District Learning Lab, which integrates student learning with professionals in formal, year-long courses. Currently partnering with the Dallas Theater Center and the Dallas Museum of Art, this cross disciplinary program marries real world experience and high level mentoring, weaving a rich fabric between the students, the faculty and the leaders of Dallas's highly renowned arts institutions.
One-on-one experiences with artists such as Mark Bradford and DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty prove priceless personal and professional potentially life-changing opportunities. This fall will mark the launch of the newest Arts District Learning Lab, partnering with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Course highlights will include regular interaction with DSO musicians, score study of DSO’s current repertoire, development of chamber music performances for peers and/or elementary students and DSO Internship opportunities.
INITIATIVE 02
The Met: HD Live in Schools Project and Global/Distance Learning - The Met Live Project is a unique collaboration between the Advisory Board (AB), the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Dallas ISD, BTW and the O'Donnell Foundation.
Each season, The Met provides simulcasts of several of its operas in a number of U.S. cities. Through a generous gift from the O'Donnell Foundation of over $800,000 of satellite and projection system equipment, BTW is the first school site in the country to present The Met: Live in HD Series.
Under a license agreement with the AB, the Met delivers the simulcast operas to BTW's Montgomery Theatre during a series of Saturday matinees. In addition to BTW students and their families, students from all over the Dallas ISD are invited to attend – completely free of charge. Transportation and curricular materials designed by the Education Department of the MET are also provided at no cost to the schools.
The new, state-of-the-art equipment in the Montgomery Arts Theatre also offers an exceptional opportunity for global, distance learning endeavors. The Advisory Board is currently in the research and development phase, investigating the limitless potential in interactive distance learning opportunities.
INITIATIVE 03
Faculty Professional Development and Parent University - The Advisory Board is passionate about dramatically impacting the lives of the BTW student body. Perhaps the best way to impact these students' lives is by dramatically impacting the growth and professional development of its faculty. The student population, by definition, is in constant flux; the faculty is a constant. They touch hundreds of lives daily and directly and powerfully affect their personal and professional life trajectories. It is imperative that we begin to research, design and create models of excellence that will elevate the culture of teaching and learning.
It is to this end that a core group of exceptional Dallas ISD principals – including BTW Principal Fraley – have set out to create a comprehensive system of Faculty Enrichment and Professional Training and Parent Education that will surpass anything that currently exists - with the goal to realize more dynamically, fully engaged and effective faulty and thereby more dynamically, fully engaged and successful students.
This initiative, supported through the Advisory Board, currently reflects a three-year timeline with Summer 2012 launching first steps.
