Sabbatical Leave Proposal 2015-2016

Roxie Mitchell
I am proposing a sabbatical leave for the 2015-2016 school year for the purpose of developing 21st Century curriculum for
visual arts courses at Durango High School. Specifically, the sabbatical leave will allow me to develop strong courses in
digital art making and to add digital art making to existing courses in the Visual Arts Department. The new digital arts
courses will be developed to meet the Visual Arts Standards in Art as well as the new Visual Arts Standards in Career and
Technical Education (CTE). Additionally, these new courses will give students more opportunities in STEAM at the high
school. Currently, there are only two photography courses at the high school that involve digital art making; both of these
courses in the Visual Arts Department are highly requested by students who are interested in engaging with technology. The
new, engaging and rigorous curriculum that is developed through this sabbatical leave is necessary to prepare students with
post-secondary educational pursuits in the arts as well as current employment opportunities in Colorado's Creative
Economy.
The proposed sabbatical leave will benefit the Durango School District in many ways. First, this work is aligned with the
goals of the school, district and the state. This proposal specifically addresses needs set out by Durango High School in the
Durango High School Site Plan: Tactic 3: We will design and implement flexible pathways to graduation that ensure each
student creates and successfully completes his or her challenging academic and career plan; Durango District 9-R's
Strategic Plan: Strategy 3: We will design and deliver district-wide curricula and assessment, based on standards of
excellence that integrate 21st Century skills across disciplines; as well as Colorado's House Bill 101273 Arts Education
for Workforce Development Act: which calls for the development of quality art education programs in the public schools to
prepare students for postsecondary and workforce readiness in Colorado's Creative Economy. Also, this work will benefit
the district financially for years to come by developing a pathway in Career and Technical Education in the Visual Arts that
will allow the district to re-coup a portion of my salary and money for students who are completer in the program. Lastly,
this sabbatical work will allow for the dissemination of new, relevant art making practices that will be shared and taught to
other district art teachers through my leaderships roles such as the department head or curriculum counsel representative.
The time given for the sabbatical leave is critical to allow time for educational training, research, art making, school site
visits and CTE authorization. The time given for the sabbatical would mostly be necessary for educational training in the
digital arts with the most up-to-date computer software and hardware that is today's industry standard. After looking at a lot
of digital arts programs offered across the country, I decided that the best option would be to complete a variety of selfpaced and organized courses specific to the curriculum I would teach, instead of a pre-packaged set of courses offered by an
institution. For example, to do this I may do a combination of enrolling in Adobe's authorized training courses to learn the
computer programs (for example, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.) necessary to teach the content of the courses. For some
of these programs I could then go on to test for the certification for the program through an Adobe authorized testing center
if necessary. In addition to this, I will enroll in workshops offered by Kansas City Art Institute for graphic design and
Anderson Ranch for computer programming. I have made contact with Fort Lewis about auditing their digital arts design
courses to make sure that our courses align vertically with college level offerings and I will make contacts to do this with
the local community college as well. Also, I will continue to research for applicable programs and training necessary as I
build the design for the courses and will add more to this list as I go. One of the benefits of these education opportunities is
that they will allow me to build a portfolio of work examples to share with students as part of the curriculum through my
own art making; this may include an art residency. In addition to these educational trainings, I will also spend a large
amount of time researching, designing and getting myself and the digital arts program authorized through CTE. To do this,
I propose that I will work with model schools like Denver School of the Arts and the STEM School and Academy to see
their digital arts program in action and research successful programs around the Colorado and the country to build ours. I
will also meet with industry professionals in and around Durango to align our program with the skills students need to enter
the workforce post-graduation. Finally, I will do the paperwork necessary with within our school, district and state to make
these changes.
I have a proven record of leadership and in developing and building strong curriculum for programs for the Durango School
District through my work in the Visual Arts Department at Durango High School and in the small learning community of
DAVINCI. In addition to this I have gone above and beyond by being extremely resourceful in securing unique
opportunities like the Durango High School Visiting Artist program; the partnership between the Visual Arts Department
and the Durango Arts Commission; and through partnership grants with Durango Education Foundation to bring better
equipment to students in the art classroom. If given the the opportunity to do this sabbatical work, I promise to make the
digital arts program at Durango High School a model program in our district!