Art teacher Dania Santiago of Henry Zarrow International Elementary School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, creates remote lessons in response to pandemic shelter-at-home directives.

The shelter-at-home directives that have been issued in nearly every state have left educators in every subject area scrambling for ways to teach their content online. The transition has been especially difficult for art teachers, whose content is, by nature, a hands-on affair. But these teachers, including Dania Santiago of Tulsa, Oklahoma, are rising splendidly to the challenge.

Dania teaches art at Henry Zarrow International Elementary School. She has shifted her instruction to filmed project tutorials. One week, she recorded step-by-step instructions for how to create an origami sailboat for her younger students. For her older students, she created a tutorial for how to create a dioramic backdrop from s shoe box. She strives to keep each video simple, but stimulating.

Some art lessons are easier to teach remotely than others, Dania conceded. Most families have access to basic supplies such as paper, scissors, crayons,  and markers. Others are nearly impossible. For example, the lack of home access to ceramic materials, for instance, means no pottery or sculpture projects.

“Instead of stressing about what we can’t do, I’m choosing to focus on the things that we can,” Dania expressed. “I can, for now, create these videos and use the supplies I have at home. If I run out of paper, I can either send for more or just won’t use it,” she continued. “All I have to think about is getting through three more weeks (of distance learning). After that, I hope we can begin going back to normal,” she concluded.

To read more about Dania and view her remote lessons, see this link at Tulsa World.