Instructor:
| , St. Michael's College Graduate Education Program , Phone: E-mail: susanna.mp.olson@gmail.com Email is the best way to contact me: susanna.mp.olson@gmail.com |
Instructor Level
| Specialist II |
Education
| High school diploma or GED in Bachelor's degree in English, Speech/Communciations, Education Master's degree in Acting | |
| Participated in and presented at multiple extensive professional development institutes and conferences with Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC (arts integration) and Lincoln Center, NY (aesthetic education) across two decades. Recent Coursework: FALL 2021 PSY-2010-V CHILD DEVELOPMENT CCV SPRING 2022 BUS-2065-V INTRO TO GRANT WRITING CCV FALL 2021 - FALL 2025 40 hours cumulative educator professional development via a range of organizations including VTAEYC, Seed & Sew Certification program, etc. | |
| has not received formal instruction in adult education or in the facilitation of learning for adults. |
Work Experience
| Theater Arts Integration Teaching Artist & Classroom Teacher (Level 4A) | Robin's Nest Children's Center, Burlington VT | create and facilitate on-going arts integrated drama curriculum, collaborate with colleagues to create emergent curriculum and support play-based learning environment for preschoolers | Fall 2021 - Present. Creative Arts Fellow | VTAEYC 2025 Fellowship Exchange, Vermont | advocated for the intersectional value of creative arts in early childhood education through original writing, collaborative dialogue, and the providing of in-person professional development events | 2025 Independent Teaching Artist | Member of Vermont Arts Council Juried Roster of Teaching Artists, Vermont | provide professional development for teachers via teacher workshops, in-classroom modeling of theater arts integration strategies, co-managed the creation of the free online professional development tool dramaticliteracy.org | 2020 - Present. Education Team | Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT | Over the course of two decades fulfilled multiple key roles within the Education Department of the Flynn including Lead Teaching Artist, School Programs Manager, Curriculum Instruction Manager, and Arts Education Administrator | mentored over 80 preschool, elementary and middle school teachers through extensive multi-year arts integrated professional development programs, taught student matinee companion workshops in hundreds of classrooms across the state, facilitated professional development for classroom teachers and teaching artist faculty, managed administrative aspects of student matinee series, camps, etc. | 1996-2020. Adjunct Faculty | St. Michael's College Graduate School, Colchester, VT | Taught a few 1-credit graduate courses in Storytelling between 2000 & 2009 | Team-taught graduate courses in arts integration in conjunction with Joan Robinson & the Flynn 2012-2014. | ||||||||||
| More than 15 years instructing adults. | ||||||||||
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Additional Information
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| Teaching and Learning (Early Childhood) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I believe my fellow teachers and I are all lifelong learners and we each have unique expertise to share with one another. As we learn from each other within the context of a drama arts integration workshop, we all need many of the same things our students need - including 1. carefully scaffolded hands-on learning in which we use our bodies and voices and imaginations, 2. chances to access our prior knowledge and connect it to new learning, 3. opportunities to express our own voices and make our own choices, 4. time for reflection, 5. chances to process new information in multiple ways (including kinesthetically, interpersonally, verbally, and visually), and more. For more insight into my teaching artistry please see the following: 1. An interview I recently did with the Vermont Arts Council: https://www.vermontartscouncil.org/blog/the-early-childhood-arts-partnership-grant-in-action-talking-arts-integration-with-susanna-olson/ 2. The free video-enhanced professional development site I co-created during the pandemic with a literacy specialist and Vermont artists and educators: dramaticliteracy.org. 3. A piece I wrote together with my Robin's Nest Children's Center colleagues explaining (with stories) seven reasons why we value drama in the preschool classroom: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EAiB2gO_GyN2GgkEfbbKpI9kbVRZ2pHS6dTxO_HrR0o/edit?usp=sharing |
Logistics
| *Inquire with Instructor |