Teachers' After School Pizza Party

Celebrate your year!   Enjoy some pizza, commiserate with colleagues, and learn about Story Quilts.  Then bring home materials for your students and yourself -- books, binders, fabric and more!

A classroom Story Quilt can connect family traditions and cultural history to build on Storytelling, Narrative Writing, Poetry and more.  Every participating teacher can make their own quilt square, receive a sample lesson plan, and discuss group prompts to spark the students' imagination.   We’ll use paper, fabric, ribbon and other simple materials along with scissors and glue - no sewing is required!

Changing Worlds Teaching Artist Cynthium Woodfolk-Johnson will guide you through her Story Quilt process,  various collage materials and techniques and how to adapt it to various ages and subjects.   Story Quilt projects are great for 3rd through 12th grade, and the ideas are key to the students coming up with their own design and execution.  You will see projects that Cynthium has done with teachers and middle school students which blend culture, personal identity and artmaking. Then you will find your own materials for your next classroom project!

Cynthium has worked in the Chicago Public Schools for over 20 years and most recently is a teaching artist for Changing Worlds .  She blends poetry, dramatic spoken word and artmaking together in her work in classrooms .  She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago.     Changing Worlds  mission is "to foster inclusive communities through oral history, writing and art programs that support student learning, affirm identity and enhance cross-cultural understanding."   And CCRx knows that “trash is just a failure of imagination!”