Instructional Programs


In the Rincon Valley Art Docent Program, volunteers sign up to teach art lessons in the classrooms once a month. Our Art Docents teach in one or more of our eight elementary schools, offering almost a dozen art lessons at each grade level, kindergarten through sixth grade. The lessons are in kit format and our docents check out the lessons and materials; it’s like a lending library of art lessons. The teachers in our district can request a lesson once a month throughout the school year. The Art Docent Coordinator, Jeannie Behr, matches a volunteer (usually a parent) with a teacher, coordinates their schedules, and sets up a time for the volunteer to teach the lesson. When the monthly schedule is posted and the docents know what they will be teaching, they contact the coordinator to set up a time to learn the details of the lessons. In addition they have the opportunity to come to a monthly training.

The Art Docent Program started over 20 years ago and was modeled after another school district’s program. It began with three parents with three lessons for all the schools in the district to share. The Art Docent Program has now grown to over 75 lessons, including a ceramic clay lesson at every grade level. During 2009-10, the Rincon Valley District had 130 Art Docents in the program, and they taught more than 875 art lessons. This adds up to over twenty thousand individual pieces of art work that were created because of this wonderful program and the amazing group of volunteers that support it.

The Dance Docent Program is also a volunteer program. The goals of the dance and movement docent program are to develop the students' knowledge and appreciation of our multi-cultural dance heritage and to develop a positive sense of involvement in movement exploration, communication and expression.