Improv @ School: Educational Outreach
The BATS Educational Outreach Program in the San Francisco Bay Area offers workshops for students and educators in grades K-12. Bring us to your classroom, after-school program, or professional development day, or take one of our education-focused courses.
Why do Improv @ School?
BATS Educational Outreach offers improvisation-based workshops for students, faculty, & staff. Our workshops are naturally active & engaging, student-centered, and support the development of critical thinking and multiple intelligences. BATS’ specific brand of improvisation offers techniques in short games and exercises in longer storytelling/narrative that can be adapted to large or small groups.
We believe that humans are most receptive to learning when they’re enjoying themselves. Our improv professionals create engaging, no-pressure learning environments that bring out the best in your students and teachers. The flexibility of improvisation and theater allows us to work in just about any environment and with any learning level.
Improvisation is a highly effective tool for developing skills such as:
- Spontaneity & flexible thinking
- “Yes And” (embracing and building on ideas)
- Making your partner look good
- Celebrating failure
- Creative risk taking
- Collaboration & team-building
- Active listening
- Brainstorming
- Social integration
- Empathy
- In addition to those improvised skills, we can also look to incorporate a specific project-based learning curricular focus
See below for some of our offerings. Contact us at education@improv.org for more information.
Workshops
Great For:
- A few hours or over several days
- All ages – younger groups require a smaller size and/or additional teaching artists
The goal of our workshops is to provide short-term or one-off instruction for students and teachers. These are often aimed at providing introductory level goals. Our workshops offer a brief, invigorating integration of our teaching artists into your environment with customization to your specific needs. Bring us in for a few hours or few days depending upon your budget, learning goals, and needs. Workshops can be applied to single classrooms or across groups of students. Many schools bring us simply to teach and share the magic of improv, while others seek to integrate tie-ins to National or State Standards or school goals.
We can come to you or you can bring your group to our beautiful space at Ft. Mason in San Francisco.
Note: The ideal area for our workshops is an open space like a Multi Purpose Room or theatre, though most exercises can easily be adapted to a classroom. Class size is limited per teaching artist. Classroom teacher or supervising adult must remain in the room with our teaching artists at all times.
Artists in Residence
Great For:
- Several days and/or weeks
- All ages – younger groups require a smaller size and/or additional teaching artists
The goal of our residencies is to provide on-going quality instruction for students while modeling improvisational tools for educators to continue to use in the classroom after the residency is over. Goals of residency can run the spectrum from simple playfulness of improvisation to deep integration of curricular content.
Artist in Residence programs offer the integration of our teaching artists into your environment with customization to your specific needs. Bring us in for a few days or several weeks depending upon your budget, learning goals, and needs. Short term & long term residencies can be applied to single classrooms or across groups of students.
We can come to you or you can bring your group to our beautiful space at Ft. Mason in San Francisco
Note: The ideal area for our Artist in Residence programs is an open space like a Multi Purpose Room or theatre, though most exercises can easily be adapted to a classroom. Class size is limited per teaching artist. Classroom teacher or supervising adult must remain in the room with our teaching artists at all times.
Professional Development
BATS’ customized Professional Development is the antidote for bad PowerPoint presentations, awkward icebreaker games, and ironically long-winded sage-on-the-stage speeches about the benefits of brevity in the classroom. Inspired by your school’s needs and current PD focus, our teaching professionals will create a personalized experience that transforms your PD into an engaging experience with immediately usable classroom exercises.
We’ll work with you to develop the perfect program for your group of educators, be it teambuilding or integration of National Standards. Whatever the theme, the work is a journey that brings people together through shared fun, laughter, and creativity and sneaks in those curricular links in ways that feel empowering, invigorating, and inspiring to teachers of all experience levels. On-your-feet, usable, doable, easily repeatable exercises. Tools for teachers of any grade, subject, or learning level. PD that actually models what it’s teaching and is immediately applicable to your classroom!
