The Professional Development Committee of Any Given Child Indy has chosen Lenore Blank Kelner as the arts integration teaching artist for January 2018 professional development. Lenore will present two workshops for teachers on January 16, as well as a demonstration lesson and debrief for teachers on January 17. She plans to present her workshop “Character Interviews: A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension” to give teachers an amazingly fun way to achieve and assess reading comprehension in their classrooms.

Since 1981 Lenore has trained thousands of teachers in how to integrate drama into daily classroom instruction. She has been a presenter with the education department of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for 28 years, served as a Master Artist for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts for 25 years and is a frequent consultant for the Maryland State Department of Education.

Lenore has been a keynote presenter at many education and arts in education conferences as well as a speaker at many regional and national conferences. In addition Lenore has worked with hundreds of teaching artists across the county on the how to create effective showcases, arts integrated lessons and residencies.

In 1981 Lenore founded and directed InterAct Story Theatre an educational theatre touring company. In this capacity she wrote, produced and directed professional productions for children and families. These productions continue to tour throughout the United States.