me arts ed

988 Members!

Last week while attending a reception on the Coast Guard Eagle I got to thinking about how precise some elements in this world are. The ropes, sails, life boats, even the mops all had their places and were ready to go at a moments notice. The crew members could each articulate their learning about every aspect of life at sea and in the Coast Guard. I asked lots of questions and many answers contained numbers so I thought I’d pass some arts list-serve and blog numbers on to you.

My goal was to have 900 members on the arts ed list-serve by June 2009, I am happy to announce that goal has been exceeded with a present total of 988. Now of course, my next goal is 1000! I realize that many email addresses will be changing because of the school district reorganization so the number could go down before it heads back up.

The list-serve started in January 2007 with 340 members. Since then one name at a time has been added, almost all are dance, music, theater and visual arts educators. We have about 1250 in the state. Other members of the list-serve accounting for a small number of the total are curriculum leaders, administrators, other content teachers, teachers of the G/T, individuals from arts organizations, and a few others. It is great to have listeners, readers and contributors from all walks of education.

The first form of information went out in a one-page format as a word document. I switched to a newsletter using the program Pages and not to long after that also posted them on iTunes as podcasts. In March of this year (2009) I started the blog. At this point, unfortunately, there are still a handful of our colleagues who can not access the blog because their schools have blocks on the use of blogs.

Between 500 and 600 visitors stop by the blog each week. The most visited section is the “professional development” information. The 4 months of blogging has opened my mind to communicating in a different manner so I am curious to learn about how it is for you? What do you like about the blog, what do you not like? What would you like to see differently, or more or less of or any comments or suggestions? I’d appreciate you posting your comments here or please email me separately @ argy.nestor@maine.gov.

I hope that more folks will sign up for the list-serve so all arts educators and others who are interested in improving teaching and learning in the arts in Maine schools and beyond will be connected to the information available. I look forward to reading your comments/feedback and posting them for others to read.

Many many many blogs

Here is a webpage that is part of the Incredible Art website that is a listing of blogs of which most are managed by arts teachers. I was sooooooooooo surprised by the number of sites included. The webpage is managed by Ken Rohrer. Please click here.

And a site that has managed by two visual art teachers and includes combined lessons for music and visual arts. Please click here.

Wondering about teaching abroad?

If you are interested in teaching abroad here are some resources and information that might help in your thinking and searching:

• Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)
• International Teacher Blog
• International Schools Services
• Search Associates
• Teach Abroad
• Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program

The following tips were taken from list-serve posts on the Teacher Art Exchange Discussion Group sponsored by the Getty Foundation:

• Recruiting starts in Nov./Dec. and ramps up in Jan./Feb.
• Once you fill out an application with an organization you have access to their data base of jobs.
• The new trend is that teachers are contacting schools directly and being interviewed using skype.
• There are job fairs for recruiting international teachers.
• Think about geographical locations you’d like, but flexibility is important.
• Be sure your resume is updated, prior overseas living is recommended but not necessary.
• Having an online presence or presenting technology integrated examples will be helpful.
• Once you narrow your search and ideas, research the schools, country, city, position, requirements, etc.
• Ask questions that shows you are interested and have done your homework.

Please add your thoughts/ideas from experience or research you’ve done on this topic.