me arts ed

Opportunity

A complete post on this information can be found by clicking here.

The application deadline for teachers interested in creating and disseminating relevant and effective Open Educational Resources (OERs) by participating in the development of the professional development co-teaching model is June 10th.

CLARIFICATION: The funds that have been provided to develop these units and provide professional development for using the developed units comes from ARRA funds. The purpose is to provide opportunities to teachers to enrich their teaching and to pass it forward (similar to the SEED units of the past). The units that will be developed will go to a deeper level of integration to exhibit the benefits of collaboration. Without the collaboration we depend on the expertise of one person when developing units. The opportunities for learning have the potential to be much greater. I know many of you have heard me say: “none of us is as smart as all of us”.

I view this work as an outstanding opportunity not only for developing units collaboratively, but an opportunity to educate others about arts education and the value to student achievement. The Department of Education included VPA in this work along with the other content areas of the MLR’s. The arts educators that are selected for this work will be ones who can not only develop curriculum units, but have an understanding of the value of integration! All arts educators will have the opportunity to benefit from this work. Remember the deadline for applying is June 10th!

Be sure and email me if you have questions argy.nestor@maine.gov

Smithsonian Online Conference

The Advanced Music class at North Haven Community School (Megan, Natalie and teacher Courtney) participated this spring in a Smithsonian Online Conference titled, “Who owns music?”  The speaker was D. A. Sonnenborn Ph D, the associate director of the Smithsonian Folkways label.  Discussion questions focused on the value of recording and preserving music and sound, drawing lines between music and sound, ownership of recorded music and sound, and defining music.  Sonnenborn’s lecture was videocast, and questions were posed to the audience, which consisted of teachers, students and musicians from around the world.  We had the opportunity to respond to the questions via a chat window.  Here’s what the students thought!

Megan: It was a unique opportunity that we got to see what other people thought about music, and argue with them.

Natalie:  It was interesting to see what other people thought and what their opinions were.

Megan: I really liked the thing where you could type in stuff. It was about recording stuff – everything – even if you don’t like it.

Natalie:  People like the sound of stir frying broccoli.

Megan:  I got into an argument about humans being the only animals that make music on purpose.  Then somebody said that birds do that too, but then I said that’s by accident, they’re just talking and it’s not actually on purpose music making.

Natalie:  It’s probably not music to them.

Smithsonian Online Conferences are free, easily accessible with a computer and internet connection, and provide opportunities for students to interact with people around the world and try to answer questions in fields that interest them.  The conferences discuss things from outer space to ecology to fashion.  The sessions are archived and are available online.

Here is a link to the session we participated in:  http://www.smithsonianconference.org/expert/who-owns-music/

I hope to use this amazing resource more in the future!

I learned about this work while visiting North Haven as part of the follow-up to the island being named as an Imagination Intensive Community. The project is being conducted by the Maine Alliance for Arts Education and the Maine Department of Education. The project is supported in part by a grant from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Betterment Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thank you to North Haven Community School music educator, Courtney Naliboff for contributing this story for meartsed blog.