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.

Heritage: The Arts Build and Express Community

Written by Carol Trimble, Maine Alliance for Arts Education Executive Director and member of the planning committee for the IIC’s. Pictures by North Haven Art Teacher and visiting team member Alice Bissell.

Fish Mobile at Camden Rockport Elementary School

Few of you will be surprised to hear that students in the Camden-Rockport area have a wide variety of opportunities to experience the arts and to learn in ways that develop their imaginations. What is perhaps less well-known is how hard community members (including partnering schools, organizations, artists, and parents) work to make this happen. The teachers, administrators, parents, volunteers, artists, students, and members of organizations we met on our site visit to this Imagination Intensive Community readily acknowledge that their community has a strong history of activity in and support of the arts.  They also emphasize the need they see to pass on that heritage to students.  We heard that word “heritage” throughout our busy day of visits to many Camden-Rockport organizations as well as schools. The community’s success in providing a rich array of opportunities for students can not be dismissed as simply a result of affluence; this is a community that is conscious of its arts heritage and wants to make sure that continues into the future. And this is a concept that can be helpful to communities that need to build support for the arts and increase opportunities for students.

Camden Rockport Middle School hallway

This idea of heritage—of what the community has inherited and what it chooses to pass on to students—-is demonstrated in the Camden-Rockport community in many ways:

• by the elementary music teacher who wrote a musical, based on town history, for students to perform for the community;
• by the school administrators who, to ensure community support for budgeting for the arts, make sure they articulate the connection between arts education and graduation rates and achievement in other areas;
• by the years of work by educators and community members to develop community support for new high school that includes an auditorium the entire community can be proud of—and make frequent use of;
• by the high-school music teacher who ensures that students contribute to the community by including performances for community events in course requirements;
• by Youth Arts (a long-time community organization partnering with schools in Camden-Rockport to provide arts education) and the school staff and community members who, when an expansion to their elementary school didn’t qualify for Percent for Arts funds, worked to find a way to fund and create a work of art for the school’s 2-story lobby.  The result: a stunningly beautiful hanging sculpture/mobile of schools of fish created by students under the direction of community artists and staff;
• and by so many other examples we observed of school arts staff, community organizations, artists, parents and other individuals, all of whom see the value of their community’s heritage as an arts rich community and who want to make sure that heritage is passed along to the next generation.

Camden Hills Regional High School Jewelry class

And this is a strategy that can be adopted by any community—affluent or not, with strong arts support or not.  Any community can begin at any time to look at its heritage in the arts, or its heritage connected to or expressed by the arts. Any community can begin to ask such questions as:
•    Which of our elders plays instruments or have old songs to share?
•    How has design—of things like boats, buildings, or quilts—affected the community over the years?
•    What is it about the beauty of the community that our residents cherish?
•    How does the community, or could the community, express its history or values through the arts?
•    What are the ways in which community members demonstrate their creativity?

Monica Kelly, Bay Chamber

Learning from the example of the Camden-Rockport Imagination Intensive Community, arts education advocates everywhere can help their own communities recognize the heritage that is worth recognizing and passing on—and to find ways to do that through arts education.

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.

Crayola offers mini grants to National Association of Elementary School Principals

Crayola will award up to 20 mini grants to help educators explore the “what if” opportunities in art education that lead to innovative best practices that can inspire other educators nationwide. The grants, which include a $2,500 monetary award and $500 of Crayola products, are specifically aimed at helping NAESP members implement and document innovative arts-education projects to share best practices and innovative approaches to nurturing creatively alive children.

The deadline for submitting an RFP is midnight, Sunday, Aug. 15. Grant recipients will be announced Oct. 15. FMI please click here.

Congratulations to Barb Packales!

I met Barbara while serving on the Maine Learning Results revision committee. She is most deserving of the Maine Music Education Association award that she recently received as Music Educator of the Year!

You can read about Barbara by clicking here.

Chladni singing

A colleague sent me this link to a video that is really fascinating. Chladni singing is using the human voice to create physical patterns. The sound designer and singer Meara O’Reilly creates patterns out of salt using Chladni singing.

In Meara’s words:

Chladni patterns were discovered by Robert Hook and Ernst Chladni in the 18th and 19th centuries. They found that when they bowed a piece of glass covered in flour, (using an ordinary violin bow), the powder arranged itself in resonant patterns according to places of stillness and vibration. Today, Chladni plates are often electronically driven by tone generators and used in scientific demonstrations, but with carefully sung notes (and a transducer driving the plate), I’m able to explore the same resonances. I’m currently writing songs based on sequences of patterns.

Below is the vimeo of Meara’s work.

North Haven

Written by Catherine Ring, former School Principal and Arts Educator
American Institute for Creative Education and member of the planning committee for the IIC’s

Imagine for a moment, that your community has been chosen as one of six sites in the entire state of Maine for its exemplary investment in the imaginative development of children and youth.  North Haven should be proud. Their school and community recently hosted a team of arts and education leaders, sent there to observe, interview and document what they do so well, so that it can be shared with other communities in Maine.

Photography exhibit at school by foreign exchange student

The Imagination Intensive Communities project was the brainchild of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education and the Maine Department of Education.  After doing a statewide census and an application process, six finalist communities where schools and a range of partnering organizations made such an investment were identified. Funding from the Kennedy Center, the Betterment Fund, the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Department of Education made the search possible.  The six finalist communities are:  Arundel, Blue-Hill, Camden-Rockport, Deer Isle-Stonington, York and North Haven.  (Three semi-finalist communities are:  Brunwick, Denmark, and Portland (Reiche School).

So I meet our visiting team in Rockland and get on the 5 o’clock ferry to North Haven.  Our team (Argy Nestor, Donna McNeil, Dennie Wolf, Joan Staffiere, Jennifer Trowbridge and me) is charged with trying to figure out what works in this community where the arts and hands-on education and school/community partnering work for kids. Why is it, that even in hard economic times, the arts still thrive in some communities? What pathways to success have they created for their students from pre-kindergarten to adulthood? What are their resources, and unique features? What key programs and opportunities do they provide?  What are their challenges and key issues? We mulled these questions over on our glorious trip over, in anticipation of what we would find.

Electric car made by students and math/science teacher John Dietter

North Haven rolled out the red carpet. Our team was hosted by Christie Hallowell (Director of the North Haven Arts and Enrichment program) and Barney Hallowell (Principal of the pre-k-12 school), as well as many other school and community people.  We were forewarned to bring a snack on the ferry, because there would be no time to eat once we landed – as we were immediately brought to the 7pm production of “A Doll’s House” at the Waterman Center. Ibsen’s play, directed by the island’s music/English/drama teacher, Courtney Nabiloff, featured students and community members and was set in the more contemporary 1960s.  I was able to meet some of the actors and the director later, and couldn’t refrain from calling the leading actors Nora and Torvald despite the fact that their real names are Amilia (Campbell) and Rico (Rattina). What does that tell you about the impression those characters made on my brain? During the discussion after the play, we also met with other community members, including Hannah Pingree, our state representative who lives on North Haven. We heard a little about the history of the island, asked some questions, then were ready to retire to our beautiful accommodations (thanks to Christie and Barney Hallowell). We needed a good sleep to prepare for our next day’s adventure.

Pre-schoolers learn to contra dance at Watermans with Christie

The next day’s schedule was tight, as there was so much to share with us. We began at the Waterman building, where I had coffee with Mina Bartovics, an alumna of North Haven Community School (and Bowdoin College – 2007). She came to North Haven at 16 years old, after spending summers there.  She participated in the Ocean Classroom where she learned to sail and had many positive experiences in North Haven. Her current plans are to become a midwife in Portland.  Wow!

The band played at the unveiling of the Pilot Whale skeleton

Christie Hallowell described how the North Haven Arts and Enrichment program came about:  it was after the school cut its art and music programs from the budget.  People who valued art and music would not allow island children to go without them, so they created an independent non-profit organization that supported art, music and drama in the school. Ten years later, another group of individuals established Waterman’s Community Center on the site of the old Waterman’s Store. This became the  central community center for plays and pre-school and eventually, when the two organizations merged, the home of North Haven Arts & Enrichment. The partnership with the school and community was central to the opportunities it offered. Pre-school and after school programs, summer camps, artist residencies, plays, performances, coffee house, teen night, senior programs and concerts are just a few of the exhaustive list of events available year round. I love the name of the Pre-School: Laugh and Learn.  There’s a philosophy I wish we could transpose on all public schools. Rachel Garbowski (graduate of Bates College) is the Program Director at NHA&E and Lisa Shield is the Arts Coordinator. This community center is clearly a happening place!  Did I say there are only 350 people on the island year round? The population increases, of course, during the summer season.

Now we’re off to visit the school. The K-12 school has less than 70 students, and small class sizes. The mission of the school is clearly emblazoned over the entry walkway:  Compassion, Challenge, Community. In fact, I noticed these words repeated inside classrooms.  Student art was everywhere – dangling from corridor ceilings, mounted on walls, and braille signs made of clay designated each room.  Mallory Brown, a senior, escorted my group around the school.  Highlights included:  meeting the high school boys and their math/science teacher (John Dietter) who designed an electric van (yes, we got to ride it around campus), visiting the Circus Arts class in session where 5th and 6th graders were practicing juggling, spinning dishes, unicycling, etc. with their teacher (Ken Jones) who teaches PE and Art (and also is a dancer). Ken explained that the staff has a strong background in the arts – photography, graphic design, dance – and that while they might not teach it, those skills are all used – it all comes together. Next, a meeting with a high school drama class and their teacher (Courtney Nabiloff).  Returning alumna, Adam Alexander, is now a playwright and he created a one-act play just for this high school group: For the Love of Zooey.  Every student in the high school had a part written for them, and the play sold out. A school-wide assembly, led by principal, Barney Hallowell, featured the school band and the unveiling of the Pilot Whale skeleton, assembled by students and the science teacher.

Quilt sewn by kindergarteners

Our lunchtime gave us an opportunity to meet with other important notables in the community: artists, the superintendent, and school board members.  All contributed to our growing sense of this unique community.

On our way out for a tour of Crabtree Point (Argy and I were driven by Lisa Shields and David Macy), we noticed a French class in session. The class immediately sang us a song in French, then  we continued out the door. A glance into the Kindergarten revealed eight little bodies with headsets at laptops. They are learning to read. Following our tour of this beautiful island, we headed for Brown’s  Boatyard. Here, we witnessed Foster who showed us the beautiful boat he is building. A de-briefing back at Waterman completed our day.  Time to head back on the ferry.

Visiting team member Dennie Wolf who started her teaching career 40 years ago on North Haven and Principal Barney Hallowell

I came away with thoughts about how so many in this community played multiple roles.  The PE teacher teaches dance and art, too. The English teacher teaches music and drama. The tour guide was the minister and was in the play last night.  Hmmn.  Multiple talents, used very efficiently.

Our team has a lot to think about, to discuss with each other, reports to write, and things to extrapolate about this unique community. That is our work in the next few weeks and months. A celebration of this work, along with the other noted sites in Maine, will take place this fall. And just before our glorious ride back on the ferry to Rockland, I noticed the ticket taker looked familiar. Are you Patricia Lannon, who was in the play last night, I asked? “Yep.  We do everything around here.”  Amen!

Watermans Community Center

First light over North Haven

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.

Recently DP spoke in OC

If you haven’t read Daniel Pink’s Book “A Whole New Mind” yet I highly recommend it. Some of us have been fortunate to hear him speak once or twice and know what he says is true since we live it day to day, so to speak. Mr. Pink is somewhat new to the idea that arts education is important but he is the one thousands of people are listening to and reading his words.

Recently he spoke at Segerstrom Concert Hall, his presentation was called “The Creative Edge: Innovation, Education and the Changing World of Work.” The audience was filled with leaders from education and business. He spoke of the importance of quality arts education programs in order to form well-rounded, “competitive, competitive job-force warrior”.  His message includes the shift from the “information age” to the “conceptual age” in the workpace and that the arts prepare young people to adapt to 21st century workplace.

You can read the article on his “arts matter” message by clicking here.