me arts ed

Congratulations 68 musicians!

Students of Schenck and Stearns High Schools Unified Harmony and Millinocket Middle School choirs received jackets in recognition of both groups’ winning first place in the Divition II schools at the Maine State Vocal Jazz Festival this year. Read the entire artilce written by Nick Sambides from today’s Bangor Daily News by clicking here.

In today’s Sun Journal an article on the fundraiser to benefit the purchase of instruments for students in Argentina. Twenty two year old Adriana Lombard has organized Play it Forward. More than 50 musicians will join the program Saturday evening, at Orion Performing Arts Center, 6:00, Sunday, July 11th.  To read the entire article please click here.

Join the fun at Castine, July 28-30th

The popular professional development event is expanding, adding a fourth half-day session this year. Workshop sessions focus on everything from “Shoot Yourself!” digital photography to “Compose Yourself” creating your own music.  Learn more about the sessions by clicking here.

The emphasis is hands-on, imaginative professional development opportunities in all content areas.  Educators in all grade levels including adult education are welcome.

This year the presentations will encourage activities and resources to help answer to the question: “How can we model and promote ethical, responsible, and productive behavior among all members of our digital society?” The goal – connect to one or more elements of digital citizenship: etiquette, ethics, safety, savvy, presence, and productivity.

Jason Ohler

There are three special highlights to this year’s Institute; Wednesday’s keynote presentation and workshop sessions by Dr. Jason Ohler.

Thursday will feature a jaw-dropping, ear dazzling performance by AudioBody/Catch a preview of brothers Matt and Jason Tardy on the WCSH Channel 6’s show 207 this evening (Wednesday 7/7/2010).

A special Google teacher preconference workshop, presented in cooperation with ACTEM kicks things off with a trio of Google-certified Maine teachers.

Jason Ohler has been exploring digital citizenship, story telling, music composition, playwriting, and other forms of personal expression for over twenty five years. He has lead and been part of research and program initiatives in education and public policy aimed at helping kids, teachers and citizens use technology “effectively, creatively and wisely.” His involvement covers a wide range of areas, including e-learning, empowering kids and teachers academically and artistically through technology. Professor Emeritus of Educational Technology at the University of Alaska, Dr. Ohler led the Educational Technology and Distance Learning program there from 2003 to 2008 and before that was responsible for program development and management, teaching, on-line and on-site course development, training and research. His many publications including Digital Storytelling in the Classroom and Then What? Everyone’s Guide to Living, Learning and Having Fun in the Digital Age have enriched and informed educators worldwide.

Audio Body

Thursday evening AudioBody will, to put it mildly, rock the house. Brothers Matt and Jason Tardy made their debut under the name AudioBody in 2004 with the album, “Sound. Motion. Theater.” Music from the album was quickly picked-up by internationally acclaimed film-makers, EepyBird, and featured in two Emmy nominated videos depicting The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments.

This year’s Summer Institute begins with a preconference session featuring an eight hour Google Workshop for Educators sponsored by ACTEM.  Google Certified Maine teachers Alice Barr, Sarah Sutter and Richard Byrne will be joined by Tom Cooper, Computer Science Chair and Technology Integration Coordinator at the Walker School in Marietta, GA to present the Google sessions Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Institute cost is $140.00 per person, double occupancy. Save money, bring a friend! $190.00 per person, single occupancy – limited availability.  Cost includes food. Such a deal!  And a guaranteed good time! Bring a laptop, preferably a Mac with the current MLTI image or similar software and whatever other cool techno stuff you have. The preconference Google session is $65 per person, double occupancy – includes lodging and food.

Randy Judkins from 2008 MLTI Castine conference

Arts Education work on the national level

In May the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) convened a national Arts Education Task Force of content, community, and cultural stakeholders in Washington, D.C. SEADAE consists of people at state education agencies whose responsibility is arts education (dance, music, theatre and visual arts). The meeting was hosted by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and facilitated by Dr. Brandon Doubek, Professional Development Associate for the Leadership and Learning Center. CCSSO consists of each state Commissioner of Education.

The purpose of this convening was to reach consensus on the next leverage point in the initiative titled National Expectations for Learning in Arts Education, formally adopted by the SEADAE membership at its October 2009 meeting in Cambridge, MA.

This statement was made by Gene Wilhoit, the Executive Director of CCSSO:

“On behalf of CCSSO, I applaud the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education’s (SEADAE) efforts exploring ways to create national expectations for learning in arts education. We agree that all children need the benefits of a sequential education in the arts as part of a balanced curriculum…We fully support your plan of engaging this task force to frame the work and to determine a future governance process.”

I am sure you are aware that the development of Common Core Standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math has been occurring this year and Maine is transitioning to these standards. Forty seven states are adopting these and it is expected they will be in law in the next year or two.

At the May meeting there were several representatives from the SEADAE organization as well as representatives from the following organizations:

• American Alliance for Theatre and Education
• Americans for the Arts
• Arts Education Partnership
• CCSSO
• The College Board
• Educational Theatre Association
• Independent Arts Education Consultants
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• League of American Orchestras
• MENC: The National Association for Music Education
• National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
• National Art Education Association
• National Dance Education Organization
• National Endowment for the Arts
• Quadrant Arts Education Research
• Young Audiences Inc.

The individuals who represented these organizations is located at the SEADAE website.

The participants agreed that the national standards would be re-conceptualized. SEADAE will lead the work and collaborate with all the organizations listed above. The time line includes a completion date of December 2011. The Power Points and other documents from the two day work are posted at SEADAE’s wiki. You will have the opportunity as the work progresses to weigh in electronically since the plan is for transparency during every step of the process. Web 2.0 tools such as webinars, online work sessions, wikispaces, google docs, and interactive databases will be utilized.

As more information becomes available and as plans change and develop I will keep you posted through the meartsed blog! Please be sure and add your comments and questions here on the meartsed blog so others can be part of the conversation.

Call for artist-educators

The New England Consortium of Artist-Educator Professionals (NECAP) is seeking proposals from teaching artists in all disciplines for workshops at the annual “Widening the Circle” conference, set for Thursday, September 23, in Brattleboro, Vermont.

The conference, “Play Is the Thing: The Serious Work of Play,” will focus on the importance of play in the field of teaching artistry, exploring the question: “What does play have to do with my work as an artist educator?”

Deadline for submissions is July 12. You can download the RFP — and check out great professional development opportunities including the Connecticut HOT School Institute — on the NECAP website.

If you have questions please email: necap@aannh.org

MMMMMMMM!

I couldn’t let the day go by without sharing this photo of the bowl of raspberries my younger son and I picked yesterday morning (11 quarts)! We had great picking at a new place for us, located in Freedom! We picked early so we could spend the rest of the warm day at Pemaquid Beach.

After our return from the beach we made raspberry jam, a sauce and sponge cake to put it on. It was DELICIOUS!

Superb animation!

I listened to a webinar that Daniel Pink gave not to long ago on motivation. It was fascinating. I mentioned it to Mary Callan in an email and she went searching. Interestingly enough, almost everything in the webinar is in this short video and it is much more interesting than just listening to Dan speak. I am sure you will agree that it is an outstanding animation! Not to mention it is fascinating to think about motivation for ourselves and our students.

Thank you to colleague Mary Callan for sharing this link.

Broccoli, strawberries, and burgers on the grill

What a summer we’re having, after what a spring, after what a winter! The garden has provided us with HUGE broccoli and so early. They’ve been delicious and we learned our golden retriever, Woody, likes it as well. After we cut the first large heads we noticed Woody chomping on the stems. Sadly, we won’t be getting any of the follow-up small florets. Our tomato plants have tomatoes already, pinch me it is only the 4th of July, isn’t it?!

The strawberries are in the freezer and the jam is made. We continue to eat fresh ones on biscuits out of the oven with home-made whipped cream. MMMMMMM! Tomorrow we’re headed up to Freedom to pick raspberries.

Some of you must have experienced the big wind last week with the rainstorms. One gust swooped through our property and took this tree down with it. Yes, a very large tree that we were glad went across the lawn and not towards our home because, it certainly would have done some damage.