me arts ed

What do the arts mean to you and how have they enriched your life?

That is the question that students, staff, administrators, and parents answered at Gardiner Area High School and the hundreds of community responses created the center piece for the Arts In Education Celebration which was on display in the school cafeteria. Each of the answers were enlarged, printed, mounted on various colors, and displayed for all to view and appreciated! Below you can see photos of the exhibit that were taken by art teacher Shalimar Poulin.

Americans for the Arts October celebration!

Americans for the Arts suggests many ways to celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month on their website. Please click here for more information. President Obama has proclaimed October 2010 as National Arts and Humanities Month and you can access the proclamation at the link. Below is a segment of the proclamation.

“By supporting the fields that feed our imagination, strengthen our children’s education, and contribute to our economy, our country will remain a center of creativity and innovation, and our society will stand as one where dreams can be realized.  As we reflect on the contributions of America’s artists, we look forward to hearing their tales still untold, their perspectives still unexplored, and their songs still unwritten.  May they continue to shed light on trials and triumphs of the human spirit, and may their work help ensure that our children’s horizons are ever brighter.”

Imagination Intensive Community is Awarded!

This past week Carol Trimble, executive director from Maine Alliance for Arts Education and arts consultant Dennie Wolf traveled to Washington D.C. to the National Education Summit of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. While there they accepted a national Best Practice Award from P21 for Maine’s Imagination Intensive Communities project!

Dr. Steven Paine, West Virginia superintendent of schools and chair of the P21 state partner advisory council, said of the nine states/programs that received awards, “These states are shining examples of best practices related to 21st century learning.  This summit provides an extraordinary illustration for the nation and states as to how to build education systems that ensure 21st century college and career readiness for every student.”

A member of the selection panel spoke to Dennie and Carol and said: “Maine’s project was the most innovative of all of the projects they reviewed.”

This project is one that we all can be proud of! The Maine Department of Education has partnered with the Maine Alliance of Arts Education with funding from the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Arts Commission, The Betterment Fund, and the Kennedy Center to make this program possible.

Special CONGRATULATIONS to the the Imagination Intensity Community sites selected during 2010: North Haven, Arundel, York, George Stevens Academy, Camden-Rockport, and Stonington-Deer Isle. You can read earlier blog posts on each of these communities by typing their name in the meartsed search box on the front page. Funding has just been awarded from the Kennedy Center for the 2011 Imagination Intensive Community work.

Front page of the Bangor Daily News, above the fold!!!

Please don’t miss this WONDERFUL article about Harmony Elementary School music program and the opportunity that Iris Fields and VH1 has provided them. It has been 41 years since there was an instrumental music program at the school. Iris graduated from the high school there in 1953 has returned to make a difference in the lives of students attending the school.

You can read the story and see pictures and terrific video footage of the day the students had their first band rehearsal. It was very exciting indeed to be there and celebrate the great gift that has been afforded the Harmony students. I shared the excitement with Chiho Okuizumi, from VH1, who was visiting Maine for the first time. We know when the dust settles and the students are making music together that it is a special teacher, Iris Fields, who will be creating magic with her students and impacting their lives forever!

Please click here for the story!

In today’s news

You may have read in the newspaper recently that a science teacher at Nokomis High School was looking for homes for 24 mounted animals that were donated to them by the Smithsonian Museum. Belfast Area High School art teacher, Chuck Hamm and high school administrative assistant Marcia Ames teamed up knowing it would be great to have the lions live at their school. After all, their school mascot is the lion. The lions are now temporarily living in the music room until a glass case is arranged for the lobby of the school.

Those of you that know Chuck know he has traveled to Tanzania on photo safari trips so he has a special interest in educating the students about the majestic animals. Not to mention what a terrific model the lions will be for drawing classes.

You can read more at the Belfast High School webpage by clicking here and the Bangor Daily News article by clicking here and the article in Village Soup by clicking here.

Photos included in this post were taken by Chuck Hamm.

Drawings by Jon Loxtercamp and Emma Hamm

Meeting with practitioners

As promised, this is another update in the series of information on the Maine arts assessment initiative…

Last Wednesday Rob Westerberg and Catherine Ring met me at noon at the Maine Department of Education to continue our work on arts education assessment. We worked on the initiative and prepared for our discussion with several arts teachers who would join us later in the day. The work began in August when we attended the New England Arts Assessment Institute at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. If you have not read the blog posts about the institute written by Rob and Catherine you can click here and click here for each of them. Rob has taken what he learned in August and has redesigned the curriculum and planned the assessments for his music courses at York High School.

After school hours practitioners joined us to learn about the drafted plans and ideas about the statewide initiative and most importantly to provide feedback. The comments and suggestions from these teachers were invaluable! They asked great questions and helped us move forward with the thinking. We will continue to get feedback on the plan. Our intention is to be as transparent as possible so if you have questions or comments be sure an email or click on “Leave a comment” below and post it on the meartsed blog for others to see as well.

At Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for the Maine Art Education Association (MAEA) conference on September 17th, Catherine gave an update of the work to the attendees at the annual meeting. I will be attending the Art in the Heart meeting at UMaine and Rob and I will be attending the MAEA board meeting this week to share. On October 17th, Rob and Catherine will be attending the Maine Music Educators board meeting. The information will include the arts assessment concept that has been developed up until this point.

Below is a summary written by Shalimar Poulin, Gardiner High School art educator, who attended the meeting to help provide feedback on the Maine arts assessment initiative.

Inspired by work at the New England Arts Assessment Institute, three of our leaders (Rob Westerberg, Argy Nestor, and Catherine Ring) met with our group of willing listeners (representing all the arts were Dana Ross, Charlie Johnson, Mary Ellen Schaper, Trudy Wilson, Jackie Frisk, Lisa Gilman and Margie Landis, see picture below) to share what is being seen as best practice in education. What we learned was that there is an educational movement towards standards-based assessments at the local, state, regional and national levels. This spring, most likely through a regional venue (by arts discipline), we will all be invited to learn about these fresh ideas, move toward a common language (as we all know educational jargon changes periodically and often needs clarification), and share our best practices in assessment. This “roll out” will include information on the role of assessment in supporting arts education programs and enrich the teaching and learning in the arts. My initial read is that this will not be another mandated educational initiative. Instead, it will be a coming together of Maine arts teachers to honor and share our best assessment practices in conjunction with inspiring assessment ideas born at the New England Arts Assessment Institute. Keep an eye out for the spring Maine Music Educators Association’s regional dinner meetings, the Maine Art Education Association’s Spring Conference or regional gatherings, and the Dance and Theater meetings. I went into the meeting tired and came out inspired and wanting to be a part of where this is going and looking forward to learning more about it this spring.  Anytime I have come together with my peers to share best practices, I have left inspired with a toolbox of new “tricks” to try out in my classroom.

Opportunity for you and your students!

It is always fun to reconnect with previous students and learn what they doing. About a year after I joined the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) I met Sarah McCarthy, used to be Pfeiffer, who I had as a middle school student. I find myself saying ‘100 years’ ago in reference to my beginning years of teaching. I taught for 30 before joining the MDOE 4 years ago. I had Sarah and her sister 100 years ago and periodically my path crosses with her mom and dad.

Sarah works for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra (BSO) as the Director of Development and Marketing. I received an email from Sarah letting me know that the BSO is gearing up for another season and she asked me to share information. The BSO has a program called ‘Know Your Orchestra’ that gives your students the opportunity to become acquainted with classical music.

Print out the voucher below which admits one student and one friend or sibling. Accompanying adults and any other additional friend or siblings will be admitted for $10.00 each. The voucher may be used for Sunday performances at the Collins Center on these dates: November 14, 2010, January 16, 2011, March 13, 2011, April 10, 2011.

If you have questions, please contact Sarah at 207-942-5555, Ext. 2 and tell her I said “hello”!

Technology, Entertainment, Design TED Talks

In May of 2009 I wrote a blog post on TED and the three talks that I found most inspiring at that time. Since then I have learned about TEDx which is an off shoot of TED occurring in different parts of the world. The first TEDx will take place in Maine on 10-10-10 in Brunswick. According to the website you can still apply (until Oct. 4th) to attend.

Thanks to David Patterson for sending me this link to a blog post called 20 Awe-Inspiring TED Talks for Artists & Designers and take my word, they are VERY inspriring!

Post written by and photographs taken by Frank Chin, Skowhegan Middle School art teacher

As the warm days and cool nights ushered our arrival to Haystack, art teachers from all over Maine gathered in various art workshops. Going down to the aesthetic stairway, and on to the first landing, turn either right or left and you will enter the world of artists in their “glory”. Why not… ocean air, anxious reunion, meeting new people, sing-a-long, great food, collaboration and fun were all ingredients for this festive conference.

The announcement of the Maine Art Teacher of the 2010 year was Molly Mains, who graciously accepted the plague and flowers and said “I love what  I do (teaching art). …and thank you so much for this honor….”  Way to go Molly!!!

I look forward to the 2011 conference!  Thanks to the MAEA staff and cooks at Haystack for making this possible for so many years!

I am so lucky!

Not only do I get to visit schools and arts classrooms throughout Maine but I write about them and hear from you about the outstanding classrooms and teachers in Maine. Unsung heroes was the subject line of an email I recently received from music educator Ed Boynton from Aroostook county.

He included this story about his childrens art teacher that I just had to share with you:

Every day my children (grades 9 and 10) come home from Art Class (SAD #33, Ms. Cerceo) they are excited about what they’ve learned and the activities they are involved with.  This past weekend our family took a short weekend trip to Bangor, Dover-Foxcroft, Bucksport, etc., to shop, view the scenery, and generally relax. Our daughter started talking about how the views (especially on Rte. 15 between Bangor and Dover-Foxcroft – where you can see Mt. Katahdin, Turner Mountain, Sugarloaf, and several other beautiful sights) reminded her of some of the work they had done in art class.

Many of the students comment on how art classes at Wisdom Middle/High School and Dr. Levesque Elementary School are energizing and exciting. I think Ms. Cerceo is one of those unsung teachers who has the students learning, excited about learning, and using what they have learned.

Theresa Cerceo has a blog that is called An Art Teacher’s World. There is a link to it under “Blogroll” on the front page of the meartsed blog.

If you know of arts teachers who are “heroes” please let me know so we can blog about them as well or click on “comment” below and let us know that way.