Schoodic sculpture symposium to offer workshop for teachers

Sharon Kiley Mack, staff member for the Bangor Daily News wrote a piece on the upcoming workshop being offered for teachers on March 26th. Read the article by clicking here.

Sculpture from 2009 symposium installed at UM Machias

Singing for the legislature

Congratulations music educator Sarah Clark and her students who performed the National Anthem at the opening of the legislative session on Thursday, February 10, 2010. Sarah and the  Glenburn School Chorus were invited by Representative Stacey Guerin. The students were very excited and did a wonderful job!

Congratulations to the Durham Tiger Band and their music teacher Sue Olmsted! The Durham Community School played a concert in the capitol rotunda, performed the National Anthem for the beginning of the day’s legislative session. Afterwards they had a tour of the UMA recording studio and campus.

May your day be filled with educational kindness….

Lemon Tart

The seasons and an interesting tid-bit

Today on my walk I noticed something different. The light has changed, the air smelled moist, and I heard chickadees singing. All signs that Winter is moving towards Spring. For those of you who love Winter, like me, it creates the urgency to spend more time outside. For those who dislike Winter, these are all welcome changes. I returned home to a welcome cup of hot chocolate and thought about taking my Christmas wreath down from the door.

Amazing…

Can’t remember where this came from but I found it amazing that I thought I’d share it with you… sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and contemplate…
This year we will experience 4 unusual dates:

1/1/11,

1/11/11,

11/1/11,

11/11/11

NOW go figure this out…. take the last 2 digits of the year you were born plus the age you will be this year and it WILL EQUAL TO 111.

I am special!

Kristina Schultz is new to the teaching profession. She is in her second year of teaching art at Central Elementary School in South Berwick. A couple weeks back I went to the school primarily to see Kate Smith and Sally Gilbride and the integrated until they’ve designed. While there I met other staff members and had the opportunity to understand what a special place Central Elementary School is. Kristina, and what she offers in art classes to her students is part of the wonderful environment.

I was WOWed by the display in the hallway of tiny slippers that were created by kindergarten students in Kristina’s art room. Along with the exhibit was an explanation of the lesson and the alignment to the Maine Learning Results. The display exhibited the value and importance of the work that the children had created. Below is the information that was included.

I AM SPECIAL!

KINDERGARTEN SLIPPERS

Are you sweet like a kitten?  Friendly like a puppy?  Fast as a cheetah?  Tough as a shark?  Cuddly as a hamster?  Wild as a monkey?

In this lesson, kindergarten artists each identified a quality they have that makes them special.  They thought of animals that share that same quality.  They made slippers with the faces of the animals.  As inspiration, we read the book Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood.  This lesson affirmed that each of us is a special person with different qualities and strengths.  We learned about each other through the art project and our class discussions.

Students were challenged to make each slipper have symmetry.  Symmetry and balance are concepts that they will revisit in their future math lessons and art lessons.

MAINE LEARNING RESULTS ADDRESSED:

A2: Students identify features of composition. (b) Identify Principles of Design including pattern and balance.

B3: Making Meaning: Students create art works that communicate ideas and feeling and demonstrate skill in the use of media, tools, and techniques.

Leah Olson’s 7th graders are making portraits

Bucksport Middle School students have been learning from conversations with older community members. The information below is taken from an article that appeared in the Bucksport Enterprise, January 27, 2011.

Monday and Tuesday were “get acquainted days” at the Bucksport Senior Center as some of the area’s older residents shared their lives and the lessons they’ve learned with the regions seventh graders.

In a project dubbed “Generational Snapshots of the Past: Focus on Community Unity,” the Bucksport Middle School students will be incorporating what they’ve heard into a number of classes throughout the rest of the current school year.

Dozens of older residents turned out for each of the two interview sessions this year, and the enthusiasm among both the younger and the older generations was clear.

Some of the seventh graders learned for the first time that there really was life before even television, never mind texting.

And the older folks who participated were swept up with enthusiasm as the pupils studiously recorded their every utterance.

Now, the students will write about the people they met this week. In their math classes, they will graph and analyze the data they gleaned from the surveys the seniors submitted. They’ll talk about the changes – and the similarities  – that span the decades. They’ll use their computer skills to produce brochures and presentations on what they’re learning. And their art classes will include an opportunity to turn a photograph into a portrait of some of those who possess those voices of experience.

Finally, some of the students may well collaborate on producing a video about the entire educational process.

Students are working in art teacher, Leah Olson’s classes making portrait drawings of the older residents from Bucksport. They are working from a photograph and creating a grid on 12″X18″ white drawing paper to help with their proportions. Leah has designed an extensive rubric so students understand the goals of the project. Components of the rubric are analogous color schemes and how emotions and the color scheme correlate.

The Bangor Daily News had an article about the work as well published on January 24th and written by Rich Hewitt. You can read their article by clicking here. Here is a quote from one of the seniors participating in the project…

“They were asking about my childhood,” said Joyce Johnson, 85, of Bucksport. “And they asked me what my favorite television show was when I was young. Well, there was no television in those days. It was all radio then. My father had the first radio in the area. I can remember listening to ‘Amos ’n’ Andy.’”

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A’s of Awesome

Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity… Neil Pasricha bases life on these three A’s. He started a blog called 1000 Awesome Things which is an interesting blog. But his story for starting the blog is most interesting. You can learn more about Neil, his beliefs, Rosie Greer, and a bunch of other ideas also.  It is well worth the 17 minutes and 33 seconds that it will take to watch it. I suggest you watch the TEDx before you go to his blog. Enjoy!

Maine Art Education Association (MAEA)

MAEA is partnering with the University of Southern Maine’s art department, Maine College of Art, and Portland Museum of Art. Save the date: April 1st, 8:30-3:30 for a Spring conference. It promises to be a day filled with teachers, artists, and thinkers!

This conference will offer opportunities for pedagogical conversations in arts education, art and entrepreneurship experiences, topics in community-based arts, hands-on studio practice, creative literacy, and resources in American Indian culture-based art. We invite all who are interested in bringing the arts into their daily practice!

For registration information please go to the Maine Art Education Association website at http://www.mainearted.org/ or by contacting Kelly Hrenko at khrenko@usm.maine.edu

Integrated unit

Art teacher Katharine Ayer and third grade teacher Mary O’Brien have been team teaching an integrated unit based on the book “Listen to the Wind”, by Greg Mortenson. Students have been learning about a different country and culture, retelling a story, creating collage background and puppet characters, and acting out the retelling.

Katharine presenting at the Winter Retreat

Last weekend at the Winter Retreat Katharine and Mary presented the work they have been involved with and shared snippets of video tape. I was thrilled when I received the link to the entire performance. I am sure you will be impressed with the work the students have done and delighted to watch the video by clicking here.

Katharine and Mary are one of six teams that were selected to create integrated units. Funding for this project is from the ARRA funds through Maine’s NCLBA Title IID grant. The grant is being administered by Syntiro.

Article written by Bruce D. Taylor

Mr. Taylor is the director of education for the Washington National Opera. He makes a link in this opinion piece between arts education and 21st-century skills. Taylor advocates a new approach to arts education that would integrate creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving throughout the core curriculum. Schools would do well to employ artists and arts specialists to help teach 21st-century skills, while subject teachers should be given the flexibility to incorporate creativity into classroom instruction, Taylor writes. The article The Skills Connection Between The Arts and 21st-Century Learning, Education Week, 2/2.