Archive for September, 2012

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In Today’s News

September 30, 2012

Fabric coral reef exhibit this week at Fryeburg Fair

In today’s Sun Journal newspaper writer Jaime McLeod shares information about The Maine Reef Project. It is a satellite of the Worldwide Hyperbolic Crochet Reef Project is behind the amazing exhibit at the Fryeburg Fair.

“This year’s exhibition is much more ambitious, not only because it brings together the work of dozens of individual crafters united by a single theme, but also because Bellew intends to transform the space into an under-sea paradise for the mostly crocheted coral creations she has been collecting since last summer.”

Sounds like a place that you might want to hop in your car and take a ride to this week. The exhibit is in the fairground’s Fiber Center.

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Art in the Heart

September 30, 2012

Art teachers travel from a distance to attend the first Art in the Heart meeting of the school year

Thirty two art educators traveled to UMaine Orono for the first Art in the Heart meeting of the school year. The meetings provide an update for teachers but so much more is gained. The importance of taking the time to connect face-to-face is invaluable. The conversations are brief but meaningful. The farthest traveled is Millinocket, the closest is from Orono. The distance doesn’t matter when folks can connect with colleagues who share so many of the same experiences in their schools across Maine.

Thank you to UMaine arts professors Laurie Hicks and Connie Carter for hosting the meeting on campus.

Waterville High School’s Suzanne Goulet and Belfast High School’s Heidi O’Donnell engage in conversation after the meeting.

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NAEA Awards

September 30, 2012

Recognize colleagues for their good work

National Arts Education Association awards programs offers over 100 awards. I bet you have a colleague that is doing outstanding work providing quality educational experieinces for students. Consider recognizing them by nominating them for an award. You can learn more by clicking here to read about NAEAs Awards Program.

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Cartoonist Visits Colby

September 29, 2012

Colby College student, Leah Breen is planning an event on campus that is open to Colby students as well as younger students. She has arranged for Matt Wuerker, a Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist for Politico, to come to campus on October 10.

Matt will lead a cartooning workshop focused on the creative process of how an idea becomes a drawing for students at 3:30 in Diamond. Hors d’oeuvres will be available at 5:30pm for people to look at his work and speak with him. At 7:00pm Matt will speak and some of his artwork will be on display in the Diamond atrium during the days leading up to the event. Wuerker will talk about creating images that reflect events and sentiments during an election season. He will also discuss the fine line between humorous art and serious political statements. Leah says: “His  images are outstanding and he is a fantastic speaker (I saw him give a talk at the Newseum in D.C this summer).””

Matt Wuerker is a political cartoonist for, and a founding staff member of, Politico. He is a winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning which represented Politico’s first Pulitzer win. In 2009 and 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

Over the past 25 years, his work has appeared in publications ranging from The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. His work extends beyond political cartooning—he has pursued clay animation, outdoor mural, book illustration, and even teaching cartooning to prison inmates.

What a unique opportunity – hopefully students who are interested in cartooning will attend.

The workshop, dinner (buffet style so people can browse Matt’s images with him like at an art gallery), and evening lecture are all open to the public and are all free. Everyone is welcome! Here is a link to the posting on Colby’s site: http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/goldfarb/_dept_news/events/2662462

The workshop is at 3:30pm, the dinner is at 5:30pm in Diamond, and the lecture is at 7:00pm. All events are in the Diamond building, located next to Admissions on Mayflower Hill Dr. This map shows Diamond at the bottom, left hand corner: http://www.colby.edu/college_cs/visitor_center/campus-map.cfm. 

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Cross Discipline Literacy Network

September 28, 2012

Questions to Ponder

  • Are you looking for specific literacy activities and resources?
  • Do you use school wide tools and wonder how to adapt them?
  • Do you have a word wall?
  • Do you wonder about visual literacy and how your students are visual learners?

If you are interested in learning more, now is your chance to act by joining the Cross Discipline Literacy Network (CDLN). Registration is open until October 5th! Literacy tools and strategies can provide opportunities for students to go deeper in to their learning.

Consider this image taken from the Waterville High School principles and elements of design reference sheet.

Imagine this with the entire list of elements and principles. The list used in conjunction with a graphic organizer, you could implement/modify for students use and make available when reflecting or describing visual artworks.

An excellent and elegant example of a graphic organizer from the Smithsonian.
The CDLN is an excellent opportunity in adapting and modifying existing resources for your use to improve learning.

Does your school have a literacy mission and is not sure how to “make this work” in the arts?

Insist that you are part of your school initiative………This professional development may help you to take advantage of a great opportunity to show how valuable the arts are – perhaps even to lead.

Looking for professional development and an opportunity to get together and share strategies in a collaborative environment? The network is led by facilitators understanding that there is much to share and learn. Three of your colleagues will be facilitating the webinars representing the elementary level is Etna-Dixmont music educator Jen Nash, Winthrop Middle School visual art educator Lisa Gilman, and Waterville High School visual art educator Suzanne Goulet.

The cost is $25 for the year and provides you with multiple opportunities for webinars and face to face gatherings for discussing your experiences and discoveries in improving student learning. The webinars will also be archived. Information describing the CDLN, the face to face locations, and the webinar strands,  as well as the link to register for this opportunity can be found at: http://www.maine.gov/doe/literacy-for-me/cdln.html.

You can register by clicking here. UNTIL OCTOBER 5! For more information on the CDLN and the Literacy for ME initiative please click here.

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BFA Opportunity at USM

September 27, 2012

New Art Education Program: BFA in Community-Based Arts Education

The USM Art Education program offers a degree for those interested in teaching art as a community-based educator. The students who opt for this program, intern as student teachers at various community organizations, rather than in a traditional k-12 classroom.

Why Community Art Education?

The BFA in Art Education with a concentration in community is a degree intended for artists, art educators, and other arts professionals who want to become teaching artists and cultural workers.  The degree will enable graduates to develop, teach, and facilitate visual arts education programs in community organizations, centers for non-traditional learners, after-school programs, and other alternative sites. This degree does not provide a k-12 teaching license, but instead prepares graduates to engage k-12 students and adults outside of the traditional classroom settings. This degree also serves as a foundation for those interested in art therapy, art as social justice, and creative civic engagement.

Partnering Organizations for Student Internship:

The Art Van, Bath

Susan Curtis Foundation, Portland

The Center for Grieving Children, Portland

Engine, Biddeford

Cheetah, Portland

The Telling Room, Portland

The Art Department and Shoot Media, Portland

For More Information Contact:

Kelly Hrenko, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Art Department
Art Education Program Coordinator
University of Southern Maine
109 Robie Andrews, 37 College Avenue
Gorham, ME 04038
207.780.5364 / khrenko@usm.maine.edu

USM Art Education

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Ticket to Ride

September 26, 2012

Looking for funding to get students somewhere?

The Ticket to Ride is a Maine Arts Commission program that provides funding to defray the cost of travel for Maine schools wishing to visit Maine arts based venues and events as part of a well rounded curriculum. Any K-12 school in Maine is eligible to receive support of up to $300 each school year and any K-12 school in Maine with a documented free and reduced lunch student population of 50 percent or greater is eligible to receive support of up to $500 each school year.

Ticket to Ride is the Maine Arts Commission’s response to the decline in school day student attendance at Maine arts based venues and events that has been documented across the state. This decline has been directly linked to the high cost of student transportation and has impacted both the student body of the state of Maine as well as the venues and organizations that rely on the sale of student tickets to fuel the creative economy and to provide school day learning experiences in the arts.

Ticket to Ride is designed for ease of administration; school personnel need only download and complete a two-page document to be eligible for funding. The only other requirement is the provision of a 250 word or less narrative, preferably with student input, of the experience within two weeks of the trip taking place. This final report helps the Maine Arts Commission secure funding to continue the Ticket to Ride program.

You can learn more about the program and download the application by clicking here.

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A Funny (in Music Class)

September 25, 2012

Readers Digest material

This email came through last week – the names and district have been omitted to protect the innocent. However, I do have permission from the music teacher to share it….

Today in my high school band I completed the annual fall seating auditions.  One of the last students to audition was also one of my best; now a senior, he made Allstate the last two years and also has been for two years a member of the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra. Although a wonderful kid and a great student, he is also VERY tightly wound — for example, always the last kid to leave the rehearsal because he MUST not only polish his flute very carefully after each playing, but also MUST fold the polishing AND swabbing cloths PRECISELY before returning them to the EXACT location in his case. In other words, VERY concerned about ALWAYS making the very best impression…..

So, he comes in to the audition, blasts through the scales and chromatic scale, and then flawlessly plays a ridiculously hard twentieth-century flute solo piece which his private teacher had assigned him. At this point in the audition, I give him the sight-reading piece, which is a medley of tunes from Disney movies. I ask him to start at measure 85; he looks at it for a moment, finds the measure, and then, obviously very rattled, his eyes get really big and he stammers, “Mr. Smith, I can’t play this piece!!!”.

I am dumbfounded at this, because I know the piece is child’s play for him and he will doubtless rattle it off perfectly. So I asked him, “What’s the matter? Why can’t you play it?” And he says, “Because I’ve never seen this tempo marking before!  What’s ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’?” !!!!!

Posted in Communication, Music | Tagged | 1 Comment »

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Americans Who Tell the Truth PD Opportunity

September 24, 2012

Interested in learning more about Americans Who Tell the Truth and Operation Breaking Stereotypes?

Samantha Smith

Americans Who Tell the Truth, Operation Breaking Stereotypes and Waterfall Arts invite you to a free professional development workshop, “Inspiring Citizenship and Student Performance”. The workshop will be held at Waterfall Arts, Belfast, Thursday, October 18, 3:30 – 7 pm for K-12 educators. This is an opportunity to frame your course content in a meaningful real world context as you guide your students to become informed, courageous citizens.

A selection of Rob Shetterly’s Americans Who Tell the Truth (AWTT) portraits are on exhibit at Waterfall Arts through October 31. Apart from being inspiring and stimulating paintings, they have, over the past decade, proven to be accessible and effective classroom tools, especially in the visual and performing arts, social studies, history, and English/language arts disciplines.

Dorothea Lange

Be part of a presentation and conversation about how AWTT materials have and can be employed in classrooms to increase student interest and performance. In Louisville, Kentucky, where the portraits have been a part of public school curricula for four years, students have demonstrated improved attendance, retention and performance. This workshop will acquaint you with AWTT, its educational resources, connections to content and standards, and ways to use this material in your school and classroom.

Presenters include AWTT founder, Rob Shetterly, AWTT portrait subject Florence Reed and Karen MacDonald of the King Middle School in Portland, Maine.

If you are interested in attending click here for registration. If you have questions please contact Connie Carter at conniecarter21@gmail.com. The space is limited to the first 40 educators. Suggest this to other teachers in your building or district and consider attending as a team – administrator, content area teachers, students – whatever you feel constitutes a “team” at your school!

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Fort Kent Music

September 23, 2012

Happy Autumn!

What a great way to bring in the fall and wish you a wonderful season!

Ed Boynton, music educator from Community High School and Valley Rivers Middle School in Fort Kent reports on the areas fall festival. The middle school band recently performed in the annual Scarecrow Festival Parade. The festival is an annual celebration of welcoming autumn and college students to UMaine Fort Kent. In Ed’s words: Creating this opportunity is “the college, community, and public school is collaboration at its best”.

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