March 29, Rockport Opera House
Archive for March, 2014
Creativity and Common Core
March 21, 2014Professional Development Workshop for Maine Teachers – April 1
Lesley University’s Creative Arts in Learning Division proposes to offer a professional development workshop for teachers in your district focusing on creatively implementing the Common Core State Standards. The 2-hour workshop will introduce teachers to strategies for designing curriculum and pedagogy that utilize creative processes across the disciplines to implement Common Core State Standards. Just one example is preparing students to “actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts [drawn from all of the arts] that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews.”[i] The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education points out that it is important to select “informational texts and multimedia resources to create coherent curriculum units that link science, social studies [and] the arts.” [ii] This workshop is offered at no cost to the district.
Design of the Program
The district-wide professional development workshop will be offered for teachers across disciplines and grade levels. The workshop will focus on creative strategies to support teachers in integrating creative movement, drama, music, poetry, storytelling, and visual arts into teaching and learning activities. At the conclusion of the workshop, teachers will have the opportunity to imagine creative project-based learning activities that meet Common Core State Standards in their classrooms.
The Creativity and Common Core workshop is designed to address best practices in education that Cambridge’s Superintendent Young identified in his district’s 2011 Innovation Agenda. These include “engaging students in project-based and experiential learning, interdisciplinary curriculum and instruction … and providing professional support for teachers to provide effective differentiated instruction.”
Workshop Leader
Martha McKenna is University Professor and Director of the Creativity Commons at Lesley University. A senior administrator of the University for 27 years, Dr. McKenna founded the Creativity Commons in 2011 to support innovation in teaching and learning. The Creativity Commons is committed to active learning, scholarly research, critical inquiry, and diverse forms of artistic practice through the development of close mentoring relationships with students, faculty, and practitioners in the field.
[i] Introduction: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Common Core State Standards Initiative: Preparing America’s Students for College and Career. 2012. p. 3.
[ii] Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Resources for Implementing The Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
in 2012-2013.
4th Annual Middle School Acting Opportunity
March 20, 2014Maine student competition
Calling all middle school actors, actresses, and singers! Do you love to act or sing? Then the place for you to be is the 4th Annual Maine Student Acting Competition on Saturday, May 10, 2014. MSAC will be held at Searsport District Middle School in Searsport, Maine from 8am to 3pm. The competition is open to all middle school students.
A variety of events will be available for students to compete in at this one-day acting tournament. Students can compete individually by performing monologues or singing solos. Middle schoolers can also sing duets or perform a scene with a partner in the competition. Want to compete as a group? There’s a ton of group events available including group singing and acting. The popular Improvmania will be available again this year, an improvisation group competition where three students from different schools join together to compete as a team. Fun, engaging, hands-on workshops will be available this year for students when they are not involved in competition.
This is the 4th year of the Maine Student Acting Competition, and it has been growing every year. Over 70 students competed last year, and our goal is to have 100 students participating at this year’s competition! Teams will be coming from schools all over Maine.
To register in this year’s Maine Student Acting Competition, please contact Jessica Longstreet at jlongstreet@rsu20.org or register online at https://sites.google.com/a/rsu20.org/maine-student-acting-competition. Individuals are welcome to register independently and schools are welcome to register as a team. There is no group too small!
Catherine Ring: Art Advocate of the Year
March 19, 2014Maine Art Education Association names art advocate
On Saturday, March 8 at the opening of the 20th annual Youth Art Month exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art, Catherine Ring shared the following message as she accepted the Advocate of the Year award. Catherine truly “walks the walk” of an advocate – She helped establish the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI), serves as a member of the leadership team for the MAAI, and is the executive director of the New England Institute for Teacher Education. CONGRATULATIONS Catherine!
Catherine receiving her award from MAEA president Heidi O’Donnell
Hello, I want to tell you some stories that really made me mad. But it’s not a bad thing. Because if you are an advocate, you can turn something you’re mad about into something good. And because I’m an advocate of the arts, I like to think I can turn MAD into MADD, which stands for Music Art Dance and Drama. All of the arts.
The first is a true story that happened to me when I was in kindergarten. The teacher rolled out some big paper on the floor and had all of us get down on the floor with some crayons and draw a picture of ourselves and our houses. I drew a picture of myself with wild purple curly hair and my house was a log cabin. The teacher came over and yelled at me and said, “No! Not like that. Do it like this!” and she moved me next to another girl, who drew a picture of herself with yellow hair, and a regular house with little curtains in the windows. I remember that day, because something in me told me that this wasn’t right. Why couldn’t I live in a log cabin and have purple hair? Why did I have to do it just like the teacher said? Just like the other little girl? I was mad. I think it was that day that I decided that I would be an art teacher when I grew up.
When that little voice inside me told me that the teacher was wrong, it made me mad. When I did eventually become an art teacher, I was determined to make sure my students grew to love art and I would encourage them to be as creative as possible. That voice in my head led to action and I turned something I was mad about into something good.
Here are some other things that make me mad:
Not every kid thinks they are creative. We’ve all heard people say, ! • “Oh, I can’t draw. I’m not an artist. I can’t sing. I’m not creative.” Where did they get this idea? Aren’t all children born creative? There are many of us who believe they are. In fact, Sir Ken Robinson, who has written many books on the subject and who has spoken to audiences all around the world, believes all children are born creative, and that schools are killing creativity. He believes that we don’t grow into creativity, we are educated out of it. If that is true, that makes me mad.
If you are in a school that inspires your creativity, be very glad. But here are some realities in Maine:
- Not every student in Maine gets Art.
- Students don’t all get taught by qualified arts teachers.
- Art and Music are often the first things that get cut out of school budgets.
Even though the research shows, irrefutably, that students with lots of exposure to the arts do better in all subject areas. Even though the research shows that test scores go up. Even though we know that the arts teach kids to be creative and critical thinkers, to be problem solvers and collaborators, to communicate and innovate. These are exactly the skills that are being sought after in the 21st century. So why would school leaders cut music or art? This doesn’t make sense. This makes me mad.
So what do we do? How can we make a difference in our schools? How can we make people understand and support the arts in our schools? How do we help them understand that the arts are not something that’s just nice to have, or a frill, or just for fun? That the arts are absolutely essential for every child? In fact, that they are just as important as reading or math? How do we turn something that makes us mad into something good? We can get MADD.
There are a lot of things being done in Maine right now, I’m happy to say. We still have a lot of work to do, but music and art and drama and dance teachers all across Maine are making a difference through the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative. The arts teachers are making a difference in their communities through workshops in their school districts, and communities. They are making a difference by talking to their principals and parents and school boards. Arts teachers are making a difference. They are using their voices to express what they know is right, and change is beginning to happen.
So what can you do? How can you use your voice to make a difference? How can you be an advocate for more good quality arts education in our state? In every school? For every child? How do we go from being mad to being MADD? Well, here’s one way.
Because I am the Advocate of the Year, I am being asked to talk to a lot of people about how they can make a difference. I’ll be going to the state house and many other places throughout the year to advocate for the arts. I will also be writing for newsletters and other publications. But I could really use your help.
I created a new email account. maddaboutart@gmail.com. If you agree that the arts are essential for every child, in every school, please email me at this address and let me know. So, again, here’s the question:
Why is it important to have the arts in every school?
If you are a student, please write your name, your age and what school you go to. If you are an adult or a student, please send me your stories that I can then share with others. I will take all of your answers and stories to the Statehouse, and to schools and organizations around Maine. I will write about the importance of the arts in education in publications throughout the year. Our voices together will be stronger. Together we can make a difference. Let’s help everyone get MADD about art!
“We don’t need to save the arts. Instead we can save the world with the arts.”
~ John Maeda, President, Rhode Island School of Design
Summit on Youth
March 18, 2014Creative Youth Development
Live Web Cast Opportunity: National Summit on Creative Youth Development
Thought leaders in the field of out-of-school youth development—based in the arts, humanities, and science learning—from across the nation will gather in Boston at the end of March for the National Summit on Creative Youth Development: Unite. Celebrate. Activate. The Summit will celebrate the field’s progress and success to date, document the impact of this work on the lives of young people, and chart a policy and advocacy agenda for the next decade.
Here’s how YOU can participate:
– Share your thoughts on this policy agenda
Read the Setting the Agenda research (see previous article), and email your thoughts to cydsummit14@gmail.com. Your comments will be passed on to the chairs of the caucuses meeting in Boston.
– Watch the live web cast March 28 & 29
Register for the Summit’s live web cast and add your comments to the deliberations in real time. Three sessions will be streamed:
Friday morning, 3/28, 8:30-9:45am
Friday afternoon, 3/28, 2:00-3:30pm
Saturday afternoon, 3/29, 2:30-4:00pm
Get all the web cast details.
– Join the conversation on twitter
Use the hashtag #cydsummit14 to follow the Summit and add your voice to the discussion.
– Register for the March 20 webinar: Connecting Youth with Afterschool Arts
Listen to the authors of The Wallace Foundation’s new study, Something to Say: Success Principles for Afterschool Arts Programs From Urban Youth and Other Experts, on March 20 from 11am-12pm. This informative, free webinar focuses on attracting and retaining low-income urban teens and “tweens” to participate in high-quality arts programs.
Another Teacher’s Story: Judy Fricke
March 18, 2014Featuring one teacher’s journey as an arts educator
This is the second blog post for 2014 and the third phase of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative of this series of blog posts telling arts teachers’ stories. This series contains a set of questions to provide the opportunity for you to read the stories and to learn from others.
Judy S. Fricke is an Early Childhood (EC) Music Specialist at the Main Street Music Studios in Bangor, Maine. Judy has been an EC Music Educator for twenty years, first in Collierville, TN and for the last four years in Bangor. In those twenty years she has had opportunities to work with children ages one month through five years in parent/child class settings and with children one year to five years old in a large preschool of 350 students. At Main Street Music Studios in Bangor she has 23 students who attend age-bracketed classes with a caregiver. She uses John Feierabend’s First Steps in Music curriculum as the basis for all of her classes since studying with him 19 years ago.
What do you like best about being a music educator?
While working with our youngest learners, I will never tire of watching the “light bulb” gleam in their eyes as they feel the rhythm in bounces or anticipate the tickle at the end of a tickle rhyme. I will never lose the joy in watching a one year old gain control of his or her arm muscles and begin to play a drum with a steady beat, or of listening to a three year old gain control of his or her voice muscles and begin to “echo sing” dead on pitch. I also will never get tired of watching the confidence grow in the parents of these children as they learn how to interact musically with their little ones.
What do you believe are three keys to ANY successful visual and performing arts education?
The three keys I would consider highest on my list for a successful arts program would be:
- Unbridled passion for what you teach
- A safe, exciting, and encouraging environment in which to teach
- A wicked good sense of both humor and humility
How have you found assessment to be helpful to you in your classroom?
As an independent instructor of the very young, formal assessment is not part of my program. Yet, informal assessment has been part of my day to day lesson planning since the beginning. By tweaking my planning based on the specific ages of my students I am able to deliver developmentally appropriate activities for various physical, mental, and attention levels.
What have been the benefits in becoming involved in the arts assessment initiative?
The MAAI has given me the opportunity to meet and interplay with arts teachers and early childhood educators from around the state. I am sure I would never have had that opportunity on my own. Thank you Argy for this gift. MAAI has made me much more aware of my place, or lack there of, in the incredibly complex world of arts education in the state. I have felt more connected, as well as more alone, in the last year as I worked beside fellow educators. We need more early childhood arts folks involved in MAAI. I need collaborators on my level so that the important work of laying the foundations for the K-12 programs does not feel as much as an afterthought, but more of the beginning of something wonderful.
What are you most proud of in your career?
I was teaching in Tennessee long enough to see children that I had in preschool excel in high school music programs and continue on to study music in college. I cannot take complete credit for these achievements, but when I would see them as young adults and they would raise and lower their arms while making a slide whistle sound, I know I had made an impression. A good impression can bring an exceeding sense of pride.
What gets in the way of being a better teacher or doing a better job as a teacher?
I teach in a lovely old downtown building. The other teachers with whom I work have private studio rooms for private lessons. I teach in the lobby because it is the only space large enough for my classes. Therefore, we have folks walking through the classes, stopping to ask questions, and opening and closing the door to let in very cold air. These physical issues often get in the way of my teaching, but trying to handle it in stride and continue to love what I do makes up for it. The people I work with are professional musicians and teachers and are so supportive of my program, I know I am a better teacher because I am there.
What have you accomplished through hard work and determination that might otherwise appear at first glance to be due to “luck” or circumstances?
I believe finding Main Street Music Studios on-line from Tennessee was a brilliant stroke of luck! I was just looking for any kind of employment in the downtown area so that I could walk to work once we moved to Bangor. Yes, having the 16 years of experience to bring with my proposal for the early childhood program here helped, but the fact that Bangor had the Studio for me to be a part of was definitely luck!
Look into your crystal ball: what advice would you give to teachers?
I believe the word I would most like to share with fellow teachers is “collaborate”. If you are a K-6 teacher, and you have a PreK program in your school, find out what you can do with the EC teachers to help them with their goals for the arts – in doing so, you are only enhancing your programs. Same goes for high school teachers – work with your middle school counterparts. Middle school folks work with your elementary counterparts. In doing so, everyone will be working toward the same ultimate goal – that of giving every student the best arts experiences possible in a way that makes sense to both the programs and the students.
If you were given a $500,000.00 to do with whatever you please, what would it be?
If I were given $500,000.00 to do with as I please, I would make an endowment to the University of Maine Systems for the purpose of creating an Early Childhood Music Education program and a Music Therapy program. Then I would ask to teach in the Early Childhood program and I would take classes in the Music Therapy program.
Imagine you are 94 years old. You’re looking back. Do you have any regrets?
If I have the fortune to live until I am 94, I hope I am still able to bounce little ones on my knee and sing soft lullabies to them when they are tired. If I can do this, I will not have any regrets.
Well, I might regret that I never got that $500,000. And so might a lot of very young children.
Brian’s Room
March 17, 2014Standards-based classroom videos
It was great to have a chance to visit art teacher and Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) Teacher Leader Brian McPherson’s classroom at the Woodside Elementary School in Topsham. Debi Lynne Baker and I traveled there recently to video tape Brian “in action”. The school is very welcoming with artwork everywhere.
Our day was filled with interviews with Brian and parents and colleagues, including principal Richard Dedek. The highlight was talking with students and visiting Brian’s classes. One class was drawing vessels using giant Chinese containers for models.
At the conclusion of the day there was a reception for students and families celebrating Chinese New Year and most importantly to view the clay relief sculptures based on Chinese architecture. Kudos to the students and Brian for a wonderful exhibit. Marvelous!
Debi Lynne is busy editing the hours of video footage to create another video showing standards-based arts education as a part of the resources provided by MAAI. All the videos that are available are posted on the Maine ARTSEducation YouTube channel. To learn more and view the videos please go to https://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Education/MAAI-VIDEOS.
In Today’s News
March 16, 2014Maine Sunday Telegram
“Feeling the Beat” at Hampden Academy with the Maine State High School Instrumental Jazz Festival. Read all about the excitement and see photos at http://www.pressherald.com/news/Battle_of_the_Jazz_Bands_brings_out_friendly_competition_at_statewide_competition_.html.
me arts ed 