Archive for February, 2015

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Best Art Blogs

February 9, 2015

According to the Art of Education

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 8.29.23 AMMany of you are familiar with the work of Jessica Balsley with Art of Education (AOE) and the outstanding work they do providing a variety of information on their blog.

Among one of the annual offerings the AOE provides is a contest to determine who has the best Art education blogs. On January 25 the results were posted. You can read all of the details and check out the blogs selected by clicking here.

Four categories for the best blogs
1. Best Elementary Art Ed Blog
2. Best Secondary Art Ed Blog
3. Best Rising Star Art Ed Blog
4. Best Wild Card Blog

It is great to follow some of these blogsters to see what they are doing with curriculum, assessment, teaching and learning in their classrooms in other parts of the country.

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 8.29.12 AM

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Another Student’s Story: CJ Gaunce

February 8, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-01-31 at 7.31.03 PMMaking snow

CJ Gaunce is a junior at Waterville Senior High School. One of his teachers, Suzanne Goulet, who teaches Traditional, Digital and Emerging Arts, suggested that I take a look at a video that CJ recently made. She knows how much I love the snow and that I’d be interested in what this student has been spending a lot of time on – making snow! Unlike me, CJ has a way to make snow when we don’t have any naturally. I took a look at the video and received an email from CJ.

http://youtu.be/VCGUrQrnp0U

CJ has a blog of his own called Maine Snowmakers: a blog about Home Snowmakers in Maine. His blog is includes several outstanding photos and a clear picture of making snow! And, he has a youtube channel with other videos and invited me to stop by and see the snowmaking gun in action!

What has inspired you to want to make snow?

Each weekend I go skiing with a group of friends at Sugarloaf. All my life I had been interested in ski lift mechanics and ski area operations. While we were riding the skyline lift up at Sugarloaf on December 10, 2012, my friend told me about another friend from Freeport who makes snow and suggested that I meet him. Below us on the lift there was a mystery child (perhaps about 14 or 15 years old) dragging about 15+ snowmaking hoses down the trail with Sugarloaf snowmakers.

Phone calls, and multiple extensive researches later, I was making my own snow in the backyard with just a pressure washer. I only ran .5 gallons a minute then but at the time it was great just seeing this cloud of white in the sky come from (my efforts). I loved it ever since, and on March 15, 2013, I made snow with my own home built snow gun, called a tee gun. By the next season I had built an even bigger snow gun doing 1.5 gallons a minute during the 13-14 season. Last summer was the biggest upgrade season yet. I installed 200 feet of pipe through the ground, built my own water pump that puts out over double what I did last year making around a foot an hour. I’ve also built my own air demoisturizer and added a second air compressor. As of January 8, 2015 I’ve used 10,000 gallons of water.

How did you get started with snow making? (the mechanics of it)

Screen Shot 2015-01-31 at 7.31.18 PMI started with a simple air/water snow gun called a tee gun in March 2013, and in 2013-2014 I upgraded to a combo gun. A combo gun has at least 2 nozzles, all mine have 3 total nozzles. On my snowguns the bottom nozzle is an air/water mixture while the top 2 are just water. The air/water nozzle is called the Nuc nozzle and top 2 are called the bulk nozzles. The Nuc nozzle creates a fine mix of ice, the bulk nozzles spray a fine mist of water. When (the temperature is) cold enough the water mixes with the ice and it crystalizes to form snow. The Nuc nozzle is key because without the ice there is nothing for the water to bond and crystalize to.

Are you a skier or involved in other winter activities? If so, what?

I am a backcountry skier up at the ‘loaf. I’ve been skiing ever since I was 2. Skiing is really my life, my life literally revolves around the weather. When its cold I’m always pumped to go make snow. Or when a snowstorm comes I jump around the house with joy and send photos and videos to everyone I ski with.

What do you do in your free time?

Honestly, all I do is make snow, when I’m not making snow in the backyard I’m out at Quarry Road making snow at the Waterville Recreation Center were I (volunteer to) help run 20 HKD snow guns. I also have a strong snowmaking connection with Sugarloaf and Eaton Mountains.

Has your formal schooling influenced in any way with your making of snow?

Not really, everything with snowmaking has been self-taught. The mechanics of it are self learned. Every design needed, came from hours of thinking to create the best possible design for what I’ve needed. Almost 100% of the things I’ve built have been thought of and designed in school while (in other) classes.

Who has supported you in pursuing your interest?

Screen Shot 2015-01-31 at 7.31.34 PMMy friends have definitely supported me. My friend from Freeport and I are best friends now. We literally swap equipment back and fourth like nozzles, hoses, pumps, you name it. Each fall we do mega snowmaking runs at his house where we combine our equipment to make as much snow as possible. Then in the spring we come to my house for the Bug Mega Run. This past fall we used nearly 3000 gallons in an 8-hour period and covered his entire hill, top to bottom, with 9+ inches of snow for a rail jam the next day with 6-8 (guys).

How do you (if in any way) apply what you are learning in school to your passions/interests outside of school?

There is only one subject I’ve applied into snowmaking from school and that’s filming. I make a ton of videos on snowmaking and do lots of photography. Snowmaking is very math and science based but what we learn in school (is different from this real-life application of) snowmaking. Teachers love the snowmaking thing but I don’t think they really understand the magnitude of time and effort it takes. You could do an entire science unit on snowmaking from water droplet sizes at given pressures and cohesion and adhesion, PSI, GPM, CFM, flow rates and on and on.

What are your plans for after high school?

My plans after high school are to go into ski are management. I’m looking at Lyndon State College right now.

Please provide any information about your art class or Ms. Goulette and how art has influenced or impacted you and your snowmaking passion.

Art has impacted me from doing cool designs for my backyard park. Like the iconic forest park pine tree I stenciled on to literally every rail/box. It’s even on my big ramp. Art has also helped me with drawing and designing my projects. Ms. Goulet has definitely been a huge supporter of my snowmaking set up.

These innovative real-life applications can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCGUrQrnp0U

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Integration Workshop

February 7, 2015

Maine DOE

IMG_20150124_102723641Saturday January 24, the Maine Department of Education hosted an arts integration workshop at Wentworth school in Scarborough. Twenty-Five educators attended the workshop which  investigated how arts integration can support learning and  comprehension skills.

This was the first event for the Maine Arts Integration Collaborative which, will provide professional development for teachers in all subject areas to learn skills and methods on integrating the arts across the curriculum, to deepen student learning and appreciation for the arts, while raising student engagement and motivation.

IMG_20150124_134044013Drawing from Common Core standards, educators used strategies in drama, music, visual arts, storytelling and poetry that provide flexible options for students to access curriculum and diverse ways of expressing understanding through arts based learning. The presenters Dr. Louise Pascale, of Lesley University and Dr. Lisa Donovan of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts provided arts integration strategies for more students to access curriculum, engage with materials and demonstrate understanding. Some of the strategies included were:
Visual Art Strategy: Bookmaking
Visual Art Strategy: Observational Drawing
Storytelling Strategy: Personal Storytelling
Drama Strategy: Tableaux
Music Strategy: Soundscape
Poetry Strategy: Observation Poems

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Sir Ken Robinson

February 6, 2015

Revolutionizing Education from the Ground Up

I’ve shared several YouTubes, articles, and thoughtful items from Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ronbinson is an educator who works with school change and cultures around the world. He has a new book being released called Revolutionizing Education from the Ground Up. In this video he provides a snippet of what the book is about. I look forward to reading the book.

Posted in Creativity, Food for thought, Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

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Student Arts Collaborative

February 5, 2015

MAAE Facebook – open letter from Susan Potters, Executive Director

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 9.28.49 AMWe are happy to announce that MAAE’s group Facebook page is now the MAAE Student Arts Collaborative, a place where Maine high school students involved in the arts (any of the arts) can share their work, their thoughts and their questions – with each other, with college arts students and with Maine post-grads already pursuing careers in the arts.

We see this as a place where young artists will find support, encouragement, information and frank advice from their fellow students and from those who have walked the same path before them.

The page will not only be for young artists, but also managed by them. The logo was designed by high school artist Piper Smith, a junior at Traip Academy in Kittery. The other two managers of the page are Zachary Fisher, a UMaine Orono freshman, studying choral music and Meredith Crawford, 28, who grew up in Veazie, Maine, and who is now a professional violist in Los Angeles.

Please help us to spread the word!
Encourage the young artists you teach or know to join the group by directing them to either the Facebook group (MAAE Student Arts Collaborative) or to the Facebook link on our website, http://www.maineartsed.org. We’ll help you by sending you a hand-out of that info for your students. That hand-out, written by Zachary, will come in a group email to you tomorrow.

And here below is a message to you from our post-grad manager, Meredith, about what the Student Arts Collaborative would have meant to her growing up as an “artsy kid” in Maine.

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 7.29.43 PMMessage from Meredith
“As a professional musician who studied the violin since the age of five, I know very well that the arts can been a lonely – albeit immensely gratifying – road. For  a lot of Maine students, small communities can be a blessing and a curse. While I appreciated growing up in a small town, it was also difficult for me to feel like I was the only kid who was “into” music. In the already difficult period of middle/high school, having one more thing that makes you different from your peers can be a burden. Although I was lucky enough to have friends and family who supported me, it was still difficult not to feel isolated; at times it was tempting to put music aside, much as I loved it, simply to feel more part of the community.

I am so glad I made the decision to keep at it. It has not only become my livelihood, but a source of immeasurable joy and fulfillment in my life. I can guarantee, however, that something like the MAAE Student Arts Collaborative would have made that decision a thousand times easier had it existed when I was in high school.

There are few things more gratifying – or important – to a young artist than to have a place to share their work with others and to be able to view and appreciate others’ work as well – in essence, to feel like you’re part of a group of like-minded individuals – especially a group of your peers. The MAAE Student Arts Collaborative seeks to create a space for just that – a Facebook group where current high school and college students can post their art, a snippet of a creative writing project, videos of dance or music performances or compositions, or even works-in-progress, as well as a place to ask each other questions, give feedback, or just say, ‘Wow, I really like what you’ve made – tell me more about it.’

Students joining the collaborative will also have a place to learn from recent college grads who grew up in Maine and now work in the arts – people like me, who want to encourage young Maine artists and let them know their art is important, that it should be shared, and that it can take you to amazing places. I look forward to what’s in store for the MAAE Student Arts Collaborative, and hope that you will help us spread the work about this wonderful new resource – the more students who join and share their work, the stronger the support system will be.”

Thanks again for your help!… and stay tuned for tomorrow’s hand-out for your students.

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In Today’s News

February 4, 2015

“Heartzilla”

Tidemark Gallery and Miller School in Waldoboro are collaborating for the third year to present “young Hearts”. Screen Shot 2015-02-04 at 10.12.54 AMRead the details at http://cafedesartistes.bangordailynews.com/2015/02/02/young-hearts-at-tidemark-gallery/.

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Who Are They?: Bay Chambers, Part 2

February 4, 2015

Odeon

This blog post is part of a series called Who Are They? where information is provided for the Maine Arts Ed blog readers to learn about community organizations and institutions that provide educational opportunities in the arts. You will learn that they are partnering with other organizations and schools to extend learning opportunities, not supplant.

Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School is the first organization being highlighted. Located in Rockport, they provide rich music opportunities for students of all ages in the mid-coast area. Monica Kelly is the Executive Director and you can learn more at http://www.baychamberconcerts.org/. This post was written by Monica about their program called Odeon.

Marti Stone photo

Marti Stone photo

I don’t really know how it happened. I am not a strings player. My children weren’t either. But somehow I managed to found Odeon, a community string orchestra in 2000 in mid-coast Maine.

I had been involved with Bay Chamber Concerts for four years as a trustee and kept hearing about the concerns that there were no string ensemble programs in our area and the Next Generation program, a summer camp for Maine youth interested in playing chamber music together, was struggling to find participants. At the same time, my three young boys were attending the Riley School, an arts-focused K-9 school in Rockport and I was chair of the parent committee. The then director, Glenna Plaisted, a true visionary educator, said to me that she thought we should start an orchestra at Riley. Well, the truth was that the school didn’t have enough students to make that happen, so I convinced her to partner with me in writing a grant to the MBNA Foundation, which at that time was funding a lot of arts education programs in our community. Low and behold we were awarded a small sum which we used to hire our first conductor, the amazing Augusto Salazar. Not only was he an amazing musician, he was willing to drive to Rockport each week from Kittery because he believed so much in what we were doing.

Marti Stone photo

Marti Stone photo

So on a cold January night in 2000, eight children, ages 8-18 showed up to audition for the Odeon Ensemble. We had three quite advanced students, and a handful of intermediate and beginning ones to boot. Kindly a couple of the parents who played stringed instruments agreed to sit in and help out. At the debut concert held that spring, the first work on the program was called “Warm-up – the scale in G major”!!!

Quickly the program began to grow and within 5 years we were up to 40 members in three ensembles. Some of the students at that time were quite advanced and we experienced some glorious moments of music before they all graduated and went off to schools like Oberlin, Wellesley, and Tufts. And then, in 2006 we were invited to merge with Bay Chamber Concerts.

Throughout the years Odeon has evolved and the groupings have changed. Our latest configuration is as follows: Allegro, for beginning young string musicians; Symphony, for intermediate youth in strings, winds, brass and piano; and the Adult Ensemble. We perform at least two formal concerts per year and seek opportunities to play in assisted living facilities, schools, etc. We even did a flash mob in Hannaford’s and Reny’s one year!

It has been one of the most rewarding parts of my life to foster this program and see it evolve, grow and adapt to the people who make it happen. I am grateful to the musicians who have led Odeon over the years: Augusto Salazar, Gilda Joffe, Marshunda Smith, Deirdre McClure, Nate Martin and new to this spring, Sarah Glenn, for their contributions in building a community orchestra for mid-coast Maine. And I cannot write a complete story of Odeon’s history without mentioning two supporters from the board of Bay Chamber who have given their hearts and souls to the ensembles because of their belief in the value of being music makers; Eleanor Poe Barlow and Caroline E. Seamans.

Screen Shot 2015-01-25 at 11.16.49 AM

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Certification

February 3, 2015

Opportunities for contact hours

Last week the paperwork arrived from the Maine Department of Education Certification office informing me that it is time to resubmit paperwork and a check to continue my certification for another five years. I was a bit nervous since I am not in a school district with a certification committee to help guide me if I have any questions. I read through the paperwork three times just to be sure I understood all that I had to do.

I dragged out my portfolio where I file my proof of contact hours and CEUs looking for the magic “90” hours. I stacked them in order and copied them highlighting the hours so it would be easy to get a total. I was surprised to learn that I had over 200 contact hours.

Periodically I receive desperate emails from teachers asking if I know of any professional development opportunities since they’ve received the same envelope that I did and that they don’t have enough hours. Quite frankly, I am not sure how, in this day and age, someone can not have enough!

For example, the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) is offering five professional development opportunities during this school year throughout Maine.

MAAI Logo_Color_TxtRtMAAI MEGA-REGIONAL WORKSHOPS
Details and registration information is available at http://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Education/MAAI-Mega-Regionals-2014-2015#. Each site has different offerings and you can attend one or more.

The cost is $25 and 5.5 contact hours are offered.

I made that last part nice and large so you can see the contact hour offering quite clearly.

Locations and Dates

Schedule for each Mega-regional

  • 8:15 a.m. Registration begins
  • 8:45 a.m. Opening Session and Morning Workshops
  • 9:10 – 10:20 a.m. Breakout Workshop Session I
  • 10:20 – 10:30 a.m. Break
  • 10:30 – 11:40 a.m. Breakout Workshop Session II
  • 11:40 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Lunch, participants on their own
  • 12:30 – 12:45 p.m. Artist Showcase
  • 12:45 – 2:45 p.m. Session III Large group by Arts Discipline on Proficiency-Based Education and Teacher Effectiveness
  • 2:45 – 3:00 p.m. Closing Session

Maai group 2PM Session

The Arts and Proficiency: What, Why and How?

The afternoon session will be focused around group discussions utilizing key questions on how proficiency (and teacher effectiveness) is being implemented across the state of Maine in our own arts classrooms. Participants will leave with concrete ideas and/or plans to facilitate their own actions. These may lead to breakout sessions to deeper discussions and common concerns. This session will be separated between visual and performing arts teachers.

I hope that you will take advantage of these opportunities to learn from and with your colleagues. Maine has a wonderful network of visual and performing arts teachers who are willing to collaborate and share information. We are so fortunate! Please email me at argy.nestor@maine.gov if you have any questions.

 

 

 

Posted in assessment, Communication, Community, Creativity, Curriculum and Instruction, Leadership, Opportunity, Professional Development, Resources, Standards Based Education, VPA | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

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News from MAEA

February 2, 2015

Maine Art Education Association upcoming opportunities

ART EDUCATORS OF THE YEAR

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 9.19.14 AMRecognize FANTASTIC Art Educators by nominating them for one of the MAEA annual awards.  Deadline extension through Sunday, February 15. All forms can be found on our newly designed MAEA site. Digital submission of documents is strongly encouraged. Thank you for helping share the incredible efforts of our art teachers. If you have questions please contact Holly Houston at holly_houston@yarmouthschools.org.

MAEA is currently seeking nominations for the following categories:

  • MAEA Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Art Educators of the Year
  • MAEA Supervision/Administration Art Educator of the Year
  • MAEA Retired Art Educator of the Year
  • MAEA Museum Educator of the Year
  • MAEA Higher-Education Art Educator of the Year

Click here for the Awards Program Overview – which contains links to the Nomination Form, Vita Form, Ranking Process, and all scoring rubrics.

YOUTH ART MONTH NEWS

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 9.18.44 AMThe Youth Art Month (YAM) exhibit being held at the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) is just around the corner. The link to register your YAM Submission(s) will be available until Wednesday, February 11th. (Not the 14th as previously shared. The storms may make this difficult however, please plan accordingly as the extended forecast this week continues to look unsettled.)

Drop off at PMA Loading Dock (99 Spring Street) one of the following dates/times

  • Thursday, February 12, 3:00-5:00 pm
  • Friday, February 13, 4:00-6:00pm
  • Saturday, February 14, 10:00am-1:00pm

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 9.18.52 AMMake sure to review the guidelines and print a copy of the Release Form for each artwork submitted! The artwork(s) need to be photographed. These photos will be used in the slideshow during the reception and will be posted on the website – so make sure the image is of high quality.

If you have questions, please reply to this email or contact Manon Lewis, the MAEA YAM chair: mlewis@csd3-brhs.org.

MAEA SPRING CONFERENCE

The deadline t0 submit ideas to present at the Maine Art Education Association Spring Conference has been extended to February 8th!

Click here to submit a presentation! More information can be found at http://aeforme.org/MAEA/Spring_Conference.html

Creating is a Constant – Quality is our Standard

Venue: Brewer High School
Date: Saturday, April 11, 2014
Time: 8:30-3:00
Registration: $40 (free for accepted presenters)
… and later that evening …
The MAEA Awards & Recognition Reception
Place to be determined.

Consider sharing what you have to offer with your colleagues.

Perks Include:
• Opportunity for leadership and collegiality
• Free admission to the conference (present a session, attend the rest free of charge – includes lunch)
• A day of networking and fun!

Please contact Heidi O’Donnell if you have any questions at heidiaemaine@gmail.com.

 

Posted in Communication, Community, Leadership, Opportunity, Visual Arts | Leave a Comment »

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Playing it Forward

February 2, 2015

Hampden Academy’s Music Industry Class

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 8.47.57 PMStudents in Pat Michaud’s music industry class at Hampden Academy have created a CD. The class teaches students how to operate audio, work in a music studio, and produce a CD.

We know that this curriculum is not so unusual, but this learning opportunity turned into something larger. Students decided to plan a concert to perform the music that they wrote and included on the CD they created. The proceeds from the selling of the CD has become a way to help out others. At the concert they sold the CD to raise money for the former workers of the Verso Mill workers in Bucksport.

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 8.48.53 PMSenior Daniel Rice said: “I think it’s just a great feeling because I get to do what I love and to be able to donate the money it also a great thing.”

And, Mr. Michaud adds, “The nice thing about this is what they’re going to hear mostly tomorrow is all original material. These are all compositions the student have written themselves.”

The students have raised $1000 and there are a few CD’s still available to purchase for $8 by contacting Pat at pmichaud@rsu22.us. And, you can learn more at http://wabi.tv/2015/01/14/talented-young-hampden-musicians-play-it-forward/.

This is not the first time that this type of project has been done at Hampden Academy. You can read about their other projects at the following links.  This is the third collaboration we’ve done. We will sell those for $1 a piece.  Folks can contact me through e-mail me at Hampden Academy pmichaud@rsu22.us

The first time they undertook the project the following was published in the Bangor Daily News
http://bangordailynews.com/2010/12/16/living/hampden-academy-students-get-trained-in-music-industry/?ref=search

An article was published in the Feb. 2011 edition of the Maine Music Educator’s Bulletin. The article is called “Playing it Forward at Hampden Academy” on Pages 26-28 at http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1r1yx/MMEABulletinFebruary/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffree.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F288695%2FMMEA-Bulletin-February-2011–Technology-Issue

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