Mega Regional Conference, UMaine Orono
Participants at the Mega Regional conference at Ellsworth High School in November.
The Mega-regional conferences will take place in the four locations listed below. The next one is scheduled for Thursday, February 2 at UMaine Orono. Please register to save your space. Each Mega conference offers different sessions. CLICK HERE for more details. The registration fee for attending is $25 per person and 5.5 contact hours are available for full-day participation. The facilitators are the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) teacher leaders and Maine Learning Technology Initiative Apple Learning Specialists.
Conference Locations
REGISTRATION AND DETAILS AVAILABLE BY CLICKING THE LOCATIONS
- Thursday, February 2, 2017 UMaine, Orono – Registration is available!
- Friday, March 17, 2017 Hebron Station School, Hebron (Oxford Hills) – Registration is available!
- Wednesday, March 22, 2017 Easton Schools, Aroostook County – Registration coming
- Wednesday, April 26, 2017 UMaine, Orono – Registration is available!
Participant at the Mega Regional Conference at Ellsworth High School in November.
All Mega-regional conferences will take place between 8:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Schedule
- 8:30 a.m. Registration begins
- 9:00 a.m. Opening and Morning Sessions
- 9:15 – 10:30 a.m. Breakout Session I
- 10:30 – 10:40 a.m. Break
- 10:40 – 11:55 a.m. Breakout Session II
- 11:55 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. Lunch, participants on their own
- 12:45 – 1:20 p.m. Artist Showcase
- 1:25 – 2:40 p.m. Session III Maine Arts Education Census Survey
- 2:40 – 3:00 p.m. Closing
SLAM! Nurturing Student Leadership through Arts Advocacy
Networking within Local School Administrations to Increase Art Programming
Easy Jazz Improvisation Teaching Techniques for Nervous Beginners
“Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?”
Arts Integration
Teaching Hamilton in the Classroom
Writing Across the Curriculum in a Performing Arts Classroom
Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing: Care and Feeding Teaching Artists as part of a Long Term Education Plan
Next Step Rubric Makes Learning More Progressive
Looking in the Mirror: The Importance of Student Self-Reflection
Using Multiple Intelligences to Teach Students with Disabilities
All 2016-17 Megas Dates and Locations
Stars and Stairs, Where am I now and Where am I going? How can the use of Stars and Stairs in your classroom help to inform you and your students of their learning progression and actively engage them in the learning process. This will be a round table discussion. Looking at your standards and your curriculum how can you use the Stars and Stairs model in your classroom. All grade levels. All content.
Dive into iBooks Author to harness the power of developing multi-modal, Multi-Touch iBooks. You’ll learn features which make iBooks come to life for learners by incorporating audio files, 3D widgets, image glossaries, study cards, jailbreaking templates, and much more. Be prepared to create an art history chapter together. You can also use this app for making comics and graphic novels or creating art portfolios. This session is great for MLTI beginners and experts. MLTI MacBooks with iBooks Author preinstalled is encouraged. Grades 7-12
Many arts educators in K-12 education have never had the opportunity to work with a teaching artist. Knowing where to start and identifying the most important steps to take can feel daunting. This workshop provides a framework for creating a high-quality teaching artist residence in the schools. We will focus on the steps needed to create a powerful residency, and the nature of an effective collaboration between teaching artist and arts educator. We will provide experiential work and guidance in addressing the complexities and sometimes different languages of the teaching artist and the school-based educator. All grade levels. All content.
Improve content literacy with a tool box of formative assessments and literacy strategies to gauge what your students already know, how well they are learning content, and help drive your classroom instruction. All grade levels. All content.
Playing and composing songs on your own is a blast for some, however there’s something special about making music in collaboration with other like-minded folks that just can’t be beat. In this hands-on, music making session, participants will use GarageBand to learn the basics of song writing and music production. Participants will have plenty of time to explore and experience the fun of collaborative music creation. Musicians of any and all skill levels are welcome. Make sure to bring your Mac and/or iOS device with GarageBand installed. All grade levels.
Participants will learn how to use graphic notation as a visual tool to reach all learners in the music classroom. (This is a great STEAM lesson!) Grades 4-6
When you are deeply engaged in Arts Integration you realize it is about learning with you mind, body and heart in the present moment. This hands on workshop explores this idea through drama, music, movement, poetry, storytelling, and the visual arts. Come prepared to experience arts integration through your own individual lens in a safe environment. All grade levels. All content.
A combination of sketching and traditional note taking results in rich educational documents to support learning. Studies show that sketching leads to better retention of information and helps clarify ideas. Sketching is one of our original forms of communication. Visualizing ideas is a great way to learn. Why not bring this creative form of learning into your classroom? Explore how visual notes support learning. Discover techniques to create, share and integrate visual notes into your instructional practice. Visual notetaking, often called sketch noting, uses two parts of your brain, which is referred to as Dual Coding Theory. This has been found to improve learning. Research has shown that people who doodle while listening retain 29% more information (Andrade, 2009). Join this hands-on session and start sketching your notes today. Please bring your updated MLTI iPad, if available, with Notability installed. Arts supplies will also be available. All grade levels. All content.
This workshop focuses on a collection of techniques that aim to support literacy in the art classroom. From using word walls, sight words, and phonemic awareness participants will leave with a fresh perspective on incorporating literacy while still adhering to their art curriculum. K-5 Visual Arts, adaptable for middle school.
Use stations and sites fostering independence to help students collect assets for creating art infused iMovie productions. This session will showcase how a green screen and some photos can provide opportunities for all learners to showcase their creative side. MLTI MacBooks with the most current version of iMovie is encouraged. Grades 7-12. All content. 
This workshop will demonstrate a scaffolded instruction process and assessment system created to guide middle school band students through the basic levels of performance to highly skilled musicianship. Grades 4-12
This is a step by step experience designed to help you to consider how to use a digital portfolio to help students self-asses and manage the evidence of their learning. Access to Google Drive, Drawing, email, built in camera and mic ideal…but not required. . All content areas. All levels.
Beginning with early Atari and Nintendo video games, the 8-bit aesthetic has been a part of our culture for over 30 years. No longer just nostalgia art, contemporary 8-bit artists and chiptunes musicians have elevated the form to new levels of creativity and cultural reflection. In this session, we will focus on tools that assist in creating 8-bit images, animations, and music. Please bring your MLTI MacBook. All grade levels.
Educators will leave with the knowledge of how to create and present a variety methods to advocate for issues pertinent to their arts educational causes and how to organize those methods to feel comfortable in beginning personal advocacy efforts. All grade levels. All content.
Introduction to the process of using devised theatre as a teaching tool. I will take participants through that process and give them strategies for using devised theatre across curriculum areas and grade levels. All grades levels. All content.
Dates and Locations
SLAM! Nurturing Student Leadership through Arts Advocacy
Networking within Local School Administrations to Increase Art Programming
Easy Jazz Improvisation Teaching Techniques for Nervous Beginners
“Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?”
Arts Integration
Teaching Hamilton in the Classroom
Writing Across the Curriculum in a Performing Arts Classroom
Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing: Care and Feeding Teaching Artists as part of a Long Term Education Plan
Next Step Rubric Makes Learning More Progressive
Using Multiple Intelligences to Teach Students with Disabilities
For two weeks this month, Tim Christensen was a visiting artist in Holly Houston’s high school visual art classes at Yarmouth High School. In Advanced Placement Art (AP), Advanced Drawing and Painting (ADP), Ceramics I, and Art Fundamentals, Tim and Holly have led the students through a project documenting the systems around endangered United States animals, from beluga whales to ocelots, from Key deer to orcas. As well, most days after hours, the art room has been open to students from the entire school to come learn to work on the potter’s wheel independently, creating a busy and vibrant creative space where students could start to find new uses for their creative voice.
Three approaches were used with the art classes. AP and ADP worked with8x8 clay slabs, creating a visual design capable of communicating the facts and challenges discovered during their research into their animal. These designs were etched onto black slip on white porcelain, using the sgraffito method, a 6000 year old practice traditionally used to create culturally vital historical documents in a visual way.
Similarly, Art Fundamentals created hollow bodied sculptures of their organism, and covered their sculpture with their interpretation of vital biological system data related to their animal.
Combining the challenges of working with clay and sgraffito with a subject of personal interest and relevancy fosters an investment in the work, and allows students to overcome big challenges, finding multiple correct ways of communicating and creating. Students assisted in defining the assessable goals of the project, and have been able to gauge their progress through formative self-assessment by understanding the proficiencies they must demonstrate in the execution of the project. How they show those proficiencies is up to them.
When Holly and Tim work together in the classroom, they communicate beforehand about the tasks that will be demonstrated and skills introduced for each class session, and share observations or areas of concern or elation for each incoming group of artists. During the session, they address issues and answer questions, provide encouragement or demonstrate techniques, often referring the other to students in need of a little extra attention. As a team, they are able to bring a broad range of experiences and skills to bear, and the students benefit from having multiple perspectives on the challenges they are tasked with meeting.
My morning started at Colby College at the STEM Summit “Building Bridges: Developing Partnerships to Build Capacity for STEM Education in Maine”. I was a member of a panel including Lindsey Pinchbeck, SweetTree Arts; Brett Elwell, EverFi; Hannah Walden, Maine Central Institute; Kate Cook Whitt, Thomas College; and Eva Szillery, Maine Mathematics Science and Engineering Talent Search. The session was called “Addressing STEM From Differing Perspectives for Students” and below is the description. I had the chance to share some of the amazing Maine arts educators work happening in STEAM in Maine!!
My last stop of the day was at Thornton Academy in Saco for the Fall Into Dance concert. Participating schools: Thornton Academy, Berwick Academy, Studio for the Living Arts, Collective Motion, Community Dance Project, New England Dance Project. Last years performance raised $2,650 and the funding was awarded to MSAD #33 for a dance education residency which will take place in two weeks. I was stunned when I read on the giant check the amount of $3575.00. Look for the information in the future and begin conversations with your colleagues about possibilities of having a teaching artist at your school next school year.
Each site will have different sessions offered so you may wish to attend more than one Mega. Sessions will be provided by MALI Teacher Leaders and Teaching Artist Leaders. In addition, almost all sites will have technology offerings offered by MLTI Apple staff. A portion of the afternoon will feature a Teaching Artist and information on the statewide arts education census that was conducted during the 2015-16 school year. The report will be officially released in December.
Writing is a life skill that is of critical importance to our students. I will share ways in which I have incorporated writing composition and critical responses in to my dance classroom. All grades levels. All content.
The Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) Mega Regional Conferences will be held throughout the state during the next five months. Each site will have different sessions offered so you may wish to attend more than one Mega. Sessions will be provided by MALI Teacher Leaders and Teaching Artist Leaders. In addition, almost all sites will have technology offerings as well. A portion of the afternoon will feature a Teaching Artist and information on the statewide arts education census that was conducted during the 2015-16 school year. The report will be officially released in December.
Where are your Art Standards within the Studio Habits of Mind! presented by Janie Snider, Hancock Grammar School Visual Arts
Ellsworth High School VPA Academy presented by Rebecca Wright Ellsworth High School, Performing ArtsLeah Olson Ellsworth High School, Visual Arts Shannon Westphal Ellsworth High School, Visual Arts
Using Multiple Intelligences to Teach Students with Disabilities presented by Brigid Rankowski Teaching Artist
More Cowbell presented by Tim Hart MLTI Apple Learning Specialist
Illustrating to Write presented by Ann Marie Quirion Hutton MLTI Apple Learning Specialist, former Art Educator
Bringing It All Together! presented by Sue Barre Waterville Junior and Senior High School Music
Evidence of Learning Through Google presented by Charlie Johnson Mount Desert Island High School Visual Arts Digital Arts Media/Photography
Making 8-bit Art presented by Tim Hart MLTI Apple Learning Specialist
Looking in the Mirror: The Importance of Student Self-Reflection presented by Mandi Mitchell Hermon High School Visual Art
Ellsworth High School, USM Portland, and UMaine Orono, and Hebron Station School Hebron, Easton Schools
Dates and Locations
Sessions for Ellsworth Mega
me arts ed 