Join Sharon and Kate Beever for a morning of hands-on lessons you can bring back to your classroom as tools for educational, cognitive, and social learning. Book and song pairings with associated activities will incorporate speech and literacy, critical thinking and analysis, and social skills. Gain comfort using music with your students and learn about its benefits for literacy and learning. No musical experience necessary.
Saturday, 23 November 2019
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
Portland Friends Meeting 1837 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME 04103
Sharon K. Beever is a Master’s level librarian with over thirty years experience in school settings. She has presented at conferences and classes on the use of technology in literacy, organized Unified Arts programs in multiple districts, and facilitated community partnerships within the school library. Sharon is a member of the MLA (Maine Library Association) and the MASL (Maine Association of School Librarians) and is President of the Saco River Festival Association, which runs an annual summer concert series.
Kate Beever is a board-certified music therapist and owner of Maine Music & Health, LLC. She has a master’s degree in Music Psychotherapy and a certificate in Neurologic Music Therapy, and is a Remo HealthRhythms facilitator. Kate provides music therapy to clients with developmental disabilities, brain injury, cancer, dementia, and general stress. She keeps an active schedule of speaking and performing as a pianist and percussionist.
This flash mob features various musicians as well as the popCHORn choir which is composed of about 30 singers of various ages. The choir first formed in 1910 with only men. In 1922 woman were included and in the 1930’s it was banned by the Nazi regime. It reformed in 1945 and has flourished since. This Eric Clapton song is a great example of how music brings people together and is important to the participants and audience.
Kris Bisson,Kaitlin Young, Argy Nestor,Catherine Ring
Last Thursday and Friday I attended the Maine Association for Middle Level (MAMLE) Conference at Point Lookout. I have fond memories of returning to the site in Northport – so many amazing learning opportunities for arts educators have taken place there for many years. The MAMLE conference has always been a place where middle level arts educators are welcomed and the conference goers are appreciative of what is offered. This years theme was Filling Our Cups: Teaching in Challenging Times.
Kris Bisson
Kris Bisson, Music Educator at Marshwood Middle School in Berwick and Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) Teacher Leader presented a session called Integrating your community in the classroom: service learning project models. Kris is the perfect person to present on the topic since she’s had her students engaged in multiple projects in her students community. Her well known Bridging Adolescence: A River Flows Through Us project that she collaborated with teaching artist Brian Evans-Jones on, made a huge impact on her students and community members. I was thrilled when her students shared this project at the State House December 2018 at an arts education celebration.
Kaitlin Young
Kaitlin Young, 2017 Maine Teacher of the Year, Music Educator at Sedomocha Elementaryand Middle Schools, and Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) Teacher Leader provided a key note that had participants engaged. The title was What We Can Do When We Are Brave Together. Kaitlin’s presentation was inspirational and very realistic. It provided thought provoking ideas which participants could take with them and put immediately in place. Thank you Kaitlin for filling up all of our cups!
If you’re a middle level educator consider participating in the conference next year which will be held in Portland. Check the MAMLE site for information.
This is a video called Raising Creativity and includes clips from many individuals who value creativity in education. It’s a long video put created by an art teacher who has looked closely at her role as an educator and researched the idea extensively. It’s a wonderful documentary that I hope you’ll find useful in your work as an educator, parent, and/or community member.
Katherine Cargile (2019 Resident) – Lewiston Middle School art teacher,The Mariner’s House, 2018, acrylic on panel, 16” x 16″
Join us for a PechaKucha-style event on Saturday, October 26, 5 p.m. at 162 Russell Avenue in Rockport (the former CMCA building). A group of Monhegan Artists’ Residents, including residents from the last two summers, will present slideshows of their work.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear directly from the artists about their time creating work on island and how the experience has informed their current studio practice. Presenting artists include: Kate Cargile (2019), Jennifer Calivas (2019), Sarah Haskell (2018), Raegan Russell (2018), Carol Sloane (2002), and Jude Valentine(2018).
Kate is a Lewiston Middle School art teacher, Raegan teaches art Berwick Academy and Jude is a teaching artist and has done a lot of work with Visual Thinking Strategies.
Watch for the Monhegan Artist Residency opportunity for next summer and consider applying.
Tickets are $5 at the door. Reception to follow. We hope to see you there!
We know E.B. White as the writer who penned some of our favorite children’s books – Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little. But one thing I didn’t know until recently was that E.B. White (Elwyn Brooks White) who lived July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985 contributed to The New Yorker magazine and he co-authored The Elements of Style. Charlotte’s Web was the number one of 100 children’s books in a 2012 School Library Journal survey.
E.B. White was born in New York but during most of his adult life he lived on a farm in Brooklin, Maine where he wrote most of his beloved children’s books.
Thanks to Bob McIntire for sharing this video that E.B. White created in 1954 called A Maine Lobsterman. It’s a wonderful black and white documentary that provides all the details of lobstering in 1954. Even though it’s been 65 years since the video was produced the basics of lobstering have not changed. This would be a great video to share with students of all ages.
A storytelling workshop, “Gargantuan Turquoise Stomping Boots – How to make up fractured fairy tales” with professional Story Teller Willy Claflinwill be held on Saturday, 19 October, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Sweet Tree Arts in Hope. This workshop is for teachers, tellers, and the curious adults.
The “Gargantuan Turquoise Stomping Boots—How to make up fractured fairy tales” workshop teaches an easy method for making up your own original fractured fairy tales. Parodies are fun to make up, and usually a big hit with audiences. We’ll start by making up a couple of stories as a group, and move on to creating our own original tales. (co-taught by storyteller Maynard Moose). Participants are guaranteed to come away with at least one new, original story to tell!
“Over many years of teaching, I’ve found this to be the best way to get “reluctant writers” enthusiastic about creating new stories. It’s also a way for people to get over the idea that they are somehow “not funny.” The stories created using this exercise almost always succeed, because the underlying structure of the tale is so satisfying. Even serious stories can be written by following the pattern on a well-known tale.”
The assistance of Maynard Moose provides a chance to briefly explore what it’s like to create an alternate persona, or tell a story from a different point of view.
We all know that Maine has had a bottle bill which includes paying a deposit on most bottles when purchased. When my sons were children one of their responsibilities was to count the bottles when the barrel was full and help return them to our local bottle redemption center. And, yes they’d get to keep the money.
Did you know that the Maine Returnable Beverage Container Law has been in place since 1978? It’s a real success story. Maine is one of only 10 states with a law in place. We all know that everyone doesn’t think this is as fun as my children did. We certainly see bottles on the sides of Maine roads periodically.
Collecting and returning bottles is one thing we can do to help out our community but, what about all the supplies and equipment when they outlive their usefulness? What happens to them? Below are some programs and ideas that I know are in place – I’m guessing that you know of others. Please email them to me at meartsed@gmail.com or share them at the bottom of this blog post so others can learn about them.
Crayola ColorCycle program – Crayola and schools across North America are banding together to help kids understand the importance of their role in protecting the environment. That’s why we launched Crayola ColorCycle. Through this initiative, students in K-12 schools across the continental United States and parts of Canada can collect and repurpose used Crayola markers. ColorCycle is also a great opportunity for teachers and their students to explore eco-friendly practices. Specially developed standards-based lesson plans are available to enrich instruction and promote lively class discussions. Its easy to create an account with Crayola and send your used markers to them for recycling. For more information CLICK HERE.
Vietnam Veterans of America accept donations of used musical instruments and will arrange for pick up. For more information CLICK HERE.
Ruth’s Reusable Resources – Located at 39 Blueberry Rd., Portland. Ruth has been at this for 25 years and if you’ve never been to the store I highly recommend it. Their mission is to ensure that all students, from pre-k through high school, have the basic supplies and creative tools for literacy, STEAM, and health education through the environmentally-conscious distribution of donated business supplies. For more information CLICK HERE.
The National Crayon Recycle Program – This “recycling” education, community service has made it possible to stop more than 120,000 pounds of unwanted crayons from going into landfills with the help from schools, organization educators and kids across this country. For more information CLICK HERE.
The Crayon Initiative collects crayon and recycles them into new crayons and sends them to children hospitals across the country.
You can drop off used instruments that are in fairly good condition to MCMA (Midcoast Music Academy) in Rockland. They often use them with their students.
Argy Nestor
Arts Educator, Blogger, Artist, Connector meartsed@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/view/anestor/
Argy’s Blog
The purpose of this blog is to share stories about people and places; and to celebrate the amazing work (and play) that students, educators, and organizations are doing in and for arts education. In addition, the blog has a plethora of resources and innovative ideas. This forum gives blog readers the opportunity to learn from each other. It is essential that we listen, learn, and collaborate in order to build on teaching practices for the benefit of every learner in Maine and beyond.
Join Sharon and Kate Beever for a morning of hands-on lessons you can bring back to your classroom as tools for educational, cognitive, and social learning. Book and song pairings with associated activities will incorporate speech and literacy, critical thinking and analysis, and social skills. Gain comfort using music with your students and learn about its benefits for literacy and learning. No musical experience necessary.
me arts ed 