Maine DOE begins work of creating ME Learning Platform
Created by Maine educators for Maine educators and students, the Department of Education is proud to announce that the work of creating the Maine Learning Platform has begun. To provide anytime, anywhere learning options and resources for educators, students and their families, the Maine Department of Education, in collaboration with curriculum coordinators, Maine educational community organizations, museums, learning centers, and Maine educators, is creating a library of asynchronous learning modules that are aligned to Maine’s Learning Results.
Developed by the over 400 Maine educators who have answered the call to create innovative lessons, these modules will be integrated to ensure that learning is synthesized across subject areas, and are project-based to encourage learning that is active and engaging.
The Department is developing a custom web-based platform to house these modules. The platform will provide educators and families with a bank of resources, with which they can provide students robust learning opportunities. These modules could be utilized for enhancing lessons, remediation, enrichment, credit recovery, or for use during remote learning – whenever a student cannot access classroom instruction.
Each module will be designed around the essential question, “How do I Interact with and Impact My World?” The format will organize modules by grade level in grades pk-5, and by grade span for grades 6-8 and 9-12.
The essential elements of each of the modules include:
A project-based format
Best practices in asynchronous lesson design
Embedded formative assessments and opportunities for students to check for understanding
Standards in two or more content areas, three preferred
Opportunities to demonstrate growth in one or more of the Guiding Principles
Content that is inclusive of the experiences and multi-cultural backgrounds of students.
Considerations in accommodations for special education and English Learners
Embedded elements of social/emotional/behavioral learning and trauma-informed practices
During the first planning meeting that was held on June 15, 2020 the elements, format, and timeline were reviewed with the dynamic group of teachers, and the brainstorming and collaboration began for creating modules for a quarter of a school year.
The platform will be launched at the beginning of September, and feedback on the modules will inform the continued development process throughout the 2020-2021 school year. We are excited by the professional collaboration and creativity that the platform will ignite with Maine educators, and by the development of organic, Maine-based learning resources and opportunities.
My musical career started in 4th grade when I picked up the flute in the beginning band at Metcalf Middle School in Exeter-West Greenwich, RI. My middle school music teacher, Joe Smith, was an inspiration to me and all my classmates. He was quirky, fun, and taught us interesting and different music. It was truly an amazing middle school music experience. I would definitely say that he inspired me to be the kind of teacher I am today.
I went to Boston University for my Bachelors degree in Flute Performance and to Boston Conservatory after that for my Masters degree in Flute Performance and Music Education. I then moved up to Maine and finished my certification requirements through USM while playing in the Southern Maine Community Orchestra and continuing to seek out performance opportunities in the area.
My first teaching job was at Marion T. Morse Elementary School in Lisbon Falls teaching K-5 General Music and beginning band. I was hired at Gorham Middle School (GMS) in 2003 when the school was built and I was tasked with developing a brand new middle school music program that had not previously existed. Currently I teach General Music to all 6th & 7th grade students, Chorus for middle school and Steel Band to middle and high school students. My amazing colleague, Rose Skillling, also teaches GMS General Music as well as the Band and Jazz Band program.
I have always been a huge proponent of educational technology and the positive impact it can have on music education particularly in schedules where we see students so infrequently. dHaving Apple devices, a large portion of my curriculum has been based in Garage Band for many years. So when our technology director announced that the entire 6th grade would be moving to Chromebooks a few years ago I had a panic attack thinking I was going to completely lose the amazing possibilities I had opened up for the students. I did some research and I found a couple of apps that would work on the Chromebooks in a similar way and thankfully administration was super supportive and on board with purchasing Soundtrap and WeVideo for every student in the 6th grade. Unbeknownst to me, this was about to open up a whole new avenue of connections across the world for me and the students.
At the time, Soundtrap, a small company based in Sweden, was still only a few years old and not that well known. But there happened to be a Maine educator who had connected with them and taken a position as an educational consultant. I quickly connected with her, and we teamed up to present Soundtrap at the student MLTI conference the same year I introduced the software to my curriculum. From there, the opportunities for sharing student work, lessons, ideas, connecting with music educators, blog posts, and articles just kept coming. Soundtrap has since been acquired by Spotify and is being widely used by educators and musicians. In January of 2020, through Soundtrap, I connected with the Society for Online Music Education and was invited to direct a Virtual Choir project for the International Music Education Summit to be premiered in mid-March. There were a couple of other Virtual Choir projects out there that I knew about but this was to be a new vision, one that included collaboration amongst participants, making Soundtrap the ideal software to use. We had a handful of teachers signed up for the pilot project. Things were going calmly and smoothly, and then COVID-19 hit us.
With the swift move to on-line learning, every music educator in the world immediately started to seek out virtual ensembles for students to participate in. Our project was quickly populated with hundreds of teachers and students and my director position got a lot more complicated! I asked two Maine colleagues, Rachel Scala-Bolduc and Patrick Volker, to help create vocal practice tracks to support the diverse group of new participants. Another music educator who teaches full-time at a virtual school suggested I try a Zoom rehearsal for participants to help them learn the parts. She hosted a how-to-run-a-virtual-rehearsal webinar that I participated in which ended up being an invaluable resource. The edit of the recordings took many, many hours of organizing, communicating, editing, and figuring out how to make the best quality audio. At one point I was playing the tracks for my husband and he suggested just dipping the volume at a certain point and it made a huge difference! During another moment of frustration, I listened to one of Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs to get some inspiration and realized that reverb was a key component to blending the voices that I had yet to try. I am so thankful for this learning opportunity because it gave me a head start for what was to come with the extension of distance learning to the end of the year.
As soon as our school announced the closure in March, I set up Zoom virtual rehearsals with the Chorus classes right away. We continued rehearsing just the same as we had in school. The only difference being, I couldn’t hear them as a group and they couldn’t hear each other. We experimented together, recorded during Zooms, recorded after Zooms, talked about other apps that might accommodate multiple singers, but we just kept on our path of our end-of-year performance goals and figured out everything together along the way. The students continued learning music we had started in school and also learned new music purely through our virtual rehearsals. In the end, they have recorded six pieces of music during our time home due to COVID-19, all of which I am turning into virtual choir videos to serve as our “spring performance”. While this is certainly not an ideal scenario for ensembles to rehearse, it is temporary and it can be successful!
Unfortunately, because the steel pans are housed at school, and the steel band program is extracurricular, that is now in a bit of a holding pattern until we know the future of getting back into the school this Fall. I have been researching apps that could provide some type of virtual pan experience to get the students by in the meantime and I have been in communication with our facilities department about potentially holding outdoor parking lot rehearsals for steel band next year.
General Music Class was another whole challenge when we moved to distance learning! At GMS, students have 7-9 week rotations of Allied Arts. Both the 6th & 7th Grade Music Classes were about halfway through the rotation when we moved to online classes so we had established relationships and structures ahead of time. However, the student rotation change to a new Allied Arts class was scheduled for right after April break. This meant students and teachers connecting with and getting to know each other for the first time in a new content area, virtually. As an Allied Arts team we worked together to help our current classes connect with the next teacher through Google Classroom. In Music Class, we introduced a Tabata composition project that combined physical activity and Music to help make the Music to PE transition smoother. The last rotation has been a challenge. It has been difficult to connect with kids with the asynchronous model that our district adopted due to many class meetings happening simultaneously. I have learned a lot about what I need to change in order to effectively teach new music concepts to individuals in an online format as opposed to a full group in person where we utilize a lot of repetition and group collaboration to help support learning. Although there are plenty of other variables in a new grouping of students, there was a marked difference in the performance of the General Music students who started before distance learning and those who started purely in the online format. This summer, my colleague and I plan to meet to talk about some of these challenges and make plans for how we can better teach General Music class should we remain in distance learning this Fall.
There have been a lot of worries circulating amongst Music teachers with research studies outlining the risks of the high transmission rate of COVID-19 through singing and instrument playing in conjunction with news of music educators being laid off in districts around the country. The best thing we can do right now is to show our communities and administrators that, despite temporary limitations, music can and should still continue in our schools regardless of whether we are in the building or learning remotely. Think of solutions that will work and suggest them to colleagues and administrators before something is suggested for you! That also requires creativity, experimenting and out of the box thinking from all music educators. During the last few months, I had an overall participation rate of about 80% in my chorus students with a couple of overwhelmed students asking to drop and a couple of students asking to join because their schedule was suddenly free to do so. I had students completing Music Class work first thing in the morning saying they liked to do “the fun stuff” first. I had parents emailing about how much fun they had helping their child compose music or how amazing it was to hear the final virtual choir recording after hearing their child singing their part alone at home. The more success stories we share, the more everyone will continue to see the value in continued music and arts education whether we are teaching in the comfort of our classrooms or through the virtual world.
Here are the various end-products I’ve worked on with the GMS Virtual Chorus:
“I See Colors” – May 2020
Audio recorded in Soundtrap, edited in Garage Band, video collected in Flipgrid, edited in iMovie, collage and effects in WeVideo:
“Home” – April 2020
Audio recorded in Soundtrap, edited in Garage Band, slideshow videos of staff messages collected in Flipgrid, compiled in iMovie:
“Between the Bells” – March 2020
Audio recorded in Soundtrap, edited in Garage Band, stock images from pexels.com, lyrics added in Adobe After Effects:
“The Tiger” – May 2020
Audio recorded in Soundtrap, edited in Garage Band, video recorded in a Zoom session, compiled and lyrics & effects added in WeVideo:
“The Never Ending Story” – June 2020
Audio recorded in Soundtrap, edited in Garage Band, pictures from the Gorham MIddle School Facebook page, compiled in iMovie:
This is part of a series highlighting the stories of young artists in quarantine. The period of free time that many people are experiencing has led to a sense of freedom in creating– when not held back by the standards expected by society and in much of art education (or needing to prove talent/fill resumes) it’s incredible what can be done. Alone in your room with just a paintbrush or guitar has led many students to find a new independence in art when they have the ability to create just for themselves. We’re hoping that by telling these stories, a change will occur in the way we approach arts education, to focus on the growth of the individual, even after quarantine comes to an end. Thank you Robyn Walker-Spencer, 2020 graduate, Camden Hills Regional High School, for launching this series of young artists in quarantine.
This post is written by Caleb Edwards who will be a senior at Watershed School in Camden in the fall.
What instruments do you play and what is your artist medium?
I play violin, piano, drums, mandolin, and I sing. I draw with colored pencils.
When did you start making art and playing music?
I started playing violin at age 8 and picked up other instruments over the years. I have been drawing forever, but I guess I started taking it seriously in middle school.
What experiences have you had with arts education in the past that shaped your experience?
My Waldorf School elementary experience definitely sparked my interests in the arts, especially life drawing.
What role does art and music play in your life now?
Music is everything for me and I am hoping to go to college for music production and composition I’ve picked up a few more instruments one the years since I started playing the violin. I also work with Logic Pro and produce both my music and help other artists on recording.
How has quarantine changed the way you approach art (new sense of independence/freedom)?
I think the extra time has had the biggest impact. I did a month-long project through a media class at school which I wrote and recorded a piece of music everyday. This turned into a welcome routine in my life and the outcome is a large collection of work I can draw from in the future.
Sweet Tree Arts is thrilled to announce their Fellowship Program in partnership with SLAM Out Loud. Sweet Tree Arts and the Sweetland School are located in Hope, Maine. SLAM Out Loud is an organization in India. The Fellowship is open to artists and educators and begins in August 2020. The Fellowship offers experiences in arts based, learner centered approaches with trailblazing educators and learners in Maine and India. Learn the details by clicking on the flyer (below) to make it larger. The application available at THIS LINK.
…for taking on most likely the biggest challenge in your teaching career and for getting the JOB DONE! As you close the door on another school year I wish you a relaxing summer. As you take time for yourself and reflect on the last months please know I am grateful for the commitment you make to your learners and to ARTS education!
Indigo Arts Alliance is a proud partner with I’m Your Neighbor Books and Diverse Book Finder bringing this important program for young children and families everywhere.
Starting today and every #FestivalFriday through August 31, Indigo will release a new reading video on the Beautiful Blackbird website that highlights a different book, as well as its Black author and illustrator. Browse the book titles here and stay tuned for the live recordings, performances, arts and crafts activities weekly this Summer!
Stay connected to Indigo Arts Alliance on Facebook, and Instagram for updates.
Thanks to Art teacher Jen Williams for sharing her schools Virtual Art Show from Carrie Ricker School (RSU4) in Litchfield. It’s an 11 minute video on youtube showcasing the grades 3-5 student artwork – that is amazing. Two of the music tracks were created in music class with teacher Wade Johnston. View below.
AUBURN SCHOOLS VIRTUAL ART EXHIBITS
A great big thanks to Art teacher and Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) Teacher Leader Lynda Leonas for providing links to two wonderful Virtual Student Shows from where she teaches in Auburn!
Music teacher Patricia Gordan shared her COVID story on the blog recently. The Raymond Elementary School chorus has been working since January on five songs for the spring concert. Since being away from school she has been working on one of the songs virtually: “Send Down the Rain” by Joyce Eilers. The song has been put together beautifully! SEND DOWN THE RAIN
Davia Hersey
HAMPDEN ACADEMY VIRTUAL ART GALLERY
A section of the gallery features Paper Bag Portraits with this information: Let’s face it this quarantine has presented us with an opportunity to be creative. While looking for regular household items to use for art making, I found that a brown paper bag is a great size/ shape for a portrait study. It also has the effect of working on a piece of toned brown paper which is a nice place to start for a portrait. An exhibit with a plethora of ideas with thanks to Art teacher and Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) Teacher Leader Melanie Crowe!
CAMDEN HILLS REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
“Guiding Light” – Text and Music by Matt LaBerge. Camden Hills Regional High School Chamber Singers and Alumni Virtual Choir. Director Music teacher Kim Murphy.
OAK HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL ART GALLERY
7th and 8th grade student artwork from Oak Hill Middle School is part of a virtual art show located at THIS LINK. Thank you to art teacher Gail Rodrigue-duBois for providing this opportunity.
USM JURIED STUDENT EXHIBIT
This special on-line exhibition was open to all USM students submitting work in any media. The juried show introduces students to a professional exhibition where they learn to prepare art for a professional setting, obtain feedback from art professionals, and have their work exposed to a wide range of viewers. Due to Coronavirus, the focus this year was on students learning how to photograph their art at home as well as uploading files – good skills to acquire for many future art opportunIties. GORHAM AND PORTLAND EXHIBIT
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE
Thesis exhibits by Senior Seminar students Delaney Fone, Marissa Joly, Regan H. Mars, and Demel Ruff are now showcased online until August 15, 2020. The engagement of the public through the art, and the public presentation of students’ work are core components to the successful completion of the Art 401 Senior Seminar course, a senior capstone requirement course for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art students, and a professional practice elective option for those obtaining their Bachelor of Arts studio degrees. SHOWCASE.
Maine is fortunate to have such marvelous arts educators!
We know that what a teacher offers can have an enormous impact on student development day to day AND over their lifetime. As educators retire at the close of another school year, 2019-2020, I invite you to join me in THANKING them for their years of service and dedication to students across the state.
May your road ahead be filled with many years of good health, love and happiness! Yahooooooo! I’m sure you’ll never forget your last spring of teaching through the COVID pandemic.
The following visual and performing educators have contributed a combined 263+ years to teaching visual and/or performing arts education!
CAROL BAKER ROUX, Sanford Jr. High 7/8 Band, 40 years
SALLY BEAN, MSAD 58, Mt Abram High School, Visual Arts, ? years
BECKY CHRISTIE, Mast Landing School, Freeport, 34 years
IVER LOFLING, Skowhegan High School, Visual Arts, ? years
MAX MARQUIS, River View Community School, S. Gardiner, MSAD 11, Visual Arts, 32 years
HEATHER MACLEOD, Brewer Community School and Brewer High School, General and Choral Music, 30 years
CHRISTINE NILES, Colby College, Theater Department, Visual Arts, ? years
NANCY ROWE, Camden Hills High School, Instrumental Music, 40 years
LUCY GRACE SARGEANT, Sanford High School, Visual Arts, 48 years
SUSAN CYR, Dike-Newell and Phippsburg Elementary Schools, Music, 39 years
If you know of a teacher who is not on this list please be sure and email me at meartsed@gmail.com with the information and I’d be glad to add them. Thanks!
This is part of a series highlighting the stories of young artists in quarantine. The period of free time that many people are experiencing has led to a sense of freedom in creating– when not held back by the standards expected by society and in much of art education (or needing to prove talent/fill resumes) it’s incredible what can be done. Alone in your room with just a paintbrush or guitar has led many students to find a new independence in art when they have the ability to create just for themselves. We’re hoping that by telling these stories, a change will occur in the way we approach arts education, to focus on the growth of the individual, even after quarantine comes to an end. Thank you Robyn Walker-Spencer, 2020 graduate, Camden Hills Regional High School, for launching this series of young artists in quarantine.
This post is written by Amy Kunzinger who just graduated from Camden Hills Regional High School.
Art has been a big part of my life ever since I was a kid. Since I can remember I have been picking up a camera and snapping shots of loved ones at family parties, or bees buzzing in the garden. I got my first camera when I was about eight and have only grown my interest in photography since then.
My art, however, is not only limited to photography. I have always loved painting, drawing and clay, and my middle school after school art club helped me explore all of my interests at a young age. Art has always been a part of my academic education, but after school art is what helped me grow my interest in clay and photography. I went to a very small school in Appleton, and we only had one wheel to throw on, so my art teacher started an after-school club for kids that wanted more time to do things that we didn’t have the time, or resources for in class. I started throwing on the wheel and absolutely loved it. This interest spilled over into high school and I have been fiddling with clay ever since.
I can also remember the first time someone showed interest in my photography. It was again in middle school and my art teacher told me there was a photography show happening at the library in town. My ears perked up immediately. I got together a collection of my favorite photos and printed them all out. A lady took interest in one of my photos of a lightbulb and bought it. She wrote me a letter telling me to never stop creating, and I haven’t. Her letter gave me the confidence I needed to continue my journey in the arts.
Art for me is an outlet from the stresses of everyday life. In my photography I like to explore the unexpected, and the forgotten perspectives of everyday life. When I am out with my friends for a shoot, all the worries in the world are forgotten, and the world is my canvas to shape for the perfect photo. I also use paining and drawing as a way to forget everyday life, but those creations are more a private exploration I use for my own benefit— photography is what I let the world see.
Quarantine for me let me have more time to explore the arts in a more private sense for my own folly. I was creating clay masks and rubber prints almost every day to just try to forget the madness happening in the world. I also decided to start a project the first day of remote schooling where I would take a picture of myself every day, until remote schooling was over. It didn’t end until school did, so I ended up with weeks’ worth of photos, some where I was extremely happy, and other I looked just plain miserable.
The Music Educator Award presented by Recording Academy and Grammy Museum have announced their quarterfinalists for 2021. Great news – three Maine music educators have been named to the list. How wonderful that three of our won Maine teachers rose to the top out of nearly 2,000 nominees!
CONGRATULATIONS Maine Music Educators:
CAROL CLARK – Gray-New Gloucester High School
PATRICK VOLKER – Scarborough High School
TRACY WILLIAMSON – Gorham Middle School
“I’m honored to have received the nomination for this award, but this is really for my students, and I’m happy for all of us! This is for my current students and new graduates, for every one who has come through my music program, their parents, my administrators and the caring, supportive communities of Gray and New Gloucester. Wonderful things happen when you teach in small towns!” ~Carol Clark
Carol Clark with her life long buddies, Loren Fields (band director Lawrence HS) and Lonnie Wescott (band & choir director Traip Academy)!
“It is such an honor to be nominated by my students and recognized on a national level. All I have ever sought to do as a music educator is bring people together, build communities through a love of music, and make the world a better place.” ~Patrick Volker www.patrickvolker.com and we’re @redstorm_chorus on Instagram and Twitter.
Patrick Volker
“I am beyond thrilled to be nominated as a quarterfinalist for this amazing awardalong with so many talented music educators from all around the country! I’m excited for my students to share in this experience with me!” ~Tracy Williamson
Tracy Williamson
A total of 216 music teachers from 199 cities have been announced as quarterfinalists for the Music Educator Award™ presented by the Recording Academy® and GRAMMY Museum®. In total, nearly 2,000 initial nominations were submitted. In addition to our quarterfinalists, 91 legacy applicants from 2020 will also be eligible to win the award this year. Read the entire list of nominees.
The Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators (kindergarten through college, public and private schools) who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools. A joint partnership and presentation of the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum, the recipient will be recognized during GRAMMY® Week 2021.
The award is open to current U.S. music teachers, and anyone can nominate a teacher — students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers are also able to nominate themselves, and nominated teachers are notified and invited to fill out an application.
Each year, one recipient is selected from 10 finalists and recognized for their remarkable impact on students’ lives. The eighth annual honoree will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards® and a range of GRAMMY Week events. The nine additional finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists will receive matching grants.
Fifteen semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants. The matching grants provided to the schools are made possible by the generosity and support of the GRAMMY Museum’s Education Champion Ford Motor Company Fund. In addition, the American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, NAMM Foundation, and National Education Association support this program through outreach to their constituencies.
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.
Created by Maine educators for Maine educators and students, the Department of Education is proud to announce that the work of creating the Maine Learning Platform has begun. To provide anytime, anywhere learning options and resources for educators, students and their families, the Maine Department of Education, in collaboration with curriculum coordinators, Maine educational community organizations, museums, learning centers, and Maine educators, is creating a library of asynchronous learning modules that are aligned to Maine’s Learning Results.
me arts ed 