ARTS Newsletter #10- 13 June 2007
GREETINGS FROM ARGY’S CUBBY with a view of the STATE HOUSE DOME at the Department of Education
ARTS NEWS
CONGRATULATIONS to all of you who are finishing another successful year of teaching! I know you’re busy, returning student art work, packing up instruments, giving exams and cleaning classrooms. I understand that art teachers Chris Chapman and Jim Stampone and music teachers Richard Randazzo and Ken Ball are packing and cleaning for the last time. Congratulations on your retirement from teaching at Mt. Ararat High School, Falmouth High School, Portland High School and MSAD #11, respectively. I must admit I am a bit envious thinking about the end of the school year. I especially enjoy this month with middle school students!
NEWSLETTER
If you would like to retrieve newsletters #1-9 please go to http://mailman.informe.org/pipermail/doe-arts/
This newsletter is being emailed to 445 educators this week! That is an increase of 27 since the last newsletter! If you know someone who isn’t receiving the newsletter and would like to, please ask them to email me at argy.nestor@maine.gov If you would like the newsletter to go to a “summer email address” please let me know.
CALL FOR PRESENTERS-VPA CONFERENCE
Outstanding ideas are being carried out every day throughout Maine in your classrooms. Please consider sharing your work by presenting a workshop:
AT THE CREATIVE CENTER- THE ARTS IN MAINE SCHOOLS state-wide conference. If interested please send in the attached ‘call for presenters’ form by JULY 1st to me by email argy.nestor@maine.gov or snail mail to Maine Dept. of Ed., 23 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0023.
STATE-WIDE ARTS CONFERENCE-OCT. 5, 6, 2007
AT THE CREATIVECENTER
THE ARTS IN MAINE SCHOOLS
A ‘save-the-date’ postcard was mailed last week to 1299 visual and performing arts teachers in Maine announcing the state-wide arts conference sponsored by the Maine Department of Education (MDOE), The Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) and the Maine Arts Commission (MAC) partnering with Maine Art Education Association (MAEA), Maine Music Educators Association (MMEA), Maine Drama Council (MDC) Dance Education in Maine Schools (DEMS) and VSA arts of Maine (VSA).
The conference will be held at the Samoset Resort in Rockport. More information will be coming in this newsletter throughout the summer. Registration information will be mailed via US Postal to your school addresses at the end of August. The cost for conference registration is $75.00.
The conference planning committee is meeting in July to continue working on this professional development opportunity. Please email me if you have questions or would like to help argy.nestor@maine.gov
CONGRATULATIONS
Dwight Tibbetts, Augusta music teacher and member of the Downeast Brass of Maine has just had four brass quintet pieces published through Solid Brass Publications. If you see the group performing this summer in New England I am sure they will be sharing this music. Congratulations Dwight!
“Performed at Fort Kent High School, “The Fantasticks” was a huge success with over 400 people in attendance! It was such a popular show that the public demanded an encore performance. After 20 years with no major musical the school is finally over the hurdle-------on to next years selection!” Congratulations Doug Clapp, Drama Director!
DANCE RESIDENCY WITH ERMA COLVIN
From June 3 to June 8, ninety six 6th graders at Camden-Rockport Middle School spent an exciting week studying the late twentieth century. The unit was a
collaboration of the 6th grade team teachers, Jim Morse (Social Studies), Katie Bauer (Math), Paula Lavoie(Science), Dee Kopesky (Computer Science) and
Dick Taylor (Language Arts). Erma Colvin was hired to choreograph dances for each decade. The students were divided into 4 groups. One group made tessellations, one group launched rockets, one group built a slide show of their decade in iMovie and the 4th group rehearsed their dance piece. In addition, each day one group traveled to the Challenger Center in Bangor. On Friday, after 3 rehearsal sessions, the 6th grade put on a performance with lighting and costumes. The performance consisted of the slide show and dance from the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. The gym was full of 5th graders, seeing what awaits them next year, 7th graders, seeing the performance they did the previous year, (though all the dances were new), and multitudes of families and friends. This unit, including the choreography is now a permanent part of the Social Studies budget. Contact Erma for more info erma3_04574@yahoo.com
RESEARCH AND SUMMER READING
Please click on the link below for outstanding summer reading for dance, music, theater and visual arts education: International Journal of Education & the Arts
Be sure and pick up a copy of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, a must read!
CREATIVITY
Please click on the link below to get a video of Sir Ken Robinson, noted expert on education and creativity. This lecture is Do Schools Kill Creativity?
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66
REORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS
The Department of Education is scheduling meetings open to the public that are designed to provide information about the reorganization law and guidance about moving forward with regional planning, and to answer questions. Attached is a letter from Commissioner Susan Gendron with some details of the reorganization. To learn more about the reorganization or to see the schedule of meetings please click on this link: http://www.maine.gov/education/supportingschools/
MUSIC WEBSITES and PERFORMANCE, SINGING INFO
Thank you Beth Preston, Lincoln Academy for sharing, see attached info also!
To help train students to sing Sebben Curdele, you might find this website useful:
http://www.opera-karaoke.com/arias/sebben_crudele.html
And other good music education sites:
http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/
http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/eledMusic.html
http://www.samedaymusic.com/library--educatorresources
MAINE CRAFT ORGANIZATION CONSORTIUM INFO
Please read the attachment to learn about their exciting work going on in Maine.
EDUCATION LAW CONFERENCE- July 24-27
Please click on the link www.edlaw.org to learn more about the conference and the arts events at the upcoming Education Law Conference at USM in Portland from July 24-27, 2007. They include a student photography exhibit from Critical Exposure in Washington, D.C.; and a performance of the play Laramie Project by the Searsport High School Players. Reduced fee scholarships are available for Maine educators who want to attend.
QUOTE OF THE NEWSLETTER
"Steve Jobs has done more Cool Stuff than anybody else in Silicon Valley. . . . one of his success secrets is loading every development team with artist and historians and poets and musicians and dramatists. He says he wants to bring to bear, on each project, the best of human cultural accomplishment. So how come schools don't get it? Budget crunch? First programs to be cut? Art and Music. I say the hell with the math budget [I really don't mean that.] Let's enhance the art budget and inflate the music budget. Training in Creativity is important, in general. But it is absolutely essential in this Age of Intangibles and Intellectual Capital."
Source: Tom Peters, Re-imagine
