ARTS NEWSLETTER # 19 – 30 October 2007
GREETINGS FROM ARGY’S CUBBY with a view of the STATE HOUSE DOME at the Department of Education
ARTS NEWS
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! May your day be filled with goblins and ghosts!
The ringing of the phone and emails with questions and comments about the conference have slowed in my cubby, but the success of it continues. I am so grateful for the collaboration of the professional arts organizations (MAAE, MAC, MAEA, MMEA, MDC, DEMS and VSA Arts) and want to give one last public THANK YOU to all the volunteers that helped make it the success it was. I hope the positive energy that you returned to your schools with (if you attended) spreads throughout your school and community. And, if you weren’t able to join us, I hope you take advantage of other opportunities to renew your commitment to arts education.
Since our conference I have attended three other conferences and my appreciation for conference planning has increased greatly!
- New England Gifted and Talented conference held at the Holiday Inn, Portland. Sally Reis gave the keynote speech and I was glad to hear her echo my sentiments of the importance of the relationship the teacher has with each student. Also, when we connect kids learning with their passions, their test scores will inevitably increase.
- Maine Association for Middle Level Education at Sugarloaf. The colors of the leaves were beautiful and it was great to hear keynote speaker Angus King summarize the impact of the one-to-one technology. Let us not forget to continue to find ways to use this tool in arts education. I presented a session with a colleague and guidance counselor Chris deGroff called: “Hip Hip Hazzah or “How to Have Fun Each Day in School!”
- Executive Director of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, Carol Trimble and I presented at the Maine School Management
Association conference at the civic center with a session called: “A Place for Arts Education”. We were encouraged by the school board members who attended that care a great deal about their visual and performing arts education programs.
NEWSLETTER
LARGE INCREASE…. this electronic arts education newsletter is going to 567 readers. This is an increase of 27 from the last newsletter. You can read back issues by clicking on: http://mailman.informe.org/pipermail/doe-arts/
I know there many NEW teachers so please ask them to contact me if they are interested in receiving the arts education newsletter: argy.nestor@maine.gov
ARGY’S ARTS BLOG
It has been a few months since I posted a new topic to the blog. Recently email and phone call questions have caused me to pause and ask “what is going on?” Sooooooooo…. I am interested in hearing what you have to say. PLEASE respond to the following topic: There seems to be a decrease in a commitment to band programs, as we know them (especially at the elementary and middle school level). Two examples:
1) the level of involvement in District Festivals is down
2) scheduling has become more difficult
Are you finding this to be true in your school? If so, what is the reason for these changes? Please take a few minutes and go to the Arts blog http://mearts.edublogs.org/ and give feedback on what you know is happening in your school district and give your opinion.
PORTA PORTAL
I have added several new sites to the porta portal, please free to use it as my guest. Click on: http://portaportal.com and on the right side of the screen under the words “Guest Access” type in: meartsed. If you have any great sites you’d like to share please send them to me argy.nestor@maine.gov and remember it is a ‘work in progress’.
MLR’s and CROSS CONTENT CONNECTIONS
MAINE LEARNING RESULTS – CHAPTER 132
The Maine State Board of Education has officially approved Regulation 132, Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction. The final changes are online AND they are in two formats, pdf and rtf (rich text format). To download please click on: http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/review/peigr.html
Also available at the same link is the “Cross Content Connections” document that shows some of the connections between the 8 content areas of the Maine Learning Results. It is meant to serve as a starting point for teachers to identify the bridges.
AMERICANS for the ARTS
Research has shown that arts education has suffered as a result of the focus on mathematics and reading in NCLB. Please click on: http://www.AmericansForTheArts.org/ArtsEducation/NCLB for the complete report of arts education’s recommendations.
CONFERENCES
- “Juice: Powering the Creative Economy” conference: November 16th and 17th in Rockland and Camden. For more information please go to www.juiceconference.org
- New England Art Education Conference, Friday, November 2nd- Sunday, November 4th, Sheraton Four Points Resort – Hyannis, Massachusetts.
MAINE ARTS TEACHERS FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM – DEADLINE EXTENDED
Maine Alliance for Arts Education and the Maine Community Foundation has extended the deadline for their second round of the fellowship program. Teachers of dance, music, theater and visual arts are eligible one of eight $5000.00 awards to pursue personal artistic development. For more information please go to www.maineartseducation.org MAAE will accept preliminary project proposals until November 30th, 2007. Interested teachers please contact David Lamon, the program’s coordinator by November 30th at fellowship@maineartseducation.org
MMEA WEBSITE
The Maine Music Educators Association website has a brand new look. Webmaster Barbara Packales has just announced the updating of the site and has included an RSS feed. Please check it out http://www.mainemmea.org
THINKING OF BLOGGING?
If you are thinking about blogging with students I suggest you check out Winthrop Middle School’s Talking Wall project that was done with grade 6-8th grade students, art teacher Lisa Gilman and children’s book writer Margy Burns Knight. It contains photos and text… please check it out at http://wmsart.blogspot.com/
JOB OPENING
Art teacher, grades 6-12, Millinocket School Department. For more information please contact Sara Alberts at 746-3500.
POETRY OUT LOUD: NATIONAL RECITATION CONTEST
The Maine Arts Commission in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition. To learn more please go to http://mainearts.maine.gov/news/release.asp?ID=7780
or email tina.p.mann@maine.gov
COMPANIES
An art teacher recently emailed asking for suggestions of companies to order art supplies from. With the help of teachers who responded to my email I have created web page with art suppliers listed. If anyone has other companies please email them to me and I will add them to the list.
MAINE BAND DIRECTORS FORUM
John Morneau, Band Director, from Great Salt Bay Community School is organizing an opportunity once a month to discuss a variety of topics including repertoire, rehearsal and performance techniques and commissioning projects, to name a few. The first gathering is scheduled for Sunday, November 11th, 2-4:00pm at Bowdoin College. If you are interested in participating in this professional development opportunity please contact John at jmorneau@u74.k12.me.us and he will send you more details.
ALL STATE MUSIC INFORMATION
Reminders:
- No pay/no play
- Adult chaperone needs to accompany students
- Fee must be paid before students register
- Please check the website to see if your school is up to date
- Any circumstances that are unclear or any questions please contact
Kim Mathieu: kimma@gorhamschools.org
ELECTRONIC MUSIC COMPOSITION COMPETITION
MENC and the National School Board Association (NSBA) is sponsoring an electronic music composition contest. Winning students will be honored at the NSBA conference, October 28-30, 2008 in Seattle, Washington. Applicatoin deadline is April 14th. For more information please go to http://www.menc.org/contest/contests.htm
PAINTING CLASS
Artist Barbara Hathaway, Painter of Sunsets, is organizing a woman’s watercolor retreat at the Maine Audubon Borestone Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Elliotsville Twp. On July 18-20, 2008. For more information please email Barbara at bhaway@prexar.com
LICENSE PLATES REQUESTED
Union 74 music teacher, Bunny Stanley, started a handbell program last year (as part of a teacher exchange program she participated in) at the International School in Estonia. The family she stayed with on a home visit are collecting license plates from each US state. If you’d like to help with this project by donating a license plate please contact Bunny at bstanley@u74.k12.me.us
GRANT AVAILABLE FOR WASHINGTON COUNTY ARTISTS IN SCHOOLS
Maine Community Foundation announces that the Minsky Fund for Arts Education will be offering five $1,000 grants to Washington County teachers in grades 3-5 for an artist in residence to work with the students and teachers to integrate their art into the curriculum. Art is defined as the visual and/or performing arts. The deadline is January 15th. Please contact Pamela Cleghorn at 761-2440 or pcleghorn@mainecf.org. The guidelines and application are available at http://www.mainecf.org/grants/availablegrants/minsky.aspx
CELLO QUARTET TO VISIT US
In December an excellent quartet from Instanbul, Cellistanbul, will be coming to tour the US. They will perform a piece that was written by Dr. Joseph Packales of USM. Dr. Packales is married to Barb who is a music teacher in Gardiner and webmaster for the Maine Music Education Association website. A place to stay and $1000.00 is needed to help with this trip. If you know of an organization or an individual who might help with this endeavor please contact Barb at packalesb@aol.com
REALLY COOL WEBSITE
Please check out this website I just learned about from the math specialist at the Maine Department of Education: http://songsforteaching.com/
PORTLAND HARBOR MUSEUM
The museum has a photography retrospective exhibit of Portland Harbor and Portland from the 1800’s. You can see the display until November 25th. Please learn more at www.portlandharbormuseum.org
QUOTE OF THE NEWSLETTER
“It is no longer good enough for schools to send out students who know how to do what they were taught. The modern world needs citizens who can do what they were not taught. We call this “learning learning.”
Seymore Papert
