At a poster session at ISTE 2010, I was introduced to the Goldie Anna awards given out by the New York City Department of Education. These awards are designed to identify innovative practices in the classroom that are then shared with a partner school. The awards are between $10,000 and $30,000 and the program is supported by 4 major companies.
Look at the website below for information but also look through the award winners for great ideas.
http://www.nycempowerment.org./goldieanna
At ISTE I had the good fortune to speak with Jamie Kasper, the Fine Arts and Humanities Advisor at the PA Department of Education. She and Mara Linaberger co-chair the Arts SIG and they are co-developers of a incredibly effective model for PD for the Arts called “Arts Educator 2.0.”
I have always felt that PD administered by schools do not address the needs of Arts Educators. Digital media is hard to master and educators in the Arts are given precious little time to do so. Arts Educators should be allowed to “play” with the technology so they can understand the range of possibilities from which to teach their students. The literature for “Arts Educator 2.0” begins with a philosophy list from which the program was created. Most important (to me) on this list is the belief that all PD should be differentiated and that collaborative arts-based inquiry is an effective method for “meaningful teacher learning.” (yea!!!)
Jamie described how she gathered the teachers in workshops and the day would begin with a performance or art demonstration. The example she gave me was of a group from Pittsburgh called “Cello Fuery,” a group of cellists who play rock music. Behind the ensemble she ran a live feed so audience members could read each others reaction to the music (not sure if she used Twitter or another technology for this). What a fantastic idea!!! The teachers would then create collaborative lesson plans and were introduced to new technologies that they could use in their practice. Teachers also developed a “Personal Professional Development Plan” and were supported with this plan with the help of a project faculty mentor. The technologies needed were provided through a grant from the US Department of Education and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
What is amazing about this model is that Jamie and Mara united a community of artists through collaborative projects AND gave them time to explore what they needed to add to their practice in order to be better teachers.
They built Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia from the ground up and at first glance, they were tremendously successful in delivering a thoughtful, project based curriculum. Chris was a very passionate speaker and he laid out a great roadmap for other educators who are reforming their schools. He also modeled project based learning by having the audience interact with specific questions centered on defining the essentials that make up a school. This was a masterful presentation and I was truly inspired after leaving. I put my notes below for those who are interested but also know that the Chris is very generous with his materials and the lecture can be found at:
Know the difference between change and innovation
In order to have thoughtful change -
At Science Learning Center- commonalities
Workshop questions for audience
OK, I’ll admit it-I am a big Karen Cator fan. She is a 21st century learning pioneer and is now the Director of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education. She was on a keynote panel discussing, “Innovation and Excellence: Buzzwords or Global Imperative.” A number of times she emphasized understanding the systems that are in place and how the system dictates learning (example: standardized testing). She suggested that the only way to change some systems was for a grass roots effort for reform. She suggested maybe keeping the idea of standardized testing but making it a much better test. While she was on a panel for this keynote session, I’ve collected a few of her key comments below.
“We need to get better at knowing where learning happens.”
“There are different types of innovation-those that we identify and want to sustain and disruptive innovations that come out of left field.”
Referenced Tony Wagner’s (Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group (CLG) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education) research about staying in the question.
“Answering questions is inherently cross disciplinary but we also need the knowledge from specific disciplines.”
“Standardized tests are training students for obsolescence.” However, since we have these systems in place, we could design a test that was so good that it would be a good measure of student progress.
How do you learn? Stay in the question longer. What do you do? How do you go about it? Reach out to your social network. Stay in the question longer.
“One way learning is powered by technology is the possibility to individualize learning.” We need to find what it is that sparks student interest and let students follow their own path (passion).
Emphasized that the National Ed Technology plan is rooted in research and has ideas for changing education.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/site/edlite-default.html
View this session (start 23 minutes in to avoid chatter):http://www.istevision.org/viewsession.php?id=114
What is the great concert hall doing in the middle of nowhere?
Fisher Hall
My daughter and I had just done a college tour of Bard and the guide casually mentioned the “great” music hall. Great?…really? Try breathtaking. Since no one identified as a possible music major (but musicians are everywhere!), I guess it didn’t deserve a visit. Well we did visit, and I’m glad we did because right across from the hall designed by Frank Gehry is an Olafur Eliasson sculpture called “The Parliament of Reality.” This installation is meant as a place for reflection although it was too cold on my visit to linger for very long. The bridge is worth contemplation as was the island that it leads to. This is a spectacular piece and I look forward to sitting there once it is warmer.
These are the great things that can transform education when artists are in charge! In this case, conductor Leon Botstein is the president of Bard. In fact, I was introduced to Olafur Eliasson’s work through a site visit arranged by Artist/ Educator/Administrator Tim Johnson as a outing that took the place of a faculty meeting. Only an artist would think of inspiring faculty through an immersive, creative experience.
Virtual tour of the Fisher Center for Performing Arts here:
http://www.bard.edu/campus/maps/maptour/view.php?id=36
Boy, you really have to allot all day to go through all of the video work. My daughter and I were college visiting before our visit so we only had three hours which is really not enough time. Anyway, my favorite was a video by Kate Gilmore in which she filmed herself breaking free from inside a twelve foot column. The video camera was placed facing down into the column and captured the artist clawing her way out of the column by kicking holes in the drywall. It was an obvious metaphor “for conflicts and social obstacles woman face today” but it was visually compelling and I found myself wondering how she would get out. Her dressy outfit and heels added to the drama.
http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial/KateGilmore
In reference to Terry Teachout’s article in the Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704743404575127891014937732.html
What would it take to create a website like Hulu that features arts performances from throughout the US? Professional companies usually video tape performances so why not offer these up to the wider community? I would pay the price of admission to watch a “must see” orchestral premiere, opera or dance from LA or New York. It could be a money maker for the performing arts and some of the money earned could be placed back into reserve to produce better quality videos.
