Week Ending 11/9/18

So much to share!  :)

• First, let's give a ROUND of applause and thanks to our presenters from the Tuesday Professional Development Sessions!  It was great to see the team authentically engaged in some solid strategies!  
• The Special Needs in the Music Classroom presentation by Mary Zema can be found HERE.
• The Blendspace on How to Build a Google Quiz for Measuring Student Learning Goal Data can be found here: Google Forms Tutorial
• The ARTS Frameworks draft can be found HERE.
• The Adapted Art, Tips and Tricks presentation can be found HERE.
• Mark Carvalho's Google Classroom for Planning for Rigorous Tasks and Talk is pbwwpam.  Join!

Thanks to Mary Zema, Chelsea Valois, Becky Jontos and Mark Carvalho for sharing some great "implementable" tips and tricks to add to our tool boxes!

Here are a slew of pictures from this week!

An RPA Art Student

And an RPA Art Lesson...

Our fearless Durfee Music Students at Tuesday's PD Day!

Talking about modes of assessment...

 Amazing Art Faculty collaborating!

Notes, notes and more notes...

A very gracious staff was greeted by this amazing and heart felt donation...  <3

Mary Zema really knows her stuff!

Chelsea Valois shared some great ideas for teachers to try with students with specific needs!

Mark Carvalho, seen here withOUT a BostonMaki print, showing us how he gets our kids to talk using puzzle pieces, technology and google classroom!

Mapping is some hard work!

Ahhh, behold the new Arts Frameworks!

Check out these students in Ms. Zema's piano class- she scaffolds the learning by using these visuals so everyone can achieve and be a musician!  Kudos, Mary!

Heather Pereira's Sculpture Student's work inspired by Louise Nevelson!

This picture does NOT do this piece justice!  It will be amazing when completed, and off to Scholastic Art and Writing Awards!  Fingers crossed!

In the News This Week...

We have a LOT going on!

• NBSO will be at Fonseca and Letourneau on Tuesday the 13th of November!  So excited to see this in action!  Our third graders are so lucky to have the New Bedford Symphony coming to perform with and for THEM!
• The Michael Troy Tribute Concert!  Its Sunday the 18th!  Get your tickets and support Durfee's Music Program!  https://www.narrowscenter.org/the-music-of-michael-troy-11-18-18/
• Wednesday, November 21st is a release time day for all.  Happy Thanksgiving- hope you have a well deserved break!  
• Our Monthly Department Meetings:
• K-5 Art- Meeting at Silvia, 3:45 on Thursday November 29th- Rochelle and Beth will be modeling a printmaking/mono-print lesson
• K-5 Music- Meeting at Letourneau, 3:45 on Thursday, November 29th- Becky will be facilitating the group's conversation on Link Up and potentially the use of a new online curriculum
• 6-8 Art and Music- Meeting virtually from 3:45 to 4:45 on Thursday November 29th.
• Durfee Department Meeting- Wednesday, November 28th- 2:45-3:45 in Room 77! 

Bringing back my ARTS AROUND TOWN Section!

• Check out this week's Coastin': http://www.heraldnews.com/coastin
• Narrows: https://www.showclix.com/events/26362
• New Bedford Art Museum: Hayley Morris!  http://newbedfordart.org/current-exhibitions/
• Troy City Beer, Opening Soon- Support Local Artists! https://www.troycitybeer.com/

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

-Jackie

Week Ending 11/2/18

Thank you to Carlton Medeiros and Crew for permanently affixing this mural to the main entrance wall here at Durfee!  Nina, our Class of 2018 Community Based student would be so proud to know her work is greeting 2000+ students every day!  THE ARTS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Check out this Guitar and Songwriting Jam Session- see any familiar faces?  We love our guest artists!  Thank you, Mary Zema for sharing!

In the News This Week:

• From Mary Zema: Teachers, Gary Bigelow, Mary Zema and student Isabella DesMarais will be representing Durfee High School at the Tribute to Michael Troy at the Narrows on November 18th at 1 pm.  Tickets are available on the Narrows Center for the Arts site and all proceeds come back to the Durfee Music Department!
• Our district professional development day will be held on Tuesday, November 6th- please note that the start time is 8:30 in classrooms.  Here is an agenda:

	NOV PD DAY 2018
Session 1 8:30-9:15 AM	Session 2 9:20-10:15 AM	Session 3 10:30-11:30 AM
Use of Tech to Narrate Assessment	Special Needs in the Art and Music Classroom	Say, WHAT? Planning Rigorous Tasks That Drive Academic Talk and Writing in Art and Music
Instructor: Jackie Francisco	Instructors: Chelsea Valois/Mary Zema	Instructor: Mark Carvalho/Becky Jontos/Jackie Francisco
Library Computer Lab 6	Library Computer Lab 6	Library Computer Lab 6
Teachers will learn technology tools to measure student learning growth and be able to use these tools when narrating that growth at the formative and summative evaluation meetings as well as with students. We will use the Google Tools as well as a Rubric Generator.	Teachers wll present strategies for art and music that work for students with special needs. These strategies will allow for all abilities to reach the goal set for the task. Teachers will leave with supplies and strategies for these scaffolds.	Teachers will engage in conversation with art and music staff about the types of tasks that we plan and how a task can or cannot lend itself to solid academic conversation. This continues our work in Close Reading in Art and Music. A presentation will be given that reviews what a close read in each content area looks and sounds like, and teams will identify the best ways to frame discussion for students around art and music thinking.

LUNCH Break- 11:30 to 12:30

FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS	NOV PD DAY 2018	PM SESSIONS
Session 4	Session 5	Session 5
Durfee Teachers- MAPLE	Curriculum mapping in collaborative grade leveled groups	The New Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for the Arts!
Shayna Morgan/Matt Desmarais	K-8 Teachers	Instructor: Becky Jontos
12:30 to 1:45 PM IMC	12:30 to 1:45 PM Library Computer Lab 6	1:45 to 2:30 PM Library Computer Lab 6
1:45 to 2:40- meeting back with group in IMC 6 to join in on Curriculum Frameworks Conversation (see right).	Teachers will continue to map out rigorous tasks on the district wide map.	Teachers will engage in conversation with art and music staff about the new Frameworks for the Arts.

So excited to have the team together!  And thank you in advance to Chelsea Valois, Mary Zema, Mark Carvalho and Becky Jontos for leading sessions for us!

• The Durfee Marching Band has been invited to perform at the Fall River Veteran's Day Parade!  Sunday, November 11th- Steps off on South Main St at 2PM!
• There will be no school on Monday, November 12th- Veteran's Day.
• The New Bedford Symphony Orchestra will perform AT OUR SCHOOLS- Terry Walkowicz and her team will visit third grade students to continue to work with them on how recycling can happen at home (with plastics and paper) AND in music (with pieces and in compositions) Fonseca at 9AM and Letourneau at 10:30 AM!  SO excited to see these performances!
• Wednesday, November 21st is a release time day, and then there is no school on the 22nd and 23rd.  This is ONE SHORT MONTH- get some solid planning going to keep our kids on their art/music toes!

Monthly Department Meetings:

• K-5 Art- Meeting at Silvia, 3:45 on Thursday November 29th- Rochelle and Beth will be modeling a printmaking/mono-print lesson
• K-5 Music- Meeting at Letourneau, 3:45 on Thursday, November 29th- Becky will be facilitating the group's conversation on Link Up and potentially the use of a new online curriculum
• 6-8 Art and Music- Meeting virtually from 3:45 to 4:45 on Thursday November 29th.
• Durfee Department Meeting- Wednesday, November 28th- 2:45-3:45 in Room 77!  

In closing, I was not in as many classrooms as I would have liked this week- hence, the lack of pics... :( Grant writing and reviewing SLG and PPG Activity Plans were my focus this week.  I will be back out there with you all on Monday!  Have a wonderful first full week of November!  

Thank you!

-Jackie

Week Ending 10/26/18

Broadway Show?  

NOPE- Right here @Durfee!  

Kudos go out to Gary Bigelow and his fearless team of tech students for learning the technology and art behind this amazing show!  

 Tech students in Mr. Bigelow's class prepping components of the set for the BIG SHOW!

Good afternoon and happy Friday!

This week, I spent some time with a team of teachers and administrators at Durfee thinking about what type of school we currently "design" for kids...  It really brought me back to our work with Daniel Pink and his Whole New Mind text... That aptitude of Design- Utility enhanced by significance.  John Heskett, quoted by Pink defines Design simply as "The human nature to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature, to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives."  This could also be the definition of what you every day as teachers, and what attentive building leaders do as system builders...
 I Need You!  I wanted to ask you to think about three questions and shoot me a short response back in my FlipGrid... https://flipgrid.com/93f95139

Thank you in advance!  

In the News This Week: 

• The Narrows Center for the Arts is again planning a great fundraiser for our Durfee Music Program!  Check out this year's Michael Troy Tribute Show on November 18th! LINK TO SHOW INFO
• Here is a summary of the event:
• Fall River native, Michael Troy, has written amazing songs about his home town, people who have touched him and life itself, in the way he knows best…through his ability to combine his music with storytelling. He would tell you he has lived many lives as a mill worker, fisherman, laborer and carpenter, however he has always come back to his first love, music.  Michael’s family invites you to join them to enjoy live performances by: Gary Farias, Louie Leeman, Monica Ambroziak, Johnny Botelho, Barry Brown, Chuck Williams, Mike Laureanno, Mary Beth Shares, Joanne Doherty, Joan Aiken, Steve Pelland, Grace Morrison.
• All proceeds from the concert will go to the Michael Troy Memorial Music Foundation, Inc a newly formed non-profit organization. The foundations pledge is to keep the music and memory of Michael Troy alive by establishing funding for the B.M.C. Durfee High School Music Department. The foundations mission is to “provide a safe and supportive place for our future musicians and songwriters, where they have access to instruments and performance equipment, as well as the technology used in today’s world of music.

• Durfee's Got Talent was a huge success on Friday of last week!  Congrats go out to the winners- Ethan Da Silva and Andrew Curtis, and all who had the skill and the will to compete and perform!  Kudos to Lara Beth Terry and her team for pulling off this great annual event!
• The Marching Band performed at the Annual ROTC Inspection here at Durfee and their sound was AMAZING... Yessss!

• Some of you may remember Ms. Marilyn (Prodnick) Russo and her amazing work while at Kuss Middle School a while back- well, she has returned to the FAM to work with our kids at Greene Elementary School!  Welcome back, Marilyn!  Your classroom already looks amazing, with alternative lighting, colorful posters, vocab words around the room, and engaging activities!  Loved this task around identifying counts using candy treat names!

• Ms. Brenda Gaudette's students created these amazing Asian inspired chopsticks (above) in ceramics class, and is now working on "plating up" some fun foods to celebrate with- ceramic plates and all!

Planning Ahead!

• The SLG and PPG Activity Plans will be due on October 30th.  Make sure you make them shareable with your evaluator so they can see them, approve/give feedback!  Once that's done, you can go back in and sign.
• The Fine and Performing Arts team will be together on the morning of Tuesday, November 6th for PD day.  Here are the three topics:
• Use of Tech to Narrate Assessment Results: Teachers will learn technology tools to measure student learning growth and be able to use these tools when narrating that growth at the formative and summative evaluation meetings as well as with students. We will use the Google Tools as well as a Rubric Generator.
• Special Needs in the Art and Music Classroom: Teachers will present strategies for art and music that work for students with special needs. These strategies will allow for all abilities to reach the goal set for the task. Teachers will leave with supplies and strategies for these scaffolds.
• Planning Rigorous Tasks That Drive Academic Talk: Teachers will engage in conversation with art and music staff about the types of tasks that we plan and how a task can or cannot lend it self to solid academic conversation. This continues our work in Close Reading in Art and Music. A presentation will be given that reviews what a close read in each content area looks and sounds like, and teams will identify the best ways to frame discussion for students around art and music thinking.
• The afternoon will be used to continue to build Curriculum Maps in K-8.  The Durfee Team will be meeting as a school after lunch and then will also have some time to map curriculum.
• Henry Lord 3rd Grade will be visited by the NBSO on Wednesday the 7th at 12:30!  Interesting interdisciplinary work going on between music, science and recycling!
• Durfee Faculty Meeting- November 13th
• Durfee Department Meeting- November 28th
• K-8 Department Meeting- November 29th

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Jackie

Week Ending 10/19/18

BREAK A LEG, DURFEE!

And special luck and thanks to Lara Beth Terry and her team for pulling this event off every year!

In the News This Week:

• The Fine and Performing Arts Learning Walk for grades 6-12 happened this week.  I will share pictures here, and the report in this week's email.  Thank you to all who were visited on Wednesday and Thursday.  A learning walk gives us a snapshot into what types of tasks we plan for our kids across the district, and the hope is that teachers can read the report and learn on a large scale what colleagues are doing.  
• We have several UMASS Dartmouth Students working with our art and music staff as they get their observation hours in- this year, they are allowed to interact with students and assist in the classroom, and we love that!  Thank you to all who have accepted a UMD Student into your classrooms.  They will learn so much from you!
• Kerin McGillicudy shared a really cool website that sets up a really cool screen for you to guide your class, complete with a timer, a noise level detector and everything!  Check it out!  https://www.classroomscreen.com/
• It's so good to listen to the Band and Orchestra teachers talk about how the general music teachers at the elementary schools are "plugging" kids into their programs!  Kudos to Jayson Newell, Susan Glaser and others (forgive me if I don't list you all here!) who have connected our kids to the band and orchestra!  Jay and Susan, you put the COOL in Community School!

Help with Lesson Planning:

• Check out this easy to use search engine for access to your Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/search/SubjectSearch.aspx
• This site lets you choose your content, and then the strand- after that, simply hit search and copy paste your frameworks into your lessons.

Arts Literacy Section:

• Because one of our goals is to engage students in arts literacy, I would like to post weekly supports and articles to get you thinking about new tasks to plan, or new strategies...  Here goes!
• Check out this SUPER COOL IDEA: It's a short video, and you can TOTALLY do this through the use of your GMAIL HANGOUTS if you want to collaborate with another art teacher across the district!  If you want to do it within your class, you can do that too!  Check it out! Arts Literacy Lesson Link
• Let me know if you try this one and how it went!

The Week in Pictures!

Here are some pics from this week's learning walk, and a few others!

Mr. Bigelow makes his daily expectations very clear to students and uses Google Classroom to convey content!

Ms. Laprise works super duper hard with her hundreds of students, here with high schoolers who so admire her work and skill!

Percussion students work under Mr. Ollivierre during weekly sectional practice and they sound aaamazing!

Trumpet, anyone?  Mr. Treloar's kids are honing in on the skills they need to SLAY it!

Ms. Zema's intro to piano students went from zero to 100 this term!  They can actually play pieces and read music! 

Who's that guy with the mallet?  It's Mr. O!  Intro to percussion kids working in unison- good stuff!

Talbot art work, showing use of foreground, middle and background in Ms. Cabral's class!  Viva!

An example saved from last year's Arts Expo

Morton 6th graders- YES, 6th graders!  They were so focused on their work, working at their own pace through the piano text!  Ms. Gardner also had a diagram for them on the board!

Morton Mustang POWER!

Ms. Gaudette's ceramics students were so eager to tell me about their process in making these soon to be beautiful vessels!

Look at that focus! 

Simply amazing- work from Mr. Carvalho's students in advanced art classes...

And and example of the above referenced site for Classroom Expectations!  Thanks Ms. McGillicudy!

Ms. Graca at Kuss gives this assignment to students from the 6-8 sub separate class as they finish working on a project.

Have a wonderful weekend, team!

See you soon,

Jackie