March 3rd Wrap Up

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 Happy March to You, Fine and Performing Arts Family!





                 













This week, I visited Fonseca, Greene, HLCS, Letourneau, Silvia, Spencer Borden, Tansey, Watson and Viveiros.  I would like to share these images of student work and students working!  I am always amazed by what you do with our kids.  
One common thread I saw "woven" through the tasks was the purpose of the arts.  Students were creating art that was driven by and from a purpose- whether that be to celebrate the birth date of our own Massachusetts native, Dr. Seuss, or the creation of a remembrance poppy, used since 1921 to commemorate military personnel who have died in war.   In music, I saw and heard students celebrating patriotism through music and movement, or moving to the rhythm of a song while noticing the shifts in tempo and reacting with their bodies.  
Consider this exert from the article "Why Arts Education is Crucial and Who is Doing It Best?" (Smith, 2009)

      Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life -- according to the report, they "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. 
     And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

 As an urban district, it is ESSENTIAL for the arts to play a major role in the cognitive, behavioral and social development of our students.  You are providing them with experiences and exposure to learning that will have an everlasting effect on who they aspire to be.

 In the News this Week:

  • Thank you for your Semester 2 Supply Orders- I am processing them and Russ Lewis will be sending you your stuff!
  • I spoke to Russ about the tempera cakes in trays of 9 for the younger elementary art students, and asked if he could put these on the FRPS Supply list.  He will order them for all of you, and I will be sending these over as they arrive this year.  Just remember to remind me if you need additional cakes or sets for next year!  Have no clue what I am talking about??  :)  Here's the link: https://store.schoolspecialty.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?minisite=10206&item=502855
  • We have a couple of FRPS Art Faculty attending the NAEA Art Education Conference!  Ms. Ana Arsenio, Durfee Art Faculty member is actually presenting!  You GO GIRL!  So excited to hear what they bring back to share with all of us!
K-5 Learning Walk:
I spent a few days walking through the K-5 Arts classrooms, as you can see from the pictures above!  Here are a list of tasks I learned about!
  • Greene Art- Grade 2: Peter Max inspired cray-pas hearts, value
  • Viveiros Music- Grade 2: Speed of music (tempo) moving hips to the tempo to the Freight Train song
  • Letourneau Music- Grade 4: Formative assessment from Link Up Program, while K-2 classes worked in groups based on needs or could venture into a "challenge" activity if they had already achieved the goal/standard
  • Henry Lord Music- Grade 2: Students up out of seats moving to the Lassie song as teacher played ukulele
  • Henry Lord Art- Grade 3: Designing insects using line of symmetry with markers
  • Watson Music- Grade 1: Students talked about "breaking up" notes into halves and quarters, and then sang God Bless America with movements that matched the lyrics
  • Fonseca Art- Grade 5: Creating butterflies with shape and line- repeated pattern on vertical long paper using color
  • Fonseca Music- Grade 4: Group check in assessment of ability to identify notes on staff- students drawing notes on white board while class does a thumbs up or down to agree/disagree
  • Tansey Art- Kindergarten: Students painting guided drawings of fish either red or blue for a Red Fish, Blue Fish project to be cut out and pasted onto striped background
Great stuff!  Want to know more about any of these tasks?  Email your colleagues for deets!  Next week, I will walk my way through Stone, RPA, Durfee, Morton, Talbot, Kuss and Doran- I'll share out in the Friday Blog!

On the Calendar:
  • Monday- Kuss CPT 7:30, Durfee Dean Meeting 3PM
  • Tuesday- Morton CPT 8AM, HLCS CPT 8:45, Grade 3 NBSO Field Trip (AM), Amazon Meeting 1PM
  • Wednesday- Learning and Teaching Meeting at Kuss 9AM
  • Thursday- RELEASE Time Day, No Durfee CPT, Meet at Durfee 12:45PM
  • Friday- Doran CPT 8AM, Admin meeting Durfee 9:15AM, Itinerant Meeting 12:30PM
Coming Attractions:
  • SEMSBA!  We are hosting this year's SEMSBA Senior Festival!  March 24th and 25th!  I am learning so much about this process, and have to thank Matt MacMullen for taking a huge lead in this one...  ROCK STAR!!
  • K-12 ARTS EXPO!  This huuuuuge event will be held at Durfee on Thursday April 27th from 5 to 7- please mark your calendars!  I would love to see all of you here with me!  We have double the bifolds and are going to knock it outta the park!  I will have copies of the Invite/Flyer here next Thursday for you to hand out in classes!
I'll end the Blog this week with something from the great philosopher, Dr. Seuss:

"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

Jackie


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