Week Ending 11/30/2018

Welcome back from the long weekend, and so begins the countdown to winter vacation!

Some pics to share... 

Check out these 4th grade Doran musicians learning to play Jingle Bells in 3 part harmony!

Mr. Carvalho's art students working on stencils, using alternative supplies..

Ms. Pereira's Classroom Holiday Festive Tree!

Wanted to share this mug in the making- Ms. Mullen is so proud of her newcomer ELL Student, Jose Umana Benitez as he builds this! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Our monthly department meeting for K-5 Arts Faculty was awesome!  So good to see new ideas, and new ways to approach the elements and principles!

My Bella- Random shameless photo-share of my old girl!

And last but NOT LEAST- thank you for all of the fish!  Gary Bigelow is ecstatic!   

In the News this Week...

• The Durfee Team worked during department time on a combination of preparation for the Little Mermaid Musical, preparing student work for Scholastic Art submissions, and experimenting with new glaze techniques.  Mary Zema is preparing a winter performance for her classes to join forces- stay tuned for a really cool event!
• On Thursday, the K-8 Music and Art teams were super busy!
• K-5 Music analyzed this year's Link Up songs for skills needed by our students and then organized the songs from easiest to most challenging for recorder karate.  Thanks go out to Becky Jontos at Letourneau for leading this work!
• K-5 Art worked together to learn different printmaking techniques from colleagues Rochelle Pettenati and Beth Laginess.  So great to see and hear everyone working together, learning from each other.  Next month, Steph Pereira and Vicki Arons will demonstrate weaving techniques for the art team.  This meeting will take place on December 20th, at Silvia.  
• 6-8 Music- Bill Brown shared a list of resources during the virtual meeting time for 6-8 teachers to use in lessons (videos/music).
• 6-8 Art- The team is doing an amazing job during their virtual meetings building a great curriculum map, complete with vocab, tasks, resources and visuals.  Great stuff!
• Durfee held term 2 parent teacher conferences Thursday evening.  Our team was visited by several parents and students.  

Planning Observations and Learning Walks:

• Next week, I will continue with observations and Learning Walks- my goal is to visit two classrooms a day for observations (short, unannounced) and to conduct a learning walk across all K-5 art classrooms on Tuesday.  
• I will be trying to focus during the learning walk on the level of task students are being asked to perform, and their engagement in the task.  Please know that these walk through observations are for the whole team to see where we are on any given day across the district.  As the maps are planned, what we should see is alignment, common learning goals and a similar level of complexity. 

Planning Ahead:

•  Release Time Day- Monday, December 3rd- Check your school dismissal times for students.  Teachers own this time so there will be no district wide PD opportunities.  I have spoken to many teachers and heard that they are planning to use this time for Scholastic input, grading of work, Arts Expo prep, concert/musical prep and other time sensitive tasks.  
• Also on Monday- Spencer Borden welcomes the NBSO to their 3rd grade classes!
• Tuesday- Learning Walk K-5 Art/Music
• Wednesday- I will be traveling to Plymouth with a team who have worked hard on a grant proposal to design and implement a "school within a school" at Durfee for students that is arts centered.  Fingers crossed!  This Mass IDEAs Planning Grant through Barr Association is a $175,000 grant, and would be used to plan the design of the program/system.  I will keep you posted!  The name if the "new school?"  The REAL School at BMC Durfee- what does it stand for?
• Relevant
• Experience based
• ARTiculated
• Learning 
• And on Friday, we begin the first of three performances of The LITTLE MERMAID!  The kick off to this weekend of swash-buckling fun is Friday night- 7PM!  There are two additional performances- Saturday evening at 7PM and then Sunday at 2PM.  See you there!

Something to think about as we head into "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"...

We have three full weeks to plan engaging, great work with and for Our Kids.  Remember, they look to you to be challenged, loved and educated in and through the arts.  Many of our students get anxious around this time of year, as the holidays approach.  Behaviors may change, and not for the better- sometimes due to factors you as a teacher cannot change.  Here's a short article from Ed Week that explains this best:

Leaders, Remember: Holidays Can Be Hard for Children

Holiday time is approaching. For most of us, it is a happy time with family and friends, with memories and fondly held traditions. Most schools engage in activities that help raise funds for families in need, offering food and other gifts.  It can make a difference for the young recipients, but there are other issues that run deeper than the need for food or gifts. Those issues are highlighted at holiday time, but remain percolating in the lives of students all through the year.  Those issues, as unique as every child's life story, are the same in one way. They hurt.

While charged with keeping buildings safe, making sure teaching, learning, and evaluation are taking place, and following standards and expectations, this time of year serves as a reminder that students live and come to school carrying burdens over which they have no control. They interfere with the child's well-being and their readiness to learn. Children can only learn when they can bring themselves to the learning environment ready to learn. Behaviors escalate this time of year, so let it be a reminder that students not only need understanding, they need help. We cannot ask them to ignore how they are feeling. And, we must not ignore how they are feeling.

High levels of warmth and nurturing from their caregivers is what helps infants develop qualities like perseverance and focus. Even the youngest of students struggle with managing their stress emotions. "The part of the brain most affected by early stress is the prefrontal cortex, which is critical in self regulatory activities or all kinds, both emotional and cognitive" (Tough.p.17). Secondary level students require being taken seriously, believed in, and challenged (Tough.pp. 120-121). Meeting these needs can make a difference.

Aside from learning gaps that may have accumulated, each day holds the potential for adding to those gaps, or even creating a break. The alternative exists when we really reach a child. But it is a complex network of adults that come in contact with children daily. Of course, that network includes teachers and school leaders but it also includes crossing guards, bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, coaches, volunteers, and other support staff.  The good news is that one adult can make a difference between a child feeling alone and lost or connected and valuable. The fact is that every child needs some adult to care enough to make the connection.

The holidays are difficult for many adults, perhaps even some reading this blog struggle with the power of tradition and finding meaningfulness around this time of year. The media romanticizes the holidays with images and stories of families and of love. Yet, many of our children live in circumstances where these images are part of the life gap that they are forced to hold.

Holiday time exaggerates what happens all year long. It can make it easier to see how students are feeling. This isn't simply a socio-economic issue for children. Poverty presents its own set of holiday trials for children, but so does divorce, family discord, disappointments, loneliness and job loss.  These are not limited holiday feelings, they are everyday feelings, and they are pervasive day in and day out in our classrooms.

Here, we are not powerless.  Sometimes there is cause to send a child to speak with a counselor because the child's expression is extreme.  But, every child benefits from each adult interaction when they are seen and known. The smallest change in an expression or hesitation in response can speak volumes if we are listening to children we know. Ultimately, the children who come to our schools need to feel they belong there and they need to feel how much we want to spend our days with them.  Some are engaged in activities and others are not.  Each of them, growing from childhood through their adolescence, cannot be emotionally agile enough to move from one emotion to another, from worry to learning, from fear to engagement, from experiencing disregard to offering respect, from feeling sad to feeling joy without the help of the adults in the system.

Resource: Tough, P. (2012).  How Children Succeed.  New York:  First Mariner Books

Concerts and Performances!

• Durfee- 12/7-9 Musical- The Little Mermaid (Fri, Sat- 7PM, Sun 2PM)
• Durfee Winter Concert- Thursday 12/13, 6:30 PM
• Talbot Winter Concert- Wednesday, 12/12, 6:30 PM
• Kuss Winter Concert- Tuesday, 12/18, 7 PM
• Morton Winter Concert- Tuesday, 12/11, 7 PM
• HLCS- Winter Jamboree!  Held during the school day!
• Spencer Borden- 12/19, During school event
• Tansey- 12/20, During school event

And some great pics to wrap up the day...

Check out this sample technique made by Barbara Mullen and Heather Pereira!  Bubbling soapy water on the piece with glaze..  Super cool effect.

Amazon surprised our kids from the STEM program with a check for $15,000!  Wooo Hoo!

 And who'd have thunk it was a Friday afternoon at the Band/Orchestra CPT this afternoon?  This spitfire, Ms. Nicole Laprise is always ready to share new tools and tricks to help our kids improve their hand positioning and technique!

Have a wonderful weekend, Arts Fam,

~Jackie