| Teacher Spotlight |
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national artist teacher fellowship recipients 2013
The National Artist Teacher Fellowship program recently announced Fellowship recipients for the Shout out to our member schools and teachers: congratulations!
John Blackwell, drummer for Prince and Justin Timberlake, joins Berklee faculty - Nick Balkin, March 2013 Premier funk, pop, and R&B drummer John Blackwell, best known for his work with Prince, Justin Timberlake, and Patti LaBelle, has been named associate professor of percussion at his alma matter, Berklee College of Music. He began teaching this semester.
entire faculty of alphonsus academy & center for the arts chicago, il
Alphonsus Academy & Center for the Arts' iPad Pilot Program has students more excited than ever before to learn.
Parents and supporters of Alphonsus Academy & Center for the Arts raised more than $25,000 during the 2011-12 school year to fund the initial investment into the new program. With the money raised, the school was able to purchase 20 iPads. Classes at all grade levels have access to the technology.
As a result of the program, faculty members are reporting an increase in student engagement in a
"The use of the technology appeals to many different learning styles - visual, auditory, and hands-on learning - and students showcase more excitement in material when we're using iPads," shares Bridgette Carroll, Alphonsus Academy Third Grade Teacher.
Students are even able to educate one another with the use of iPads. Third graders created tutorial videos to document and explain math strategies using the app, Edu-creations. These short videos can be reviewed by classmates who need to practice a particular strategy.
The iPad Pilot Program has also had a positive impact on fostering collaboration between parents and teachers at Alphonsus Academy.
Stephanie Wittens, High School for Performing and Visual Arts
Making Style Accessible to Young Actors
In their first year of pre-professional training, our students explore the foundation of acting: living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Students learn to listen and react honestly in the moment and to hone their impulses. Scene work is restricted to contemporary realism. In the second year, students apply these principles to a variety of acting styles. Tackling acting styles can be a challenge for young actors. When working with classical texts, especially, I find that approaching the work from a place of play and exploration is key to success. Comedy of manners is particularly difficult for high school students because it is such an exaggerated, full-bodied style with which they’re often not familiar (or comfortable). It demands a heightened sense of physical extension and fluidity from head to toe along with exaggerated vocal variety and flamboyance. It’s big and over the top, and, most importantly, FUN! Our style exercises attempt to capture these qualities. In an effort to crack the actor’s contemporary candy shell and establish a physical play world before we even get to text, we tackle a variety of style exercises in class. On day one, we practice greetings – bows and curtsies—and walk around with books on our heads and hacky-sacks balanced on our knuckles to encourage physical extension. Next, we communicate for an entire day via fan language. On the third day, we apply exaggerated vocal variety to nursery rhymes. The culminating exercise that ties it all together is the High Fashion Show-Off; students are given a week to construct a flamboyant and extravagant costume that they present in a fashion show setting. The first step of the process is to find five images of birds with brilliant plumage that will be used as visual inspiration for costume designs. Students can use scarves, hats, boas, feathers, ornaments, shoes – anything that will help transform them from head to toe, to get as far away as they can from their jeans and sneakers comfort zone. The day of the fashion show, students bring in their homemade costumes along with evidence of their creative process: five inspirational images and a simple costume sketch or rendering that diagrams how each part of the bird has inspired each piece of the costume. Ask a student interested in sound design to compile a fabulous soundtrack for the show!
marly parker, drama & literacy specialist angela heidgard, instructional technology teacher
rotella interdistrict magnet school,waterbury, ct
"My name is Marly Parker. This is my 17th year teaching. I have taught grades 3, 4, & 5. I taught grade 3 for 13 years. For the past 2 years, I have been the Dra ma/Literacy Specialist at Rotella Interdistrict Magnet School in Waterbury, CT. I video my lessons and edit them on iMovie. Then I post them to my blog: Capture the Drama." Capturing the Drama! What is this place? Welcome! This place is designed for parents, educators, and anyone interested in integrating drama into our children's lives. Integrating the arts brings significant benefits to children's development and learning. Learn more.
david smith, director of technology, oakland school of the arts, ca "David Smith is a one-man technology force at The Oakland School for the Arts. He handles everything from network health to the faculty laptop program to in-class technology integration. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and two children. " Donn Harris, Executive & Artistic Director, Oakland School of the Arts, CA.
David Smith also serves as an ongoing advisor to the Arts Schools Network media programming. Special thanks for your thought leadership with our master series, You Tube channel, webinars, and student engagement. We salute you!
Check out the OSA Radio blog here.
Mo elgazzar, us history oxbow school ,napa, ca Mo spent many years of his life in various locations stateside and abroad. He received his
Consecutive Matters:Healing, Materiality, & Social Change
jacksonville, fl Nicholas Quin Serenati's INTERDISCIPLINARY ART practice embodies SCHOLARLY inquiry that is directed by EXPLORATIONS of CREATIVE NON-FICTION. These investigations are focused on ways in which EXPERIMENTAL approaches toward AESTHETIC REPRESENTATIONS can communicate an arts-based research CONTEXT, and the COMPLEX FORMS that enable its FUNCTIONS. Visit Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. Visit Nicholas Serenati's website.
Inspiring the Independent Learner: A Literacy/Arts Based Project Carla Cruess
Scene to Stage Progression One of the most remarkable outcomes of this lesson plan is the awareness these students gain into the "machine" we call Musical Theater. Inevitably each student comes up with several new discoveries which not only enhance their education in the filed, but elevate their performance skills considerably. After a complete semester of skill training in vocal technique, acting styles and dance, these students are generally more than ready to test their new found skills in the context of a real production. The level of growth in every area of Musical Theater that these students display is enormous, and the quality of actors this lesson produces is fantastic for the growth of our program. Insight, skill progression, practical application and cooperative learning are immeasurable life skills learned through this lesson, and tools these young actors can then carry with them as they continue to grow in Musical Theater as well as in all aspects of their life.
Integrating art with technology has become an important focus of my pre-kindergarten through second grade visual arts program. This began about two years ago when I attended the Connecticut Art Education Annual Convention and sat in on a workshop about an online program called Artsonia. The National Art Education Association is an affiliate and has also offered workshops on Artsonia at their Annual Convention.
Artsonia is the world’s largest online student art museum. Through this site, each student has a portfolio page. The portfolio, in itself, is an important tool. A portfolio offers evidence of growth and unique differences. It allows for personal reflection, self-assessment and enhances self-esteem. A portfolio in pre-kindergarten is a starting point to build on. One of the most important components of the Artsonia program is that it allows for parental involvement. Current research shows that when parents are involved in the education process at home and in school that children’s aggressive and disruptive behaviors, anxiety and depression decrease. When there is collaboration between parents and school it makes a difference in children’s success. First, parents must give permission for their child to be enrolled. Parents get notices when their child’s work is displayed. Parents get to see all of their child’s work and may view all of the art that is done in our school. Students may also receive comments on their work through “fans” which must also be approved by parents. I, also, use this site to send newsletters to parents. Therefore, I have more contact with parents than ever before. It makes a difference in student performance, because students are aware that parents, friends, family members and peers are looking at their art. Another important factor is that EVERY child is an artist. There is a focus on the positive. Students receive online awards and a participation certificate. There is also a gift shop, in which, student art may be ordered and placed on items such as shirts, journals and a wide variety of items. I receive a fifteen percent profit which is used for art supplies. This money enables me to offer a variety of materials for students to work with. The site is also used for student assessment which is also a part of city, state and national standards and curriculum. Students are asked to give positive feedback on their art, creative process and/or materials, etc. Any question or questions can be asked. These reflective remarks are listed under statements which appear next to the specific piece of art. Sometimes parents work on these at home with their children. I also have a parent volunteer who works with students on these personal comments. Schools are also ranked on art submitted, funds, fan clubs, statements and comments. This program has had an enormous positive response from staff, parents, and students as proven by our awards and rankings.
Best Practice from Mary Monroe, Rotella Magnet School - It Starts With The ARTS!
Mary Monroe Welcome to Mrs. Monroe’s third grade classroom! I have been a regular education teacher for the past 20 years. I started teaching in Rotella Magnet School since its inception in 2000. Our magnet school theme is arts integration. Rotella’s motto is,” It Starts with the ARTS” and it does every day in my classroom. I am a new member of ASN and I think it is important for regular elementary classroom teachers be involved in this organization. ASN promotes sharing best practices to support how the arts can rejuvenate you as a professional and how it most definitely will rejuvenate student engagement. I began integrating art into my teaching long before I realized what true arts integration meant for all learners. I was teaching the way I had always wished a teacher had taught me. Arts integration is the perfect way for a classroom teacher to truly have students engaged in their learning. This remains as my driving force with arts integrated instruction. I know how students all process information differently and their application and extension of concepts are no different. Student lessons need to be multifaceted as well. I started out small in the beginning by only integrating a few times a week. As I became more confident in the positive results I observed with my students’ achievements, I continued to add various arts experiences. During the day in my classroom, my students are exposed to art integrations in all forms and in all content areas. We begin with a class song to get us focused for our day. My students use movement to show steps in a process, and daily they use drama in my Text Town center, where they are a group of reading superheroes called the Reading League. In this center, students are given problems in the town that can only be fought off by using their reading powers! Cognitive Collection is another classroom area where students work on visual art pieces that integrate concepts from all the content areas. Summary Songwriters is a method used to help students determine the importance in a story by musically weekly summarizing them. My students are far more engaged and thinking critically through the arts in my classroom, than any other approach I have tried. My hope is that every teacher sees how arts integration builds a creative mind, a thinking mind, and a whole student.
Best Practice from the Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences - THE WAVE!
Michael Cimino Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences
EXERCISE: “THE WAVE” In our exploration for a warm up for our acting classes, Michael Cimino and I developed the WAVE. For many students, the wave is an activity that they will do daily for 2 or 3 years. Though the structure is consistent, the exercise evolves uniquely each day. There are two parts to the WAVE. First is the initial teaching of the exercise, which may take a complete class. The second part is the daily exercise, which takes only 5 minutes. In this article, we provide the basic structure. For those interested in the initial teaching process, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . When class begins student circle up on stage. They are asked to physicalize the movement of the ocean waves and begin to rush into the center of the circle en masse, build, crest, fall, crash, reach, pause, retreat, crash again. They need to engage every part of their bodies; to have all movement emanate from the focused center; and to push and stretch their bodies to the extreme of: crash, reach, pause, retreat, build, crest, fall, crash again. Ask them to begin to vocalize the different phases of the wave. Build: Progressive “Eeee, Ehhhh, Ahhhh Crest: An open and wild “Ohhh.” Crash: An explosive “BOOM!” Reach: A long “Mmmm”Pause: Exhalation of all breath. Retreat: Sucking in on an “Sss”
THE WAVE: As Daily Ritual Once students can synchronize the basic WAVE sound and movement, then it is time for the teacher to add the “point of focus” of the day’s WAVE. Our experience is to give the group a powerful objective e.g. to mesmerize, to antagonize or to embrace etc. |
thirteenth round of its national awards. Formerly known as the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship (SATF) based out of New York City, this prestigious program became known as the National Artist Teacher Fellowship (NATF) in July 2012 when it transitioned to the care of the Center for Arts in Education at the Boston Arts Academy under the leadership of Executive Director, Dr. Linda F. Nathan. Twenty outstanding arts teachers, representing 17 specialized public arts high schools and arts-focused magnet and charter high schools from around the country, were chosen out of a worthy pool of 65 applicants and awarded $5,500 each to pursue their own creative study. The teachers excel in a broad spectrum of visual, performing, and literary arts. Now a Boston-based program, NATF will be welcoming national Fellows and their school administrators to the city this fall to share project experiences and discuss relevant issues in arts education. 
variety of learning activities and across multiple subjects.
Bachelor's of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the University of Cincinnati with a focus on Continental perspectives that emphasize positive social growth and justice, active realization of individual freedom, and personal accountability. Mo later served a long stint with Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Estes Park, Colorado. Mo maintains active interest in music, football (soccer), philosophy, and the culinary arts to name a few. He comes to Oxbow with his wife, Anna, a former outdoor educator, and his 19-month old daughter, Laila. 
nicholas quin serenati film instructor 
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