By TAs for TAs

This tip came to us from Michael Wiggins' blog:

COMING UP IN NEW YORK CITY

The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable presents

By Teaching Artists for Teaching Artists A chance to examine best practices & work one-on-one with fellow TAs to share & strengthen your lesson plans.

Join us for a professional development presented BY Teaching Artists FOR Teaching Artists

Workshop 4:30 – 7:00pm
Wednesday November 18th
Brooklyn Arts Council
55 Washington Street Suite 218
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Click Here to Register!

Preemptive Education: Language, Identity, and Power

Reccomended by illustrious TA Fabian:

Urban Word NYC,
NYU Center for Multicultural Education,
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, & the Hip-Hop Theater Festival present:

PREEMPTIVE EDUCATION: Language, Identity & Power Urban Word NYC's Annual Mentor, Teacher, Educator & Community Activist Training [Silver Center, 100 Washington Square East]

Preemptive Education aims to examine the issues that affect today’s youth, while providing creative and practical resources to address them. Using the power of spoken word poetry and hip-hop as the lens to explore language and privilege, participants will learn best practices in student-centered pedagogy from professionals in the fields of education, youth development, and spoken word & hip-hop. Combining performance, panel discussions, and professional development workshops, Preemptive Education will provide comprehensive
opportunities for educators of all levels.

Opening Panel and Youth Performance: FREE to the PUBLIC FRIDAY October 2nd, 7-9PM Room 703, Silver Center WORD LIFE:
A Performance and Conversation on Language, Identity & Power
Poets: Jamilla Lyiscott, Carvens Lissaint, Ceez, Thiahera Nurse
Respondents: David Kirkland, Ph.D., Regie Cabico, Black Artemis

This dynamic performance and panel series will start at the word. Three poems with three panels will interact and converge in a conversation that uses spoken word poetry to reclaim identities and challenge inequities around language, privilege and power. Using each poem as a starting point, panelists will address and illuminate issues around language privilege, youth voice, and social justice. Young poets from Urban Word NYC will provide the platform from which respondents and panelists will vision a new dialogue around the transformative power of spoken word poetry and the pedagogies that champion the voices of the next generation.

Weekend Training Series for Mentors, Teachers, Educators and Community Activists SATURDAY & SUNDAY October 3rd 9AM-5PM, October 4th 9AM-2:00PM

This training series will provide educators with cutting edge best practices in social justice, spoken word and hip-hop education. This weekend participants will work with professors, activists, educators, emcees and spoken word artists to engage in the critical literacy work that Urban Word NYC is known for. The workshops are geared towards building foundational frameworks, that are then followed up by specific sessions for: writing mentors, NYU community members, and NYC public school teachers. The range of perspectives provided will bridge both theory and practical application, as well as inform your personal pedagogy to enable you to work and grow as an educator dedicated to liberatory education. Also included will be a lunchtime panel with the Hip-Hop Association, as well as presentations by NYCoRE, EARS, DNA works, and leaders from our sponsoring orgs. For a full conference schedule visit www.urbanwordnyc.org

REGISTER NOW!
Suggested donation for weekend training is $100. Includes breakfast & lunch.
Please be sure to pre-register by emailing Program Director, Parker Pracjek at parker@urbanwordnyc.org Training is free for UW mentors, NYU students and staff, and the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival staff.
For additional information, please call 212-352-3495. Scholarships available.

For more information on agenda, check out:

http://www.urbanwordnyc.org/uwnyc/index.php?q=node/254

Advice for New High School Teachers

Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:40 am (PDT)
From Teacher MagazinePublished: September 16, 2009
Advice for New High School TeachersBy Kenneth J. Bernstein

Congratulations. And commiserations. Whether the task upon which you now embark will be a great exploration or a Mission Impossible is not entirely within your control. Because teaching, especially of the adolescents you will encounter within the high school classroom, is a series of overlapping relationships in which you are only one of the players.Perhaps it is arrogant of me to offer advice. After all, my perspective is shaped by my personal experience. I am probably a very different person than are you. How then can I presume to offer advice to someone I have never met, whose school may have very different characteristics than mine, and, most of all, who brings to her classroom a different life experience than that which I bring to mine? That question contains the seeds of its own answer, and is key to the advice I offer.High school students are often very much in search of identity. That includes how they relate to other people. They need points of reference. They need situations they can trust, particularly as they are challenged to grow, emotionally as well as intellectually.I hope you are passionate about your subject. Yes, you may have been given classes that focus on something that would not be your first choice. Yet if you cannot find something exciting about it, how will you engage your students? Why should they exert themselves?To continue reading: http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2009/09/16/tln_bernstein_new_teachers.html?tkn=SYVFXr4CsBV1um84ElnEcaGfoUOcB92NJxFU

Webposium for Teaching Artists- Make it Happen, People!

The Dana Foundation is pleased to invite you to a free Webposium for Teaching Artists

Friday, June 19, 2009
1:00-2:30PM (EST)

Join us online for a discussion about the evolving issues in the Teaching Artist profession. The event will be streamed live and viewers will be able to join in the Q and A at the end of the session.

Artists in Classrooms:
What Is the Role of the Teaching Artist?

What is the role of the teaching artist in public education? How can schools maximize a partnership with an outside artist? What is the artist role in the classroom, in the art room, in the school? How can artists help build a culture in a school where creativity, innovation, and imagination are at the core of teaching and learning?

Panelists include:

Nick Rabkin,
Lead Researcher, Teaching Artist Research Project, NORC at the University of Chicago

Lisa Fitzhugh,
Founder, Former Executive Director, Arts Corps

Sarah Johnson,
Director, Weill Music Institute, Carnegie Hall

Naho Shioya,
Teaching Artist

Moderator:

Russell Granet,
Founder, Arts Education Resource

Register Now!
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Registration ends June 18th at 5 p.m.

The Dana Foundation is a private, philanthropic organization with principle interests in brain science, immunology and arts education. For more information about the Dana Foundation, please click here saT0xMjg0ODA1/index.html> .

Tips for Introducing Work

Visual and video artists can use these, too - at in-school screenings, classroom presentations, arts festivals and such.

Here are some ideas for creating and presenting an introduction.

• Lead an inquiry-based discussion about the artwork. Examples: What’s the point of an introduction? What steps did we take to make this artwork? What inspired us to make it? What did we learn by creating it? What does the work mean to us?

• Take notes on the board during the discussion.

• Work as a class to come up with text. Pull ideas from the class, using notes from the previous discussion, and transcribe them on the board. Edit together. Another option is to come up with questions and answers and “interview” a select group of kids at the performance.

• Ask for volunteers to read the introduction at the performance.

• Working with the small group, break the introduction into chunks and decide who should read which part, where you’ll stand, etc.

• Practice until everyone’s comfortable.

• Bring several printouts of the script (large font) to the performance.

• Do a group warm-up beforehand to get kids focused and working together.

• Stand on stage with your kids if they’re nervous.

Tribeca Film Institute Free Screenings

Medicine for Melancholy
APRIL 26, 11AM @ TRIBECA FILM CENTER (375 GREENWICH STREET)
Join us for a special presentation of the award-winning film—especially for young filmmakers. From first-time feature director Barry Jenkins comes a love story that deals with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco. Featuring the striking cinematography of James Laxton and a fantastic soundtrack from the best in indie rock today, MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY is a hilarious and romantic tribute to the beauty of San Francisco and the people that give it life. Barry Jenkins will be joining us after the screening for a unique Q&A via video iChat.

Beyond the Reel: Explorations in Media
APRIL 28, 7:45-9:15PM @ THE APPLE STORE IN SOHO (103 PRINCE STREET)
In an age where you can watch a blockbuster on YouTube and a rooftop can become a movie theater—the way that we view films and filmmaking will never be the same again. The internet has transformed how people watch and interact with moving images, while galleries and new venues for video art have created the chance for multi-screen projections. By bringing together four very different but extremely exciting artists who are expanding the definition of “filmmaker”—this interactive event will give students the opportunity to meet with artists like acclaimed hip-hop video blogger Jay Smooth and mashup masters Wreck & Salvage. Join us for this experimental evening as we explore spliced archival footage, vlogging, film installation, and video games.

New PBS Website

PBS, the best channel on TV, now has a new website where you can watch a lot more video than ever before. You can see a movie based on a Dickens novel, a documentary about moving past fossil fuels, and determine the value of your grandmother's favorite lamp.

And you can use it in the classroom too, I suppose... it's searchable by subject.

Super Cool Photography Project for You and Yours

A Million Little Pictures: Documentary
1,000 artists documenting 1,000 lives from around the world
Art House is looking for 1,000 people from around the world to receive 1000 disposable cameras. We'll mail the camera to you to document your life in 24 exposures and then you simply send us back the prints. Not only will we have the exhibition here in Atlanta, we will also travel to the city with the most participants. S
oooooo, tell your friends, mom, sister, cousin, or whoever to sign up. The exhibition will be home to 24,000 photographs of 1,000 people’s lives all over the world.
For more information on the project and to sign up, please go to: http://www.amillionlittlepictures.com!
Sign up Deadline: July 1st 2009
Postmark Deadline: September 1st 2009
To sign up to participate, visit: http://www.amillionlittlepictures.com

Art House projects have been featured on CNN and Current TV and in Juxtapoz Magazine, Good Magazine, Urban Outfitters blog, Yahoo Daily Wire, Atlanta Magazine and National Geographic's Intelligent Traveler.Check out their website for more information about how to get involved: http://www.arthousecoop.com

Theatre for Everyone

Check out this list of drama conventions (no, not a get-together at a Marriott). They're activities, ways to use drama in your classroom even if you're not an actor like these guys:

I think these could be useful for writing and social studies classes, or for brainstorming ideas for visual arts.

Great Lesson Plan Idea

From the blog of writer Molly May, a delightful idea that could inspire lesson plans in visual art, storytelling, immigration, and beyond:

We each have a place story. Imagine a world map and dot all of the places you’ve lived. Now, connect the dots chronologically, and then lift the shape from the page. That’s your place illustration. The one here is mine. A friend wrote to me, “What about the fact that it looks like a sprinter in motion?” We are each a beautiful accumulation of the landscapes we’ve inhabited. For some, it might be one lone strong dot. For others, some scratches across the page. For many in today’s globalized world, a maze of back and forth. Last night, someone told me that women in China who migrated out of rural areas to work in city factories are out of work and going back home. Movement.
What does your place illustration look like? Can you give its shape a name? Does it look like a star, a rabbit, a saucepan? Assuming a geographer’s hat, I love to zoom out and imagine our patterns as humans, where our feet take us, and whether that is changing in the modern world.

Chalkboard

The New York Foundation for the Arts publishes Chalkboard, a free newsletter for Teaching Artists in which you can learn about conferences, opportunities, and new ideas. Nice!

New York Times on Immigration

Elliot sent in this fascinating interactive map of immigration patterns over U.S. history. It's part of the New York Times' series on immigration and education.

They also have an interactive map about ethnic diversity in classrooms, an article about ESL and assimilation, and a conversation about the best ways to teach newcomers including a debate on bilingual education. What do you think?

You also might like to look at the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA) site for ideas about what works in ESL instruction.

Photo by Josh Haner/The New York Times

Wasting Time, Learning, Showing Off

Is there a category on the blog for cool things I stumbled into on the internet? Of course, that's what a blog is. Lookit this internet future rainbow robot keyboard drum set. 

And then come to the Classroom Management workshop this Thursday the 19th from 6:00 - 8:30! We'll talk more about Teacher Language and sharing your concerns. Please email me (Alice) with other areas in which you'd like support.

And finally here's an article that might help you in planning end of the year sharing at your school.

Superflux Collective

Superflux Collective is an "informal assemblage of professional artists and educators providing high-quality, low-cost training and support for teaching and learning in and through the arts...that creates opportunities for artists and educators to serve learners directly in both on-site and online contexts." In addition to hosting professional exchanges and low-cost PD's, they also keep a log of lesson plans here. One example: Multi-Discipline & Applied Arts & Geography, History, Social Studies- Form and Function in Word Art, Advertising and Urban Design.
Worth a look.

1930s High School Zine

Okay, "literary magazine." But the same idea nevertheless. DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx produced student publications from 1929 through the 1940s that are available here thanks to the New Deal Network. It's a fantastic resource to show any poetry/zine/publication students. Not only were these high school students creating and exploring during a time of economic crisis and the birth of the term "teenager," but it's an example of student work being a legacy that is still read 80 years later.