From the Association of Teaching Artists

In response to your concerns, discussions with Teaching Artists, and with input from beginning, mid-career, and experienced Teaching Artists, ATA announces a new ATA survey on http://www.teachingartists.com/

Teaching Artists and Their WorkAn ATA Survey:
What are Meaningful, Supportive, and Sustainable Employment Environments for the Work of a Teaching Artist?

ATA's focus in this survey is Teaching Artists' experiential knowledge. We ask you to share your knowledge, your stories, and what your experience has taught you.
Please complete the survey http://www.teachingartists.com/ and help us to distribute the survey as widely as possible, to as many Teaching Artists as possible. ATA's focus in this survey is Teaching Artists' experiential knowledge. We ask you to share your knowledge, your stories, and what your experience has taught you.
Thank you,
Dale
Dale Davis
Executive Director
The Association of Teaching Artists

The Digital Open

From Billy:

Welcome to The Digital Open!

What can you make with technology that will change the world—or even just make life a little easier or more fun?

The Digital Open is an online technology community and competition for youth around the world, age 17 and under.

Ready to join us? Sign up and start exploring!

The top project in each category will earn a fantastic prize pack and be featured on Boing Boing Video! Collaboration is encouraged! Remember, the future is yours to make! We want to hear your ideas, inventions and plans for changing the world through technology.

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

The New York Times Wants Your Photos

From the Times, cool project, nice design:

Picturing the Recession

NYTimes.com readers are sending in their photos from around the world. How do you see the recession playing out in your community? What signs of hardship or resilience stand out? How are you or your family personally affected? Creative ways of documenting the changes around you are encouraged.

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!

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.

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.

Photo Class

NYU has a class called Community Collaborations (CoCo) that allows college kids to teach photo classes to teenagers on the Lower East Side. Alissa and I took the class, and here is there website. Leave them a comment, mayhap they'll leave you one, too.

They still have a few slots for teenagers in their classes. Let me know ASAP if you know anyone who'd be interested.

Free Animation Software

Erik sent in this free, open-source animation/drawing software. It's a great way for students to make art at home without having to buy programs.

Some Links for You

From Nyoka, here is a list of organizations, magazines, festivals, screenings, etc. from ImageNation Cinema Foundation, an outlet for progressive media by and about people of color, with the goal of establishing a chain of art-house cinemas dedicated to these works.

And this is an interactive illustration showing how magazine covers are retouched. Slightly terrifying...

Websites of Interest

Hello Artists,

Following is a list of websites that may be useful to you as you plan your lessons and your field trips.

http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Arts/StandardsandCurriculum/default.htm

www.highfivetix.org/splash.aspx

www.lincolncenter.org/load_screen.asp?screen=purchase_studentdiscounts

www.ny.com/museums/all.museums.html