Incredible Arts Advocacy & Resources Site

This is a wonderful site full of lesson plans, advocacy tools, communities, links to blogs, links for professional development and so much more.

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/artedu.html

Former Arts Endowment Official Takes Arts Ed Advocates To Task

In the new edition of Education Next, Mark Bauerlein takes a dim view of the nature of arts education advocacy and offers a prescription for improvement, namely a focus on arts as a discrete discipline and a more entrepreneurial approach overall.

Click on through to read Advocating for Arts in the Classroom

EdTA to form advocacy task force

The Educational Theatre Association has begun accepting applications from its members to serve on the newly forming EdTA Advocacy Task Force. The mission of the group is to promote the interests of the organization and the field on national, state, and local issues that impact K-12 theatre education. The task force will include one representative from each of EdTA’s four regions, an at-large representative, the executive director, and the EdTA director of educational policy.

The Path to Innovation: Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Integration (5 of 5)

by Jim Brodie Brazell
8/23/10

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the fifth in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).

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The mandate of the 21st century and what everyone in the STEM game is pursuing is the capacity for "knowledge innovation." According to Debra Amidon, the mother of the knowledge economy, “Knowledge innovation is the creative process that delivers new knowledge, intellectual property and ultimately adaptation and survival.” (Debra Amidon, July 28, 2010, Email Interview)
In the context of our schools and communities knowledge innovation questions include: What is innovation? Can we teach innovation? Can one learn to innovate? How do we do innovation? Can we create innovative schools, organizations and businesses?

The STEM Push

In 2010, national organizations that traditionally serve America’s schools with educational technology, professional development and instructional programs are asserting their leadership on STEM. In October 2010: (1) The National School Board Association's Technology and Learning Conference in Arizona will focus on STEM. (2) In Florida, the League for Innovation in the Community College will launch STEMtech, and (3) The National Career Pathway Network (NCPN) will hold its 19th annual meeting dedicated to the vocations of STEM and the arts.
Other recent examples of this focus include the July 2010 STEM Florida hosted its first annual conference. Texas, California, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts and Minnesota among virtually all states are underway with similar efforts. In all, the arts are budding but not significantly part of the STEM innovation agenda in the US—while some Nordic countries, parts of Asia and some Latin American countries are developing “innovation economy” strategies linking STEM, arts, design and culture.

NEA FAC MINUTES 8/22/2010

Fine Arts Caucus

Conference Call

22 August 2010

Members present:

Tom McLaughlin, Debbie Turici, Rich Nicklay, Joe Bartell, Charlie Fry, Oscar Forsman

Dan  Caruso, Sue Lemmo, Kathi Zamora

Meeting was called to order at 7:30 CST by Tom McLaughlin, Chair.

Agenda:  Approval of the meeting agenda was moved by Kathi Z., seconded by Oscar.  Motion carried.

Minutes:  Approval of the minutes of the July 26, 2010 meeting  was moved by Dan and seconded by Joe.  Motion carried.

Logo Design Contest:  Discussion was postponed due to the fact that Jack R. was not in attendance.  He is working on the proposals for this contest.

Constitution and By-Laws:  Rich and Charlie reported that thus far they have been looking over the old and new documents.  They are comparing them.  Several questions were raised such as if there is a timeline to finish this work.   It was decided that Charlie and Rich will use email to work on the bylaws.  The revised sections will be sent to us ahead of each call for discussion.  It was suggested that an attorney might be consulted to be sure that the revised document is in line with NEA. 

The completed tentative revised bylaws and constitution will be sent out prior to the next representative assembly to all members.  The document will be voted on at the next RA, in 2011.

Survey:  Rich and Oscar revised the proposed member survey proposed by Tom.  It now consists of seven questions, and attempts were made to make it more streamlined.  The revised survey was sent out for review during the call, but since some members were having difficulty accessing it, Oscar read it aloud. 

Debbie T. suggested that the names of the national organizations should be spelled out for clarity.

Oscar suggested that they survey should go out in October, and should perhaps be finalized in mid September. 

I was also suggested that the officers and steering committee call members personally to encourage participation in the survey.

Incentives were discussed.  The idea is to award three prizes to encourage participation.  It was decided to award $20 for first, $10 for second, and a fine arts caucus t-shirt for third. 

Debbie T. moved and Sue L. seconded that we should proceed with the incentives.  Motion carried.

Scholarship:  There have been two applications received to date.  Bob is chair of this committee.  As he was not present, there was no report at this time.

State Caucus Update: 

California:  Pam and Joe are working to get a caucus revived, up and running.

Iowa:  Rich reported that at the Iowa Summer State Conference, that the Iowa State Fine Arts Caucus had 56 members sign up.  Twenty of those members also are national members.  He said that several reasons contributed to their success.  They had some time to meet during the conference.  And, they offered food and refreshments…a bribe.  They also sold fifteen t-shirts.

Nevada:  Not a lot of progress as yet.  Kathi has talked to the state president.  She is to send Kathi the information about how the state organizes the caucuses.  The Nevada State delegate assembly is held in the spring, and typically has about thirty minutes available for meeting. 

Illinois:  Oscar shared that not a lot of progress at this point.  More will happen at their state delegate meeting which is also held in the spring.

Pennsylvania:  Debbie updated that 500 letters were sent out to the state and local superintendents regarding the NBI from RA. 

At their summer leadership, there were 1400 in attendance.  They had a 40 minute time slot for meeting, two people showed up.

They are considering doing an arts competition with the theme of the “Fabric of Unionism”.   It would be K-12, and go with a study of the history of labor.  The works would be displayed at the state art education meeting in December.  \Also, at this meeting, a table with information about the NEAFAC could be distributed.  However, there is a $300.00 table fee.

National:  Princess Moss, Dennis VonRoekel, Lily Eskelson, Greg Johnson and Dave Sanchez have joined the NEAFAC.

Techno

At this time, there are twenty members on the listserve.

We still have the Yahoo group. 

Tom reminded that all of could and should be authors in the blog.

It was again mentioned to call people personally to invite them to join the blog and group.

Adjournment:  It was moved by Dan C., and seconded by Debbie T. to adjourn.  Motion carried.  Meeting was adjourned at 8:47 CST.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kathi Zamora

NEAFAC Secretary

Congress Creates Arts in Education Week

Late in July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.Con.Res. 275, legislation designating the second week of September as "Arts in Education Week." Authored and introduced by California Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA), this resolution is the first Congressional expression of support celebrating all the disciplines comprising arts education.

KEEP ARTS IN OUR SCHOOLS

KEEP ARTS IN OUR SCHOOLS, A GREAT NEA FAC PARTNER that you might want to explore.

Case Study: TEAMS Model School - Clark STEM Magnet in Glendale, CA (Part 3 of 5)

by Jim Brodie Brazell
8/13/10

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the third in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).

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In the sleepy hills of Glendale California, near the LA Zoo, is a pioneering high school challenging everything we know and accept about the American high school experience. The school is Clark Magnet School, home of the Panthers. Clark's next goal is to be the first high school to launch a functioning satellite into orbit. The school's aspiration is to participate in the U.S. Air Force Academy's initiative to enable students to "learn space by doing space."

Big Walnut music programs to return, thanks to anonymous donor

Big Walnut music programs to return, thanks to anonymous donor

Music will be back at Big Walnut's three elementary schools this fall, after an anonymous donor cut a $400,000 check to save the scrapped program.

Two levy attempts failed by close margins last school year, requiring the eastern Delaware County district to drastically cut its budget, including the loss of 40 staff members, an elementary school and all of the arts programs for the 1,400 students in the youngest grades About 3,000 students attend Big Walnut schools all together.

tr read the rest of the story, click on the title.

WE WON FOR KIDS, TEACHERS, SCHOOLS!

GREAT NEWS!  We won!  I just received an email from Dennis Van Roekel and the Jobs Bill passed.  Thanks to everyone of you who helped us win for students, teachers, schools and our country.  Here's the scoop from Dennis.

Dear Delegates,

You did it! Just moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed $10 billion in education jobs funding that the U.S. Department of Education estimates will save 161,000 jobs in public schools across the country.

This funding, which was approved by the Senate last week, will be signed into law by Pres. Obama, and will help many schools throughout the country decrease class sizes and restore critical programs our students need to be successful.

Dennis to Delegates D2D Discussion Thread on Caucus Work and Motions to Refer at the RA

http:///www.dennis2delegates.com

"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."Dennis Van Roekel 2010 Midwest Regional Conference

If you haven't joined Dennis to Delegates (D2D), you should.  It's a site that Dennis developed to stay connected to RA delegates throughout the year.  I recently posted looking to make some contacts for state caucus building for the NEA Fine Arts Caucus.  We know that Dennis reads these posts.  So, some of our concerns will be brought to his attention through the site.  The conversation ended up evolving.  Some interesting discussion has taken place about our caucus and the effort to "batch refer" items and not allow speakers or caucuses to address their concerns.  Check it out.

Arts in America from the July 4, 2010 RA Celebration

Music educator Princess Moss made the Fine Arts Caucus proud in her portion of the July 4, 2010 Independence Day Celebration.  At the request of many members, we include this for your use.

In the long history of man, countless empires and nations have come and gone. Those which created no lasting works of art are reduced today to short footnotes in history's catalogue.

Art is a nation's most precious heritage, for it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.

This new bill creating the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities gives us the power to turn some of those dreams and ideas into reality. We would not have this bill but for the hard and thorough and dedicated work of some of our great legislators in both houses of the Congress. These men and women have worked long and hard and effectively to give us this bill.

The TEAMS Model: Unifying Arts, Academics, and Career and Technical Education (Part 2 of 5)

by Jim Brodie Brazell
8/6/10

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the second in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).

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TEAMS in Florida

"We are witnessing a new Renaissance," Bob explains, "where TEAMS work and disciplines are the key to Florida's creative enterprise from film to educational technology to medicine." On Friday, June 18, 2010, Bob Allen spoke to the Florida Association of Arts Education (FAAE) about the importance of integrating technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and science (TEAMS). To Bob, integration of STEM and the arts is a no brainer. Bob is the chief storytelling officer of IDEAS, an innovation studio that was spun out of Disney in Orlando.

Florida is a critical state in terms of TEAMS-based education because cultural and technical arts industries accounted for $28 billion dollars in revenue in 2007 with forecasted job growth exceeding biomedical and defense (as a percentage) between 2008 and 2018 (Harper, 2008). The arts are also viewed systemically in Florida across many STEM high technology industries.

TEAMS programs underway in Florida include: (1) the Florida High Tech Corridor Council techPATH program, (2) the Orlando Science Center's Otronicon video game initiative, (3) University of Central Florida's Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) and (4) coordination across Career and Technical Education (CTE) industry advisory boards for STEM, Information Technology (IT) and Arts, A/V Technology and Communications (ARTS).

House to Return to Vote on Edujobs

House to Return to Vote on Edujobs

This could mean a great deal to Arts programs, students and our colleagues around the nation.

We need everyone in our caucus to uses NEA's Cap Wiz to see that this gets passed. Current responses and calls are needed to let our elected officials know that we are watching them and what they do for our schools and the arts.

Possible Bulletin Board Piece

Double click on the image.  Might be a great piece to include on a bulletin board, in a newsletter or in your signature line.

Summary of ESEA Reauthorization Meeting on Arts Education

On January 20, 2010, the United States Department of Education (ED) held a meeting for arts stakeholders to hear comments and suggestions regarding arts education and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The meeting was hosted by Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Innovation and Improvement, Carmel Martin, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, and other senior ED staff. Over 60 individuals representing various local, state and national arts organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, were in attendance.

The list of attendees can be found in Appendix A.

Connecting STEM and Arts (TEAMS) to Spur U.S. Innovation: Part 1 of 5 | Edutopia

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. This is the first article in a five-part series.

In 2010, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference featured a "crowd sourced" keynote selection. People voted over the web and the most popular nominee was given the closing keynote of one of the largest educational computing conferences in the world.