[DOE-Arts] ARTS Newsletter #10

[Argy Nestor]



ARTS Newsletter #10- 13 June 2007
GREETINGS FROM ARGY’S CUBBY with a view of the STATE HOUSE DOME at  
the Department of Education

ARTS NEWS
CONGRATULATIONS to all of you who are finishing another successful  
year of teaching!  I know you’re busy, returning student art work,  
packing up instruments, giving exams and cleaning classrooms.  I  
understand that art teachers Chris Chapman and Jim Stampone and music  
teachers Richard Randazzo and Ken Ball are packing and cleaning for  
the last time.  Congratulations on your retirement from teaching at  
Mt. Ararat High School, Falmouth High School, Portland High School  
and MSAD #11, respectively.  I must admit I am a bit envious thinking  
about the end of the school year.  I especially enjoy this month with  
middle school students!


NEWSLETTER
If you would like to retrieve newsletters #1-9 please go to http:// 
mailman.informe.org/pipermail/doe-arts/
This newsletter is being emailed to 445 educators this week!  That is  
an increase of 27 since the last newsletter! If you know someone who  
isn’t receiving the newsletter and would like to, please ask them to  
email me at argy.nestor at maine.gov If you would like the newsletter to  
go to a “summer email address” please let me know.

CALL FOR PRESENTERS-VPA CONFERENCE
Outstanding ideas are being carried out every day throughout Maine in  
your classrooms.  Please consider sharing your work by presenting a  
workshop:
AT THE CREATIVE CENTER- THE ARTS IN MAINE SCHOOLS state-wide  
conference.  If interested please send in the attached ‘call for  
presenters’ form by JULY 1st to me by email argy.nestor at maine.gov or  
snail mail to Maine Dept. of Ed., 23 State House Station, Augusta, ME  
04333-0023.

STATE-WIDE ARTS CONFERENCE-OCT. 5, 6, 2007
AT THE CREATIVE CENTER

THE ARTS IN MAINE SCHOOLS

A ‘save-the-date’ postcard was mailed last week to 1299 visual and  
performing arts teachers in Maine announcing the state-wide arts  
conference sponsored by the Maine Department of Education (MDOE), The  
Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) and the Maine Arts  
Commission (MAC) partnering with Maine Art Education Association  
(MAEA), Maine Music Educators Association (MMEA), Maine Drama Council  
(MDC) Dance Education in Maine Schools (DEMS) and VSA arts of Maine  
(VSA).
The conference will be held at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.  More  
information will be coming in this newsletter throughout the summer.   
Registration information will be mailed via US Postal to your school  
addresses at the end of August. The cost for conference registration  
is $75.00.
The conference planning committee is meeting in July to continue  
working on this professional development opportunity.  Please email  
me if you have questions or would like to help argy.nestor at maine.gov

CONGRATULATIONS
Dwight Tibbetts, Augusta music teacher and member of the Downeast  
Brass of Maine has just had four brass quintet pieces published  
through Solid Brass Publications. If you see the group performing  
this summer in New England I am sure they will be sharing this music.  
Congratulations Dwight!

“Performed at Fort Kent High School, “The Fantasticks” was a  
huge success with over 400 people in attendance! It was such a  
popular show that the public demanded an encore performance.  After  
20 years with no major musical the school is finally over the  
hurdle-------on to next years selection!”  Congratulations Doug  
Clapp, Drama Director!



DANCE RESIDENCY WITH ERMA COLVIN

 From June 3 to June 8, ninety six 6th graders at Camden-Rockport  
Middle School spent an exciting week studying the late twentieth  
century. The unit was a

collaboration of the 6th grade team teachers, Jim Morse (Social  
Studies), Katie Bauer (Math), Paula Lavoie(Science), Dee Kopesky  
(Computer Science) and

Dick Taylor (Language Arts).  Erma Colvin was hired to choreograph  
dances for each decade.  The students were divided into 4 groups. One  
group made tessellations, one group launched rockets, one group built  
a slide show of their decade in iMovie and the 4th group rehearsed  
their dance piece.  In addition, each day one group traveled to the  
Challenger Center in Bangor. On Friday, after 3 rehearsal sessions,  
the 6th grade put on a performance with lighting and costumes.  The  
performance consisted of the slide show and dance from the 1950's,  
1960's, 1970's and 1980's. The gym was full of 5th graders, seeing  
what awaits them next year, 7th graders, seeing the performance they  
did the previous year, (though all the dances were new), and  
multitudes of families and friends.  This unit, including the  
choreography is now a permanent part of the Social Studies budget.   
Contact Erma for more info erma3_04574 at yahoo.com



RESEARCH AND SUMMER READING
Please click on the link below for outstanding summer reading for  
dance, music, theater and visual arts education: International  
Journal of Education & the Arts
Be sure and pick up a copy of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, a must  
read!


CREATIVITY
Please click on the link below to get a video of Sir Ken Robinson,  
noted expert on education and creativity.  This lecture is Do Schools  
Kill Creativity?

www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

REORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS
The Department of Education is scheduling meetings open to the public  
that are designed to provide information about the reorganization law  
and guidance about moving forward with regional planning, and to  
answer questions.  Attached is a letter from Commissioner Susan  
Gendron with some details of the reorganization.  To learn more about  
the reorganization or to see the schedule of meetings please click on  
this link: http://www.maine.gov/education/supportingschools/
MUSIC WEBSITES and PERFORMANCE, SINGING INFO
Thank you Beth Preston, Lincoln Academy for sharing, see attached  
info also!
To help train students to sing Sebben Curdele, you might find this  
website useful:
http://www.opera-karaoke.com/arias/sebben_crudele.html
And other good music education sites:
http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/
http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/eledMusic.html
http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/music/k-12music/
MAINE CRAFT ORGANIZATION CONSORTIUM INFO
Please read the attachment to learn about their exciting work going  
on in Maine.
EDUCATION LAW CONFERENCE- July 24-27
Please click on the link www.edlaw.org to learn more about the  
conference and the arts events at the upcoming Education Law  
Conference at USM in Portland from July 24-27, 2007. They include a  
student photography exhibit from Critical Exposure in Washington,  
D.C.; and a performance of the play Laramie Project by the Searsport  
High School Players. Reduced fee scholarships are available for Maine  
educators who want to attend.

QUOTE OF THE NEWSLETTER
"Steve Jobs has done more Cool Stuff than anybody else in Silicon  
Valley. . . . one of his success secrets is loading every development  
team with artist and historians and poets and musicians and  
dramatists. He says he wants to bring to bear, on each project, the  
best of human cultural accomplishment. So how come schools don't get  
it? Budget crunch? First programs to be cut? Art and Music. I say the  
hell with the math budget [I really don't mean that.] Let's enhance  
the art budget and inflate the music budget. Training in Creativity  
is important, in general. But it is absolutely essential in this Age  
of Intangibles and Intellectual Capital."

Source: Tom Peters, Re-imagine


Make it a great last few days of school,
Argy
Argy Nestor
Visual and Performing Arts Specialist
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0023
207-624-6825
fax: 207-624-6821
argy.nestor at maine.gov









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