tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43047724736493339082024-03-14T02:02:12.853-07:00ATA BlogThe Association of Teaching Artists (ATA) is a not for profit professional organization whose mission is to strengthen and serve Teaching Artists from all disciplines in New York, California, and beyond. Connect. Get jobs. Go Teach!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger733125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-42637885731189004082011-03-13T11:18:00.000-07:002011-03-13T11:18:38.374-07:00The Awful TruthYou may have noticed that I am taking a break from blogging.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure what happens next.<br />
<br />
You are invited to follow me on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/teachingartist">http://www.twitter.com/teachingartist</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-5490858781319963972011-02-14T07:57:00.000-08:002011-02-14T08:08:24.743-08:00Dennis Baker<style>
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<div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Earlier this month, I used my cellphone to interview <a href="http://www.dennisbaker.net/">Dennis Baker</a>; a teaching artist, entrepreneur and social media expert. We had a wide-ranging conversation and here are the results. Dennis has kindly typed and edited the interview. It's good stuff.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Q: Hi Dennis! I am so glad you've agreed to answer a few easy questions. It's February 2nd, and I am in San Francisco. You are based in Los Angeles. We are doing this by phone, and since my cellphone bill is ludicrously high and I am underpaid, I'll get right to it.</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>(Here we pause because an incredibly loud protest demonstration of California State Workers passes by banging drums and screaming something about draconian budget cuts. It will be over soon.)</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Q: Dennis, what are the critical issues facing Teaching Artists?</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dennis Baker: Money is always a critical issue. This is going to get some people upset, but I am going to say it, teaching artists are the migrant workers of the arts education field. Administration justifies paying $25/hour for a teaching artist with a masters degree in education, with no benefits, because they think that teaching artists choose to be freelance workers. Teaching artists are freelance workers, because there is no other choice. If there was a full time resident teaching artist position created, with the benefits and pay of an administrator, the teaching artist application pool would be huge. In the U.S., we live in a society where the goal is to get everything as cheap as possible, without truly asking what that means to the people that we pay the lowest price. This mindset does not account for the whole picture. I am not implying that every arts education organization chooses not to pay their teaching artists a living wage, but the standards are not at a sustainable level.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">I think the issues that actors have with the amount of work, in relation to pay, is the same problem for teaching artists. In the acting field, there has been questions of why is there so many MFA programs, graduating actors year after year, for a field that can not sustain the numbers. Some of the statistics are:</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">· 14.4% of Equity members (actors and stage managers) work in any given week in ’08-‘09</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">· 49.3% of Equity members are unemployed for the whole year of ’08-‘09</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">· Median AEA member made $7,688 in ‘08-‘09 </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">My guess is that these numbers are pretty close to the teaching artist field. We are seeing more and more schools creating theater education programs, for a field in which a teaching artist cannot make a living wage. Why? One reason, higher education institutions are businesses. If there are enough students willing to pay for it, they will create a degree, with no consideration of whether there is a field to sustain their graduates. Manifest destiny is at the bedrock of all we do. Grow and expand, without thinking of the consequences. Does any theater program advertise the above statistics? No, because their might be less student enrollment. So until we are willing to have a national conversation regarding the relation of higher education to the number of jobs in the field, there will be an ever-increasing supply and demand problem. Is the answer a union? That is a good start to increase standardized pay, but that will not address the amount of work in the field.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Regarding pedagogical issues, how can we find ways to integrate the education of becoming a teaching artist with that of the classroom teacher? Do teaching artists need to take some classes in a credential program? As I begin to teach theater education and teaching artistry, I find that I am lacking in truly understanding the mindset of the classroom teacher. While I know the basics through working with teachers in the past, and looking at state standards, in general teaching artists do not know the language of classroom teachers and principals. </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br />
Q: What is the future field for professional Teaching Artistry? Where are we and where are we going? </b></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dennis Baker: There is no doubt that the field has come into its own in the last decade. The field and conversation has grown. It is a time to truly reflect and find ways to move forward in a sustainable manner. Sustainability needs to be the future of the field. We are not there yet. We are pockets of people without a unified voice. We live in a time where business and entertainment is looked in higher regard than education. For sustainability to occur, this national mindset will need to shift. Without this national shift, we are a field that is fighting for scraps at the table. Honestly, I am talking of a change that is beyond any of our life times, if it is to happen at all. In the mean time, one needs to be a creative, entrepreneurial teaching artist.<b> </b></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Q: Dennis, I see you working all over the place. You're on <a href="http://twitter.com/dennisbaker">Twitter</a>. You're <span class="bio">an actor, teaching artist, fight director, audition coach, web designer, and social media expert.</span> Aren't you exhausted? I mean, how are you pulling all of this off?</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">A: Individuals in business are learning what it is like to live and work with less, something artists have always done. At the same time the entrepreneur discussion that is going on in the business sector is something artists need to be listening to and figuring ways to adapt it to the teaching artist field. Artists can learn just as much from people like Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki as they could from leaders in the education field. While living in New York, and planning to move back to Los Angeles, I was talking to a fellow teaching artist expressing my concern that Los Angeles did not have the same infrastructure for work in the theater arts education. He said, well then you will have to create your own. What keeps me positive is that we as humans are adaptable. How are we as teaching artists creating our own work? How are we forging relationships with teachers, principals, school districts and organizations to create opportunities for work? We need more of these conversations in the field. Coming out of graduate school, I was hired into a one of the biggest theater education organizations in New York. There I formed my teaching artistry, but due to the size, all the business aspects was taken care of for me. I just had to show up for the various curriculum trainings, give them my availability, and they would email me with jobs. That is not the norm. So how do we become entrepreneurial teaching artists? </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, what do you do exactly? You might say I am a teaching artist. Too broad. What is your niche, your specialty? What are the two to three things that you are good at teaching? Shakespeare? Physical Theater? Elementary age children? In the area where you live and work, you need to be considered the expert in areas of your specialty. This is where living outside a metropolis might help you. It takes more work for me to be considered an expert in a theater or acting field in Los Angeles then it would for a teaching artist working in a field that is less populated with theater artists.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Second, do people know you are an expert in that field? This is where connection is key. Are you in conversation through social media, attendance at school district functions, PTA meetings, etc. You need to be at the places where you can make connections with people that would want to hire you. Principals, teachers, parents need to know you exist. Are you reading the mommy blogs, and commenting on posts in regards to education? Are you at the school district meetings? Are you using social media, not as a tool to talk, but as a tool to listen? So many people say I don’t get twitter, what am I supposed to say. Don’t say anything, just listen. Listen to the conversation that is being held on the local level, as well as the national level.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Third, create a need that then you can fill. Businesses are great at this. They sell us a product that we don’t even know we need, and once we do, they are there to provide us with it. Everyone agrees that education is important and needed, but what does that mean? How can you go about influencing hearts and minds in your local community that the work of a teaching artist is needed? There is numerous articles that show how arts education is needed, but minds are not changed with statistics, they are changed through experience. How can you provide administrators, teachers, parents and students with an experience in where they have an “a ha” moment and realize that teaching artist work is needed in their school, community organization and community?</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lastly, in this current time you will not make a living wage as a teaching artist. While you need to find your niche within the teaching artist field, you need to diversify your job skill set. You need to find other part-time freelance jobs that will compliment your teaching artist work.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">...................................... </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here, all conversation ended because those last few sentences from Dennis nearly killed me. I encourage you to read it again to yourself, slowly, carefully and aloud. </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thank you <a href="http://www.dennisbaker.net/">Dennis Baker</a> for your thoughtful comments on the state of the field. Fellow teaching artists, if you would like to join this ongoing conversation, push the comment button below or email us <a href="mailto:%20grndwork@gmail.com">here</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-87179418176476969312011-01-28T15:02:00.000-08:002011-01-28T15:03:14.548-08:00From the Executive Director<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>FROM ATA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DALE DAVIS</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Members:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">ATA will be convening the first national Teaching Artists' Congress in New York City on April 16. Save the date! Eric Booth, Richard Kessler, and Nick Rabkin will be joining us. More will be forthcoming soon. For information: <a href="mailto:Mailto:ddavis@teachingartists.com">ddavis@teachingartists.com</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thank you to those of you who so generously contributed to ATA's year end campaign. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_819314102">Your donations</a><a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm"> make a difference</a>!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you blog about your work as a Teaching Artist, please let me know so we can include your blog on http://www.teachingartists.com/. Thank you to Teaching Artists organized http://www.teachingartistsorganized.org/ for mentioning ATA's Teaching Artists' blogs in your last newsletter. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If there is a Youtube video of you working as a Teaching Artist, please let me know so we can include it on <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">ATA's website</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">ATA will be presenting "Creating a Positive Work Environment and Community with Teaching Artists" at The New York City Arts In Education Roundtable's Face To Face on February 24. We hope to see many of you at Face to Face. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Happy 2011!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dale</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-39199049313618005062011-01-24T10:31:00.000-08:002011-01-24T10:32:30.141-08:00On the MoneyOften, I have noticed, teaching artists are called <i>Freelancers</i>.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, we are designated as <i>Independent</i> <i>Contractors</i>.<br />
<br />
Once in a while, I hear us referred to as <i>Consultants</i>.<br />
<br />
Less frequently, we're <i>Employees</i>.<br />
<br />
What's the difference between these designations, and, more importantly, how does it affect the teaching artist's pocketbook?<br />
<br />
Frankly, I have no clue, so I am providing some handy links to information about this topic. Maybe you and your customer, client, or boss can sit down and figure it out together?<br />
<br />
Three articles are below: <br />
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<blockquote><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1610593658">Answers About Freelancers @ The New York Times</a><br />
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<a href="http://library.findlaw.com/2003/Dec/10/133212.html">Ban the Label "Freelancer" @ Findlaw</a><br />
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<a href="http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/employeelawandtaxes/f/icvsemployee.htm">What is the Difference Between an Independent Contractor and an Employee @ About.com</a></blockquote><br />
Also: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wobmyEB-dsk"><i>You Never Give Me Your Money</i></a> - The Four<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/wobmyEB-dsk?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/wobmyEB-dsk?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-88826687743277427162011-01-20T09:34:00.000-08:002011-01-21T10:15:36.452-08:00Blowing On the Wind<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Candara;">Ok, I'm sharing today.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Candara;">I am working on a Lesson Plan for Pre-K. If you have a moment, please read it and <a href="mailto:grndwork@gmail.com">send me your thoughtful feedback.</a> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">Lesson Plan #1</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">PRE-K</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">Goals/Objectives:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">To introduce the idea of creative movement.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">To practice self-expression.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">To practice following instructions.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">To build ensemble and community.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">To assess student’s ability to listen, play, move and interact safely in the space.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">Outcomes<i>:</i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;"> <i>After participating in this session, students will:</i></span></b></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Be more able to use their imaginations, voices and bodies to express emotion, meaning, action and narrative. Students will demonstrate understanding by responding to verbal and physical cues from the TA. Further, they will respond to narration, acting out parts of a story as they are suggested by the TA.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Understand more about how character and movement are related. They will demonstrate this understanding by pretending to be a seed blowing on the wind. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Understand more about story and narrative. Students will demonstrate understanding by being able to retell and/or recall details about the story they have acted out together during the session.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">Materials: </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">A big sheet of chart paper or brown butcher-block paper.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">“Seeds” – Oval shapes cut out of colored paper. Enough for each student to have.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Glue sticks. These are to stick the Seeds on to the chart paper.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Handy wipes or some rags. These are to clean the floor and our hands.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Instruments: Clavé, or a drum.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">Music:</span></b><span style="font-family: Candara;"> <i>Three to Get Ready</i> by Dave Brubeck. From the album <i>Time Out</i>, or something similarly bouncy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">OPENING (10-15 Minutes)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">Hello Room!</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Warm-up.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA asks students “Can you please take off your shoes and come sit in a circle?”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA asks “Have you ever been in this room before?”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA asks “What is this room called? What is it used for? What do you think or expect that we will be doing together in this room?”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA explains the ideal of a movement space “’This will be the place that we do something called <i>creative movement</i> work together. We’ll use move in this space to show how we feel and we’ll tell stories using our bodies in this space.”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA takes questions and then states “OK, let’s clean this floor together. This is our creative movement space, so let’s keep it clean.”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Each child gets a handy wipe or a rag.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA and children “clean” the floor together. TA offers various verbs and qualifiers while modeling movements. “Push the cloth. Pull the cloth. Rub. Scrub. Sweep. Make big movements. Make small movements. Big circles. Small circles. Can you go fast? Go slow. Can you go back and forth? Use your arms. Use your feet. Can you use your elbows?”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">When the floor is declared clean, the TA states “Now that our movement space is clean, let’s scoot across the floor. Let’s roll around the floor. Let’s all come together in the center of the space. Let’s all move far apart. Let’s all freeze and stay very still. When I say freeze you will not move a muscle, but be very still. ” Note: Model, label and give a concrete example for each verb and instruction. Make the connection.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">Hello Children!</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Choreography.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Seated circle. Name Game A: Cued by drumbeat; each child is invited to stand up and say their name out loud.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">Hello Friends!</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Self-Expression/Interpretation</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Name Game B: Each child gets to hold the instrument. “Hit it and say your name on the syllables. MI-CHAEL!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Name Game C: Each child gets to cross the circle on the drumbeat. “I’ll hit the drum, point to you and you can move across the circle in any way you like. Fast. Slow. Moving your arms. However you like. OK? Who wants to try first?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri;">STARTER ACTIVITY (5 MIN)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">Character of the day</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA introduces the character of the day. THE SEED.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Students view a photo or a real example of THE SEED. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Led by the TA, students discuss THE SEED. “What do you see? What do you think? What do you feel? What do you wonder? Why do you say that?</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Music.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Choreography: “This is rehearsal. Follow me!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">THE SEED starts small and opens up. “Do as I do!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">THE SEED starts big and gets small. “Copy me!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">THE SEED moves as if the wind is blowing it across the room. “Move to your left! This way! Move to your right! This way!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">MAIN ACTIVITY (10 MIN)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">In the Garden</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA working in-role as the gardener narrates a story: “One day in the garden, I was planting seeds. I dug a hole for each seed./Cave un augjero por cada semilla.” </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">The Gardener plants all the seeds one by one. Tapping each child on the shoulder. “Hello seed!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">“I was just about to put the dirt on top of them, to cover them up, when a great wind arose from the East and blew them all away. I rushed to catch them in my hand, but alas I could not”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA out of role asks the students “What would happen if the wind blows all the seeds? What would that look like?” </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Students offer suggestions about what a seed floating on the wind might look like. TA encourages them to “Show us! Use your whole body to show us what a seed floating on the wind might look like!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA asks students “Shall we pretend to be seeds floating on the wind? Shall we continue our story? Let’s try and see what it feels like and what it looks like to be blown around like a seed on the wind. I will pretend to be THE GREAT WIND. You all pretend to be seeds and follow my voice and the motion of my hand. Move in the direction I am pointing. OK. Shall we try?!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Music.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA in-role as THE GREAT uses voice and gesture to encourage students to move across the room as if they were seeds blown on the wind. “I am THE GREAT WIND! Wherever I blow, the seeds will follow. First I sweep into the garden and I blow all the seeds to the East! Then I blow all the seeds to the West!”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">After a few runs at this game, the TA comes out of role and asks the children to freeze. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA might sit half the group down to watch the other half pretending to be seeds. Then we can talk about Audience/Performer.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">To close this section, TA in-role as THE GARDENER narrates, “The Great Wind blew all the seeds this way. The wind blew all the seeds that way! Finally, the wind stopped. I swept all the seeds up into a pile and replanted them, one by one.”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">All the students are gathered close together, seated in the center of the room.</span><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">With a tap on the shoulder from the TA, each seed/student is replanted. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Candara;"> </span><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Candara;">CLOSING (10 MIN)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;">Active Reflection</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Dialogue: “What did we do today? What happened in our story? Where were we? What did we pretend?”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Each student gets a colored piece of paper shaped like a seed; an oval. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">TA says “Let’s plant our seeds in the garden.”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Each child will be able to glue their seed to a piece of butcher-block paper which is divided into layers. The bottom layer is the earth and that’s for seeds. Each week we will add to this picture of our garden.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">In a seated circle, TA narrates “All the seeds go to sleep. Can you be small? Become small. Smaller. Smaller. Move slowly. Stiller and stiller. When you are fully asleep and still, then THE SUN (TA or another adult in the room) will come and tap you and then you are awake and yourself again and you can go over and plant your seed in the garden.”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Candara;">Students write their name (or stick their name-tags) on their oval and plant their seeds. Then we all line up and go back to class.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Candara;"> </span></div><br />
That's it, so far. See you in the garden!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-89659493012668953772011-01-12T23:24:00.000-08:002011-01-13T09:41:02.361-08:00Face Yourself<style>
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<div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Here is the latest installment of our, meaning my, ongoing dialogue with Bay Area Teaching Artist/Entrepreneur <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2011/01/multiple-choice.html">Anthem Salgado</a>. Today, we face facts. Ouch.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><blockquote><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Q: What I’m hearing is that there is no one path to success in this field. But are there some guiding principles?</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Anthem: Yes, there are tons of guiding principles. And that’s why I’m such an avid reader. Because anyone who already knows what needs to be done has already written a book about it. So we just need to find the books that resonate with us and start reading ‘em! (laughs) It’s like we’re reinventing the wheel, but someone’s already figured it out. Let’s go to the people who’ve already figured it out. And I read tons of books and they inform me in such huge ways.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Q: OK, so what are the guiding principles you’re working with right now?</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">A: Values, principles…my gosh! (Shakes head.) There are too many!</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Q: Is there a set of guiding principles for an emerging TA?</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">A: OK, this is one I gave recently to somebody, and it works for individuals as well as organizations. I always tell people you need to <i>optimize</i>, and then <i>innovate</i>. And those are both buzz words…I know. (laughs) So, just to be clear. <i>Innovate</i> is all the creative thinking that I’m suggesting you do. Creative solutions around business, and professional development. But <i>optimize </i>means<i> </i>you need to know what is working. You really need to take a full inventory of what is working and what isn’t working. You need to make a NOT TO DO list. There are probably things we are working on that aren’t moving the ball forward. Those things we just need to stop immediately. And for the things that are working? We need to use these three criteria. “What are we extraordinarily passionate about?” Would be number one. Number two would be “What can generate income?” And number three would be “What can we really excel in?” For instance, in my own work, when I did this analysis, I realized the most money I make per hour is from commercial acting, as opposed to theatrical acting. So, I thought, "Well, that’s something I need to prioritize." Because it just pays more! It’s still acting, so I’m passionate about it. It generates income. And I do have an opportunity to excel in it. Whereas theater acting, which I also love and am passionate about…well, the income per hour is not as much, although I still have an opportunity to excel at it. It’s just a semi-scientific way of beginning to prioritize which projects you should be working on at any one time. I also realize that I can stand to build a career, not have one immediately, but <i>build</i> one as a Teaching Artist, a professional development type of teacher, meeting all three criteria. (counts on his fingers) I’m passionate about it. I can excel in it. And I can make some money from it. For a long while, in the city, I was really well-known as a spoken-word artist. But let’s look at this. I’m passionate about it. But there’s no way to excel in it, because it’s pretty much a single tier type of endeavor. There’s no such thing as career spoken-word artist. So I can’t excel in it and I can’t make money in it. I don’t know any spoken-word artist who is really making money in that field. So I just had to face myself. It’s difficult, but I had to face myself and just drop it.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Q: These are hard choices you’re talking about. These are not choices where someone says “Well, I <i>wanna</i> be a spoken word artist <i>and</i> make money at it!” Does that mean the dream is dead?</span> </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">(Hysterical laughter)</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">A: No, it doesn’t mean the dream is dead. The dream means putting yourself in the driver’s seat. And when people put themselves in the driver’s seat..this is what I encourage every artist to do. Think like a boss. When you’re a boss and you have to make executive decisions, you’re not going to fund or put energy or human resources into the project that’s not coming back to pay you. Right? So spoken word would be great if I had a full on career as a doctor or a lawyer or accountant and I could do spoken word on the side. That could just be my passion project. But if we’re talking about having a sustainable ecology, then you have to think like a boss. As an executive director, if you were your own company, which one of your personal artistic projects would you prioritize so that the company, which is you, can survive? It’s not about the dream being dead. It’s about having to make some real decisions. Thinking like a boss. </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Q: Last tiny little question. What’s the future of the field of Teaching Artistry?</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">A: (laughs) Well, that’s a big question. I think the field will continue to work as it has been. We talked about $17 per hour being, for some places, a typical rate of pay. For someone that’s new to teaching art, that’s actually pretty awesome. So, you’ll always have emerging, new Teaching Artists entering the field, and you’ll always have the ones who are a bit more senior leaving the field. That’s life. There will be no shortage of Teaching Artists, ever, because the young ones will always be there to fill the place. Organizations themselves will be able to replicate their formulas and grow, but I don’t think the field itself is going to grow until the senior Teaching Artists are in more positions of influence to be able to create a graduating point for all the Teaching Artists who are leaving the field. If we can continue to stay in the field and develop our skills then we could really see something beautiful.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Q: Does that mean we should become administrators?</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">A: I don’t know if we become administrators. We just need more leaders. I’m not going to encourage a Teaching Artist...look, if their master skill is being in front of a class, I wouldn’t encourage them to get behind a desk. But, if they have the vision and they have the organizational skill, I would encourage them to partner with an organization...with administrators who understand the vision and know how to get the grant...know how to get the business part of it rolling, so that there is a graduating point. Right now, there’s nothing for a Teaching Artist who is really experienced to graduate to. That’s what I would love to see. We’ll always be at the mercy of someone else if we’re always <i>asking</i>, but not in a position of <i>giving</i> or creating. People ought to be asking us to participate. That’s sort of what <a href="http://www.artofhustle.com/">Art of Hustle</a> is about. Empowering ground-level artists to think bigger. </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div></blockquote><br />
<div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Thus ended this installment of our chat. Many thanks to <a href="http://www.anthemsalgado.com/">Anthem Salgado</a> for his time and thoughtful responses! Teaching Artists, if you would like to offer feedback, please click the comment button below, or send us an <a href="mailto:%20grndwork@gmail.com">email</a>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;">Also: The Man In Black - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IfHDi-2EA"><i>When the Man Comes Around</i></a> </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><i></i> </span></div><br />
<iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k9IfHDi-2EA?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="425"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-6213181479420451222011-01-08T19:10:00.000-08:002011-01-08T19:54:24.007-08:00Multiple Choice<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><style>
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</style> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Today on ATA Blog, we continue our <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2011/01/here-we-go.html">ongoing dialogue</a> with Teaching Artist <a href="http://twitter.com/artofhustle">Anthem Salgado</a>. </div><br />
<blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Q: Ok, so what are the questions emerging Teaching Artists should be asking?</div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A: Is there upward mobility? What is the pay rate? Where is the biggest and brightest place I can go with this type of work? And you’ll find, if you just ask those really basic simple questions…you’ll find that the path doesn’t really go very far. And I wish I had asked those questions when I was in art school. Just real basic questions. Where can we go with this? And most people will tell you, if they’re honest, "Not that far." I went to visual art school, and even people I knew who had shown in big museums and had toured internationally were still struggling on the dollar, and if I had asked them those real questions, I think they would’ve…well, there was no way they could have lied to me…to my face. And it would’ve maybe changed some of the way I looked at life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A: What’s the reason people aren’t asking these questions? How did we get into a situation like this, where we are paying a hundred thousand dollars for school and then being offered jobs that pay $17 per hour for three hours a week?</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Q: Well, number one, most educational institutions are run like businesses, so they’re not really interested in your success in the long term. They’re just not. They just want to recruit. You’ll notice that at a lot of schools….that there’s not a lot of support post graduation. But they’ll still have the audacity to send you letters...to ask alumni to donate money. Which is <i>hilarious</i>. (laughs)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Q: I’m notoriously pessimistic, and you’re notoriously optimistic. I mean, you speak a lot about “abundance”, which is one reason I like talking with you. So, I wonder…within this context…within this conversation we’re having…which has a lot of negatives…you’ve still got a smile on your face, and I’m wondering how does that concept of abundance figure into this situation you’ve just described?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A: I feel like there’s only scarcity if you think that all the options available to you are only the ones that have already been presented to you. So I feel like, if you were to practice the same kind of creativity that you practice in the classroom, or if you were to take the same creativity that you practice within your own art, and apply that creativity to new ways of thinking about your own professional development, business models...then you’ll see that you have way more options. And the idea of having more options is automatically very inspiring, and it leads to optimism, because you realize you have choices. Things only get really bleak when you think you only have the choices that have already been presented to you. You're already in a disempowered position if you’re only looking at the choices that someone has allowed you to have. So if someone says “Would you choose A, B or C?” And I decide to say “D, E and F”...(laughs) automatically I’m changing the game for myself. And that’s inspiring…scary, but inspiring. (laughs)</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Next on ATA Blog: <a href="http://www.anthemsalgado.com/">Anthem Salgado</a> presents his theory of change and suggests one sure-fire way for Teaching Artists to make those hard career choices.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Also: J.L. - <i>Watching the Wheels</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qp9dc9im3-M?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qp9dc9im3-M?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-73209809261522547802011-01-06T10:26:00.000-08:002011-01-07T12:03:21.866-08:00Here We Go!<div style="text-align: justify;"><style>
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</style> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Here we go!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It's January 5<sup>th</sup>, 2011, and I’m continuing my <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/11/anthem.html">irregularly scheduled interview</a> with Teaching Artist <a href="http://www.anthemsalgado.com/">Anthem Salgado</a>, here in San Francisco.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote><div class="MsoNormal">Q: Anthem, the question of the day is “Can you make a living as a Teaching Artist?" Most people, according to <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/researchonTA.htm">Nick Rabkin's Teaching Artist Research Project</a>, are making $17,000 a year on average as a TA, which, of course, is not sustainable. But we’re still doing it! So, do you think people can actually make a living doing this work?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Anthem: (laughs) I would have to say you can make a living probably as a new or emerging Teaching Artist, because it would be satisfactory for you to be earning that much early in your career, but there’s no real upward mobility in the field, so, in that respect, you cannot make a living as a Teaching Artist in the long term. A lot of Teaching Artists I know are multiple freelancers. So Teaching Artist is just one among many titles that they carry throughout the course of the week just to be able to put together some decent money.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Q: We call ourselves professionals. Is that something we should just accept? How are we professional if there’s no way to make an actual living in the field? Are we then not professionals?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A: I guess most people define professional as getting paid. So if you’re getting paid you’re a professional. If you’re going to define professional by some sort of expertise...I guess in that respect you can be a professional. You can be specialized as a Teaching Artist. But if you compare it to other career choices where other individuals call themselves professional, probably it wouldn’t carry the same kind of weight. And I would go so far as to say that artists and Teaching Artists alike have this misnomer that we call career, because there isn’t a straight ahead career path for artists and Teaching Artists the same way there might be in other fields…in business or medicine or law. So, in that respect, there’s not really a full on career. We’re basically like eternal freelancers. I’d love to see that change, but, right now, that’s just the case.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Q: For people who are in education programs getting their MAs or MFAs , or just working as artists trying to cobble together this kind of career, what is your advice? Should they really be pursuing it?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A: I would say…if I was going to be blunt? I would say no. (laughs) But that’s not advice, that’s just an opinion. The advice I would really give is interview as many mentors and leaders in the field as possible to find out what you’re really getting into. Because so many people have an image of themselves within the work, but they don’t have an image of themselves <i>within the field</i>. So a lot of us are up for rude awakenings, because we haven’t mentally prepared ourselves for the actual reality of working in the field...because we haven’t asked those kind of career questions of our mentors.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Next on <a href="http://www.teachingartists.blogspot.com/">ATA Blog</a>: <a href="http://www.artofhustle.com/">Anthem</a> suggests the essential questions every emerging TA should ask.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-6299447034729874282010-12-15T10:08:00.000-08:002010-12-15T10:08:14.435-08:00The Meaning of ATA<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="text-align: justify;">What does the Association of Teaching Artists mean to our field?</h2>A few years ago my colleagues and I were in the midst of a sensitive and somewhat drawn-out negotiation of a teaching artist union contract. I needed some outside perspective, and when I came upon the Association of Teaching Artists, I called Dale Davis. We had a long conversation about issues surrounding intellectual property, similar situations that other teaching artists had faced, and ramifications of parallel contracts in higher education contexts. We didn't necessarily nail down the answers, but Dale took the time to help me ask the right questions. And if there's one thing that we as teaching artists are called to do – in our ongoing quest to find balance in art-making and educating – it's ask the right questions. <div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am grateful that I could make that call, and like other colleagues who have written this week, I am thankful that ATA provides a mechanism for sharing best practices – for encouraging emerging teaching artists – and for asking the right questions that continue to deepen the professionalism of our field. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please consider joining me in donating today!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can make a check payable to ATA and mailed to:The Association of Teaching Artists155 South Main Street Fairport, New York 14450-2517</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Or online, at: <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sonya RobinsonDirector, Artist Corps New Orleans</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-64526320756320892902010-12-13T04:55:00.000-08:002010-12-13T04:55:22.907-08:00ATA Provides A ForumThis is my first year as an <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">ATA</a> Board Member. When asked to join the ATA Board, I said "yes" for several reasons. I have been a teaching artist, continue to work with teaching artists and have the greatest respect for the profession and the myriad of creative skills that teaching artists share with the students they work with.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/associationofteachingartists/">ATA provides a forum</a> to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667#%21/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667?v=wall">share information</a> and advocate for the profession. Especially in these difficult economic times, we need a place where our voices can come together. Because I want to make that voice a little stronger, I will be contributing to the ATA appeal and encourage you to <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm">do the same</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/board.htm">Sharon Vatsky, ATA Board Member</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-10461587895397210012010-12-08T09:53:00.000-08:002010-12-08T09:54:53.702-08:00Who Speaks For Teaching Artists?<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who speaks for teaching artists?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Artists don't generally have a problem expressing themselves. After all, art is about the expression of an idea.<br />
<br />
Teaching artists generally don't have a problem communicating, since teaching is one of the most fundamental forms of communication.<br />
<br />
However, when teaching artists gather and share tales of charming students, grateful parents and helpful administrators, eventually other stories emerge: the frustrations of legal limitations, poor pay rates, and absent medical benefits. A collective sigh is often heard, "Can't someone do something about this? Who can we talk to, who might know what to do?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Does anyone hear these lamentations? Do these notes from a bitter song find an audience? Who listens to teaching artists?<br />
<br />
ATA does.<br />
<br />
But who shares these stories, both the charming ones and the frustrating ones? Who lets teaching artists know that they are not, in fact, alone?<br />
<br />
ATA does.<br />
<br />
How does ATA do it? Despite being a tiny organization with a miniscule budget (with our entire budget, we couldn't afford to buy even half of a 2004 Toyota Prius) ATA is dedicated to helping teaching artists communicate with one another, with potential employers, and with the world at large.<br />
<br />
Our <a href="http://www.teachingarists.com/">website</a>, our <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/associationofteachingartists/">listserve</a>, our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667">Facebook</a> page, and our <a href="http://www.teachingartists.blogspot.com/">blog</a> are all devoted to presenting the many points of view teaching artists possess. And in 2011, we're engaging in our most ambitious project yet: a Teaching Artists Congress, which will gather key figures from across the nation to address the state of teaching artistry, and hopefully, generate some momentum that will empower teaching artists and strengthen their positions within organizations and community groups.<br />
<br />
ATA needs your help to maintain its current projects and to take things forward. Yes, the recession makes donating even more difficult-- but financial challenges are something teaching artists contend with, even during a stable economy. Please consider contributing to the advancement of teaching artists by supporting ATA, with whatever amount you can.<br />
<br />
Who speaks for teaching artists?<br />
<br />
ATA does.<br />
<br />
In everything we do, we try to give a voice to those talented people who help others find expression in their lives.<br />
<br />
Who helps ATA?<br />
<br />
Now that's a question only <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm">YOU can answer </a><br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/board.htm">Phil Alexander</a><br />
Board Chair, Association of Teaching Artists</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-83755955044539026162010-12-01T09:48:00.000-08:002010-12-01T09:48:52.505-08:00ATA Appeal<b>From the desk of <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/board.htm">Stephen Yaffe, ATA Board Member</a>:</b><br />
<br />
<br />
Every Thanksgiving I send greetings to teaching artists. Some I have worked with. Some I am working with. On the surface it seems like a simple holiday wish. But it's actually a practice for me, a way of expressing gratitude for knowing these gifted people and knowing the good work they do is reaching students across the country.<br />
<br />
This Thanksgiving I have one more thing to be grateful for; being on the board of ATA and having the opportunity of serving greater numbers of teaching artists. Help us serve you better, address your needs, support your work, stand behind you, stand with you and, where we can, stand for you.<br />
<br />
Send a contribution $5, $10, $20, what you can. It all adds up. We'll put it to good use.<br />
<br />
This holiday let's be grateful for what we have, grateful for what we do and grateful to those who support our efforts.<br />
<br />
Thank you and happy holidays,<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/board.htm">Stephen Yaffe, ATA Board Member</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Please make your check payable to The Association of Teaching Artists (ATA) and mail it to:</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Association of Teaching Artists</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>155 South Main Street</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fairport, New York 14450-2517</b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-43830376512925315992010-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:002010-11-23T06:00:00.760-08:00ThanksDear Teaching Artists:<br />
<br />
Please give to <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com">ATA</a>.<br />
<br />
Thanks!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-23547233645272946752010-11-21T23:03:00.000-08:002010-11-22T00:25:54.577-08:00The Dancer or the Dance?<div style="text-align: justify;">A recent article in Education Week trumpets <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/11/17/12dance_ep.h30.html?tkn=YQVFtCtjQJQ6ptujvVfSEAkIi2G4BIjjKQRj&cmp=clp-edweek">"Schools Integrate Dance into Core Academics". </a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hurrah...I think.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I mean, yet again, we are presented with a shining example of Teaching Artists working extremely hard to prove the art's worth and value as a tool to augment a failing educational system’s “core” curriculum.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,807107,00.html">Johnny still can’t read.</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm">The Achievement Gap is a chasm.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Arts Integration works! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hurrah.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If we can change nothing else, I propose we at least change the term “arts integration” to ARTIST INTEGRATION.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's give credit where credit is due.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it the art, or the ARTIST that makes the difference? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it the DANCER or the Dance?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it our art-form that increases levels of student engagement and makes for a better learning environment, or is it us?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maybe these Teaching Artists are just good teachers?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps our habits of mind, and the fact that art is a form of communication, make some of us really effective in the classroom?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If the thing formerly known as arts integration is effective, then perhaps students in teacher training programs should be studying how Teaching Artists operate? We could model best practices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also: US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urges states to cut expensive masters degree bonus programs from the budget. According to an <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/20/815557/economists-want-to-stop-teachers.html">Associated Press article</a> “Duncan told the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday that master's degree bonuses are an example of spending money on something that doesn't work.” At the same event, billionaire Bill Gates said "My own state of Washington has an average salary bump of nearly $11,000 for a master's degree - and more than half of our teachers get it. That's more than $300 million every year that doesn't help kids.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">OMG. I thought they wanted us to enter the world of higher education. I'm so confused!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-86624664083250586572010-11-19T06:00:00.000-08:002010-11-20T14:38:02.435-08:00Push<div style="text-align: justify;">Like I said <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/11/charge.html">last time</a>, I think that Teaching Artists will enjoy the high professional status of plumbers only after we can manage to do two big things:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">First, I think that we have to wholeheartedly embrace the idea of accountability in our work. That means we have to have a group of representatives draft a set of core standards and a list of professional competencies that we can all hew to and hate on.<br />
<br />
Sure, we’ll bicker, but they will be there, our high standards, uniting us and broadcasting our professional identity as Teaching Artists from sea to shining sea.<br />
<br />
And they shall know us by our jargon.<br />
<br />
We have so many <a href="http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators.aspx">terrific starting points</a> for this national conversation. We just need a union, some snazzy letterhead, and <a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/251047/october-05-2009/arne-duncan">an interview with the Wizard.</a><br />
<br />
Secondly, we have to create effective and affordable Teaching Artist training programs that are separate and distinct from the MA programs that train and certify regular classroom teachers.<br />
<br />
These Teaching Artist training programs should definitely be in universities, or wherever, I don't care, just as long as they don't cost emerging TAs an arm and a leg, and graduates can get a paper at the end that qualifies them to teach in a public school and earn an actual salary.<br />
<br />
Public education is where arts education belongs.<br />
<br />
Third, I know I said two, but this is my holiday appeal, so, THIRDLY, we have to get serious and coalesce into something that looks like an actual profession. The research says we aren't managing to make a collective living in this field we care so passionately about.<br />
<br />
According to the previewed results of the <a href="http://www.ccscc.org/index.php/view-all-blogs.html">Teaching Artist Research Project</a>, the average TA made $17,000 last year.<br />
<br />
Seriously.<br />
<br />
Stop laughing.<br />
<br />
It's true, and it's just ridiculous.<br />
<br />
Why are we training people to be Teaching Artists through these MA programs if there are no decent jobs for them? How are emerging TAs supposed to be able to pay off their massive student loans while earning $17,000 per year?<br />
<br />
We need to do some community organizing. <a href="http://www.studsterkel.org/">Studs Terkel</a> didn't hate unions, and that's good enough for me. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/opinion/18kristof.html?ref=nicholasdkristof">Capitalism</a>, you might have noticed?<br />
<br />
So, if we are going to survive, I think we should pool our resources and get what all the other professions have: plush national and regional offices with overpaid administrators, and lobbyists whose sole job is to make darn sure that Teaching Artists get what we need to get and stay middle class. I am referring to the holy grail of American middle class existence: A living wage, a pension plan and affordable health care. Face it, this may be the last period in American history that these things are in any way attainable and I think we need to move fast as a group, or we’re toast. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This holiday season, and until our Bastille Day arrives, please, join something nascent that has the feel of a movement. Join and give your time, expertise, and cash for the collective good of Teaching Artists everywhere. It's for your own good.<br />
<br />
You’ve got so many choices:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.teachingartistsorganized.org/">Teaching Artists Organized is in California</a>.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">The Association of Teaching Artists is in New York</a>.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://chicagoteachingartist.typepad.com/">Chicago Teaching Artists Collective</a> is in the middle. At least, they were earlier in the decade. Chicago, are you there?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please, give to <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm">ATA</a> this holiday season.<br />
<br />
Give an amount that's significant and meaningful to you.<br />
<br />
Next Time on <a href="http://www.teachingartists.blogspot.com/">ATA Blog</a>: "It's A Trap" In which I express the creeping feeling that our love for arts integration means we'll always be second-class educators.<br />
<br />
Also:<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UGtlUMMkOU"> Let's Push Things Forward</a></i> - The Streets</div><br />
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8UGtlUMMkOU?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8UGtlUMMkOU?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-30068039050895458032010-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:002010-11-18T18:26:40.313-08:00Charge<div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am a <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #1326a3; text-decoration: underline;">professional Teaching Artist</span></a>. I work in a variety of contexts. Like most veteran TAs, I've taught all over: universities, public schools, private schools, classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, gymnasiums, basketball courts, mobile “temporary” classrooms, hallways, stairwells, lobbies, amphitheaters, black-box theaters, outdoor theaters, dance studios, art galleries, offices, prisons, women’s shelters, community centers, storefronts, churches, church basements, regular basements, parking lots, sidewalks and in the street, among other places. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I still don't know how this thing works.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I have facilitated classes for everyone from infants to seniors. I've taught in English and Spanglish, and something that felt like charades. I dutifully went to school, and I have an MFA that cost too much money. Over the past few years, perusing Craigslist, I’ve seen TA jobs that offered anywhere from $10 per workshop, to $15 per workshop, to $20 per workshop and less. Over the last ten years, I’ve had gigs that paid me something like the following range of fees: zero dollars, $30 per workshop, $45 per workshop, $80 per workshop, $150 per workshop, $175 per workshop and hundreds of dollars per day, all to do what I consider to be, basically, the same kind of intellectual and physical labor. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I have been a volunteer, begrudgingly, and only for people, and causes, and organizations that I really trust, care about, and admire. I rationalize this by reminding myself that people rarely ask a plumber to volunteer. We have too much respect for a plumber's training and expertise, and expect to pay for it. I would like to think I’m in a profession that as valuable and respected, but I’m pretty sure I’m not because plumbers usually get paid up front.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think that Teaching Artists will achieve the status of plumbers only after we can manage to do two big things. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I'll talk about those tomorrow, or like, whenever I can get to it.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Georgia; line-height: 20.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the meantime, <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #1326a3; text-decoration: underline;">give a donation to ATA</span></a> before the end of the year, please. Give an amount that's significant and meaningful to you.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-31487856913401700402010-11-16T09:59:00.000-08:002010-11-19T00:11:59.479-08:00Art is Again the Answer<div style="text-align: justify;">Someone, I think it was me, recently asked this question:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-style: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></span></i></span></span></div><blockquote><i>Is the professional artist with no advanced degree, certification or background in education really qualified to teach?</i></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The short answer is “Yes, of course@^**&%What? Are you kidding?" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, yes and, for the last time, yes, artists with no advanced degrees in education are totally qualified to teach. Some of us, right out of the box. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here’s one reason why:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. WE’RE PLAYFUL! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seriously, <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.htmland">Ken Robinson</a> is not the first person in the history of the world to point out that creative play is the skill set of the future.<a href="http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DewDemo.html"> John Dewey</a>, who is long dead, goes on and on about imaginative play; noting that, especially in early childhood, play is a “purposeful activity” that has “an end in the sense of a directing idea.” Sure, he makes it sound boring, but if you can manage to get to the end of a passage, you'll realize that Dewey's absolutely on our side.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">“In their intrinsic meaning, play and industry are by no means so antithetical to one another as is often assumed...Both involve ends consciously entertained and the selection and adaptations of materials and processes designed to effect the desired ends.” </blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">See? After much comparing and contrasting and an ironically dreary passage about drudgery, Dewey offers another gem of the ocean:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">“Education has no more serious responsibility than making adequate provision for enjoyment of recreative leisure; not only for the sake of immediate health, but still more if possible for the sake of its lasting effect upon habits of mind. Art is again the answer to this demand.”</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don't know about you, but I feel validated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Get to work!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/nyregion/16black.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion">Cathleen P. Black</a> went to private schools and sent her children to private schools. She has no advanced degree in education, no certifications and, virtually, no experience in public education at all. Ms. Black is going to be the new chancellor of New York City Schools.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_Roman_Empire">Laugh it up</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">-------</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DewDemo.html">Democracy and Education: Play and Work in the Curriculum. Dewey, John.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-29208115716260442282010-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:002010-11-15T07:47:19.420-08:00Enough About Me<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-far-have-we-come-in-ten-years.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">For the past two years or so, ATA blog</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> has been, for me, a sort of diary. Sometimes I get serious and write about the </span><a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/09/learning-experiences.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">hows and whys and ways</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"> in which we teach and </span><a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/search?q=books"><span class="Apple-style-span">my favorite books</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span">. Often, I just post links to my </span><a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2009/06/all-same.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">favorite music videos </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span">and complain about </span><a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2009/01/win-revolution-with-style.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">how hard it is to make a dollar and a dream</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span">. The issues I write about arise from my experience as a community-oriented teaching artist, and from my strong belief that art is probably the answer, no matter the question. This blog is advocacy, but it’s also kind of an ongoing art project.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">I usually begin by </span><a href="http://www.zenstudies.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span">acknowledging the truth</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span">, which is hardly ever easy, at least in the beginning. The current reality, for many of us, is that we have full artistic lives, we teach part-time, we probably have inadequate training as teachers (at least in the beginning), and we are, generally, poorly compensated.</span><a href="http://www.nea.gov/research/Workforce-Forum/PDF/Rabkin.pdf" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span">[1]</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">We arrive in the classroom through many different doorways, some of us by necessity, some of us because we feel we are called to teach.</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/Association%20of%20Teaching%20Artists%20Survey%20Results.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span">[2]</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">We do our work in a variety of contexts—schools, church basements—and, although many of us have advanced degrees in education or art, many of us don’t. Many of us learned, or are learning, how to teach on the job. In a supposedly professional field, this reality raises big questions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Is the professional artist with no advanced degree, certification or background in education really qualified to teach?<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">What are the qualities of effective teaching and what basic skills, competencies and understandings should a professional teaching artist possess?<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">This blog addresses these questions over and over and over again because</span><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131194751"><span class="Apple-style-span"> the terrain keeps presenting new challenges.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"> As Dale Davis, ATA's Executive Director often requests, please </span><a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/07/message-from-dale-davis.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">contribute to ATA</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span">, and </span><a href="mailto:grndwork@gmail.com"><span class="Apple-style-span">email</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"> your thoughts, comments and </span><a href="http://www.artofhustle.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span">links to things that TAs might use.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"> Your input helps make </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667">ATA</a><span class="Apple-style-span"> a resource for teaching artists who, "qualified" or not, are out there doing the work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span">Go Teach!</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Also: The Trammps - </span><i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M"><span class="Apple-style-span">Disco Inferno</span></a></i></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">[1] Teaching Artist Research Project http://www.nea.gov/research/Workforce-Forum/PDF/Rabkin.pdf</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] Teaching Artists and their Work http://www.teachingartists.com/Association%20of%20Teaching%20Artists%20Survey%20Results.pdf</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-33713284671363960152010-11-11T06:30:00.000-08:002010-11-11T06:30:02.560-08:00What You Said<div style="text-align: justify;">Dale Davis, Executive Director of the <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">Association of Teaching Artists</a>, reports that Teaching Artists from all fifty states and the District of Columbia responded to ATA's latest survey. The results of <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/Association%20of%20Teaching%20Artists%20Survey%20Results.pdf">Teaching Artists and Their Work (PDF)</a> add valuable insights to the ongoing conversation about Teaching Artists; providing information, resources and data for advocates, administrators and TAs. The responses are available for download, and may be discussed, at your leisure, on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667">ATA's Facebook pag</a>e, or wherever TAs <a href="http://www.artofhustle.com/">hang out</a>.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-40865952000640132432010-11-09T06:30:00.000-08:002010-11-10T10:05:43.393-08:00Anthem<div style="font-family: 'Heiti SC';"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">I am sort of interviewing Teaching Artists in my spare time, to find out what they think about our craft and our professional identity as TAs. Here is the start of an interview I conducted over lunch with <a href="http://www.anthemsalgado.com/cv.htm">Anthem Salgado</a>, a leading Bay Area Teaching Artist. It has been lightly edited, because sometimes we stopped interviewing to talk about food and whatnot.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><u><b>INTERVIEW W/ TEACHING ARTIST </b></u><a href="http://www.anthemsalgado.com/"><b>ANTHEM SALGADO</b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">Q: How long have you been a TA?</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">A: On and off for about…oh my gosh, well if you count like the very first workshop I ever gave, I dunno, eleven years?</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">Q: How long have you considered yourself a professional teaching artist then? Is that different?</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">A: Well, it’s still on and off. I started getting paid gigs...even back then it's inconsistent. Probably the most consistent, when I started getting consistent work, was maybe five or six years ago? Even then that wasn't all the time consistent. It was just more regular than it ever had been up to that point.</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">Q: Is there a kind of a line between being a kind of sometime teaching artist and a professional, like “now, I’m a professional?”</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">A: (Nods) Like, yeah. “Now, I'm doing this pretty frequently…designing classes, you know, I’m having a style that I'm working towards, I have a methodology, a philosophy?” Yeah, then maybe that would be about five years ago I would have started conjuring those ideas more deeply.</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">Q: What makes a professional teaching artist?</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">A: I think…(laughs) well, uh, it's such a huge question. There are so many ways to answer it. I think number one is there's gotta be training.... I think training is a big part of it, because I feel like, even when I started giving workshops it took me a while to figure out how to do them properly…to develop your sort of like teacher persona. And that's something that you get with experience and training. I think you gotta have, like any organization or any person doing anything, you gotta have a commitment to certain values, which drives the whole project forward. And those are the kinds of…when you really check in with your values that's how you find out how you're going to teach certain skills, why you're teaching certain skills, what benefit you see your students getting. And those all come from what you value.</blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">Like, I value the narrative…empowering people. So for me, I'm really interested in teaching people basic storytelling skills. And a lot of people ask me technical questions about theater or acting, but I think ultimately, and I say this all the time, you can get technical skills all kinds of different places. But my personal emphasis as a teaching artist, for performance, is I want people to really get to a place where they can connect as humans with themselves, with the audience, with their fellow scene partners. And when we have that human connection, <i>then</i> they can do all the more technical study after that. But for me, because I know that's what I value as a person, that's what I emphasize in my teaching, you know…for example. (laughs)</blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Thus ended the lunch. Thanks to Anthem for being so generous as to share. I will post more interviews, or something else, soon, or at some point.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-61306332580988241872010-11-05T07:57:00.000-07:002010-11-08T11:47:34.449-08:00Short Bursts of Light<div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, I know I said I was done here, but I've missed keeping this journal, and have therefore decided I'm going to post whenever I feel like it, because why not?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am new to San Francisco, and the world is still spinning, so last night I hopped on BART, which is what they call public transportation in this town, and headed to Berkeley to hang out with the other Teaching Artists at an event sponsored by<a href="http://www.teachingartistsorganized.org/"> Teaching Artists Organized (TAO)</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm so glad I attended, for <a href="http://www.teachingartistsorganized.org/">TAO</a> is just what it says; a super-organized group of TAs led by Executive Director Sabrina Klein and an executive committee of teaching artists and administrators.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Researcher <a href="http://www.teachingartistsorganized.org/current-newsletter.html">Nick Rabki</a>n, who is in town for the <a href="http://www.nationalguild.org/">National Guild for Community Arts Education Conference</a>, presented the results of the <a href="http://www.nea.gov/research/Workforce-Forum/PDF/Rabkin.pdf">Teaching Artist Research Project (PDF)</a> and I live-tweeted the event on Twitter. You can read my brief notes <a href="http://twitter.com/teachingartist">here</a>. I warn you, there was quite a spread, and it's hard to Tweet while eating crackers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Off to the races!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-50365783753284318462010-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:002010-11-08T11:47:09.638-08:00The End<div style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes, the good news is the same as the bad news. This is preamble to the announcement that I have to quit writing this blog. Happily, I have recently accepted a gig in San Francisco, and, since there are only so many hours in the day, sadly, I am out of here.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have enjoyed keeping this teaching artist blog for <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">the Association of Teaching Artists</a>, and I hope it has been of some use, or, at least, diverting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dear professional Teaching Artist: I appreciate you, and I hope you keep in touch by <a href="mailto:grndwork@gmail.com">email</a>. If you are a teaching artist who would like to keep a regular blog for other teaching artists, please contact <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/contactus.htm">Dale Davis</a> and she'll give you the hook up!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
If you miss me, I can still be found <a href="http://www.teachingartistgroup.org/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/teachingartist">here</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>As usual, I will close with some rambling essential truths, a couple of slogans and a few random calls to action:<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><blockquote>1. ATA's Executive Director, Dale Davis, is a hero and a visionary! <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">The Association of Teaching Artists</a> would not exist without her. This organization belongs to you, the working TA, and with your commitment and <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm">contributions</a> it has the potential to be a national organizing body for professional teaching artists. Do something! </blockquote><blockquote>2. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667">Teaching Artists of the world, unite</a>! Demand a living wage, healthcare and some sort of a pension plan. They will never give us what we need unless we push for it, and even then, probably not, because paying people what they need to survive is not cost efficient. <br />
<br />
3. We do the work.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTBSrInZOPE"><i>Got To Get You Into My Life</i></a> - Earth, Wind & Fire</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><br />
<object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lTBSrInZOPE?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lTBSrInZOPE?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-18817063455964047202010-10-01T05:18:00.000-07:002010-10-01T08:13:45.285-07:00Draw Them In<div style="text-align: justify;">Drawing is fun, and sometimes a distraction. For instance, in those rare moments when we are all seated, I may notice a student doodling while I'm trying to teach other things through theater. I'm being all about experiential learning and whatnot and there they are doodling, not paying attention to me, but to the lines unspooling on the page. Noticing, I say "Hey!" but then I wonder, if they are bored, then perhaps I am being boring? If so, my hurt feelings are not the point. Maybe I should check my ego, and expand my thinking? Maybe I should bring the art of drawing into my teaching practice to increase levels of student engagement. Maybe adding more art processes to the mix will grab their attention and draw them in? The first reason I do not use much visual art practice in my teaching, is that I suspect everyone in the room can probably draw better than me, and, secondly, I have no idea how to talk about or describe the process of drawing. Luckily, I discovered this new series called <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/line-by-line/">Line by Line by James Mcmullan</a> in the New York Times, which describes the art and practice of drawing by hand. Serendipity. The <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/the-frisbee-of-art/">first article in the series was about drawing an ellipse</a>, referred to as "the frisbee of art." The most recent piece builds on the first, and describes the process of cross-hatching in great detail. Just like that, my problem is solved. Now I can practice drawing with students, talk about drawing with students, and I can even use this thoughtful series of articles to get students to read about and reflect on the art of drawing. It's like a lesson plan just fell in my lap.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/line-by-line/">Line by Line</a> by James McMullan can be found <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/the-frisbee-of-art/">here</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also: It's Friday, and <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">ATA</a> is on <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1649105/20100930/story.jhtml">the social network</a> called <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Teaching-Artists/45276461667">Facebook</a>. Where are you?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-45852831659173213012010-09-29T08:55:00.000-07:002010-09-29T10:43:52.855-07:00Desire<div style="text-align: justify;">I am a <a href="http://www.teachingartists.com/">professional teaching artist</a>; a <a href="http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm">reflective practitioner</a>. This post continues a stream of consciousness that started somewhere around <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/09/learning-experiences.html">here</a>. Your thoughtful <a href="mailto:grndwork@gmail.com">suggestions</a> and comments are appreciated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>XI. Desired Learning Outcomes</b></div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">A Teaching Artist is a reflective being, dedicated to the realization of clearly defined and articulated learning outcomes for students.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">To be fully realized, desired learning outcomes must exist before the shared experience of teaching and learning begins.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">In the physical world, learning outcomes usually take the form of brief statements written at the top of a lesson plan.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">These statements may be derived from <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">national learning standards</a>, from <a href="http://www.p12.nysed.gov/nysatl/standards.html">state or local learning standards</a>, from conversations with a classroom teacher, or from a combination of these.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Often these statements share a common preamble, such as “the student will understand”, but this is a mistake, since the field of understanding is too broad to be of use as an assessment tool.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Therefore, when stating desired learning outcomes, the wise teaching artist takes care to use language that imagines the student taking the kind of action that is observable, measurable, and repeatable.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the realm of active verbs, and phrases such as “the student will draw connections between…” or “the student will be able to….”</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The twin foundations of this kind of teaching are the concepts of accountability, and transformation.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The teaching artist is accountable to a set of learning standards, and does work that can be evaluated.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The student transforms concepts into action, and is in turn transformed.</div></blockquote></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The process of learning is transformative and circular. </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Our work, accountable and specific, leaves traces--evidence of our success or failure.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">Also: Sly & the Family Stone - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYrz5y1mW5U">Higher</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><object height="405" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZYrz5y1mW5U?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZYrz5y1mW5U?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304772473649333908.post-73851580017804081322010-09-27T07:25:00.000-07:002010-10-01T09:23:16.238-07:00Engaged<div style="text-align: justify;">This post is about student engagement and the practice of <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/08/planning-improvisation.html">Teaching Artistry</a>. It picks up a stream of thought that was last found somewhere around <a href="http://teachingartists.blogspot.com/2010/09/free-to-be.html">here</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>X. Student Engagement</b></div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">When art is purposefully integrated into the curriculum, opportunities for student engagement are increased.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Student engagement is the key to understanding. Without it, the doors to understanding remain firmly shut, since no one can force anyone to learn. </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Learning is a choice.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">When content, comprised of concepts, facts and figures is framed by an essential question, authentic student engagement is more possible.</div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The lesson that is constructed of questions always provides more than one doorway to enter.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">When content is abstracted from experience; unconnected and irrelevant to student’s lives; things may be memorized, but not truly understood. This truth is made painfully clear during testing.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The qualities that support high student engagement are relevancy, urgency, and agency.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Relevancy means that something is important enough to pay attention to.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Students will not choose to pay attention if learning is irrelevant to their daily lives.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Relevancy honors the idea that these individuals already existed before you came into the classroom, and they will exist when you leave.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Urgency is the feeling that we have to do this now.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">A feeling of urgency comes from structuring lessons as problem-solving experiences, collaboratively and incrementally, we work in the now because something must be figured out before we can move on.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">This kind of teaching builds excitement in the room.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Agency is the idea that the individual has power and is allowed to make personal choices within the learning experience.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Given appropriate responsibility and power to make choices, most students will feel more inclined to engage.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">All of these qualities arise from the essential question. If the question is boring, so will be the class.</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;">Also: Rakim -<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_438449541"> </a><i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZD4gdrb3rI">The M-stery</a></i></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jZD4gdrb3rI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jZD4gdrb3rI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0