Artspiration – Santa Clara County Arts Initiative

Are you a middle or high school arts teacher in Santa Clara County? Do you know one? If so, let’s hope we see you or them at a future meeting. The Secondary Arts Network is an open group of arts instructors in Santa Clara County schools who meet 3 or 4 times a year to discuss issues of importance…and enjoy a great dinner at Sonoma Chicken Coop in downtown Campbell.       

This week’s meeting, led by facilitators Sharon Dahnert and Jenay Kiddoo, welcomed more than 30 educators whose passion for the arts resonated. Topics at this meeting ranged from job-alike networking to participation in a statewide assessment project that comes with a stipend!

Resource sharing is always a highlight, and from meeting to meeting, teachers share the responsibility of bringing information or sharing a project from which others might benefit.

The question to the group this time was: do any of your districts have approaches for testing the arts standards, specifically in the areas of ceramics, drawing or crafts? If so, please share that info with Ruth Irving in the Milpitas School District – ruth.irving@mhu.k12.ca.us       

The next Secondary Network meeting will be held at the Sonoma Chicken Coop in Campbell on April 23rd, 2012 from 4-6 pm. For more information, contact Sharon at   sdahnert20@gmail.com

(This blog was written by Sharon Dahnert, consultant with the Santa Clara County Office of Education. She was one of four presenters who led the professional development afternoon in Alum Rock, a training funded by the Leo M. Shortino Foundation. ANY school district in Santa Clara County can receive this training free of charge – just call Dr. Lisa Gonzales at 408.453.6572)

On January 17th I had the pleasure of presenting a segment of the county’s exciting Artrageous program to third and fourth grade teachers in the Alum Rock School District. Even though this was a two – hour session at the end of a long day for these hard working professionals, the energy level was high and the quality of work amazing!

      Approximately 25 teachers discovered the artist within themselves and experienced techniques to share with their students. Teachers learned ways to support math and language arts standards through studying their own facial proportions and creating self –portraits, based on a fourth grade Artrageous lesson called “Expressive Portrait”. Even though many laughed at their results, they were also surprised at how well they did for not being “artists”. Maybe art is doable after all!   

Teachers also completed a third grade lesson called ”Positive Negative Cut out Pictures” which focuses on the concept of positive and negative space and also teaches about symmetry and complementary colors. And all you need for this awesome project is bright colored construction paper, scissors and glue. I was amazed at how creative everyone was! Every project was unique and absolutely fascinating.

     The room was at times absolutely silent as teachers thought of their approaches to the lessons, then at others abuzz with excited sharing of results. I heard comments such as “This is fun!” and “I didn’t know I could do this!” Another teacher remarked that the experience of doing the lessons helped him think of what it must be like for students when we ask them to do something new. The best one overheard as someone was leaving the room was “I feel good about myself!” Isn’t it great what art can do, for teachers as well as students?   

  The Fifth Annual Bay Area Leadership Forum was held in Newark today, hosted by CCSESA Regions 4 and 5, which includes the Santa Clara County Office of Education. However, the leaders in assessment, specifically in the arts, hails from the amazing Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE). Leading the charge there are Louise Music and Andrea Temkin. One of the main focal points of the forum was to look at new performance based assessments, including those that incorporate and focus on the arts.

Bob Lenz, CEO of Envision Schools, was one of the main presenters. His schools work in partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education Art Alliance. Envision Schools have rigorous, relevant performance based assessments at the heart of the work they do with students. Their schools serve as demonstration sites to show what is possible with performance based assessments (PBA).    

So why are PBA’s important?

Current assessments look backward. What did you learn? What did you cover it? How well do you know it? Imagine assessing a student’s performance by looking forward and how getting them to look at work and see what they need to know can drive their learning. Call it “eyes forward assessment”, looking at what is to come. So how do you build assessments to get students ready for their next phase of learning?

PBA’s focus on metacognition – learning to learn and reflecting back upon that learning and the skills acquired. Often students (and adults) don’t have the opportunity to take their learning and figure out – “how will this help me in my next step in life?” PBAs are a triangulation of learning and communication: do, know, reflect.

With Envision Schools, students create portfolios that frame performance tasks with the skills needed in college, and now are aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Four key competencies exist in the Common Core: inquiry, research, analysis, and creative expression. All of these skills should be able to be demonstrated by students by high school graduation. Also important are the ability to complete projects, from time management to the 21^st century skills of communication, problem solving, teamwork and more.   

This new wave of assessment (well, some of it was done in the past and no longer exists due to budget cuts) will evaluate mastery based on evidence of performance. For those of us who have been around for a few years, the old CLAS assessment focused on student performance in specific grade levels.

For those in attendance, there was an opportunity to view videos of student presentations, used as their “exit portfolio presentations.” It reminded me a lot of the performance assessments and exhibition presentations used at Rolling Hills Middle School (Campbell Union School District) last year. 8^th graders were expected to create PowerPoint presentations on a thesis topic of their choosing, many of which happened to focus on some type of the arts: origami, painting, dance, guitar playing, etc.

What role does “reflection” have in assessment? As explained by a freshman at St Mary’s College who participated in the portfolio defense, “when I got to college, I was used to reflection. I had been doing it since I started high school.”  Wow! This made me wonder if its too early to start having my own children, currently in 1^st grade, doing some thoughtful reflection about their own learning.

Through the generous funding of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, also a funder of the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s Artspiration Initiative, the Bay Area Performance Assessment Pilot Network are leading the movement toward performance based assessments in their schools. The schools that are part of the pilot network are currently located in Alameda County. The network is supported by SCALE at Stanford University.

One arts-based activity was a 5^th grade line activity. Students wrote artist statements about their journey through their line drawing, followed up with a scaled-rubric activity with peers. The rubric did not analyze the artwork itself but more the artist statement. Was it powerfully communicated? Was it clear?

1^st graders did a similar activity. “G” talked about how his thoughts are a jumble (and so was his drawing). “M” shared how she had a friend and how they stopped being friends. She drew that with two lines intertwined, and then one wandered off the page. She felt she wandered aimlessly with her friend, which was designed in her drawing.

Isn’t it amazing how the artist statements make student thinking visible, how it opens a window into their minds?   

Whether longer or shorter PBAs, students should be expected to share what it is that they learned or how they felt about what they did, even at the 1^st grade level. Yes, it takes time, but its about assessing what matters and giving students feedback on their work and the time to talk about what they really think. And the arts become the perfect platform to write – to write about what they design, to write about what they see, and to write about how they felt during the creative process.

Having had a membership at the San Jose Museum of Art for years, and having had my own children in their summer camp program, I have visited the museum often, but never quite with the same perspective as I recently.    

My 6 year old twins spent a week at the summer camp run by San Jose Museum of Art last summer, so when we recently visited as a family, they couldn’t wait to share the museum from their perspective. And that is when I saw the museum from a different point of view…one that I have to share both as a parent (to give you ideas on what you can do with your own children) and as an educator (to share why this is a great field trip destination).

Check out an art pack!

At the top of the main stairs is an area with “art packs,” courtesy of donors such as University Art and the San Jose Water Company. The instructions make you kind of giggly: borrow a pack and explore! Write a poem, play a game, get creative. Everything you need is in the art pack.

Near the packs are clipboards with supplies readily available, great if you have children and arrived not intending to engage in any actual artwork. Small stools are also stacked that can be carried around in the museum to get comfortable in front of some artwork, or maybe to just be more civilized on not sit on the floor like some of us.

The downstairs area of the museum has a display area that is really focused on young people learning art, although those “young at heart” can certainly find plenty to learn and do as well.

Young, tactile minds are able to read (or have read to them) some of the key concepts of visual arts, such as shape, form, color…with activities that further that knowledge. Using the materials here, you can build different figures using the shapes provided. For younger children, a great first step is to call out a shape (square) and have them find one, or advance it with instructions to find a red square or blue triangle. Great learning…and prompts ideas of what you might also do when you get home, drive in the car, go grocery shopping…you get the idea.

Pick your color, pick your shape

Shape & Form Instructions

Take texture, for example. Texture is an easy concept for small and large little people to begin to expand their vocabularies.

The texture table has plenty of different surfaces (and supplies to make lots of pictures) for young people to rub a crayon on a sheet of paper on a certain texture.

Exploring textures

  Line…one of my favorites. I’ve loved line since attending one of the workshop sessions at last year’s Arts In Your Classroom Conference (its coming up this March 24th, 2012) by Trace Elementary teacher Julie Van de Wark. At this display, students can use pegs and rubber bands to try to create different types of lines. Hey adults, is this allowing you to reminisce about one of the toys from your childhood?  

Hated leaving, but can’t wait to come back next time to have more arts exploration. Okay, your turn! When are you headed to the museum?

Look familiar?

  The County Arts Network, a group of administrators in Santa Clara County who meet quarterly to focus on the arts, met on Friday, December 9th at Frost Elementary School in the Oak Grove School District. Frost is home to the Indigo Program, a parent supported arts-focused program that is one of the most expansive, inclusive arts programs in our county’s public schools.    

Frost Elementary has two schools within a school: a traditional program and the Indigo program. Indigo is a choice program that focused on both parent participation and multi-age student groupings.

So why the name indigo? Indigo stands for “inspiring, nurturing, discovering, integrating, guiding and opportunities. Experienced teachers lead the art and music classes, along with other enrichment programs such as drama, sewing, gardening, cooking and construction.

  Most impressive in our visit was the vast array of artwork around the school, especially the CityScapes…neighborhoods and communities that have been designed by various grade levels.  

The bulk of the arts programs and instruction at Frost are led by teacher Doreen Williams, who is a breath of fresh air. “Its really all about what works for kids,” she shared with the network attendees last week. “Much of the leadership is shared with students.” Indigo students are known for their elaborate, artistic displays at the annual Students Arts Festival (also known as ArtSplash) at the Montalvo Arts Center and at the annual Oak Grove School District Art Festival.  

A special thanks to district arts coordinator Jenay Kiddoo for her leadership and Frost principal Kim Kianidehkian for her support of the arts programs.

  The ArtSPARK program, a collaboration by Target, 1stACT, Symphony Silicon Valley, and the Santa Clara County Office of Education started this week. For two weeks, more than 8,000 3rd graders from around the valley will enjoy a series of performances.   

On Monday, December 5th, more than 1000 students enjoyed “A Christmas Carol,” presented by the San Jose Rep. From there, some headed to Mexican Heritage Plaza to see the Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra while others headed to The Tech Museum in downtown San Jose. Later in the week, other featured performances will include MAIKO (Women’s Drum and Poetry Ensemble) and Los Lupenos de San Jose.     

4th graders will have a turn in March, enjoying performances by Symphony Silicon Valley at the California Theatre, followed by performances of San Jose TAIKO at the Center for Performing Arts.

ArtSPARK is funded, in large measure, by Target through an education grant that focuses on arts-integration with other core subjects. More than 10,000 students are expected to benefit from the programs during the 2011/2012 school year.  A special shout-out to Symphony Executive Director Andrew Bales, ArtSPARK Director Donna Delsini and 1stACT leaders Connie Martinez and Josh Russell. Their efforts, and the support from Dean Osaki with Target, have kept the arts alive in Santa Clara County.

Last week, the Lakeside Joint Elementary School Districtwelcomed a week-long dance residency presented by Rojelio Viramontez of the Royal King Academy. Funded by the Lakeside PTA, the residency provided daily instruction to students in every grade level, culminating in a student performance on Friday, December 2nd.   

Throughout the week, Rojelio worked with students on movement. Having watched them from day one, his first task was to quickly gain their attention and respect. Using two main body positions (“mommy” and “daddy”), he could get a class of students from sitting on the floor into pose in less than 2 seconds. Impressive!

And while the focus of the lessons was on dance, the attention to body, muscle control, movement and following directions were a main way to have students take control of their bodies and environments…and perform in unison with other students.  

The lessons learned this week at Lakeside, in conjunction with classroom teachers who can continue the information gleaned about body movement, extend far beyond just the physicalities of the activities. Rojelio really worked with students on doing their best in all of their work, not just outside of the classroom but inside the classroom and at home as well.   

What I can tell you about my personal observations in both 2^nd and 3^rd grades is that students were excited, engaged and responsive. Whether they have a knack for dance and movement or not, they certainly did learn more about their bodies and following directions…and isn’t that at the root of much of the work we need to do with our next generation?

(reprinted from TICAL Blog)

Great news in recent weeks coming out of the Khan Academy. A grant of $5 million has been awarded to the Khan Academy to expand its creation of videos to include the arts and humanities.      

Khan Academy began a few years ago when Salman Khan tried to create and send YouTube videos in order to tutor his cousin in math. The initial work on videos has been magnified into multi-million student uses every month, mostly in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

A grant from the O’Sullivan Foundation will enable the staff at the Academy to grow from one lesson producer to at least five full-time equivalent teachers. Appointed in the area to grow the arts are Dr Steven Zucker and Dr Beth Harris, who will oversee the production of content in the arts, history and the humanities. Zucker was the Chair of Art and Design History at Pratt Institute and Harris was Director of Digital Learning at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The creation of videos have already started and are currently available at http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org yet these are not the only part of what the Khan Academy will be creating, as the bulk of the new videos will be added to their website.   

In the meantime, SmartHistory was launched as a free and open, not-for-profit art history textbook. They are using multimedia to deliver unscripted conversations between art historians about the history of art.

Well, that was enough for me so I had to check it out. I was impressed with the user-friendly approach to the site. I must say that, with my elementary background, the content is a bit challenging for the elementary folks, but there is great promise at the middle, high and post-secondary levels.  SmartHistory currently contains some 436 pieces of artwork and 365 videos so far. The site is averaging close to 170,000 hits/month and it was just launched. The videos currently explore Ancient Cultures’ artwork from around 400 A.D. to the 1960’s Age of Post-Colonialism.

Some new videos that have been added include “A Venetian in Florence,” “Botticelli on Neo-Platonic Beauty,” and “The Gospel According to Donatello.”  Okay, these are a bit over my head as I will admit…I am not an art history aficionado. Right now, there is content here for 15 week Western Culture course, complete with a course syllabus and tools for teaching with the images and videos.  

One video that was impressive and will be shared at an upcoming County Arts Network meeting is this one…description.

In this video (in case you want to read instead of watch…but I recommend “watch”), there are a series of questions that overlay a picture. The questions can easily guide a class discussion about how to observe a picture.

But the questions really drill down and when examples are given of what could have been observed, it’s a great model for students to see how deep they can go with their observations and what they can really talk about. Better yet, the guidance it provides a teacher means that the teacher could watch the video, get some great ideas, and do the same leading discussion with a different piece of artwork.

This lesson can drill down all the way to kindergarten, exposing students to prominent pieces of art (like the Mona Lisa, Monet’s water lilies, The Scream, and Eric Carle’s spider). Or it can simply expand their skills in using authentic artwork and applying the 21^st century skills of…you pick!

   And let’s tie the Common Core State Standards to it, while we are at it. A video lesson, like this one, covers the standards of in 5^th grade.

Yes, it can cover many standards in other grade levels, but you are able to start seeing the art connections to the videos. Thanks Khan Academy. Can’t wait to see how the addition of more videos are able to really enhance learning and bring the arts back into our schools even more than they currently are.

Exciting stuff!

   On Friday, November 18th, 2011, the first day of the Marian Cilker Conference for Arts Education was held at San Jose State University.  A conference that has been funded for the first ten years of it’s existence, the conference welcomed close to 250 students from undergraduates to credential program participants.    

One of the guests of honor at this year’s conference was Marian Cilker herself, who was treated to some singing games where she was able to play the “star.”

Registration went very smoothly and in just eight days, the entire 250 spots for San Jose State University students were filled. That bodes well for the future of Santa Clara County schools and the arts.

Many exciting workshops were held in various buildings at San Jose State University.

One of them was led by Santa Clara County Office of Education consultant Sharon Dahnert, who presented on the new Artrageous program. She walked through different lessons from various grades to give participants a taste of the new program.   

Another workshop that was quite unique was that offered by AXIS Dance. They focus on providing educators with strategies to teach students, including those with disabilities, through a sense of tolerance and understanding.

In this picture, the participants were “walking” with their shoulders and eyes.   

A special thanks to Marian Cilker, seen here being serenaded, for her contributions to this conference. 

On November 9th, the annual Young Artist Showcase Awards event was held at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Invitees included the 24 young artists whose artwork was entered into this year’s showcase, along with family, teachers, principals and superintendents.     

Superintendent of Schools Dr Chuck Weis and Board President Joseph DiSalvo were on hand to present certificates to students.

  Special to this year’s 15th Annual celebration were commendations from the US Congress, US Senate, California Assembly, the California Department of Education, and the City of Campbell.  

To present from the City of Campbell was arts supporter and Mayor, Jeff Baker. City Hall in Campbell is home to some 15 pieces of the permanent collection, on loan to Campbell.      

The artwork entered into this year’s collection was as stunning as in previous years…and we look forward to next year’s competition, open to all preK-12th grade public school students in Santa Clara County.    

Special thanks to Administrative Assistant Nicole Cota for all of her hard work in preparation for this year’s event. Here’s our shy Nicole: