Summer Arts Institute: Day 3

Leadership

Thursday morning of the arts education institute was spent focusing on Leadership. Carol Trimble, executive director of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, facilitated this session. Carol often leads by example and this session was no exception. She provided participants the opportunity to view TED videos on leadership and discuss their findings in small groups and then with the entire team of teacher leaders.

Carol Trimble facilitating the leadership segment

The overarching questions for this segment of the institute dealt with these ideas:

• What is good leadership?
• Explore:  1) what good leadership is in a variety of situations that teachers encounter;                                                                                                                          2) skills we can develop to be more effective leaders; and                                           3) the process of “locating the energy for change.”

Participants also looked at comparisons between teaching skills with students and leadership skills with adults.

It was a worthwhile session that gave participants the opportunity to look within and to each other to broaden and understand their leadership skills.

Music educators Deb Large and Matt Doiron listen intently

During the afternoon participants worked within their disciplines. The art teachers looked at student samples of art work, benchmarking and examining varioues rubrics. Most appreciated was the opportunity to have deep and meaningful discussions.

The music teachers discussed how each standard can be organized around lesson plans. The discussion included “how does this get reported? and practical ways around “reporting” digitally.

The day ended with a celebration at MECA’s gallery, ICA, with invited guests and our initiatives partners. It was so pleasurable to celebrate the good work that the teacher leaders have been doing.

Art Educators Shannon Campbell, Jennie Driscoll, Audrey Grumbling in deep discussion about artwork