Maine Arts Assessment Workshops

Last week in Maine

Last Wednesday started out as a very funny day for me. My husband kindly rescued me by bringing me a pair of shoes after I realized that I had two right shoes with me. After that my umbrella wouldn’t close. Once I got past the laughter of both situations I had a marvelous day and realized once again how fortunate I am to work with soooooo many wonderful arts educators across the state!

Later in the day we had professional development opportunities happening in two different locations.

At Bates College… three of our arts ed teacher leaders were presenting three different workshops.

• Quick, Down, Dirty AND Effective Art Assessment (K-5 Visual Art) with visual art teacher leader Laura Devin and her colleagues from RSU1 Karen Wolfe and Rosemary Polizotto
• Why create criteria based on MLR standards with student involvement ? with teacher leader and  Visual Art Educator Richmond Middle/High School Jeffrey Orth
• Finding the Hidden Treasure in Art with Student Self Assessments with teacher leader and Visual Art Educator Brunswick High School Jennie Driscoll

Laura, Karen, and Rosemary's session participants

Jennie's session, viewing artwork

Jeff presenting

The rainy cool day didn’t keep folks from attending. The three workshops had almost 20 participants; visual art educators and Bates students. It was a wonderful afternoon hosted by Maine arts assessment leadership team member and teacher at Bates College Bronwyn Sale. Thank you to Jennie and Bronwyn for their work in planning the event! A great big thank you to Bates College for partnering on this event!

Assessment webinar… The second opportunity was the arts assessment webinar, Standards Based Assessment in the Arts, the 3rd in a series of 5 webinars. The webinars are facilitated by Rob Westerberg and Catherine Ring. Guests on the webinar included three teacher leaders: Jake Sturtevant (Bonny Eagle High School music educator), Leah Olson (Hampden Academy visual art educator), and Charlie Johnson (Mount Desert Island High School visual art educator). Also joining the webinar was Dr. Jeff Beaudry, USM professor and Maine’s assessment planning committee member and Marcia McCaffrey, co-chair of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (leading the revisions of the national arts standards) and NH Dept of Education arts consultant.

There were over 50 participants on the webinar. If you missed it you can access the archived webinar at https://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/_a827390218/p9s0w2om2jv/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

You can also access the past two webinars and meeting plans at http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/vpa/assessment.html

The next webinar is scheduled for January 4th and the topic is An Elementary Discussion: How in the World Can I Possibly Do This? The topic that will be addressed is

• Addressing the unique needs of elementary arts educators

To join the meeting, go online to http://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/pk201012/ (sign in as “guest”). Conference Number: 1-866-910-4857, Passcode: 140893 you can go to this link: https://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/_a827390218/pk201012/

On February 1, 2012 the final webinar will be held called Leadership and the Arts. The session will address:

• The Role of Teachers
• The Role of Administrators
• The Role of the greater Community

To join the meeting, go online to http://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/pk201013/ (sign in as “guest”). Conference Number: 1-866-910-4857, Passcode: 140893. Please be sure and invite your administrators to join you for this webinar!