Matt Doiron and Jake Sturtevant shared their knowledge!
Friday afternoon, January 27 at Noble High School in Berwick, was the cool place to be. Hundreds of the finest musicians from Maine Music Educators Association District 1 were being treated to outstanding rehearsals by guest conductors in 5 different performing ensembles. But from 3:30 to 4:30 the treat was for the teachers: Matt Doiron and Jake Sturtevant presented a session on their work on standards based assessment as part of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative. Matt, the Band Director at Sanford High School, went into great detail about his journey to this point, outlining some philosophical perspectives before diving into the specifics of how he has incorporated new standards and assessment practices into his large group ensemble. Even since his presentation at the October Arts Assessment Conference, his experiences have been fascinating and impressive.
Jake followed with an engaging journey through the standards based assessment process and it couldn’t have been more relevant. It also couldn’t have been clearer or more precise; the attendees got to follow through a no nonsense approach that outlines practical application to any classroom setting. He concluded by showing us detailed examples of his work as a Music Educator at Bonny Eagle High School. A very inspiring hour flew by and reiterated yet again the value of all the regional workshops being held this year throughout the state. Be sure to hop in to any of the remaining ones in your area to get some more of “the good stuff”! The regional workshop schedule is located at http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/vpa/assessment.html The professional development workshops are being provided for Maine arts educators during the 2011-12 school year.
Jake Sturtevant presenting
Thank you to Rob Westerberg, who is a member of the Leadership Team for Maine’s Arts Assessment Initiative for his contribution of this blog post.
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