Summer Reading: Articles – Resources

Below are several resources that you might find helpful and useful to your teaching. THANK YOU to everyone who emails links to interesting articles, research, and in general SOME REALLY GREAT STUFF! to share with others!

• The Wallace Foundation has recently published a report called Advancing Arts Education through an Expanded School Day which looks at lessons learned from Five Schools. Access and download the report at http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/arts-education/Community-Approaches-to-Building-Arts-Education/Documents/Advancing-Arts-Education-through-an-Expanded-School-Day.pdf
• Important Student Voices… Nikhil Goyal Gives Passionate Speech written by Peter DeWitt, June 12, 2013 for blog Finding Common Ground. The blog post includes: As educators this should be our goal. To see our young students grow up and come into their own. All students should have the opportunity to find their voice and use it so others will benefit from hearing it. To read the entire post and see the speech given by the 18 year-old, please go to: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2013/06/important_student_voices_nikhil_goyal_gives_passionate_speech.html
• Does Arts Education Matter? written by Peter DeWitt, May 15, 2013 for blog Finding Common Ground. The blog post starts with: The public education system is at serious risk of only focusing on numbers, and we all know there are more important things in life than numbers. Read the entire post at: blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2013/05/does_arts_education_matter.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW (Thanks to Brooke Holland for sending this link, elementary art teacher in RSU 40)
• The Arts and the Common Core resource. Ideas and resources aligned with the Common Core for Arts Education. Click here for the .pdf:  http://commoncore.org/maps/documents/Art_in_the_Maps.pdf    (Thanks to MAAI teacher leader Leah Olson, Hampden Academy art teacher for sending this info) 
• To the Best of Our Knowledge is a radio show. On May 17, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Director Stuart Kestenbaum and MIT’s Neil Gershenfeld were guests on the show discussing their partnership with the lab at Haystack. You can listen to the show at: http://ttbook.org/book/crafting-technology#.UZuzGKhNRs8.gmail.       (Thanks to Stu for sending me this info)
• Great Teachers are Virtuosos written by Walt Gardner, May 6, 2013 for the blog Reality Check. The blog post starts with: “As in all other fields, virtuosos possess gifts that can be identified but not duplicated. If that were not the case, schools of music would produce Mozarts, and schools of drama would graduate Brandos. But they don’t. Nevertheless, these schools are curiously spared the criticism leveled at schools of education. The double standard is particularly troubling today because of the high stakes involved. It’s also one of the reasons that teachers are demoralized.” Read the entire post at: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2013/05/great_teachers_are_virtuosos.html?cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS2.
• The Value of the Arts in Education & Life written by Stephanie Milling, May 2, 2013 for the Americans for the Arts blog called ARTSblog. The blog post starts with: “As a university administrator and associate professor, I frequently interact with parents who visit our campus with respective students. The one question that is always interesting to field is, “What will my child be able to do with a degree in (fill in your respective arts area here)?” Read the entire post at: http://blog.artsusa.org/2013/05/02/the-value-of-the-arts-in-education-life/
• KnowledgeWorks is a social enterprise focused on creating sustainable improvement in student readiness for college and careers. They are publishing a series that “includes a working definition for competency education, examples of states doing the ground breaking work in this area and an appropriate role for the federal government to remove policy barriers and to create diagnostic and assessment tools to measure effectiveness.” You can download the .pdf at: Competency Education Series: Policy Brief One at: http://www.knowledgeworks.org/competency-education-series-policy-brief-one.
• The New York Times, Business Day section Investments in Education May be Misdirected written by Eduardo Porter, April 2, 2013. Why is arts education important to early childhood development? Read the entire article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/studies-highlight-benefits-of-early-education.html?smid=fb-share.
• The Washington Post, Bill Gates on A Fairer Way to Evaluate Teachers, April 3, 2013. The article starts with       “… there is a window of opportunity in public education to create systems that encourage and develop fantastic teachers, leading to better results for students.” Read the entire article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bill-gates-a-fairer-way-to-evaluate-teachers/2013/04/03/c99fd1bc-98c2-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html  (Thanks to Bronwyn Sale, Bates College, for sending the article).
• National Public Radio did a 3-part series on the Arts and Education, Elizabeth Blair, April 16, 2013. This segment, which you can listen to is called Creative Classes: An Artful Approach To Improving Performance. To listen go to: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/16/176671432/creative-classes-an-artful-approach-to-improving-performance.
• Education Week How Do You Evaluate Teachers Who Change Lives? written by Lorraine Bellon Cella, April 16, 2013. The article includes: “Then I saw him. A new teacher. A small, wiry man. Young, cute. Long black hair. Smiling. Talking with students, not at students. Sitting on a student’s desk—not behind a huge oak barrier or a lectern. He actually had legs!” Read the entire article at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/04/17/28cella.h32.html?tkn=VMOFqkHfH2OZx0JFU3kpjcMB%2FgFzBJVM0%2BMr&cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS2
• The Art of Education blog included a post called Integrating Photography Into the Common Core written by blogger Jessica Balsley, April 25, 2013. The beginning of the post reads: “Photography possesses many natural connections to the Common Core, and is an engaging subject for the art room.” Read the entire post at http://www.theartofed.com/2013/04/25/integrating-photography-into-the-common-core/.
• Education Week, Teacher article: Inspiring Creativity Through Nonfiction Texts written by Nathan Sun-Kleinberger, April 3, 2013. The article includes: “…my coworker Kira sent me an email expressing her fear that the common-core literacy standards would further slow our students’ creativity. She wrote, “Our kids seem to fear being creative, and I can’t help thinking that this informative text-driven direction we’re headed will continue to cultivate that fear.” Read the entire article at: http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/04/03/tln_sunkleinberger_literacystandards.html?tkn=SYYFp5Lmt9MIBiu%2F37173PW1u4uzySZv%2FyDT&cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1.
• The Salt Lake Tribune article More Utah Schools to get Elementary Arts Programs written by Lisa Schencker, March 31, 2013. The article starts with this: “Students are accustomed, in geometry lessons, to drawing, comparing and measuring shapes. But on a recent day in Angela Challis’ class at South Jordan’s Welby Elementary School, fourth-graders became the shapes. They squeezed into red, pink, blue and purple costumes to demonstrate the meanings of congruent, not congruent and similar. The kids performed dances, twisting their bodies into poses, while singing definitions.” Read the entire article at: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56046450-78/program-arts-schools-kids.html.csp.
• BBC News, Education & Family, Bored Children Lead to Imagination written by Hannah Richardson, March 22, 2013. The article includes: “Children should be allowed to get bored so they can develop their innate ability to be creative, an education expert says.”  Read the entire article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21895704. (Thanks to Peter Bernard for sharing this article).
• CNN: Schools of Thought. Everything I need to know I learned in music class  written by Andrew Schwartz, March 20, 2013. Included in the article: “…But through that transition, I’ve realized why music needs to be a cornerstone of education. Music is an art and a science, and it’s one of the best ways kids can learn  creativity and those mythical critical thinking skills. The focus of the curriculum isn’t forcing everyone to learn about Bach or Mozart. It’s about learning how to think, rather than what to think.” Read the entire article at: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/20/my-view-everything-i-need-to-know-i-learned-in-music-class/  (Thanks to Jen Nash for sharing this article).
• New Book Releases: Creativity and Critical Thinking from Bookmarks blog written by Amy Wickner, March 4, 2013. This is the first paragraph of the post: A quick look back at some Education Week blog stats reveals that “innovation” was the K-12 buzzword of 2012. So much so, in fact, that educators are already expressing resistance to that term and its kissing cousins, the phrases “21^st-century skills” and “digital natives.” One major takeaway from the past year’s coverage of innovation in education is a renewed emphasis on critical thinking and creativity as important skills to cultivate among students and K-12 professionals alike. A suite of new releases explores what it means to build these abilities in the classroom. Read more at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/bookmarks/2013/03/new_book_releases_creativity_and_critical_thinking.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2.
• Testing in art for teacher evaluation. This is what is happening in NYC. Click here to read the entire article from the New York TImes written by Javier C. Hernandez, June 2, 2013: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/nyregion/new-york-teacher-assessments-extend-to-art-and-gym.html?emc=eta1&_r=0