Arts Academy Revitalization Action Team

Arts Academy Meeting Notes, September 12, 2007

September 12, 2007 at 3:28 pm | In Minutes |

Summary:

We discussed where we are now and what work we want to do this year. We had a short discussion about bottom-up vs. top-down design and the merits of working at different levels of design (top-level ideas vs. implementation). Next Wednesday we will continue to address our mission and vision.

Meeting adjourned at 2:20 p.m.

Present:

• Vicky Stubbs
• Phil Divinsky
• Diane Manzi
• Lisa Hicks
• Jill Irving
• Tom Lafavore
• Valerie Green
• Dave Nichols
• Dave Beane

Full Notes:

We reminded ourselves that Wednesday is our official meeting day for now. When early-release Wednesdays start in October, we will look again at meeting requirements.

We started by looking at last year’s timeline. Our September ‘07 goal was “develop academy model” and we are there.

Are there any other schools we should visit this year?

Phil made some contacts over the summer with people who are doing the kind of work we are trying to do. He will follow up with them. Jay McTigh’s wife has done research in Arts Education and would be a good contact.

Vicky will look up info from Deb Broska’s presentations (6 or 7 years ago?) and look into contacting her.

Vicky passed around an information sheet about an Arts & Music conference at the Samoset on October 5th and 6th. If anyone is interested in going, Phil will see whether he can get some money.

Vicky distributed goal-setting sheets.

Tom read “Schooling By Design” (Wiggins, McTigh). It might be a good jumping-off place for our development. As he explained it, Dimensions of Learning deals with high-level concepts in education, and Schooling By Design takes the high-level concepts and puts them into a design document.

Tom: is all of our work found in our mission statement? If it is, then design down from the mission statement.

We had a short discussion about the merits of top-down vs. bottom-up design, and whether both could work together. Tom wants to make sure that we are not project-driven; that we stay true to our mission and vision when designing our curricula/projects. We should think about what we want our students to look like when they leave the Arts Academy.

It would be great to have a retreat to do some planning for a whole day. If we all meet at someone’s house, will PATHS spring for sub pay? It’s unlikely that we would find money from LIT or from Tom. Tom urged us to write up the planning as a project for which we would receive contact hours.

Jill mentioned that one of Tina’s grants may be applicable. She will check.

More discussion about design: if we get our mission and vision very clear, we could split into groups — some people working on the big picture and some working on specifics and implementation, and report to each other.

Tom: given our vision and mission, we should sit down with the standards and performance indicators and then show how our curriculum meets the standards.

Note: lots of us are doing free writing this year, something that we took from last year’s HOME project. Starting early in the year with writing will make it easier to do writing/literacy projects this year.

Next time we will continue to clarify our goals.

Book recommendation from Tom: “The Art & Science of Teaching” (Marzano)

Meeting adjourned at 2:20 p.m. Next meeting next Wednesday, 9/19.