Arts Academy Revitalization Action Team

Arts Academy Meeting Notes, November 28, 2007

November 28, 2007 at 3:21 pm | In Minutes |

Summary:

We looked at some vision statements from different schools. Ultimately we decided that we should take our “what does a student look like” list and then work backwards from it, figuring out how we would create the environment that would produce a student like that.

We also talked about PATHSFest. Next week we will work on a survey for PATHS staff around comments on last year’s PATHSFest and ideas for this year’s.

Agenda for December 5th:
Start w/ “what does a student look like?” and building a vision statement: 25 minutes
Work on survey about PATHSFest for PATHS staff: 25 minutes
Parking lot: 5 minutes
Agenda: 5 minutes

Present:

• Phil Divinsky
• Tom Lafavore
• Dave Beane
• Val Green
• Jane Krasnow
• Lisa Hicks
• Diane Manzi
• Jessica Nadeau

We started by handing out photocopies of different vision statements, pulling out phrases we liked.

“beacon for artistic and academic innovation”
“enhances”, “offers”, “imbeds”, nice having the bolded verbs in the Boston Arts Academy sheet
“our students will become desired, disciplined, well-trained creative artists and scholars” Did our list get close to that?
well-developed alumni program
“creative and contributing members of society”

Maybe if we start with “what does the student look like”, and then figure out what action words we need to use to provide an experience that will produce that kind of student.

For next time, Val will print off “what does a graduating student look like” and distribute it so that we can start talking about how to make that student a reality.

PATHSFest Theme discussion:

Do we tie in “envision your perfect school” somehow? Or an exercise around that?
What does every program need to do their best work?
The setup was nice from last year: course offerings.
Is there a theme that everyone in the school can get into? (Not just our own group)
Where’s the art in what you do? That’s a challenge to all classes to present themselves like that.
How about embracing the jokes (”we’re not artists…”)
Maybe then we challenge everyone to be into technology
Maybe the theme is “creating your future?” What does that mean?
What about “Work is Play”?
Who is the audience? Our students? The community? Potential students? Do we want to get a lot of other people here that day? Middle school 8th graders (supervised)?
Have our kids take kids through the school (PATHS student guides?) That’s a different goal than allowing our students to go around and see the offerings.
It would be nice to have it over 2 days, so we could have a day for our students and a day for the community. That would be really tough to schedule.
Do we want kids to come here and have fun? Or do we want to hold an exhibition of student work? Our audience is the grown-ups…but they can’t come during the school day.
Having participatory work is really important.
It’s important to have a balance between the fun and the rigor “Spark Plug Challenge” isn’t just getting it in quickly, it’s…how do you do it correctly so that the engine runs smoothly?
Nice to be outside a little more
Mostly for kids, and good when adults came
Some people like it when equipment is in the hall (or in a central place), some better in the room. It might be nice to have business happening in the halls.
Art students don’t want to be part of PATHSFest. They want their own day.
What about other clusters? Can they help us decide about a theme? We could come up with a few ideas and ask for feedback. Also: what did you like/dislike about last year’s PATHSFest?

Val will talk to John M. about taking on the idea of Crossover Days

Agenda for December 5th:
Start w/ “what does a student look like?” and building a vision statement: 25 minutes
Work on survey about PATHSFest for PATHS staff: 25 minutes
Parking lot: 5 minutes
Agenda: 5 minutes