Arts Academy Revitalization Action Team

Meeting Notes: PhotoShop Meeting with Bob Bettencourt

Summary

Val, Dave B., Dave N., Diane, and Jess (Diane’s intern) met with Bob Bettencourt to plan the combined PhotoShop course.

The course will take place in early December. Val, Dave B. and Diane will combine classes, with Dave and Diane’s students in 321 and Val’s students in 320. We will open the door between the rooms. Dave Nichols’s students will have their own section in the Graphic Arts classroom.

Goals of the project:

• students understand the principles of good design
• students have basic PhotoShop proficiency

Please continue reading for meeting details.
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Arts Academy Meeting Notes, October 24, 2007

Summary:

We had a short discussion about buying a domain name for the arts cluster that will point to our page on the PATHS Web site. Val will check on logistics. We did a lot of work on “what does a student look like?”.

Next week (10/31) we will meet in Val’s room (320) for a session on how to use our new weblogs. Before this session, everyone should sign up for a blog here.

Before the meeting on November 7, please look for examples of vision statements. PATHS, PPS, CBHS, others.

Agenda for 11/7:

1. What does a vision look like? Discuss PATHS and CBHS and PPS vision statements, and others. Discuss examples that people have found.
2. “small group”/”large group” discussion

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Arts Academy Meeting Notes, October 17, 2007

Summary:

We spent about 30 minutes discussing strategies for improving how we work together as a group. Starting with the next meeting, we will have a stack of Sticky Notes on the table. One person will volunteer to be the “parking lot attendant”, which means that if someone makes a comment that seems like it’s in danger of making the group get off track, the attendant will ask that the comment be put in the “parking lot” (on a Sticky Note). The note can be handed to Valerie. We will save 5 minutes at the end of the meeting to discuss any issues on the stickies and determine whether one or more of them should be on the agenda for the next week.

We added some items to the “what does our student look like” list. You can see the current contents of the list in a tab at the top of the blog.

Our meetings often run past 2:10. If you are planning on counting that extra meeting time towards your 10-13 extra contract hours, please keep track of it on your own.

Agenda for next week:

1. revisit work in progress (”what does a student look like?”) and: how to get student input : 30 minutes
2. look at the process for coming up with a vision: for example, talk about group vs. small group work: 20 minutes
3. “parking lot” issues: 5 minutes
4. agenda for next meeting: 5 minutes

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Reading: teaching intuition in Physics

Lisa put “intuitive” on the list of “what does a student look like?” at the last meeting.  I found an interesting article about teaching intuition in physics and I converted it to PDF:

Teaching Intuition (by Martin Mahy)

Arts Academy Meeting Notes, October 10, 2007

Summary:

We had a discussion of items that might be work for smaller groups. We did some brainstorming around “what does a graduating student look like?”. We had a short discussion of process and what we want our meetings to be like.

Next meeting: Wednesday, October 17 at 1:10 in Room 140.

Agenda for next week:

1. set ground rules for meetings (15 minutes)
2. brainstorming around homework: “what does an graduating student look like?” (40 minutes)
3. setting agenda for next meeting (5 minutes)

Meeting adjourned at 2:15; smaller group adjourned at 2:25.
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Arts Academy Meeting Notes, September 26, 2007

Summary:

Meeting adjourned at 2:40. Next meeting: Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 1:40 in Room 140.

We began a discussion of the questions:

• Why is Art important to teach/study/learn?
• Why is an Arts Academy a good idea?
• What makes an Arts Academy student different from another student?

We discussed the word “art” vs. “creativity”, the difficulty of assessing creativity but of its importance in the curriculum. We talked about teaching other subjects in the context of the arts. (See full notes for details).

Tom left us with 4 questions for creating our vision statement:

1. To what extent do we (our team, school, district, community) share a common vision?
2. What educational beliefs about teaching and learning do we all hold, if any? What do the answers imply?
3. What assumptions about learning guide our instructional and assessment practices? To what extent do our policies, priorities, and actions reflect these beliefs?
4. How might we better actualize our beliefs?

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Arts Academy Meeting Notes, September 19, 2007

Summary:

We updated our mission statement and started talking about our vision.

Homework #1 for next meeting: think / write about a vision for the arts academy. Questions to think about:

• What does a student look like when s/he graduates from the academy?
• What is unique about this student? What makes this student different from, say, a Portland High School graduate?
• What has this student gained from studying comprehensively in an arts-based curriculum?
• How has being an artist affected each one of us personally? Why is it important to us?
• Why is art important to society?

Homework #2: if you have seen a good example of a vision statement, please bring it next time.

Meeting adjourned at 2:30 p.m. Next meeting is Wednesday, 9/26 at 1:40 in Room 140.

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Arts Academy Meeting Notes, September 12, 2007

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.

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Book: Schooling by Design

This book came up during our initial cluster meeting, but I don’t remember the author. Who is it?

Update: authors are Wiggins & McTigh.

Link: Walter Gropius Manifesto

I’m cleaning off my bulletin board and noticed a printout from Diane of this Web page, which talks about the relationship between “artist” and “craftsman”.