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Overview - Letter to the Educator - ArtLinks Newsletters 2009 On Saturday, May 9, 2009, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council presented "Arts, Education, Imagination: Connecting Schools and Community". Research has shown that arts education strengthens both academic performance and problem-solving skills, and teachers reported that they would like to expand their arts curriculum. This professional development program increased awareness of local arts and cultural resources and helped to nurture their partnerships with schools in the region. Results of the Arts Council's survey of K-12 educators in twenty two Lehigh, Carbon, and Northampton county school districts and the Allentown diocese provided a snapshot of the current arts-in-education practice in our region. Highlights of the day's schedule included an expo for arts and cultural organizations, a workshop devoted to building partnerships between arts professionals and educators, and a keynote address by Dinotopia author/illustrator James Gurney. Noted consultant Beth A. Vogel identified strategies and demonstrated ways to create mutually successful collaborations in a "Building Partnerships" working session. James Gurney, author/illustrator of Dinotopia, delivered the keynote address, Arts, Science, and Imagination. He discussed his creative process and curricular applications for his work. 2008 On Friday, May 23, 2008, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council presented "Artful Learning: Leonard Bernstein's Teaching Model". Participants applied the model to develop curriculum on "Westward Expansion," utilizing Pennsylvania's own Conestoga wagon, along with Copland's Rodeo and Remington's Bronco Buster. Featured speakers: Kenneth Pool, Ed.D., Executive Director of the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning at Gettysburg College, and Charles Dittrich, the center's Manager of Training Services. Dr. Pool and Mr. Dittrich presented the Bernstein Center's Artful Learning model, which places the arts at the center of learning and includes them across all disciplines. The arts and the creative process strengthen teaching and learning by providing a system to organize curriculum through units of study. Students and teachers explore a masterwork through an artist's lens, the mentorship of the teacher, and the discipline of the scholar. Participants are immersed in four key components: experience, inquiry, creativity, and reflection. Student assessment is based on content and performance standards. 2007 On Friday, May 4, 2007, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council presented "The Arts, the Brain, and Learning," the annual Arts-in-Education Breakfast, featuring Diane Watanabe, Ed.D., and Richard Sjolseth,Ed.M., cofounders and directors of the Institute of Learning, Teaching, and the Human Brain. The event featured two sessions. The first session, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m., centered on brain research concerning learning. The second session, from 9:45 to 11:00 a.m., Dr. Watanabe and Mr. Sjolseth focused on the most powerful research-based strategies for raising student achievement in all subject areas. Consultants with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, Watanabe and Sjolseth are curriculum and instruction professional development specialists in modeling and analyzing interactive teaching/learning strategies that maximize classroom productivity for kindergarten through 12th grade. In their seminars, they emphasize approaches for actively engaging students in reading and learning. The strategies they teach enhance comprehension and metacognition, as well as study, organizational, and questioning skills. The Arts Council's Arts-in- Education Breakfast was co-sponsored by Crayola, Marlene and Beall Fowler, and Penn State Lehigh Valley. Download the PowerPoint® presentation (4.20Mb)** 2006 On May 4, 2006, Richard J. Deasy, Director of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) in Washington, DC, spoke at the fifth annual Lehigh Valley Arts Council's Administrators Breakfast. In his talk, Deasy explored research profiled in AEP's newest publication, Third Space: When Learning Matters, and cited research on the importance of the arts in teaching students to develop thinking skills transferable to math, science and other school curriculum. More than 110 school and arts organization administrators, educators, teaching artists and arts advocates attended the event. Click here to download a transcript of his talk* and accompanying PowerPoint® presentation (11.8Mb)**.
The Arts-in-Education program is made possible through the support of the Marlene & Beall Fowler, The Holt Family Foundation and Crayola, Inc. ©2010 Lehigh Valley Arts Council |
