Eduarts4us.com

Update on ESEA - (NCLB)

2011-11-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

As I have been commenting on in the last several blogs, Congress is right now, re-writing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, better know to most people as the No Child Left Behind Act. As I have been encouraging you to do, making your voice heard right now, is the only way to help make changes to what will be the National Education Policy for the next decade or so.

One of the organizations that is active for the arts - on a National level, especially in education, is Americans for the Arts. I have included several links to their organization, including the sidebar on the left of this article, which connects you to contact information for your own legeslators. They are one of the organizations that lobby for arts initiatives in Washington, and one of the inroads to Congress that we as arts activists, actually can make use of to get our voices heard. Americans for the Arts and their national partners have been lobbying for legislative equity for the arts at the National level this year. You may take a look at those recommendations at their website here.
Last week, Americans for the Arts released a memo updating us on the work that is taking place right now in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee of Congress, which is the committee tasked with re-writing the ESEA act. Americans for the Arts, has been actively lobbying members of this committee on behalf of the arts, and last week they issued a memo, regarding the current recommendations of that committee. The central portion of that memo is included below:

"The legislation as amended has several items that are of interest to the arts education sector.

1) Arts education was retained as a “core academic subject” – ensuring that the arts maintains this designation is critical for eligibility to use federal funds locally.
2) The term “core academic subject” has been incorporated into far more programs than No Child Left Behind did. It now places core academic subjects, including the arts, as central to extended learning programs, “highly qualified teacher” qualifications, parental engagement programs, advanced placement and international baccalaureate programs, reading or language arts, and STEM initiatives. This is a giant leap from the diminutive position that “core academic subject” held in the No Child Left Behind Act.
3) A new program called Extended Learning was created to provide competitive grants to school districts to extend their school day – and the arts and music are among the specified reasons for this new program.
4) The Well Rounded Education Amendment, described in more detail below, and based on the Obama Administration “Blueprint” proposal, creates a single competitive grant program to provide support to: arts, civics and government, economics, environmental education, financial literacy, foreign languages, geography, health education, history, physical education and social studies. The authorized funding level for this grant program would be $500 million – a set of similar programs currently receives $265 million this year. This amendment sustains direct federal support for arts education, which would have been terminated otherwise.
5) Among ten programs of “National Significance” is specific direction for the Department of Education to support “projects that encourage the involvement of persons with disabilities in the arts.”
6) The most substantial changes from current law in the legislation are: it ends Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in favor of a measure of “continuous improvement” and it no longer forces states and local school districts to create evaluation systems in order to receive funding forteacher and principal development. Both of these changes could reduce the “teaching to the test” and reverse the narrowing of the curriculum that has occurred since NCLB was implemented. It might also mean that art and music teachers could be evaluated in their subject area, if a state so chooses, instead of being evaluated on their student’s math and reading scores. "

The entire memo may be found here. As I am sure you will agree, the recommendations show considerable thought and improvement over the present National Policy. A critical part of this process begins next week, when the Senate will open a hearing to consider these recommendations. There is significant opposition to various portions of the recommendations by members of both parties of Congress. What the legislators do to, and with this bill will significantly affect arts education for the next several years. I again encourage you to contact your legislators, and voice your support for the arts in education.

Til Next Time
Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

Statement from State Assembly member - Das Williams

2011-10-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

In previous posts, I have commented on the ESEA legislation, better known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), extensively. I have commented on NCLB in the following posts, and alluded to it in others:

'Update and NCLB'
'Guide-to-posts'
'Arne Duncan - Boosting Academic Achievement'
'Authentic Learning Experiences'

'Drama in the classroom'

I was quite pleased, as I'm sure all of you were, when President Obama and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan announced that waivers for NCLB would be given to states, rather than allowing 82% of schools to fail this school year, as had been projected.

As I have also mentioned however, I no longer believe that it is possible to be an arts advocate without also becoming an activist for the arts and getting involved in the political process that regulates arts education in the schools. For that reason, I asked a member of the California State Assembly if he would comment on the NCLB waivers and arts education. Das Williams, Assemblymember for California's 35th district agreed to comment, and today I am pleased to share his statement with you. Das Williams represents a district that includes substantial portions of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Das was elected to the Santa Barbara City Council in 2003, and was elected to the state assembly in 2010. Das has shown strong support for education, healthcare, and environmental concerns, and has authored bills to protect libraries, public health, and public safety. Das's official state website is <http://asmdc.org/members/a35/>, and it includes information on current issues facing the state legislature, as well as a useful 'resources' section and more. Das's unofficial website, which contains additional information and insights (including a link to Eduarts4us) may be found here.

A statement from Assemblymember Das Williams regarding NCLB waivers and arts education;

"I am very much in support of the NCLB waivers, I feel they will provide educators in our state with the much needed flexibility to make the best decisions for our children without the erosion of accountability, however I understand the frustrations expressed by our state schools chief, Tom Torlakson, in regards to the need for school funding. I share in these frustrations and see a need to fix our system for funding public education.

California schools have seen $18 billion in cuts over the past four years in state and local funds. Earlier this month, state controller John Chiang announced the latest revenue figures, which came in below projections, meaning the trigger cuts that are part of (the) budget plan signed by Governor Brown in June, could come into play if we don't meet the $3 billion revenue target. Instead of trigger cuts, we need to push all legislators to support education, but particularly the republicans that have refused to agree to the revenue needed to preserve public education.

That being said, these NCLB waivers will not directly affect arts education. As the waivers would only apply to academic areas for which the state already tests. The most eminant area of concern for arts education in the state comes if we don't meet the revenue projections resulting in further cuts to our states education system."

I thank Das for his comments, - and appreciate his taking the time to respond. I encourage all of you to contact your local, state, and national representatives to let your views on the importance of the arts in education be known. Politicians make decisions based on the input and information that they have access to. Your views and insights will only be considered if you take the time to write or call your local officials. You may find contact information for your representatives by including your zip code on the "Americans for the Arts" box on the left side-bar of this blog. They will provide you with contact information for your individual representatives, as well as information on upcoming legislative issues that impact the Arts.

In my last post, I included a video by the Department of Education, which concluded by asking for your input as the Congress is currently rewriting the NCLB legislation NO ONE has a right to complain about whatever results from this legislation UNLESS THEY HAVE MADE THEIR VOICES HEARD NOW. That video, as well as several more showing ways to improve 'academic areas' through 'Arts Integration" can be found in the JNM Youtube tab on the header bar of this blog. Once on the Youtube channel, go to the playlists and look at some of the excellent videos on arts advocacy and arts integration that have been produced recently, and are recommended there.

Until Next time
Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

Up-date and NCLB

2011-10-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

I took a week off of blogging to get my virtual house in order so that (hopefully) information on the sites that I'm managing is easier to locate and more useable.

One of the updates I did was to the toolbar at the top of this page, so that all of the information on all the sites is completely accessible from one place. That means that rather than having links scattered over 2 or three blogs or websites, - they can now all all be accessed from the 'links' tab. The 'Arts Advocacy Resources tab will now take you to the single page where I am aggregating current, and pertinent information regarding material that can be used to support and defend arts education. On it you will find links to up-to-date brochures, pamphlets, and video's that are valuable resources to have ready when the opportunity arises. They are also a one-stop place to find these resources that is easy to find with the click of a mouse. The JNM youtube channel has been updated so that it will be a one-stop place to find any of the videos that are recommended on arts-related subjects. Uploaded videos are music Instructional videos that I'm adding to regularly. There are now also 2 playlists that can be accessed. One is for and about arts advocacy, and one for and about arts integration in schools. - I will be adding to them regularly.
On the new 'Links' tab you will find local, state, and national arts organizations that I am familiar with, and use, or that have been recommended to me by arts educators. - If you know of good ones, let me know, and I will add it to the others. Edu-links is for hands-on educational resources that you access from anywhere, and use to learn, or to produce arts-related material.

Just a closing couple of thoughts. A few weeks ago, I included a poster that said 'those who can, teach, those who can't - pass laws about teaching. I didn't think it was particularly funny, just ironically true. If you don't think that's funny, - recognize that right now, congress is re-writing the No Child Left Behind Act. The same Congress that can't pass a budget, or a jobs bill, or agree on almost anything, is now engaged in deciding what new rules and standards will apply to teaching and education. This video is put out by the Department of Education and is a beginning step in reforming education that will impact students, and teachers, and schools over the next decade. They ask for your input. - Give it to them. The ways to contact them are www.ed.gov, and 1-800-usa-learn.

I encourage you to get involved. Here is one more way. On the left-hand side-bar of this page is an interactive box by the 'Americans for the Arts. non-profit organization. If you would like to support the arts, and want to get involved, - put your zip-code in the box. You will be given specific contact information for your local, state, and national political representatives. You will also be informed about important upcoming legislation concerning the arts, so that you can contact your representatives in a timely manner, and make your voice heard.

Until next time

Ron Zell

Arts Education

2011-10-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

“In America, we do not reserve arts education for privileged students or the elite. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds, students who are English language learners, and students with disabilities often do not get the enrichment experiences of affluent students anywhere except at school. President Obama recalls that when he was a child ‘you always had an art teacher and a music teacher. Even in the poorest school districts everyone had access to music and other arts.’

Today, sadly, that is no longer the case.”

– U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, April 9, 2010

As a casualty of the "Arts Wars" I probably would be smart to pick myself up, lick my wounds, and turn my back on the grim landscape and leave it to others to pick up the pieces of what's left of arts education. My music program in a public school system was eliminated, as were thousands of music and arts programs in public schools around the country. My experience is one of the many statistics that went into Arne Duncan and President Obama's lament above.

I don't have a good track record of running from difficult situations however, and I guess I'm doomed to continue in that tradition. In recent months, I've been trying to look at - not what happened to me, but to what is happening in the arts communities I see around me with an eye toward the hope that there are better days ahead with regards to arts education. I do see good things happening in the arts communities that have survived. Good people continue to do amazing things with some of the remaining in-school programs. These continue to be supported (or replaced) by after-school programs, and programs provided by community programs and arts outreach organizations. Fundraisers and donations from good-hearted parents and community groups provide financial resources to the degree that they can.

I see people calling for educational reform, and even, wonder of wonders, a partial suspension of the No Child Left Behind Act. But these seem to me somehow to be delaying tactics in what otherwise is a predominately losing battle. I have provided links in the last few weeks to posts that have emphasized the importance of the arts. I've thought the posts were excellent, or I wouldn't have provided them. But I am frequently distressed after reading them. Not by the posts, but by the readers comments that accompany them. They are few to be sure, (which is to be expected, after all, they are posts about the arts), but they often reveal antipathy toward the arts that I'm afraid is becoming the populist view.

I am not at all alone in my opinion. This year, the National Endowments of the Arts released a report entitled: Arts Education in America: What the declines mean for Arts Participation. I encourage you to read it. It is enlightening, important to anyone involved in arts education, and unfortunately sobering. Here are a few of what I thought were salient points.

Arts education in childhood is the most significant predictor of both arts attendance and personal arts creation throughout the rest of a person’s life.

In their analysis, NORC researchers Nick Rabkin and Eric Hedberg test and ultimately confirm the validity of an assumption made with prior SPPA data, that participation in arts lessons and classes is the most significant predictor of arts participation later in life, even after controlling for other variables. They also show that long-term declines in Americans’ reported rates of arts learning align with a period in which arts education has been widely acknowledged as devalued in the public school system. Nor are the declines distributed equally across all racial and ethnic groups

Although adult classes or lessons appear to have a stronger association than childhood experiences with benchmark arts attendance, it is important to note that most Americans who had arts education as an adult also had had arts education as a child. Arts education also showed strong associations with personal creation or performance, as well as consumption of the arts through media.

A small but growing body of research has shown that arts education is associated with the development of dispositions and inclinations that scaffold learning in general, reaching well beyond the arts to a broad range of positive cognitive,
social, and emotional outcomes. Some studies have found that arts learning has a more significant effect on low-income student achievement than it does

on the academic performance of more privileged students, and that arts education is an effective pathway to deeper engagement and success in school for students who are at the greatest risk of academic failure.

Some research has shown that arts education can have significant influence on student achievement, even when measured by the narrow standard of improving test scores.16 For example, one study found that the effects of arts involvement on low-income youth, like the effects of early childhood education, are sustained well into young adulthood. Youth who have substantial engagements with the arts are more likely to go to college, get good grades in college, and get a degree.

Research linking the arts to academic achievement is not without its skeptics, including some who are strong supporters of arts education. They assert that the correlations between arts education and positive outcomes do not conclusively demonstrate that

arts education is the cause of the outcomes. They are concerned as well that arts learning will become the “handmaiden” of other subjects, and that the intrinsic value of the arts themselves will not be recognized.

In the view of this study’s authors, however, education policy is likely to favor the arts only if the link to general academic achievement is further established and if the current narrow focus on reading and mathematics is broadened. Recently, the U.S. Department of Education has called for a more inclusive curriculum that explicitly includes the arts and new assessment strategies that will capture “higher-order skills [and] provide more accurate measures of student growth” and progress toward college readiness and the world of work

There is much more included in the report, but rather than list what I think are the important points, I encourage you to get the report, and read it for yourselves. My take-away point from all of this is that we are living in a time of great change - in all areas of our society. Providing excellent arts programs is not enough - I've proven that. We need to work smarter - not harder to make communities aware of the value and the importance of the arts in education and what they are losing if they let them go. With regards to arts education in particular, those who are involved and concerned about it, need to expand their circles of activity well beyond the world of the arts. Politics, education, business, policymaking, media outlets, school funding programs - (federal, state, and local) and much more need to be the target of interest and involvement. It is not by preaching to the choir that we are going to turn the tide of 'devaluing of the arts' It is by getting out into public places and public awarenesses that we can make a difference. "Glee" has got it right. Highlighting the importance of the arts to new audiences in new ways is the paradigm that we all need to embrace. Call it 'Arts Activism', it is what we need to prevent arts education from becoming a privilege, and not a right? (see ...young Minds need art). Unless those who are involved in the arts get involved in these other areas (presumably which are outside of their comfort zone) - we may win sporadic 'delaying actions' but we will continue to lose the 'Arts wars'

As a program note, I've invited comments from a member of the California State Assembly on the arts in education that I hope to include in an upcoming blog.

Until Next time
Ron Zell

Miscellany

2011-10-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tom Jacobs, over at the Miller-McCune news outlet does a good job of keeping us current on research and information related to the arts. Here are some recent posts that I thought were of particular interest. Some have more relevance to the arts in education than others, but all are related, and I think you will find them interesting.

Here is a report from the Journal of Adolescent Research on "Adolescence, Music, and Algebra

A Canadian study regarding aging and music can be found hear Musicians Hear better in Old Age
Is that Dave Brubeck in the background. - His brother used to be a teacher in the Santa Barbara Public School System I believe.

I'm sure I will return to this one in a later blog, since I've used the concept, but based on observation, not research. Now I'll have to go back and try it again. Musical Beat Enhances Comprehension - “musical rhythm appears to be a powerful modulator of human cognitive processes, enhancing their efficiency and allowing synchronization across a group of individuals,”

Western Classical Music is widely popular in China. It seems that not only does Chinese tradition embrace music as "an indispensable way to train the mind" but increasingly, the affinity is for Western Classical Music as an embodiment of 'deep cultural values' and 'individual creativity. Aren't the Chinese among the many nations whose students consistently surpass our own students in math and science scores. Hmmmm - Probably no connection, ...right? Here is the article

Related to that article is this one: "Classical Music Linked to High Intelligence", This is one of those pieces of information that needs to be understood very carefully, if ones intention is to use it in advocating for the arts. The reason; causality vests correlation. - It is however, interesting, information.
Here are some other titles you may enjoy:
Classical Music an Effective Antidepressant

Mozart Effect’ Real — For Some,

Music Education Improves Literacy of Second-graders

There are more available on the site, - Take a look around. -

For your info, I just linked the Joyfulnote You Tube channel to Facebook via the 'Joyfulnote' page. Now all of the instructional videos will be accessible from that one site as they become available. -

Until next time

Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

Wanted - Arts Activists

2011-10-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

In a post last week, I made a statement that I want to take some time to explain. In it, I said that "This is not a blog for arts advocates....This weblog is a place for arts activists" . I didn't explain that very well,
andt don't want those statements to be misunderstood. I very much do want this blog to be a place for arts advocates to come, and find information, inspiration, and motivation to defend the arts in whatever circumstances that they find themselves. As a casualty of the 'Arts Wars' however, I no longer believe that advocacy is sufficient. I believe that advocates have to become activists, or there will be no arts programs left to defend, - as happened with my former program.

For years among professional arts educators, I found myself sort of straddling the line between two very different debates and widely held viewpoints on the reasons to include 'Arts Education' in schools. One side of the debate insisted that we (professional arts educators) should promote the arts in schools because of their 'instrumental' value in improving students academic performance, given the high-stakes testing arena in which we all found ourselves. The other, often very passionately made argument was that we should not waste our time or energy promoting these 'instrumental' effects - no matter how real they may be - but we should rather focus on the intrinsic value of the arts and on the importance of teaching the arts for their own value, personal, social, and cultural. I found myself seeing value in both sides of that debate, but in my own professional practice, I leaned toward the 'instrumental' side of the debate, thinking that this would be more persuasive in influencing stakeholders in the educational system who were not convinced of the value of the arts in schools. By stakeholders, I mean parents, school board members, teachers and school officials, and legislators.

There were often very colorful exchanges in this debate. "Who among you has ever taken a 'Math Appreciation Course" a lecturer at a summer seminar once exclaimed. His point of course was that the only way to appreciate math, was to learn it, which is why schools teach it. Since that is the case then, having 7th or 8th grade 'music appreciation' classes, or 'art appreciation' classes, without ever having provided pre-requisite training in the arts in the lower grades, is simply an admission of failure. I have never seen a 3 or 4 year old that didn't 'appreciate' art or music or drama or dance. In fact of course, more than appreciate them, they love to sing, draw, dance, and play, and they probably can't imagine life any other way.

Then they go to school.

Fast forward to the 7th or 8th grade, (or high school) and school systems have so deprived these same children of the arts that were once basic to each of them, that 'appreciation' classes are taught as way of trying to compensate for the deficit.* (Now of course, even those classes have been eliminated). The 'intrinsic value' argument continued that the arts provided an invaluable and alternative means of expressing oneself and ones culture, and that everyone needed the opportunity to experience, explore, and express their creativity through the language of the arts. Painting or drawing is a way of expressing oneself visually, and 'thinking out loud' in color. Music is a 'language of the heart', and a way of aurally conveying ones' inmost feelings. Drama allows participants and viewers alike to vicariously experience the lives, emotions, and actions of others. Dance is a physical and non-verbally expression all of these elements manifested through the beauty of the human body in motion.

On the other hand, the 'instrumental' argument insisted that because of the growing body of evidence in scientific circles as to the causal AND the correlational relationship between the arts and academic achievement, the importance of the arts in school should be emphasized for that reason. A multitude of researchers were giving us remarkable evidence from neurology, psychology, and educational circles regarding this relationship, and surely if people looked at the evidence, went the argument, they couldn't possibly go on believing what they had always believed. Unfortunately Ralph Waldo Emerson was a keen observer of human nature when he wrote that 'People only see what they want to see".

That being the case, I am not suggesting that anyone interested in the value of the arts should not be well-versed in the facts and be able to advocate for the arts whenever they need to be defended. Quite the contrary, - I believe that anyone seriously involved in the arts today has the responsibility of informing themselves of what the data really does say about the arts and education, and the development of the brain, and of self-regulation skills, and much more. The point of my statement however, is that it is no longer enough to stop there. Defending the arts by refuting false arguments may win a point or two, but it will never win the minds of those with misplaced academic or budget priorities that are based on bias, ignorance, or myopia. There needs to be an offensive strategy somewhere in the mix. The 'instrumental' argument would say that since most of the couple of dozen or so countries in the world that have better math and science scores than the United States, also have vibrant arts programs, maybe there's something there to be learned there - not ignored.    Maybe instead of depriving our children by cutting arts programs from schools, perhaps using the arts in creative ways - like in those other countries - are what we need to do to enhance learning, spark creativity, develop self-regulatory skills and increase math and science scores as so much of the research shows is the case.  Those who take the 'intrinsic value' position might say that whether or not the arts increase academic performance or not isn't the question. Since People only see what they want to see,  these people will never be convinced by facts. (Wasn't it Mark Twain that said "don't confuse me with facts' ?)  We should be teaching the arts for arts sake, because the arts are of great value in and of themselves. We cannot allow ourselves to deprive our children or our culture of basic human forms of expression.

I guess that what I'm saying is that now I am seeing the 'instrumental position' as a defensive posturing, and the 'intrinsic value' position is more like an offense. If we are to succeed in providing and promoting the power of the arts in education, don't we need both? Let me give you some references so that you can explore the debate more fully and decide for yourselves. One very good reference for arts activists to find a wealth of information on is the Art channel of the Educational Cyber-Playground   Interestingly enough, their current focus topic is "The Rational for Arts Education: Arts for Arts Sake Vs. the Instrumental Arguments used for Arts Advocacy" How is that for timely.

More insights into the debate can be heard from two very outspoken and knowledgable individuals on this topic: Ellen Winner, and Lois Hetland, two researchers for the Harvard Educational Research group, 'Project Zero'  , which is also a very good resource for arts activists. Here is an article from the Boston Globe, and one from the New York Times capsulizing their thought.

If you want a fascinating and informative discussion, try Daniel Levitins book - This is your brain on music, or watch excerpts from his several interviews available through McGill University.

The Power of Music to Affect the Brain is another important work that was reviewed on NPR a couple of months ago.

Why Arts Education Must be saved. is another resource, from the Edutopia people.

More links for 'Arts Activists' can be found on the sidebar, and at Joyfulnote Too .

Til next time
Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

*I don't mean that those classes are easy for the poor arts teacher who have to try to teach under these circumstances. Many of them do an exquisite job. What I do mean, is that 'arts appreciation' classes can never substitute for articulated, sequential arts instruction.

Tomorrow is Arts Day

2011-10-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

As you may be aware, October has traditionally been designated as National Arts and Humanities Month.
The initiative is designed to bring attention to American artistic efforts and encourage participation in the arts and humanities. Here are a few excerpts from President Obama's proclamation this year.

"providing our children with an education that inspires as it informs. Exposing our students to disciplines in music, dance, drama, design, writing, and fine art is an important part of that mission. To promote arts education and pay tribute to America's vibrant culture.....By supporting the fields that feed our imagination, strengthen our children's education, and contribute to our economy, our country will remain a center of creativity and innovation, and our society will stand as one where dreams can be realized. As we reflect on the contributions of America's artists, we look forward to hearing their tales still untold, their perspectives still unexplored, and their songs still unwritten. May they continue to shed light on trials and triumphs of the human spirit, and may their work help ensure that our children's horizons are ever brighter." The entire text of the proclamation may be found here.

I couldn't agree more.

In his news-conference release of this proclamation, President Obama had this to say:

..."We must recognize the contributions of the arts and humanities not only by supporting the artists of today, but also by giving opportunities to the creative thinkers of tomorrow. Educators across our country are opening young minds, fostering innovation, and developing imaginations through arts education. Through their work, they are empowering our Nation's students with the ability to meet the challenges of a global marketplace. It is a well-rounded education for our children that will fuel our efforts to lead in a new economy where critical and creative thinking will be the keys to success." The entire address may be found here

In California, Tomorrow, Oct, 7 has been designated as California Arts Day, and there art various activities going on around the state. In case you haven't made your plans, here are a few ways to get involved.

Here is the Arts Day website of the California Arts Council, - with ideas and
suggestions to include in your day.
Here are some of the events that are scheduled state-wide
In Santa Barbara, events will take place at the Arts and Cultural Center
Check out the Americans For The Arts Website for ways to get involved

Or you can visit some great websites"

The California Alliance for Arts Education -
(see also - Start a conversation)

The New York State Alliance for the Art

The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education
Become an advocate for the arts at California Arts Advocates
Arts for All
Arts for L.A.
Art IS Education
Arts Education Resource Organization
San Francisco Arts Ed

Visit any of the Arts Ed sites on the sidebar
Add your own, - send me a link

How about reading a short article on "Music Education and Brain Development" .... from the newly formed 'Music Empowers Foundation"

>Visit an art museum, (try the Google Art Project if you can't leave home)
>Go to a concert, (youtube-ok to sample, but nothing compared to live music)
>Attend a play, or a melodrama
>Listen to a public reading of poetry, (different that reading it - nice)
>Write some music, (check out 'Noteflight' for free online music writing software
>Paint a picture, (Check out 'Artrage' or 'Sketchbook Express'
>Attend Cultural arts events in your own community
>Check out what your local schools are doing to support the day
>Attend a dance performance
>Go to a Renaissance Faire or a 'Fiddlers Convention'

Find some way, to express yourself in a creative way and celebrate the arts.

Til next time,
Ron Zell

Guide to posts

2011-10-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, my morning coffee was accompanied by some of the best news I've heard in years regarding education and the arts. President Obama announced he is waiving many of the absurd requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. It is long overdue, and welcome news
and validates many of the things in this blog. Institutional education is failing, and has been for quite some time. Recognizing that fact has been the problem. Many are telling us that we have cheated an entire generation out of a quality education. Unfortunately, revising, or revamping NCLB will not come quickly or easily. I actually will wait to comment on what I think the NCLB changes will bring until I see some of the policies and changes that come out of it. I / we can only hope that this will help to get our de-railed educational system back on the tracks.

In the last several weeks, I've been talking about several aspects of my teaching in the classrooms of public schools around Santa Barbara County, California. One of the things that I have not done is pander to the question ' Why Music?, or why is music important. There is an obvious reason for that. I am not writing this blog for people who need to be convinced of the value of music or the arts in education. This blog, or let me say it plainer than that, I will never again be put in the position of being on the defensive about music and the arts in education again. I am writing this blog for people who already know the value of the arts in education. For people who want to put the benefits of the arts into practice for their own children and for their neighbors children. This is not a blog for arts advocates if what is meant by that is waiting to respond to attacks on arts education. - I spent years being that type of arts advocate, 'defending' the arts in every way that I knew how at the local, county, and state level, and it cost me my career. As a defensive arts advocate, I watched helplessly as my school district dismantled in a single vote, the state-recognized, model music education program it had taken me years to build. This weblog is a place for arts activists. For people who are pro-active - or who want to be - about arts education for all children, and who want to do something about it. Having said that I want to applaud the heroic efforts and activism of parents and leaders of movements in communities that tenaciously fought against the odds, and preserved their arts programs in the schools. They are to be thanked, and appreciated. As may be deduced, I'm not very optimistic that public schools will be an adequate resource for the arts in education anytime soon. The system is so broken, and has been for so long that it will take years to recover, if thats even possible, and if there are people making decisions, who are so inclined to do so, and that is seriously in question. I can tell you that building, or rebuilding an excellent arts program will take years. The fallout and damage control from what we've just done to education will be a long time coming - at least in the public schools who have dropped their arts programs.

Having just explained a little of the purpose for this blog, let me explain a little more of how to stay apprised of what else is going on. I decided a month or so ago, that I needed to focus several dimensions into one place. That is why 2 days ago, I created a page on faceboook to act as kind of a control center, or launching pad for different activities. Starting today, I will be posting everything that I do on Eduarts4us, Teachers Corner, Joyfulnote.com, Joyfulnote Too, and Youtube on the Facebook page so that everything will be available in a central location. Of course it will still be possible to get to each site individually, but the Facebook page will be the umbrella. Here is a brief overview of the themes of each online location:

Eduarts4us - As explained above, a place to provide, promote, and preserve the power of the arts in education. Eduarts is a blog for arts activism, points of view, opinions, assessments of promising aspects of arts education, and research regarding the benefits of the arts.

Teachers Corner - a place for those who are involved in music education to share experiences and best practices. The focus is on Excellence in Music Education. In the past I have shared the basics of an early elementary music program. Right now, I am making available my insights from group piano classes. The next focus will be on the band program. As some of you may know, I was extensively involved with children's choirs in the past, even being the Guest Conductor at one of the Choral Conductor's Guild Childrens Choir Festivals in Los Angeles. I'll be sharing some reflections from those experiences.

Joyfulnote Too - I recognize that many of you by necessity are in positions that demand resources to educate, edify, and defend the importance of the arts in your own circles of education. I will use this page to post resources, and links that are useful for this purpose. (Give me a little time on this one, I haven't kept it up lately.)

Joyfulnote.com - This is the home for the piano method that I have developed and am marketing based on my success with group piano lessons in the classroom. Right now, Book 1 is a beginning piano book (which can be downloaded to an iPad) and I am releasing Educational materials to support that book daily. (See below) By the first of next month, I hope to have Book 2 available, with more materials and 'Apps' coming soon.

Youtube - For now anyway, this is where I'll be releasing the instructional videos that I am creating like the one below.

Call to action. - I encourage you to become a follower of the Facebook page ('like' it in Facebook parlance, or subscribe) if you want an overview of all of this, or follow whichever of the individual sections that best meets your needs.

Thanks for your time, Have a great day
Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joyfulnote/249614165082594

What does sound look like

2011-09-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

There is a science, - or perhaps it would be better called a field of inquiry that is known as 'cymatics'. Cymatics is the study of visible sound waves and vibration. If you've followed my blog for awhile, one of my first posts as I was working out all of the mechanics of getting a blog started, was about Cymatics and a gentleman named Evan Grant, who is making sound visible through different mediums.

The brain is a pattern-seeking device, and in other blogs, I've talked about that at length. Neuroscientists tell us about the pattern seeking propensity of the brain, and the work of researchers in the realm of 'Cymatics' has given some interesting possibilities for the connections between sound and symmetry. Patterns and symmetry are at the heart of art, and architecture, and music throughout history. Dr. Gordon Shaw taught us the significance of musical patterns and brain-waves. In his book 'Keeping Mozart in Mind" Dr. Shaw, discusses his work with music and the brain, and the amazing ability of the brain to seek and recognize patterns and symmetry. His work led him to the music of Mozart, and the parallel patterns of brain waves, and musical symmetry. I have no doubt that mathematical relationships are the common denominator for all of this. Even today when art forms consciously seek to avoid typical patterns, that is in itself an acknowledgment that patterns are basic to our human make-up.

My interest in cymatics is as a result of observation, and necessity. The necessity was that of getting the attention of hundreds of students each day, in 7 separate class periods, and focusing them on our reason for being together - that of learning music. After years of polishing the various aspects of my craft, I came to the conclusion - through observation and an awful lot of experience, that the first few minutes of each class were absolutely critical with regards to the success of any class. No matter how I prepared for a class, the classes that got off to a good start accomplished more, made better use of the time available, and were much more satisfying and productive than classes that began disruptively, or in sullen silence with zero interest level. I tried a number of focusing techniques - but the one that worked far better for me than any of the rest was that of utilizing my computer, the iTunes visualizer, and a projector. My technique was to have music specially chosen for each class playing as that class came in. In concert with the music, was the iTunes visualizer which took various aspects of the music, and turned them into patterns which I then played for the students on the sound system and the overhead projector accompanied . Admittedly, this is not very precise, and only an approximation of cymatics, but the visualizer makes at least some of the the symmetry of sound visible through a matrix of volume and frequency data taken from the music being played.

The video above is an example of this. In this video, I've used a piece that I wrote for the advanced band at one of the schools that I taught at, but for my music classes I would play specific pieces that went with their lesson for the day. For the lower grades, It would often be tracks from Conversational Solfege. In the upper grades, it would be music from the "Composer of the Month' that we would be studying, and in the middle grades, it was Music of the Masters. This visual and aural barrage of sensory information as the students entered my room immersed them in music class immediately. Students didn't have a chance to focus on anything but music class. There were too many interesting things going on in Mr. Zells class to waste time. That really was the mind-set of the students. The visualizer music was always around 3 minutes long, so very little class time was ever taken for the process, but the benefit was enormous in that all of the students would be focused, and ready to learn at the end of that time. In the piano classes, which I am discussing in my Teachers Corner blog, the visualizer/music was followed immediately by the video flashcards. This back-to-back sequencing of material in a fast-paced manner kept the attention of the students, and carried that focus from the "music video" as they called it, to the lesson material without any loss of time, or focus.

What were the students thinking when they were watching and listening to the visualizer / music. That was absolutely clear. Their imaginations were stimulated. Comments from the students were always about ' that looks like .....', or that reminds me of....., or that makes me feel...... Dr. Victoria Stevens has a great deal to say about the importance of giving students an opportunity to exercise their imaginations. I don't know the neuroscience of it all, I just think that the visualizer is a rough approximation of whats happening in 'cymatics' and - oh, by the way. - during all of this time, the classes were immersed in - music - imagine that!

Til next time

Ron Zell

RZ's EZ Piano Method

2011-09-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

The first of 25 instructional videos to accompany RZ's EZ Piano Method went online last evening.
The videos augment the method I developed and used in the upper elementary piano lessons that I have been discussing in depth in my 'Teachers Corner' blog. The method itself is designed as an ebook, to be downloaded and used from any computer, or by printing it, (preferably on card-stock) and having it spiral bound along the top border so that it stands upright on the piano for students to use.

In keeping with the philosophy that I have been advocating in this blog and in my teachers blog, the method is also downloadable to an iPad, where it can be opened in the iBook application, and the iPad can be used at the students keyboard. Combined with the instructional video's, which can also be viewed on the iPad, the method is designed to be an alternate to beginning piano lessons for students. The method will work best with younger students if there is adult involvement, and it obviously works well in the group piano setting that I have been describing in detail in my 'Teachers Corner'.

RZ's EZ Piano method is designed to move the student naturally form 'sound' to 'symbol'. In other words, in this first book, the songs used are familiar songs that encourage the student to 'use what they know to help them to grow. A 'song bank' where Sound files for all the songs are available may be accessed at joyfulnote.com and every song in the book may be downloaded, or listened to online. The instructional videos which accompany the course will be released over the next few weeks. Supplemental video reference materials and resources such as 'Flashcards, the Movie' will also be released periodically.

Price: $9.99 - download as an ebook, or to your iPad

Take Action

2011-09-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here is an opportunity for you to do something positive to stop the hemorrhaging arts programs in our state.
Below is today's announcement from the California Alliance for Arts Education, and a link where you can post your support of the arts on these two bills. - Don't Wait, - contact the governor now. Ashleigh Brilliant once said it well in one of his cartoons. - Will the silent majority continue to vote by maintaining their customary silence. Your failure to act (silence) contributes to more reductions in Arts Programs in California. - Don't be part of the problem by sitting there, Get involved. Write the Governor - Now -

Ron

Stand Up for Arts Education!

Tell Governor Brown to Stand Up for Arts Education
Right now there are two bills on the Governor's desk that could impact creativity in California schools.
Oppose AB 1330: This bill will decrease the number of students who receive the benefits of visual and performing arts by changing California high school graduation requirements.
Support SB 547: This bill will encourage creativity and innovation in schools by broadening measures of student and school performance beyond test taking.
Take Action: Read more and send a message to the Governor today. He may take action on these bills as soon as this week!

Creativity and the Arts in Education

2011-09-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

One of the people that I have had the privilege of working with over the last few years is Dr. Victoria Stevens. Dr. Stevens research specialty is the study of the development and inhibition of creativity in children and adults, with an emphasis on the relationship between creative thinking, interpersonal neurobiology, emotional development and cognitive process. I have referred to her work in previous blogs (

Drama In The Classroom

Play is the work of children.

and her website is listed on the sidebar of this blog.

I took notes at one of Dr. Stevens lectures, and as a way of reintroducing you to her, I am sharing these notes to give you an opportunity to look at her insights and research into the importance of creativity and the Arts in Education.

Dr.   Victoria Stevens - Imagination, Creativity, Empathy and Meta-cognition: The Arts and Higher-Order Thinking Skills K-12. Skills Necessary for Success in the 21st Century

     Victoria Stevens, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and educator who works both nationally and internationally. Her research specialty is the study of the development and inhibition of creativity in children and adults, with an emphasis on the relationship between creative thinking, neurobiology, emotional development and cognitive processes. She has taught pre-K-12th grade in public and private schools in Los Angeles County and has integrated her experience as a professional cellist, singer, actress and dancer with her expertise in psychology and pedagogical theory to develop innovative art education curricula, teacher training programs and training's for mentors who work with foster children. Dr. Stevens is the principal investigator on a recently completed study for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles on the relationship between exposure and training in contemporary visual art and creative thinking and meta-cognition in elementary school students. She is a faculty member at: California Institute of the Arts, School of Critical Studies and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute for Infant and Child Development. She also is on the Board of Directors of the California Alliance for Art Education.

     Dr. Stevens talked about the most current research on the brain, and how it is reshaping our understanding of learning. Research in neuroscience suggests that the arts have a significant impact on students' cognitive, social, and emotional development. Recent developments in neuroimaging technologies have added an important dimension to our knowledge, by allowing scientists to observe how various processing systems in the brain collaborate. Not only do the arts have inherent value, but these new technologies demonstrate a significant link between artistic and cognitive development.

     Dr. Stevens stressed the significance of right-brain development on left-brain learning, and how the relationship between the two hemispheres is much more complex than was previously thought. Dr. Stevens talked about how a former emphasis on gray matter has shifted, and it is now "white matter" that has become the focus of attention. This "white matter" refers to the connectivity between all of the brain, the myelin sheathing of nerve endings that speeds the communication between brain cells. This white matter, which predominates in the "corpus callosum", (the part of the brain that connects the two hemispheres) enables more rapid communication between the two hemispheres of the brain.

     Dr. Stevens talked about emotional intelligence, and how feelings can unlock or inhibit creative capacities in all of us. She described how effective arts technique's can be powerful ways of unlocking those creative capacities and of engaging the whole person. Victoria listed some of the results that lack of emotional intelligence and creative thinking have on students:

    1. Lack of adaptability to change can result in rigidity, lack of ability to learn from experience, and the lack of ability to adjust one's skills and thinking to new developments.
    2. Lack of empathy can lead to anything from insensitivity to cruelty, prejudice and racism. This results in a variety of problems from poor to bad parenting, and interpersonal relationship problems
    3. Lack of tolerance for frustration and delayed gratification, as well as lack of impulse control can lead to anxiety, stress, addictions, difficulty mastering concepts and skills in school, and at worst - violence.
    4. Lack of connection with emotions or "emotional illiteracy" can lead to school drop-outs, delinquency, crime or violence on one extreme, and stagnation, mechanistic repetition and apathy on the other.

     Dr. Stevens work with student criminal populations has led her to the understanding that the way to effect permanent change in these children who have suffered child abuse, abandonment, and neglect, is through the arts. She bases this understanding on the fact that the right brain is the part of the brain that is most malleable and open to change. It, and the limbic system - the emotional part of the brain, are also the parts of the brain that stimulate learning. By involvement in the arts, Dr. Stevens states that students can develop: the capacity for mental and emotional play, the ability to make connections between ideas, feelings or events, metaphoric and analogical thinking, and the ability to give form to feelings through symbolic representations. Participation in the arts also helps students develop imagination, a sense of self and world, empathy, the capacity for emotional attunement to other's emotional states, and emotional self-regulation. Arts training also develops the capacity for toleration of frustration and ambiguity, impulse control, taking risks and learning from "mistakes", letting go of an initial way of thinking to explore new possibilities, seeing similarities and differences in the same object, seeing whole and parts, transferring understanding of basic concepts from one form to another, finding, making, and recognizing patterns.

     Dr. Stevens discussed the skills that will be needed to succeed in the 21st century. She referenced the work of Daniel Pink and others to say that we need to augment our analytical skills with right-brained skills to help today's youth become employable in the emerging workforce. [Daniel Pinks Book "A Whole New Mind" and his web-site is found at: http://www.danpink.com/wnm.html a podcast of Daniel discussing his book may be found at:      http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/06/dan_pink_on_how.html

     Dr. Stevens is an astonishing speaker, having in-depth knowledge of so many fields of inquiry, yet being able to bring them together into a unified whole. It is however, as a practicing educator that her skills are most valuable to us in education. How to bring together the vast amount of theoretical knowledge that is available into the classroom is her passion and her purpose for presenting at this forum. She is currently writing a book on the arts and higher-order thinking based on her current research.

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

iPads in Education

2011-09-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

One of the no-brainers in education these days seems to me to be the iPad.
I don't know how many times when teaching, that I commented on, and was concerned with the weight of the back--packs that the students were carrying all of their books, papers, etc to and from home, and class in. Not only is the problem of weight eliminated, but the convenience, accessibility, portability and much more seem to make it obvious that an iPad is a part of tomorrows education. Having said that, I notice that several book-publishers are suing some schools systems over using iPads in lieu of their textbooks. I don't know the details, and I suspect that much it involves copyright infringement, and contractual issues. The bigger issue however, I'm sure, involves the growing pains of the book industry, the computer industry, and of education. I also see that ebook publishers and authors are anguishing over the fact that most ebook formats can now be read on the iPad. The trend to the iPad as the educational alternative to textbooks is, I believe, inevitable. It is only a matter of how long that process will take that is in question. Apple has obviously embraced the concept as their new advertisement for the iPad shows
In yesterday's Associated Press news, this article appeared, outlining the trend toward iPads in schools <Many US schools adding iPads> I believe that hybrid education, and arts educators especially need to embrace this new technology, and become part of the leading edge of the wave into this new arena in education. Finding ways to utilize the iPad, and maximize its potential I believe will be an important part of making arts education accessible to children with their way-too-busy schedules in the very near future. I hope to be making some announcements very soon as to some of the ways that the iPad and hybrid instruction can be used in arts education, and I am sure that we are still only able to see the tip of the iceberg.

Till next time
RZ

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

Who Teaches Your Child

2011-08-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

As a father and public school teacher for many years, I've thought a lot about the question of who teaches children. It's not an easy question to answer.

Another way of looking at the question is 'whose responsibility is it if the child fails in school? Is it the teachers? Is it the parents? Is it the 'system' or 'society'? Here's some thoughts on the issue.

So there is considerable debate as to 'is it the teachers job or is it the parents job to educate the children'? The real answer of course is 'Yes', but have you ever thought about how much more is involved in that question? Is school or schooling the only, or even the major concern when it comes to raising your children. Which of the 'teachers' of your children really influences them the most.

As a young father, I was confident that I was up to the task of 'teaching' my own children well. I felt that what I said, did, and valued would be the best 'teacher' my children could have. I spent time reading to, playing with, and being there for my kids (not nearly as much as my wife however, whose giving of herself had no limits). I took full advantage of partnerships with family, schools, community groups, church groups etc, but ultimately, I always felt that it was my responsibility, - and privilege - to raise my children. As I grew older, I realized how optimistic my early confidence and neivete really was. Though I had taken the responsibility to feed, clothe, and provide a secure and healthy environment for my children as seriously as anyone I knew, I never really accounted for how strong a factor so many other influences would be in the lives of my children. It was when my children were grown, that we could really talk about these influences, and how important they felt these factors were to their growing process. I jotted down a few of the influences that immediately came to mind. I'm sure you would have others, but here are a few.

How important a factor are these other elements. Here is a look at some of those other influences on our children, and what some experts have to say.

Effect of family on children - Domestic violence - Effect of friends - Children without friends - Sports -

And then their is this sobering article in a recent Huffington Post:

Anders Behring Breivik (The Norwegian Mass Murderor) Lists

Favorite Books, Music, Video Games

Food for thought

Ron Zell

Demise of a model arts program

2011-08-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

This week I am including a video of the presentation that I made in a workshop at the 2008 California Art in Education Conference in Burlingame, California. I'm presenting the video to give an overview of what one comprehensive music education program in public schools can, and did look like,
and what the institutional education system did with it. At the time, I was a big proponent of technology in education. Since this weblog is looking at what has happened in arts education, and what is happening now, I thought it would be appropriate to establish a baseline, - especially with a look toward the high tech and high touch approach that I believe is so important. (See also hybrid online learning.)

Till next time, Ron Zell
(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

More Hybrid Education

2011-08-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

In the last post, I put forth the idea of hybrid schools as a new paradigm for education that combines online technology with personal interaction with teachers and classmates. In the excellent example of the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, that is accomplished by having online instruction with teachers and material on a flexible bases, and regional centers, where students and teachers, especially in the arts, can get together, and perform or display their skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Today, I want to talk about another model for education that is getting rave reviews. It is presented on network news programs as the largest 'virtual school' in the world. It is the Khan Academy,

and it uses 'Youtube' videos in 10 minute instructional periods of time to present classes on all sorts of academic subjects. At present, their are 2,200 videos online, free of charge, and an audience of 43,000,000 viewers. The fact that it is a billed as a 'virtual school' is somewhat misleading, at least according to its originator Salman Khan. Mr. Khan sees one of the most effective ways of using his 'Khan Academy' material as a supplement to traditional schools, but in a kind of 'role reversal' way. In other words, as another type of 'hybrid' educational system. Starting with a 'pilot program' in Los Altos California, 5 classrooms in the traditional school replaced their math program with the Khan Academy program. Instead of being given homework to do each night, the students were assigned to watch the Khan videos, and participate in a tracking system that he has developed. The next day in class, teachers, who have access to the tracking information don't lecture, or present new material. Instead they interact with the students that need help - at whatever point in their development that the students need that help the most. The role of the teacher has, in other words, become personal, and specific to the students needs. The teacher / student relationship is more like a partnership than distant and removed. I've talked about this at length in a previous blog, and I encourage you to take a second look at it.

I've included a short video of Mr. Khans Academy as a sort of introduction. There are however dozens of videos online about the school, the individual, and the effectiveness of this new model for learning. I encourage you to take a look. Some are 5-6 minutes like the one below, but many are much longer. Mr. Khan became noticed by the public several years ago when Bill Gages mentioned that he and his kids enjoyed the instructional videos.

In the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of what I am working on, and presenting insights and techniques from this overview of hybrid learning that I have presented. The combination of high tech, and high touch that I have espoused for years has exciting possibilities to revolutionize public and private education more than ever. I think its potential to not only include the arts in general education, but to elevate the arts and the teaching of the arts is enormous.

Until next time

Ron Zell

Are Hybrids the wave of the future for schools as well as cars?

2011-08-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

BMW’s New Vision: 155-MPH Plug-In Hybrid

The model of a Cyber-Charter school such as I described last week is one interesting and obvious one way of addressing the changing demands of education today. One of the important aspects of learning however that is missing from that model is the element of personal contact with a teacher or even other students.
In the CAVA model, due to state law - it says in one of the promotional ads, there is no 'FaceTime' with the teacher or other students. I'm not sure how that works exactly, but it leaves a pretty substantial hole in the teaching process. 'Collaboration' is emphasized on a digital basis however, which is a help and another help is that it is a modified 'home-school' situation, with a requirement for parents to participate as 'teaching-coaches' in their child's education.

When it comes to home schooling, I have some very definite opinions as to its effectiveness that I have developed over many years of working with families and students My observation has been that home-schooling either works very well, or it doesn't work well at all and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of middle ground. It turns out that I'm not alone in my opinions which are supported by a recent article in the "Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science 43, no. 3 (July 2011): 195-202" on the effectiveness of homeschooling. Based on statistical evidence in matched situations, the researchers came to interesting conclusions on homeschooling that you may be interested in. You can read about the report here.

A better model for cyber-charter school education, at least as it reflects the art of effective teaching of the arts seems to be the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. The program may be better described as a hybrid online program, because it includes classroom and online components as well as considerable parental involvement. In other words, it is both High Tech, and High Touch. It also provides structure, which is a key element in successful homeschooling as pointed out in the Canadian study. while still providing a great deal of flexibility in scheduling and classes. Socialization: In addition to the very comprehensive online components, there are regional activities, field-trips, monthly meetings with classmates, and more. Rather than try and describe their program for you, I'll let you read about for yourselves it at the PALCS site. If anyone is familiar with the program, I encourage your comments on this site.

One of the features of the program that intrigues me is that the performing arts students have the flexibility to learn, practice, and study their skills at home, but yet are able to come together at specific times during the year to present concerts, dance and theatre performances and art exhibitions with their classmates, under the direction of the educators in the program. The page describing the performing arts part of PALCS is here, and a link to a page by one of the educators in the program is here. Remember that this is an approved public school that provides superior training in the arts. As Thomas West, the educator that I referenced above describes it, it is an 'experiment in excellence'. What a different approach than eliminating the arts, wasting money on failed systems, or being 'mired in mediocrity' as many of our public schools today. Kudos to PALCS, and Ill have more thoughts next time.

Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

Cyber-charter schools

2011-08-11T05:55:00.000-07:00

School?

Last week I talked about Cyber-schooling, and I tried to emphasize that there are some paradigms for using technology for education that are more effective than others.
In another blog I've talked about my experience in working with technology and with thousands of students over the years and how a combination of High Tech, and High Touch serves the student - and learning - best. Perhaps a good way of thinking about them is that technology is a powerful tool, teaching is a vitalizing art, and the proper mix of both of them has incredible potential to revolutionize what we learn, how we learn, and even how we think.

Again referring to last weeks blog, I talked about a model for teaching that combined direct instruction from multi-media sources, interaction with the teacher, and assessment tools. I also stated that the best model for instruction that I have used combined these areas with regular (weekly) teacher-student online sessions with Skype and personal contact regularly, but less frequently (i.e. every 6 weeks).

Now lets take a look at some of the models that are being used. What does a 'virtual school' for K-12 students look like. We don't have to look very far for one model that claims to be successful. I'm including a promotional video from the California Virtual Academy. CAVA has a complete and accredited curriculum for k-12 students and is taught by credentialed teachers from all around the state. This video was done last school-year, and their enrollment was 11,000 students. They are currently enrolling for this coming school-year. Each student is provided by the state with a computer, modem, course materials, and an internet hook-up. This is radically less cost than paying for brick and mortar schools with the unnecessary and overlapping expenses associated with them. The concept combines three of the alternative methods for institutional education that are popular - Home-school, Charter-schools, and virtual schooling. Scheduling is flexible, parents are enlisted as 'learning coaches, and the arts are included.

Cyber-lessons, Skype

2011-08-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

As I've said before in this blog, technology offers many powerful ways to enhance education. Cyber-school, Virtual Academy, online education, blended learning, distance learning, we're all familiar with the terms. Never before has so much information been available to so many individuals who are motivated to pursue it.

One of the things that I would like to look at today, is how the internet is helpful in teaching the arts. As most people nowadays, I have taken several 'online courses' to try to fit continued learning into a busy schedule. As I participated in these classes, most were of the 'chat-room' format. Students were given material to learn in a 'direct instruction' format, meaning that we had to read, watch, or listen to a body of information on the internet, and in some cases, in conjunction with a textbook. There was then an interactive component where students worked with, and manipulated that new information in some way to demonstrate understanding (basically - online homework). This was followed by an online test, or quiz to test comprehension, and a 'chat' session with the instructor and the online members of the class to discuss the weekly material - including the quiz, or to preview upcoming material. In these classes that I have taken, there was also a weekly one-on-one 'chat' session with the instructor, to answer personal questions, and to provide as much of a 'personal' touch as possible.

This is one of the models of online learning that has been, and is being used today. As I've discussed in another post, (High Tech, and High Touch), there are a great many aspects of learning that technology addresses quite well, but learning how to use it effectively is a constantly changing situation. Again from my own experience, I have used the above type of teaching format in a 'mentoring' format to some degree of success. Not being totally satisfied with the process however, and being located geographically near the students that I was teaching, I combined the online contact with monthly personal sessions, where I could meet, and talk with the individuals in the program face-to face. To me, this was a much more satisfying method of teaching, since it combined the ease of the internet, with the direct contact and communication that allowed me to observe and assist the students in a personal way.

As I experimented with this format however, I ultimately modified the online component to one that was more to my liking, and I believe much more effective in the teaching of the arts. Having used video-conferencing, or teleconferencing in my work with the arts in the State of California, I was familiar and satisfied with that format for conducting long-range meetings. Partly because of that, I moved away from the 'chat' component of the online sessions, and began using 'Skype' for the weekly contact sessions with the students. Most of the students already were using Skype, and for those who were not, it was an easy installation and transition. Skype allowed a much greater degree of communication and observation to occur in what I was teaching than did the chat sessions, and while I don't feel that they replaced the personal sessions completely, they certainly were a significant step in that direction, and the video-chat sessions became a meaningful part of the teaching process that I was engaged in. The use of Skype also allowed the personal sessions to be spaced further apart.

One of the links that I provide on the sidebar is to that of a music educator named Thomas West. If you have followed his blog at all, you will note that he offers online music lessons anywhere in the country using Skype. He has done this for some time now, and though he has experimented with other formats, he has settled on Skype. Though I have not talked to Mr. West personally, he states that he is quite satisfied with the results that he is achieving. I am including his promotional video below which describes the process and give some details. I've not gone to this format yet for giving private lessons, but with some tweaking, I certainly might consider it at some time down the road. Cyber-lessons connects students with expert teachers in a one on one way that is not possible in institutional schools. It is cost-effective, time-efficient, and interactive. Besides providing an alternative to public schools, it provides an alternative to high-cost, private lessons. It is seemingly a remedy, or at least a part of a remedy for schools who have no solution for teaching the arts other to deprive our children of them, thus impoverishing our culture as a result. Next week I'll talk about more methods of alternative education that seem to me to show promise, both from an educational stand-point as well as a financial one.

Til then - Ron Zell

Time to change

2011-08-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

In another blog, I am writing a more-or-less detailed accounting of some of the lessons and practices that have proven effective in teaching music to the thousands of kindergarten through high school students that I have had in my career.
In that blog, I have so far concentrated on my use of music, movement, and play with the lower elementary grades. The reason for this is that to have an effective upper-grade music program like I did (see 'featured practice' video) requires that the students have early, extensive, and quality instruction in music for the same reason that they need to learn reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. It is so that basic abilities can be taken for granted, and built upon as the student gets older.

When I came to my last school, I chose to address the challenge of making the middle school 'advanced' band better by dramatically changing the approach to music education with the younger students. I did this because I know from previous experience that it takes 3 -5 years to make any kind of substantive change that would effect student learning in that amount of time. I did not lesson my efforts with the upper grades, I merely made changes to the pre-existing program in the upper grades much more gradually than in the younger grades so that the older students wouldn't be threatened by the new ideas, but would be able to integrate them with what they had been taught. It is worth noting that this 3-5 year (some would say 3-7 years) is necessary to effect any kind of major change in a learning environment. The loss of arts programs in so many schools nationally, means that even if the arts programs were re-introduced into those schools in the next few of years, it will take years to recover what has been lost.

I gradually introduced the use of technology into the band room, in ways that augmented the existing program. Toward the end of my career, I was noted for, and invited to speak on my innovative use of technology in the classroom especially as it related to the arts, but also as it related to the classroom in general. For anyone who has read my other blog however, up to this point (i.e. in the Teachers corner), I have not mentioned the use of technology. That is because I am a firm believer that technology should be used age-appropriately and as a tool of teaching, not a substitute for it. For younger children, who are at a different developmental stage than middle-school students, my experience has shown that they are much more in need of sensory-motor, socializing and adult-modeling input into their learning than they are in need of more whiz-bang gadgets. As evidence of that statement, I would submit that the results of the RITMMAP study, which compared an 8 week program of study utilizing only music, movement, and play, to that of an acclaimed computer reading intervention program that was utilized by non-mmp students at the same time. Reading scores of all students improved under both programs, but were decidedly more pronounced in the MMP portion of the study than in the computer-assisted Reading intervention program.

Back to technology and its use for education. While I believe that technology should be used thoughtfully and sparingly in lower grades, by the upper grades, I am convinced of its indispensability, and incorporated it as an integral part of all of my music classes. One of my earliest additions of technology to the upper music classroom was computers and educational software. I spent a summer going from workshop to workshop, and music conference to music conference, talking to experts about what software was appropriate and effective for teaching students music related information at that time. I found out, through their experience, that there was a great deal of software available, but much of it of limited educational value. By that I mean of course, that there were a good many well-intentioned, but absolutely user un-friendly programs that purported to 'teach' various aspects of music education. Those programs had no chance of survival in a classroom of active, intellegent, and media-savvy children that I knew of. They would be bored to death in no-time, and simply not use it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there were a great many edu-tainment programs, that had all the eye-popping graffics, sounds, and actions to keep the kids interested, but the amount and the quality of the teaching that actually transpired was pretty minimal. There were however, some very good programs and I utilized many of them, and listed a set of links on my school home-page of educational programs that I and other music teachers recommended. I have begun doing that again on the web-page 'Edu-links', and I will continue to add to that list as time goes on.

Of course a great deal has transpired in the 2 years since I was torn kicking and screaming from my classroom. For one thing, the arts have been taken out of innumerable schools, thousands of teachers have been laid off, classroom sizes have increased, and test scores continue to fall as more and more schools fail. In my next blog, I will discuss some of what I see as promising new methods for teaching in general, and for teaching the arts especially, that are being tried and show promise as alternatives to our dysfunctional institutionalized education system. See you then.
Ron Zell

Adult Modeling

2011-07-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

As a successful teacher for many years, I have observed that one of the elements that is a significant help in teaching children, but is often overlooked or missed, is the importance of role modeling. Not the role modeling of other students, though good student role models are certainly important, but the role model of another adult in the class,
modeling the role of an effective student or learner. As a band teacher for part of my teaching career, I have often had classes of up to 80 students in the same room, at the same time, - all holding noisemakers pointed at me. Effectively managing that kind of classroom situation is doable, but certainly challenging. At times, during my band-classes however, I have invited visitors to the band-room, not as observers (i.e. principals, teachers, or media), but as participants in the band-rehearsal. They would bring their own instrument, and sit in with the students, playing and learning the music together with them. These visitors have been friends, band-directors from other schools, former students, or community members with an interest and an aptitude in music. These times have always been helpful to the class.
   There is always a distinct difference in the attention of the students when an adult role-model such as this has been part of my band rehearsals. Students seem to be much more self-conscious of their own behavior and playing habits. The students watch the adult listen to my instructions, or follow my gestures, and respond by listening and following more effectively themselves. I've never instructed these visitors to do anything special, but as adults, they listen, respond and react much differently than a group of normal teenagers. Seeing another adult model appropriate behavior in this way has always had a positive ripple effect in my band rehearsals.
   In my teaching of younger children, I have frequently been able to have an aide assist me in the instruction time of those classes. In these cases, it was the role of the aide to model the desired learning characteristics that I wanted the students to exhibit. Often, if the aide, (or as came to be the case, parent, or classroom teachers) who were participating in the instruction, saw that something was unclear, or needed further instruction, they would ask appropriate questions from a students standpoint to rectify the situation. This adult modeling has always been an important part of the effective student learning in my classes, and one that as I mentioned, is often overlooked. I believe it is one of the missed opportunities for schools and educators to help students help themselves. We all understand that peer pressure is a significant factor in students behavior. It is also significant in their learning experience, and when all students are ever exposed to is other children, most of whom have not developed good learning qualities yet, the experience can often be detrimental. In classrooms where the student to adult (teacher) ratio is 30 to 1, (40 to 1 in some schools), is it any wonder that students "act so immature" (as teachers have often complained.) They are only modeling what they see. If their home situation is such that there is not a great deal of parental or adult support provided, the problem is magnified.

Ron Zell

(c) 2011 by Eduarts4us. All rights reserved.

Authentic Learning Experiences -

2011-07-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

The fact that institutional education in America is failing is not news. Most experts, including even Arnne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, would agree with that, although what to do about it is a matter of great debate. Mr. Duncan's solution is that since 82% of Americas schools will fail NCLB this next year, to issue a waiver, suspending the accountability of public schools under current law.
I've talked about Sir Ken Robinson's call to start over with a completely different set of paradigms. Experts from other quarters have alternate prescriptions for remedying the current educational system, some good, and some questionable, and some just plain bad. Some groups would rather fix blame than fix problems - which only exacerbates the problem. Whatever is done, it seems to me that the most promising solutions to our pubic school crises involves what I've called 'High tech and High touch', which includes 'authentic learning experiences'. Pennsylvania seems to be a fertile region for exploring new ideas in education, and I'll be talking about some more of them in the near future. In the following video clip however, Ms. Laufenberg, who is a teacher in Pennsylvania, presents an approach to learning that involves technology, and authentic learning experiences. That type of balance is part of what I mean when I talk about High tech and High touch, and it is what I believe will an be important part of the future of education.

The arts in education, What happened? What now? and What next?.

2011-07-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

Much of what is said by arts teachers and arts advocates is in defense of the arts and their importance to children, students, and education. I believe that the time to defend the arts in education is past.
Their value and record has been proven over and over again, and contemporary studies in neuroeducation and elsewhere prove its effectiveness. I think the time has come to turn the debate upside down (or more correctly, rightside up). A football team who only has a defensive strategy will never win any games. Neither will arts advocates. I believe it is time to turn advocacy into activism and have a pro-arts, offensive playbook.

What kind of lunacy is it to eliminate the arts in our schools when the countries in the world that lead us in student reading, math and science scores have arts as an integral part of their curriculums? What is the logic of increasing drill and kill 'core' classes to meet this challenge, when those are the very classes that are causing the mind-boggling dropout rate in our schools. How can anyone defend the importance of nationalized testing, when we find out what we always suspected, that focusing on the tests doesn't lead to a culture of learning, but rather to a culture of cheating. Atlanta is merely one among many as more and more districts are discovered to have replaced good schools and good teachers with a climate of fear. Remember last weeks blog where I talked about Secretary of Education Arnne Duncans' prediction that 82% of the schools in America will fail this coming year. When do we quit banging our head against the wall, expecting different results. Is Sir Ken Robinson is right when he calls for an entirely new paradigm in institutional education?

Anyone who suggests that the arts should be taken out of our schools needs to be voted out, or fired. There simply is no longer any justification for excluding the arts from education. The value of the arts in education has been proven again and again, and I've cited multiple examples in this blog, including the RITMMAP study. Socrates considered 3 of the necessary components of the education of a free and just society to be music, athletics, and play. The establishment leaders of his time sentenced Socrates to death for his views. 2500 years later, with all of the advances in culture and science and psychology and education and technology and neurology, not that much has changed. Athletics, the arts, and play in learning have been found to be constituent elements of a first class education (as evidenced by all of the countries who outscore America in those Reading, science and math tests). However, the established educational and political leaders of our day are still trying to sentence education to death by preserving archaic methods, imposing unrealistic standardized testing and taking funds designated for education away from teachers. As the slogan goes,

Link

Obviously we are also in a era of budget realignments. Philip Nel wrote an excellent commentary a few weeks ago on this aspect of education. In it, among other things, he calls for the "end of the War on Education" by balancing budgets on the backs of our children. He calls for fiscally responsible ways of dealing with the budget problems that are sapping funding from all education, putting a stop to our "race to the bottom" and again making education a priority. I recommend that you give it a look.

Untill next time
Ron Zell

High Tech and High Touch

2011-07-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

In the art of teaching, the challenge is to communicate information to the student in such a way that they receive, process, interiorize, apply and retain new knowledge. To do that the teacher has available to them the seven senses of learning

- Vision, auditory, touch, olfaction (smell), taste, vestibular (movement) and proprioception (position of body in space). The last two are often lumped together under the term 'kinesthetic'. I've talked about these and other aspects of learning theory in another blog entitled 'Paradigms for Powerful Pedagogy'.

One of my professors in college advised us that the classroom of the future would need to be high-tech, and high-touch to effectively meet the needs of future generations of students. I've never forgotten those words because as the technology age has rolled on, the balance between those two dimensions of learning is often difficult to maintain as educators and parents and school-board members have sometimes looked at technology as the 'enemy' of teaching, or sometimes as the 'panacea' for all of the problems of teaching. Neither of course is correct.

I am a great proponent of technology in the classroom. I have been asked to speak at various venues around California on my use of it in the classroom to assist, assess, and extend learning. Technology has always been a prominent part of my teaching, and with the 'cloud' becoming ever more pervasive, I suspect that exciting advances for education are imminent. I plan on discussing my thoughts on some of them in future blogs. The second part of my professors equation however, the element of 'high touch', is one that doesn't get addressed very much in general discussions about teaching. There is a physical aspect of touch that is important to learning, especially in the younger grades, i.e. holding hands in games, high fives, etc. I'm glad to see that there is research being done on it, and on the importance of physical activity to learning. It is interesting to see that touch (high fives, touching hands after each free-throw, etc, seems to be the characteristics of the most successful sports players and teams.)

By high-touch however, I understood my professor to mean that there is a personal and very human, one-on-one aspect to teaching that is highly important to each students success. That personal connection between a student and a teacher reinforces learning, rewards achievement, personalizes instruction, and inspires greater effort. This personal instruction can't be replicated or received from a computer screen. When adults are asked what they remember most or best about their school-years, it is almost always a particular teacher that stands out as someone that they admired, and who inspired them to achieve more than they previously thought possible. In other words, it is the personal qualities of a teacher that make the learning memorable.

In the sweeping advancements in computer-assisted-learning that have come about in the last decade, it is all too easy to overlook or minimize this personal 'touch' that only a teacher can provide. Maintaining that balance between 'high tech' and 'high touch' (personal contact with a teacher) however, is more important than ever for that learning to be maximized. In looking at new approaches to education that are not tied to the industrial model or to antiquated mis-understandings of intelligence, many people, including myself have been looking at what new contexts and overall ways of working might be appropriate? What approaches and strategies will effectively address the needs of students, and the requirements for a 21st century education system that includes the needs of the whole child? Being the arts activist that I now am, I am also talking about a system that includes the arts as an integral part of that educational system.

Some of the models for learning that are being tried with varying degrees of success are mastery learning, mixed-age classrooms, single-sex classrooms, online-learning, integrated instruction, home-schooling, charter schools, and combinations of all of the above. One of the most successful models that I have seen incorporates online learning with classroom learning, but radically changes the role of the teacher, and that of homework. In this model, which I will be discussing in future blogs, students receive direct instruction in the subject matter at home, during what previously was reserved for 'homework'. Then, the next day in the classrooms, the teacher helps students individually with their 'homework', or with the parts of the instruction that they did not understand or with problems they are having. In other words, the role of the teacher changes from impersonal disseminator of information at the front of the class, to coach, helper, assistant, and resource. Rather than being someone who is distant and aloof, the teacher becomes someone is who is sought out by the students because they are knowledgeable and available for personal (high-touch) guidance and suggestions. Much like a medical doctor, the teacher diagnoses difficulties the student is having, and finds solutions that enable the child to develop his abilities. Since 'mastery' of each subject is part of this learning model, grades are not a factor. Students progress only after they have demonstrated a mastery of each level of understanding. The more help they need in understanding the material to progress, the more they rely on the teacher to personalize instruction in such a way that they can achieve it.

R.Z.

- Arne Duncan "Boost Academic Achievement

2011-07-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

I'm certainly not the only one who reads and listens to our nations Secretary of Education, Arnne Duncan and sees a great disconnect between what he says, and what he sees as a solution to the problem.

None-the-less, at times, he talks a pretty good talk. For instance, below are some excerpts from a talk a year ago to the Arts Education Partnership. I encourage you to read the entire speech. Not only would I agree with his remarks, but I've made many of these statements already in this blog. The disconnect comes when you compare these statements with his conclusions, or his understanding of the causes of the problems. A tongue-in-cheek way of looking at it may be found in Aaron Pallas' comment in the Washington Post.

How bad is NCLB? Arnne's own assessment in May of this year is that 82% of the schools in America will possibly fail this year. Our educational system is not working. In addition to all the other ways that it is failing, it doesn't provide a content-rich, arts-rich education which he states is a vital part of an education, and needed desparately in our schools today. So what should we do about it? Well, remember that Sir Ken Robinson called for completely overhauling our mass-education system in a way that isn't based on an 1800's industrial model, with antiquated ideas of what it means to be intelligent, or educated. Mr. Duncans prescription however is to prescribe more NCLB, but with waivers rather than reform, hoping that if we ignore the problem long enough, it will go away. It won't.

Education Secretary - Arnne Duncan, - http://www2.ed.gov/news/speeches/2010/04/04092010.html

The Well-Rounded Curriculum
Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the Arts Education Partnership National Forum

FOR RELEASE:
April 9, 2010

"Now, I spent much of last year on a Listening and Learning Tour that took me to more than 35 states. And I heard quite a few stories. I spoke with thousands of students, parents, and teachers. And almost everywhere I went, I heard people express concern that the curriculum has narrowed, especially in schools that serve disproportionate numbers of disadvantaged students. There is no doubt that math, reading, writing, and science are vital core components of a good education in today's global economy. But so is the study of history, foreign languages, civics, and the arts. And it is precisely because a broad and deep grounding in the arts and humanities is so vital that we must be perpetually vigilant that public schools, from pre-K through twelfth grade, do not narrow the curriculum.

The case for a well-rounded curriculum begins with a disappointing reality: Many schools today are falling far short of providing an engaging, content-rich curriculum. Instead, students are often saddled with boring textbooks, dummied-down to the lowest common denominator. It is no wonder that much of today's curriculum fails to spark student curiosity or stimulate a love of learning. As Ernest Boyer pointed out years ago, "Many kids drop out of school because no one ever noticed that they dropped in."

Yet we know from research that access to a challenging high school curriculum has a greater impact on whether a student will earn a four-year college degree than his or her high school test scores, class rank, or grades. And we know that low-income students are less likely to have access to these accelerated learning opportunities and college-level coursework than their peers.

One impact of the content-lite curriculum is that many Americans are appallingly ignorant of our nation's origins.

You will perhaps not be surprised to hear that a recent public opinion survey by the American Revolution Center found that more than 80 percent of Americans know Michael Jackson sang "Beat It" and "Billie Jean." By contrast, a majority of Americans believe the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, or the War of 1812 occurred before the Declaration of Independence. Less than half of Americans today know that Valley Forge, the iconic site of George Washington's winter encampment with the Continental Army, is in Pennsylvania.

In the coming debate over ESEA reauthorization, I believe that arts education can help build the case for the importance of a well-rounded, content-rich curriculum in at least three ways.

First, the arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds that students will go on to graduate from college. Second, arts education is essential to stimulating the creativity and innovation that will prove critical to young Americans competing in a global economy. And last, but not least, the arts are valuable for their own sake, and they empower students to create and appreciate aesthetic works.

As the First Lady sums up, she and the president both believe "strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation's leaders for tomorrow."

It is not surprising that visual arts instruction improves reading readiness, or that learning to play the piano or to master musical notation helps students to master math. Reading, math, and writing require students to understand and use symbols--and so does assembling shapes and colors in a portrait or using musical notes to learn fractions.

Is it any surprise then to learn of the large impact that arts education has on student achievement and attainment, especially among disadvantaged students?

Low-income students who play in the orchestra or band are more than twice as likely to perform at the highest levels in math as peers who do not play music. In James Catterall's well-known longitudinal study, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art, low-income students at arts-rich high schools were more than twice as likely to earn a B.A. as low-income students at arts-poor high schools.

English language learners at arts-rich high schools were also far more likely than their peers at arts-poor high schools to go on to college..."