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Happy November from the Virginia Department of Education!
Creativity continues across the Commonwealth as arts educators and specialists continue to grapple with changing and challenging learning models due to the COVID-19 public health crisis. November brings a variety of opportunities to engage, grow, and connect with professional learning opportunities for Virginia's fine arts educators. In addition to outstanding upcoming fall professional development conference opportunities offered by the Virginia Music Educators Association and the Virginia Art Educators Association, you will find many opportunities below that are offered at no cost.
If you are a supervisor for Fine Arts education programs in your school division, please pass this information along to arts educators in your division.
We hope to see you this month as a professional learning event!
Sincerely,
KELLY BISOGNO | Fine Arts Coordinator
MICHELLE MILLIGAN | VDOE Music Specialist
November Webinars and Workshops offered by the Virginia Department of Education
There are many opportunities coming up in November for professional learning and connecting with creative colleagues from across the Commonwealth.
Registration is required and is limited to the first 500 registered participants. Click the date to register for the webinar. All webinars will be recorded and posted on the Fine Arts Instruction page of the Virginia Department of Education website.
Songwriting Workshop with Kid Pan Alley
Kid Pan Alley founder Paul Reisler and Education Director Cheryl Toth will present a 90-minute songwriting workshop for teachers that provides a hands-on look at using the creative process in the classroom. In a typical Kid Pan Alley school workshop, our professional teaching artists guide students to create an original song together, helping kids think and write creatively as they connect with history, culture, current events, and their own experiences.
During this professional development session, participants will experience the process by working collaboratively to write a chorus and verse for song—both lyric and melody. The experience will be expanded and reinforced through a discussion of the creative process and the techniques that can be used in the classroom regardless of subject matter. Past musical experience isn’t necessary. Educators of any discipline are invited and encouraged to attend.
Visual Thinking Strategies and the Elementary Music Classroom
Presenter: Shelley Greene
This session will use various cognitive routines (such as "See-Think-Wonder") to guide educators on how to lead classroom discussions of printed music which uses traditional and nontraditional notation, with young students. Concepts and strategies covered in this session will focus on fine arts Standards of Learning of the strand: Critical Thinking and Communication.
Overview of Creative Learning Processes with Kid Pan Alley
In this overview of creative learning processes, we will provide teachers with a variety of tools and strategies that they can implement within their classrooms. Our goal is to inspire teachers to incorporate a creative process into their teaching. We will do this by:
- recognizing teachers as creators;
- introducing fundamental concepts of songwriting, from lyrics to rhythm to melody;
- providing a group activity that invites teachers to collaboratively write and perform a section of lyric and melody;
- showing how this process can open creative pathways to learning, build children’s self-confidence, and promote teamwork, inclusion, and respect; and
- discussing how this process can be integrated into the classroom.
Sample lesson plans will be provided. Limited to 50 participants. Educators of any discipline are invited and encouraged to attend.
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Attention Virginia Dance and Theatre Educators:
Virginia Dance and Theatre Educator Resource Development Interest Meeting
Facilitator: Kelly Bisogno, VDOE Coordinator of Fine Arts
Learn about opportunities to share your unique experience and expertise with Virginia educators. Kelly Bisogno, VDOE Coordinator of Fine Arts, will share opportunities to be involved with developing standards-aligned resources for theatre, dance, and arts integration. Upcoming VDOE instructional resources development will emphasize culturally responsive and inclusive practices, effective instructional design, deeper learning, and the realization of the Profile of a Virginia Graduate. All Virginia dance and theatre educators are invited and encouraged to attend this interactive session. Click on the date to register.
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Navigating EdEquity
The Virginia Department of Education EdEquityVA initiative is offering ongoing professional learning opportunities, including a recorded webinar: "Navigating EdEquityVA: Implementing Virginia’s Equity Framework and Audit." This webinar in the #EdEquityVA Webinar Series provides information on Virginia's new Equity Audit Tool. The PowerPoint referenced during the webinar is available and the recording is now posted on the Virginia is for Learners website or on Youtube.
Virginia Folklife Program creates TRAIN: Teachers of Remote Arts Instruction Network
Created in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on the livelihoods of artists, TRAIN connects interested students of all skill levels with a diverse range of master musicians, craftspeople, and tradition bearers offering online instructional opportunities. Start your lessons today!
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Professional Learning Opportunity: Creative and Critical Thinking with Art
Virtual Virginia (VVA) and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) are pleased to announce a partnership to support Virginia public educators in the 2020–2021 academic year. VVA and the VMFA support high-quality online professional learning opportunities for educators across the Commonwealth and will offer this course at no cost.
Creative and Critical Thinking with Art: This course will use VMFA collections to explore creative and critical thinking across different content areas. During this course participants will explore how inquiry-based engagement with art objects might serve as a laboratory for honing the creative and critical thinking skills crucial to the discipline they teach.
Virginia public educators are encouraged to self-enroll in the course through the Virtual Virginia Professional Learning Portal. Each course participant will receive a certificate of completion for the course. The link to the course itself is: Creative and Critical Thinking with Art.
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Distance Learning Resources from WHRO Education
We’re happy to provide free resources to keep everyone learning.
Utilize these trusted resources to continue to provide meaningful learning experiences for students while distance learning. This page will be regularly updated as new resources become available.
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Online Teacher Workshops from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is offering online professional learning opportunities for teachers in the form. Register on the Teacher Workshops page of the VMFA website.
John Lewis and the Beloved Community
Group 1 - Tue, Nov 3 & Dec 1, 4:30–5:30 pm | Online
Group 2 - Thu, Nov 12 & Dec 3, 4:30–5:30 pm | Online
This Museum Teacher Minstitute, which is limited to 10 teachers, begins with a 60-minute ZOOM meeting in which participants explore works of art in the VMFA collection related to John Lewis, the Southern Civil Rights Movement, and the idea of the Beloved Community to which Lewis held fast throughout his life. After the initial session, small groups will have four weeks to use the resources developed for the minstitute as inspiration for authentic student projects. Twyla Kitts, VMFA Teacher Programs Educator, will be available for Zoom check-ins by appointment throughout the minstitute. Registration is required on a “pay if you can” basis. Payment options: $0; $3; $10
Art, Monuments, and Memorials Revisited
Thursday, December 10, 4:30–5:30 pm | Online
Join Celeste Fetta, VMFA Director of Education, for this What’s Going On? Webinar that considers the relationship of art, monuments, and memorials. Registration is required on a “pay if you can” basis. Payment options: $0; $3; $10
2020 Virtual Music Program Leaders Forum
The 2020 Music Program Leaders Forum will provide relevant professional development for music program leaders and district arts coordinators working in the K–12 school setting, aimed at establishing and growing networks of collegial support for those in the profession. The 2020 Forum will address:
- Leading during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Maneuvering Distance Learning
- Safety in the Face-to-Face Music Classroom
- Recruitment/Retention of Teachers
- Budgeting
- Leveraging Resources
- Systems and Structures for Professional Learning for Teachers
This event is for any music program leader, teacher leader, or aspiring leader. Detailed session information will be posted soon. Registration fee: $25 for NAfME members; $75 for nonmembers.
Great News!
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Governor’s School for the Arts adds professional teaching talent - The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk is exciting and engaging students in a virtual environment through virtual master classes with professional artists such as Grant Austin and Adrienne Warren. They have also announced Amanda Gates as the new department chair of the instrumental music department, and welcomed part-time instructors Will Liverman (vocal music), Chrystal E. Williams (vocal music), Christian Anderson (theater and film), Gabriel Lawrence (theater and film).
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Creative teachers are keeping the music alive in 2020 - Greene County music teachers, Nathan Whittaker, Matthew Gozzard, Lindsay Pace and Rachel Peters have found creative ways to keep music and arts classes alive with creative solutions to engage students.
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Glade Hill Student Draws Her Community - Miranda Banks, art teacher at Glade Hill Elementary School in Franklin County Public Schools, assigned students a simple task: draw something positive. One student’s drawing of a food service manager demonstrating the positive impact the employee had on her life, received very positive attention on social media. “I think her drawing reminded people that we are all in this together, no matter where we are.”
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Piedmont Arts and Southwest Virginia Ballet Bring Dance Espanol to Area Schools - Students in fourth grade at Henry County Public Schools will participate in Dance Español with Piedmont Arts and Southwest Virginia Ballet. Pedro Szalay, artistic director of Southwest Virginia Ballet, will lead a virtual lesson that weaves together Spanish language, basic movement, music appreciation, pattern memorization, and awareness of mind, body and space.
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Mural on Poplar Avenue creates safer pedestrian crosswalk - Bridget Roberts, art teacher at Waynesboro High School in Waynesboro Public Schools, led her advanced art students through a project to create a design for a mural crosswalk. The top five designs were shared on Facebook and the community was invited to vote for the design to be painted on Poplar Avenue. The mural was made possible by a grant from the Virginia Department of Health.
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Local high school marching bands get the opportunity to perform their showcases & ‘Awesome’ As High School Bands Get to Perform Again - Marching Bands from Broadway, East Rockingham, Spotswood and Turner Ashby High Schools in Rockingham County Public Schools participated in a marching band showcase. Band Directors Brandon Alford, Becky Ford, Sean Macomber, and Rob Nash, are focused on community over competition, and were excited to “...give the students some sense of normalcy in this time.”
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Art teacher celebrates Halloween with epic transformations for students & Loudoun art teacher gets into Halloween spirit with famous painting-inspired costumes - Jennifer Baxter, art teacher at Eagle Ridge Middle School in Loudoun County Public Schools, has combined her loves of the Halloween season and historic paintings to create detailed costumes embodying famous portraits. “Doing creative things like this, outside the box, is kind of my way of just finding another way to connect.”In Baxter’s words, one of the major benefits to her hard creative work is to “reinforce learning” for her students, sowing the seeds for kids to recognize and appreciate famous artworks when they reencounter them later in life.
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Nandua Middle School Teacher is Virginia Art Educator of the Year - Congratulations to Sarah Clark, art teacher at Nandua Middle School from Accomack County Public Schools, who has been recognized as Virginia Art Education Association teacher of the year.
Do you have great news about Virginia Fine Arts education? Send links and information to kelly.bisogno@doe.virginia.gov
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Contact
Kelly Bisogno, Coordinator of Fine Arts Virginia Department of Education kelly.bisogno@doe.virginia.gov (o) 804-225-2881 (fax) 804-786-1597 P.O. Box 2120 Richmond, VA 23218-2120
Michelle Milligan, Music Specialist Virginia Department of Education michelle.milligan@doe.virginia.gov (o) 804-371-4919 (fax) 804-786-1597 P.O. Box 2120 Richmond, VA 23218-2120
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