Team teaching art and math works!

We are motivated by the excitement of new ideas for presenting our subjects to the students, are eager to experiment and have infectious enthusiasm.

We are interested in having the students discover how integral math is for an artist and how a mathematician benefits from creative thinking abilities with 2D and 3D design vocabulary and concepts.

Math and art share many core features focused on thinking and problem-solving. Students become better at math through visual investigations.

Students and teachers alike benefit with two instructors in the room. We (Dona and Sarah) are better able to address the needs of students at all levels and increase their participation. It personalizes the learning experience and students witness us learning from each other.

Students experience the myriad of connections between the art and math disciplines while doing creative movement, making Venn Diagrams, using math manipulatives and participating in art projects.

The Math Gates installation at Mount Vernon Elementary School.

Algebra and Art were the focus for our three-week interactive hallway installation, called The Math Gates.

Sarah had been reading about the importance of introducing algebraic thinking in the early grades, inspired by Robert Moses, who started The Algebra Project. Dona was inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 art installation of The Gates in New York City’s Central Park.

When we combined our ideas, students learned to temporarily transform an environment through art installation.

With the help of the janitor, Craig Dunn, and the district volunteer coordinator, Nancy Mormon, the front hall became a learning lab for algebraic equations K-5. Cloth flags with dots (K), whole numbers (1-4) and fractions (5) were hung four across to demonstrate a variety of equations of increasing difficulty.

The book “Object Lessons: Teaching Math Through the Visual Arts K-5″ by math educator Caren Holtzman and art teacher Lynn Susholtz has been a fantastic resource this year and the source for all of our collaborations.

Next year, we plan to do a project based on the Fibonacci sequence, which will include a field trip to an art show on this theme at The Emery Community Arts Center in Farmington.

A sampling of student comments about The Math Gates:

• “You are able to do both tasks at the same time. Math and Art are my favorite subjects, so it is double the fun.”
• “ Sometimes you do art and sometimes you do math, so it evens out in the end.”
• “Installation is a lot different because you have never heard of it; you need to know both subjects because they come in useful.”
• “We don’t have other subjects combined.”

Resources and more information

• Sarah Caban, District Math Coach
  Regional School Unit 38
  207-685-3128 ext. 1107
  sarah_caban@maranacook.org
• Argy Nestor, Visual and Performing Arts Specialist
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6825
  argy.nestor@maine.gov
• Art, math combine in project, Kennebec Journal, April 8, 2012
• Visual & Performing Arts at the Maine DOE
• Mathematics Education at the Maine DOE

Educators and others now have a chance to review the draft standards. They can offer their feedback through an online survey until June 1.

Anita Bernhardt, the Maine Department of Education’s science and technology specialist, has additional details about reviewing the standards and offering feedback on her blog.

• Read about the release of the draft standards

Maine is one of 26 states taking the lead in developing the Next Generation Science Standards, a new set of shared academic standards that will define the science concepts and content students will need to learn to be successful in the workforce, economy and society of the coming decades.

Resources and more information

• Anita Bernhardt, Science and Technology Specialist
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6835
  anita.bernhardt@maine.gov
  On Twitter: @mdoeSTEM
• Next Generation Science Standards at Maine DOE
• Anita Bernhardt’s SciTech Framework Blog

Pemetic Elementary School student Devin Parlatore discusses his group’s public policy project at the Project Citizen Showcase. Devin and his classmates proposed a set of amendments to their school’s wellness policy focused on ending the practice of withholding recess and physical activity time from students as a punishment.

Seventeen student teams from Blue Hill, Sabattus, Calais, Mount Desert Island, Portland and Windham participated in Project Citizen, an event sponsored by the non-profit KIDS Consortium that emphasizes service-learning.

The student teams researched locally relevant issues — obesity among classmates, animal hoarding and clean energy — and devised solutions. Many are now trying to get local government bodies to support them.

“It was really fun,” Maddie Dodge, a Blue Hill Consolidated School eighth grader, said of her service-learning experience.

Maddie and three classmates decided they would focus on preventing obesity at their school. They spent two months researching the issue and devising solutions. Next month, the students will attend a school board meeting and recommend that Blue Hill students spend more time in physical education classes.

The students said they learned a lot from choosing an issue of their own, digging into it and figuring out how best to work with classmates.

They also enjoyed the departure from the typical lesson-learning and test-taking.

“We’d learn it, then we didn’t have to take a test on it,” said Allyson Snow.

Project Citizen participants also heard from Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen. The political process, he said, is all about identifying a problem, researching it, arriving at a solution and building support for it.

“That’s exactly what goes on in this building,” he said. “You as a legislator do precisely what all of you just did.”

Resources and more information

• Fran Rudoff, Executive Director
  KIDS Consortium
  207-620-8272
  frudoff@kidsconsortium.org
• KIDS Consortium
• Information about Project Citizen
• Commission releases service-learning guide for Maine schools, April 25, 2012
• STEM service-learning guide released, May 8, 2012
• Photos from Project Citizen

The 2012 School Nurse Summer Institute: A Kaleidoscope of School Nurse Practice takes place at Bates College in Lewiston from July 24-26.

Among numerous other offerings, the institute will provide critical computer-based trainings and allow school nurses a chance to familiarize themselves with the online social networking tools commonly used by students. The institute will feature keynote addresses by breast cancer survivor Mary Ann Nilon and Maine State Epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears.

The institute is sponsored by the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Association of School Nurses.

The institute agenda and registration are available online.

For more information, contact Nancy Dube by email at Nancy.Dube@maine.gov or by phone at 207-624-6688.

• reasoning and higher-order thinking skills;
• helping students to improve their writing;
• improving their own writing; and
• effective math instruction based on the Common Core State Standards.

The conferences, called “Making Strides on the Common Core in Thinking, Writing and Math,” are organized by the Portland non-profit organization Navigating the Real World and co-sponsored by the University of Southern Maine.

All conferences take place at the Augusta Civic Center. Teachers can sign up for one session or multiple sessions.

More information about the conferences and online registration are available on the Navigating the Real World website.

For additional information, contact Tom Tracy by email at ttracy@ntrw.org or by phone at 207-415-8412.

Note: The Maine DOE shares this information as a courtesy. Unless otherwise noted, inclusion in the Maine DOE Newsroom does not constitute an endorsement or sponsorship by the Maine Department of Education.

The two-day conference, called “Pathways for Changing Lives,” will feature more than 60 workshop sessions on topics of interest to adult education practitioners in public school programs, post-secondary and workforce settings, and in organizations and agencies serving adult learners.

Topics will include program administration, marketing, social media, instructional techniques in all subject areas, GED topics, topics for English Language Learning, uses of technology in adult education and more.

The keynote presentation on June 20 is by Glenn Cummings, president and executive director of the Good Will-Hinckley School, former Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education, and former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. Cummings will address the relevance of adult education in today’s economy and support for post-secondary goals.

The Conference will feature the annual Awards Luncheon on June 21.

For more information about conference and pre-conference sessions and to register, visit the Maine Adult Education website.

Contact Cathy Newell with questions by phone at 207-875-2722 or by email at info@maineadulted.org.

Note: The Maine DOE shares this information as a courtesy. Unless otherwise noted, inclusion in the Maine DOE Newsroom does not constitute an endorsement or sponsorship by the Maine Department of Education.

The preview takes place at 4:30 p.m.

This powerful new exhibit uses historical photographs, documents, archaeological artifacts, and perspectives of present-day people to tell the story of the mixed-race community evicted from Malaga Island, off the coast of Phippsburg, 100 years ago.  Please join the education staff of the Maine State Museum to learn more about the educational programming that will accompany the exhibit including:

• an in-depth gallery program;
• live webcast discussions with exhibit designer, curator, archaeologists, and scholars; and
• additional teacher materials and training workshops exploring the themes of ethnicity, civil rights, social justice and much more.

All educators are invited to stay for an evening lecture by Kate McBrien, exhibit curator, at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact Joanna Torow at 207-287-6608 or joanna.torow@maine.gov.

Resources and more information

• Documentary: Malaga Island, A Story Best Left Untold
• Maine State Museum

Could students at Yarmouth High School help?

Friendly Ice Cream Corp., based in Wilbraham, Mass., is a 77-year-old company known for its ice cream and hamburgers. When the economic downturn, coupled with higher costs and high rents, drove it into bankruptcy, company leaders realized the need for a new model, a new business plan and a new image.

The VIA Agency is a hip advertising and marketing firm located in Portland.  Already engaged in a fresh ad campaign for Friendly’s, the group’s creative director decided to reach out to a resource that had sparked great ideas in the past.

“While on a field trip with my students to tour VIA, Teddy Stoecklein asked if I thought my students would like to help out with a real creative challenge,” recalled Melissa Noack, an Art and Graphics Design teacher at Yarmouth High School. “I embraced the opportunity.”

Throughout her years as an educator, Noack’s students have gained real-world creative experience from a variety of authentic projects ranging from t-shirt designs to logo treatments to town flags to art installations.

But this was the first opportunity for her students to work with a blue-chip agency such as VIA.

“What has always intrigued me about VIA is its extensive use of technology in the creative process,” Noack said. “This helped me set an example to my students about networking, fostering relationships and staying connected. I believe technology drives collaboration.”

For the Friendly’s project, a team of eight students was asked to develop a 15-second commercial “slice” that centered upon a “high five” theme. The assignment involved concept development, script writing and production.  Students were required to work in pairs, to use “higher level creative problem-solving skills,” Noack said, and to leverage the technology tools available to them.

Driving that toolkit was the MacBook computer each student receives as part of the statewide Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI). Students turned to applications like iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, PhotoShop and Bamboo Tablets.

“It was huge that these students could take their computers home,” explained Alice Barr, Instructional Technology Coordinator at Yarmouth High, noting the 24/7 MacBook access the initiative provided. “It would have been difficult to accomplish this type of project limited to lab scheduling.

“The nature of our school is to be collaborative,” Barr added. “A lot of what students learn, they learn from each other. And what they learn, they run with.”

The Yarmouth team completed its creative treatments back in January. The students pitched their work to a group of VIA creative and communications professionals through “live” and then iMovie presentations.

The agency believed the students “acting out” their message was as critical to selling their pitch as the pitch itself. But the Yarmouth team took no chances. The students additionally produced video because they believed there were more creative options available to them.

“They pulled it off,” beamed Noack. “The students were treated with great respect, treated as creative ‘equals,’ and they received great feedback on all their concepts.”

Although the team’s creative content did not make the cut for the final commercial production, VIA is modeling the collaboration and challenge-based processes the Yarmouth students implemented.

That spelled victory, according to Noack.

“The big takeaway here was the engagement of the students in a real-world activity,” she said. “This project had a huge impact on student learning. They realized that creative and innovative thinkers are highly sought in any field of study.”

Barr also circled back to the goals of MLTI, and the “real and relevant” learning skills such as collaboration, creativity and innovation that directly transfer to the workforce of the 21st century.

“What I loved about this project is that the students were in charge of their own learning,” she said. “It fit into a real-world experience that required them to stretch their learning, to take their creativity as far as they wanted it to go.”

Resources and more information

• Melissa Noack, Arts and Graphic Design Teacher
  Yarmouth High School
  Melissa_Noack@yarmouthschools.org
  207-846-5535
• Yarmouth High School
• Maine Learning Technology Initiative

Deutsche Woche will be a total immersion program for middle-, high-school and college German teachers featuring lectures and hands-on workshops designed to help you acquire new ideas for teaching and to refresh your German speaking skills while networking with teaching colleagues from all over the country.

Deutsche Woche takes place July 31 – Aug. 6.

New teachers and those who have few opportunities to travel abroad are especially encouraged to attend. This year’s topic is “Creating Interactive Games and Activities for the Classroom.”

Visit the American Association of Teachers of German website for more details and to download a registration form.

Resources and more information

• Don Reutershan, World Languages Specialist
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6826
  don.reutershan@maine.gov
• Maine DOE World Languages Website

Note: The Maine DOE shares this information as a courtesy. Inclusion in the Maine DOE Newsroom does not constitute an endorsement by the Maine Department of Education.

The non-profit School Nutrition Association celebrates this professional commitment with School Nutrition Employee Week, May 7-11, 2012. The week is an opportunity for parents, students, school staff and communities to thank those who provide healthy meals to 32 million of America’s students each school day.

Resources and more information

• Walter Beesley, Child Nutrition Services Specialist
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6875
  walter.beesley@maine.gov
• Child Nutrition Services at the Maine DOE