Discover Free Online Resources for Teaching Artists, Register NOW for the Nov. 7 workshop

Get introduced to tools for connecting, sharing your work, curriculum resources and building a teaching artists’ learning community!  Come to:

“Online and in the Know”
Journey Into the Internet to Discover Great Educational Resources TAs Can Use Now

Saturday, Nov 7, 2009 9 am – 12:30 pm
Presented by Teaching Artists Organized as part of the Third Annual Teaching Artist Institute 2009.

A half-day workshop (including breakfast snacks) led by Megan Simmons of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education. This interactive, hands-on workshop will engage participants in finding, using, and modifying high-quality, free, and freely available online resources. Participants will reflect on their own processes and experience how Open Educational Resources (OER) can impact their teaching, using OER Commons (www.oercommons.org) and web-based collaboration tools, such as wikis and nings. Web resources from such services as the National Endowment for the Humanities, Library of Congress, Lincoln Center Institute, Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge, SF MOMA, and other arts-rich, education based sites.  Register now.

Fee: Single workshop $35 TAO Associates/$15 for those who took the Oct 3rd workshop TAI workshop

Register NOW for the Nov. 7 workshop Online.

Sign up as a TAO Associate for free.

Location: California Shakespeare Theater’s West Berkeley Rehearsal Hall, 701 Heinz Street (off Seventh St.) in Berkeley map

ISKME
The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education is an independent, nonprofit research institute. ISKME’s OER and Arts Education Project, supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation, engages teachers and teaching artists in trainings around collaborative learning strategies and shared online resources and processes.

Parents Know the Answer!

presented by the California State PTA and the Pearson Foundation

If you could improve one thing about public schools…

Join the PTA PSA Campaign to promote parent involvement.

The California State PTA has launched a public service announcement (PSA) campaign to engage families and promote PTA. These video announcements feature real PTA members speaking straight from the heart about the benefits and rewards of getting involved in their children’s public schools. (They were made possible through the generous support of the Pearson Foundation.)

You can help to spread the PSA’s message and passion for involvement. Post them on your local PTA website. Encourage schools and school districts to post them. Email them to friends, supporters and prospective PTA members – in other words – Everyone!

For more information about the California State PTA, visit www.capta.org.

Win $20,000 for your favorite school in Care2’s America’s Favorite School contest

You can help a school your favorite school win $20,000 in Care2’s new America’s Favorite School contest, cosponsored by Care2 and GreatSchools. Vote for your school today — it’s quick, it’s fun, and it can make a world of difference for our kids!

• the winning school gets $20,000
• 20 top recruiters win a $50 gift card
• each week, a random school wins $500

The America’s Favorite School contest is a simple and fun way for communities to rally around their schools. If you’re a parent, then this is your chance to brag about your school and help your school win money! If you’re a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or community member, here’s a really easy way to pitch in to support a school.

Go to www.AmericasFavoriteSchool.com and vote for your school (you can search by zip code or by city and state). Once you have voted, you will see easy tools to use to spread the word online.

Care2 is giving away $36,000 to schools across the country. Schools don’t need to register to participate – every school listed on GreatSchools’ website is automatically entered into the contest, and almost every school in the country is listed.

Health Through Art: 8th Annual Call for Artwork for Billboards

Every two years for the last 20 years Health Through Art has conducted a Call for Art, asking Bay Area community members to send original artwork with a healthy, positive theme.  This year’s deadline for submission of work is October 30, 2009.

From all art submitted, a panel of community members will select 5-10 pieces as Winning Designs. These will be converted into billboards and other outdoor media posters over the course of the 2 year period. Each winning artist will receive a $500 gift certificate to the store of his/her choice, which will be presented at an Awards Ceremony in January of 2010. All submitted art will be exhibited in the Roving Art Show, unless otherwise specified by the artist.

Health Through Art is a project of the non-profit Health & Human Resource Education Center located in Berkeley, CA. HTA has been working since 1989 to counteract substance abuse, racism, prejudice, and violence through the power of creativity and mass media campaigns.

In 20 years the project has posted more than 8,000 outdoor and transit billboards and distributed tens of thousands of posters, magnets, stickers and cards of images created by community members. Ages of artists have ranged from 5-90 years old.

More details can be found inside the 8th Call for Art brochure.

What’s the best way to provide children an arts education?

20+ guest bloggers share their thoughts at Artsblog. Join the conversation!

From Americans for the Arts:

Learning and participation in music, dance, theater, and the visual arts are vital to the development of our children and our communities. Through advocacy, research, partnerships, and professional development, Americans for the Arts strives to provide and secure more resources and support for arts education. Visit AmericansForTheArts.org for more information on the Arts Education Network.

From September 21 through 25, Americans for the Arts will be hosting an Arts Education Salon on Artsblog. More than 20 guest bloggers will be contributing to this national dialogue through timely and thought-provoking entries on the best way to provide children an arts education. We invite our readers to follow these posts and continue the conversation through your ideas, comments, and personal stories.

AmericansForTheArts.org/ArtsEducation

Target awards 5,000 field trip grants

From Philanthropy News Digest

The Target Corporation has announced that it will award 5,000 field trip grants of up to $800 each for the coming K-12 school year. Managed by Scholarship America, the program is open to education professionals who are at least 18 years old and employed by an accredited K-12 public, private, or charter school in the United States that maintains 501(c)(3) or 509(a)(1) tax-exempt status. Educators, teachers, principals, paraprofessionals, or classified staff of these institutions must be willing to plan and execute a field trip that will provide a demonstrable learning experience for students.

Grant funds may be used for visits to art, science, and cultural museums; community service or civics projects; career enrichment opportunities; and other events or activities away from the school facility. Funds may also be used to cover field trip-related costs such as transportation, ticket fees, resource materials, and supplies.

Grants will be awarded in February 2010. Applications can be completed online anytime between August 5 and November 3, 2009. Complete program information is available at the Target Web site.

Contact:
Link to Complete RFP
Primary Subject: Education
Geographic Funding Area: National

SF Gate article: “Why California must fund music education”

By Ted Barone, Principal, Albany High School

“Playing music cultivates a mind that is prepared to process and make sense of the rush of information and problems that have come to characterize the 21st century. Music is a core subject. We can’t cut funding for music any more than we can cut funding for math.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/31/EDQ01910HK.DTL#ixzz0PDXO3kUe

Grant Opportunity: Creative Work Fund now accepting letters of inquiry for projects featuring performing or visual artists

The Creative Work Fund invites letters of inquiry for projects in which visual artists and nonprofit organizations or performing artists and nonprofit organizations collaborate to create new artworks. The deadline for letters of inquiry is 5:00 p.m. on November 6, 2009.

East Bay Community Foundation and Creative Work Fund are co-hosting a free informational seminar for potential applicants on Friday, September 4, 2:00 am-3:30 pm, at the James Irvine Foundation Conference Center, in the De Domenico Building 353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza (near the 12th Street BART Station), Oakland.

To sign up, visit http://creativeworkfund.org/modern/seminars.html (preferred method) or call 415-402-2794. Detailed guidelines may be found at www.creativeworkfund.org.

Inside the Geometer’s Mind: The Art and Mathematics of Tessellation

Art IS! Education presents:

Inside the Geometer’s Mind:
The Art and Mathematics of Tessellation

A project led by math teacher Abby Passkey with 8th grade students at the Urban Promise Academy in Oakland.

Geometry class students used rotations, glides, and reflections to create original, M.C. Escher-style tessellations. Along the way, students made tiling patterns out of index cards, geometry blocks and card stock.  They “found” pictures within experimental preparations for their piece.   The finished work reflects a multifaceted process of arts integration, in which art became the basis to explore and understand a geometric transformation.

ACOE Arts Learning Gallery:
313 W. Winton Avenue, 1st floor
Hayward, CA 94544

June 25 to September 25, 2009.
Open to the public five days a week during business hours.

Fox Courts Mural Project Unveiled!

Fox Courts Muralists

This Thursday, June 18th: Come see Oakland School of the Arts’ Fox Courts Mural Project display in the Community Room of the Fox Courts Apartments from 5-8 pm, as part of Uptown Unveiled.

The mural theme harnesses the creativity of young artists from the School for the Arts and draws inspiration from the Fox Court’s role as an anchor in the revitalization of the Uptown neighborhood. The theme combines the spirit of the apartment residents, the artistry of the arts tenant, the Fox Theater, OSA, and the cultural traditions of Oakland residents. Click here for more info and photos

“The Fox Courts mural project was a very invigorating and enriching experience. Our class learned many valuable lessons on not only mural making, but on teamwork and cooperation. We started the process by studying historical and tribal symbols and patterns. Learning about symbols and visual interpretation allowed us to appreciate these icons present in our daily lives, and taught us how to inject them in our artwork.” Read more… - Emily Esperanza, Tessa Cruz

Community muralists Eduardo Pineda and Joaquin Alejandro Newman directed the project and worked with OSA teachers Andrew Junge and Heidi Cregge. The project sponsors are Resources for Community Development and Pyatok Architects, Inc.