Thanksgiving Week Blog!

We made it!!!!  Happy Thanksgiving, EVERYONE!!!!!

 Above: Durfee Performing Arts Teacher Squad      Below: Viveiros: Keith Haring inspired artwork

I am inspired this week by Chelsea Bolton, FRPS Art Teacher who has created a partnership at the Stone Therapeutic Day School with a local Animal Shelter Program. They just wrapped things up this past week. The Stone School had a furry guest visitor from Forever Paws come in with a member of the shelter, and read a story about homeless animals, followed by a Q&A about the animal shelter with the students. She also brought along her two Therapy Dogs, Tigger and Pax! The students got a chance to give the dogs a treat and walk them around the room. For the following weeks, the students worked hard at learning sewing and braiding techniques to make cat and dog toys to donate to the animal shelter.  Kudos to Chelsea for putting this together!  Here are some pics from the event..

Thanksgiving Thinking (One or two to chew on):

• Music and Performing Arts: Check out this super "to the point" article on &Tips to Engage ESL Students in Music."  These concepts apply to all of us- music, art and performance.  Good stuff to think about when you plan and scaffold for ELL, or special populations.  http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/7-tips-for-engaging-esl-students-in-music-education/education
• Art: Check out this article I found on the School Arts Twitter page- It's called "What Artists can Learn from Teaching."  Powerful read, and I bet it will bring you back to last year's text, "A Whole New Mind." Again, this article, like the one above, resonates with me as something all of us reflect upon as we work, planning tasks for our students. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-what-artists-can-learn-from-teaching

Summing these articles up, your work takes Collaboration, Curiosity and COURAGE to get it right for All of Our Kids.  You, the Fall River Fine and Performing Arts Team, teachers of art, music and theater, model these qualities daily, and I THANK YOU FOR THIS. 

On the Calendar...

• Monday, 11/28: Kuss CPT, Morton visits Amazon Fulfillment Center
• Tuesday, 11/29: Morton CPT
• Wednesday, 11/30: School visits
• Thursday, 12/1: Durfee CPT (content specific) and Release Time Day- Meet at Durfee in room 82 after dismissal (allow for travel time) 
• Friday, 12/2: Itinerant CPT
• Saturday, 12/3: FALL RIVER CHRISTMAS PARADE at Kennedy Park!
• Polar Express night at Durfee!  Friday, December 16th!
• Durfee Faculty Meeting- 12/13
• Durfee Department Meeting- 12/21
• K-8 Arts Department Meeting- 12/1 (after release time day) at Durfee

Dismissal Times for students on 12/1/16 are as follows:

• 11:00 a.m.: Durfee
• 11:30 a.m.: Doran, Letourneau, Silvia, Stone, Watson, Kuss, Viveiros, Morton, Talbot, RPS
• 12:30 p.m.: Fonseca, Greene, Henry Lord, Spencer Borden, Tansey

Thank you and have a wonderful break.

Jackie Francisco
Director

Welcome to the FRPS Arts Community Blog!

FRPS Fine and Performing Arts 

Wrap Up- 11/10/16

Welcome!  Here is a wrap up of our important work, as well as a few events to plan ahead for!  Thank you for joining us!

Engineering Teacher Chris Golembewski painting during the Arts Integration PD

Collaboration and Growth: As we wrap up a short week, I want to thank the teams that worked together to either learn new strategies or plan engaging lessons for our kids during the full professional development day. Here's the wrap up of what we completed:

• Elementary Music was very busy!  They spent the morning with Becky Chez at Letourneau, taking apart the new Link Up program for students- teasing out skills students need to be successful, and identifying which songs and rubrics they will focus on and adopt as a team.  Great work!  
• In the afternoon, K-8 Music worked with Terry Walkowicz learning how to make a musical instrument with online resources and their new Makey Makey boards.  This stuff is AMAZING!!!!  We will spend some time during the January PD day to plan an engaging lesson for the 5-8th grades using this technology.
• Elementary Art spent the morning at their schools, and in the afternoon, discussed what they want to have as components in their maps, and discussed lessons that help students achieve the standards.  They also looked at the current Boston Public Schools Map for Art and like the idea of "end of grade standards." They will be beginning the PD day in December by bringing samples of lessons that focus on specific elements and principles and I will spend time with them to support this work as they collaborate to build a common "working" map.    
• Band and Orchestra Directors perused music and themes for the 2017 All City Band and Orchestra Performances.  This year's music is sure to surprise you!  Save the dates- All City Band is April 4th, and All City Orchestra is April 6th!  Directors also worked on preparing NBYSO tickets for our students to be able to attend the 11/20 concert.  In the afternoon, we had a luthier (string instrument repair specialist) work with teachers to teach them how to fix minor repairs on their own instruments.  They also reviewed the Watkins Farnum Scale Method that will help them to help students achieve their SLG!
• K-8 Art worked during the afternoon session on mapping and are making good progress as they discuss standards and the tasks they plan for each.  
• Durfee Teachers were involved in the Durfee rotating PD courses, including ELL strategies, Instructional Technology and the New Teacher Courses.  In addition, I want to give a HUGE shout out to Barbara Mullen, Mark Carvalho and Ana Arsenio.  Many DHS staff took their "elective" course on Arts Integration, and I sat in to observe.  It was a proud moment for me!  The Blendspace prepared took teachers on a visual journey through how to use art and projcet based learning to drive home their own content.  Here is the link to the presentation!  https://www.tes.com/lessons/OZPpDBwuW-8wiQ/arts-integration

The next professional development day will be held on Thursday, December 1st.  It is a release time day, so I will send out the plan next week with plans for each group, but I would like to have you all here!  Many of you would like to hold the monthly department meeting after this meeting, so I will send an email out to poll, and let you know what the team decides.

Share Outs n'Shout Outs:

• Mary Zema wants to share this with music teachers!   https://youtu.be/IeTKY5S48
• Toby Monte has student musician tickets (free admission) for Fall River instrumental students to the New Bedford Symphony Youth Orchestra's fall concert on Sunday, November 20th at Kuss.  Accompanying adults can enter for a reduced rate of $5.  FYI, normal rates are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.  For more info about the organization, check out the website at:  nbsyo.org
• Keith White wants to share the Doran Kindergarten music class practicing steady beat in their pumpkin parade! 
  
• I want to share a lesson plan with you that not only asks students to communicate visually, but to synthesize, compare, contrast and persuade for action and reaction.  Just like persuasive writing, political art asks viewers to consider a point of view, or just to think about what is happening in the world around them, but through visuals.  Take a look at how Mark Carvalho at Durfee communicates visually:

Snapshots from around the city...

       

           Lara Beth Terry's Theater Make Up Artists           Stephanie Pereira's Artists do Klimt!

On the Calendar:

• 11/10: Term 1 ends! Trimester 1 (for trimester schools) ends December 2nd!
• 11/16 Durfee Monthly Department Meeting 2:45PM
• 11/17 Durfee Parent Teacher Conferences 5-7PM
• 11/24-25- Thanksgiving Recess!

Planning Ahead...

• The Durfee Music Department is planning a Polar Express Night for kids! Friday, December 16th from 5 to 7 PM- tickets for sale at the door! Proceeds will help send DHS Musicians
• K-8 Arts Teachers: The 2nd Annual K-12 Arts Expo is Thursday, April 27th. We will discuss during December Department Meetings. We can look at our notes from the reflections from last year's.. :)
•  Winter Concert Time!
• • Durfee- 12/15- 7PM
  • Durfee Community Based Classrooms- 12/14- 6PM
  • Morton- 12/13 7PM
  • Kuss- 12/15- 7PM
  • Talbot- 12/7- 6:30PM
  • HLCS- 12/13- 7PM