Posted Sunday October 18 2015 at 10:37 pm
in Education
Guest blog post by VSA Mass. Vice President and COO Charles Washburn.
The new COOL School year is off to a grand start and we have a great team in place to help make it a great success.
While we were sad to say goodbye to Wilhelmina Peragine, we look forward to following her career at Harvard and finding new ways to keep her engaged with VSA Massachusetts. We are excited to welcome Aysha Upchurch to our team as Associate Director of COOL Schools. Although Aysha is taking on a new position, she is not new to VSA Massachusetts or to the work we are doing through COOL Schools. Last year we had the good fortune to have Aysha as an intern and teaching artist as she pursued her Ed.M. in the Arts in Education program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Aysha brings a great wealth of experience as a dancer, educator and arts administrator, as well as a passion for social change and for professionalizing the teaching artist field.
Another milestone to celebrate is Nicole Agois' recognition by the International VSA Affiliate Council for achieving a decade of service. Nicole assumes the role of COOL Schools Director and is orchestrating our efforts to gain a deeper understanding of the COOL Schools model and what makes it work in order to help it grow.
Kati Blair Kotrc has moved to a reduced schedule and will focus on facilitating the work between VSA Massachusetts and the Advancement office of Seven Hills Foundation. Through our affiliation with Seven Hills, we are working together to create new opportunities for COOL Schools and beyond.
We are also fortunate to have two new interns from the Harvard Graduate School of Education contributing to the cause this year. Flossy Azu is joining us from the International Education Policy program, and brings a keen interest in inclusive arts learning as well as experience teaching from kindergarten to high school. Laura Stickle is in the Arts In Education program and has experience with coaching teachers in arts-based literacy development.
We look forward to the year ahead.
Posted Sunday October 18 2015 at 9:53 pm
in Education
Join MASSCreative, Arts|Learning, and Arts at the Boston Public Schools for discussion and action steps on how we can best advocate for quality arts education and youth arts programs for each student in Massachusetts.
Bringing together the arts education community, including educators, parents, and arts organizations to discuss how to build public support for arts education. Come ready to share why arts education is important to you and get involved with one of our arts education initiatives:
• Including one year of arts education in high school as a university admissions requirement.
• Injecting the arts into STEM education.
• Measuring creativity and innovation across all subjects.
• Funding arts education in under-resourced schools by tapping into Title I Funds.
When:
October 20, 2015 from 6:30pm - 8pm
Where:
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building
2300 Washington St
Boston, MA 02119
More information and registration.
Posted Sunday October 18 2015 at 9:00 pm
in News
Description: Based on the VSA Minnesota Reaching All Learners (ReAL) workshop series, this interactive webinar will use the power of collaborative inquiry to analyze a visual arts lesson through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) both in terms of the written lesson plan and what the lesson looked like in action. Facilitators will lead participants through the Artist to Artist reflective process of lesson analysis to demystify and make visible UDL principles that are part of the lesson design and tease out the manifestations of those principles. Time will allow for participants to share their own insights, ask questions, and develop a better understanding of principles and elements of UDL as it applies to their own practice.
Takeaways for Webinar participants include:
• Concrete examples of UDL principles guiding lesson planning
• Process and strategies for analyzing a lesson
• Connections to the Artist to Artist Community of Practice
When: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 from 3-4pm EDT
More information and registration.
Realizing this blog post is coming at pretty much the last minute, it's worth pointing out that The Kennedy Center maintains an archive of prior VSA webinars which this will certainly become a part of.
