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June 1, 2002
Bringing the Curriculum to Life with the Arts
By Barbara Bray
Visual and performing arts help children develop creative thinking, team-building and problem-solving skills. The arts bring the curriculum to life and make it fun. Professional development programs that include the arts have teachers doing hands-on, real-world activities, and their enthusiasm translates back to the classroom. Add technology to the arts and students become producers rather than consumers of information.
Students today have a difficult time connecting content to their world. By creating and editing their own music - capturing and modifying images to publish, or editing video clips - they become empowered to collaborate, experiment, question, analyze and infer. And with real content they begin to understand the connection. Here are some resources on how technology and the arts help make that connection.
Arts for Learning
Arts for Learning is a national collaborative project in which artists and teachers work together and research and develop creative teaching strategies through the arts. In California Arts for Learning works with Young Audiences of San Jose & Silicon Valley, educators throughout Santa Clara County can share ideas, explore artist programs, access curriculum content and share best practices.
Songs of the Century
The Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts have a nationwide education initiative. "Songs of the Century" aims to further appreciation for the music development process, including songwriting, musicianship, recording, performing, producing, distributing and the development of cultural values. It is provided free of charge through Scholastic, Inc. to 10,000 fifth-grade teachers in key areas nationally. AOL provides distribution for Songs of the Century streaming audio and curriculum through AOL@SCHOOL service.
Jazzy Lessons
PBS Classroom, Jazzy Lessons and Activities for K-12 Cats provide companion Web sites and lesson plans for the widely acclaimed Ken Burns Jazz series that may be taped off-air and used for up to a year following broadcast or purchased at the site. The video series and companion Web site can be used in music, social studies, math and language arts classes.
Teach with Movies
Teach with Movies has an extensive collection of movies where teachers can introduce children to: major events of history; great achievements of civilization; works of music, dance, drama, literature and the visual arts; and ethical, social, and cultural issues facing children as they mature. Learning Guides to each recommended film describe the benefits of the movie, problems to solve, and helpful background. Discussion questions, bridges to reading, projects and links to the Internet are also provided.
ArtsEdge
ArtsEdge has been developed under a cooperative agreement between the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education. ArtsEdge supports the place of arts education at the center of the curriculum through the creative and appropriate uses of technology. Teacher materials include standards-based resources arranged by curriculum, activities and lessons, how to use their lessons, examples of best practices, Web links to other resources on the Internet, and a community center where teachers can collaborate.
Mars Millennium Project
The Mars Millennium Project, a National Arts, Science and Technology Initiative, combines the realities of scientific principles - travel to Mars and life on the Red Planet - with the imaginative power of the arts to enhance living and working here and on distant planets. The challenge for participants is in designing the Mars habitat where "the beautiful must be necessary, and the necessary must be beautiful." Students from around the globe worked together to imagine a community on Mars in the year 2030 and this gallery reflects the culmination of their efforts. Mars Mission Control is the source for interaction, team leader development, educational resources and the latest news.
Space Art through the Ages
For thousands of years people have wondered about the universe and have told stories in the effort to understand the world. They have recorded their hopes, theories and discoveries, on rocks, through paintings and sculpture, and in drawings, music, books, photographs, and films. Through the J. Paul Getty Fund, ArtsEdNet has put together lesson plans and resources that bring art and space together.
Spider School
ArtsWire SpiderSchool, a program of the New York Foundation for the Arts, provides information and training for the arts community and educators on how to integrate technology into their work. The ArtsWire's "Building Arts Audiences and Communities on the Web: A Guide for Arts Organizations" provides examples and lessons of brainstorming, planning, and strategies on how to use technology as part of the arts curriculum.
Academy for New Media
Stanford University offers weeklong workshops for K-20 educators and high school/college students in 3D animation, desktop movies and Web design. The Academy for New Media is an ideal program for students and educators interested in using technology to express their artistic talents. Once the technical fundamentals of Web page creation are learned, Web pages are only limited by the strength of their creative design. In the desktop movie class, participants will learn how to combine music, images, and video to tell a compelling story. Three-D animation allows artists to take their imagination to a whole new dimension. Academy instructors are a combination of Stanford staff and industry professionals. A scholarship program is available to make the Academy accessible to all educators and students.
Oakland Virtual Museum
Middle-school teachers use art to bring history alive in the Oakland's Virtual Museum. In the Ancient History exhibits, Ms. Winter's students created Chicken Mummies and Mr. Rust's students re-created Egyptian gods and goddesses.
Email: Barbara Bray is president of Computer Strategies, LLC and My eCoach. She moderates the CUE techstaffdevelop listerv and writes PDQs for TechLearning.com. To submit tips visit the PDQ submission page.
Computer Using Educators
Copyright 2002, CUE, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
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