Image of a horse from the Lascaux caves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux2.jpg
Creating art can be traced back almost to the beginning of human kind. Even those with little background in art history have heard of the Lascaux Caves in France where prehistoric drawings and paintings can be found on the walls and ceilings depicting images of animals and humans. Aesthetically these drawings and paintings, thousands of years later, still bring us to imagine their meanings.
If we continue to look back in history we also have the development of text. Illuminated Manuscripts brought us the initial. “The earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period AD400 to 600, initially produced in Italy and the Eastern Roman Empire.“1 These text images can be found in a variety of forms throughout history eventually even appearing at the beginning of fairy tales. Today initials are still in use and can be found in various artworks including street art tags often recognized as graffiti.
A set of sixteenth-century initial capitals, which is missing a few letters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ornamental_Alphabet_-_16th_Century.svg
The MLTI program has many tools which allow for art creation. Over the years artists have used many materials to engage their interests and talents. We now have the ability to create digital pieces of art. Photography, painting, drawing, music, poetry, movies, stories, comics, to name a few…All these and more can be created with the suite of tools on our MLTI devices. Although traditional art will always be an important part of our cultures we now live in a time where digital images flourish. Digital Literacy includes digital images as well as digital text. Our students will need to know how to use digital tools in many different ways to be successful in their future.
Join us Thursday to explore creating digital art with MLTI tools. This is a hands on session so bring your MLTI device and roll up your sleeves. We will work together to create a piece of digital art
Please click on the Webcasts tab to register. We have upgraded to a new registration system, allowing you to register directly in Adobe Connect, making the whole webinar process smoother and easier! If you have any questions, please contact Juanita Dickson. Click on the time you wish to participate in and you will be directed to an online registration form. Please type your email address carefully as all information will be sent to that address. After registering you will receive a confirmation email with a log in link – please use that link to log into the webinar prior to the start time.
Last month the conversation started off with Author Bea McGarvey and DOE Superintendent of Instruction Don Siviski talking about Mass Customized Learning and its implications for Standards Based Education here in Maine. There was even a surprise visit from Commissioner Bowen!
This month, on Tuesday January 24th, the conversation continues with the second webinar focusing on Chapters 2 and 3 of the book and looking more closely at some of the questions raised by participants in the first webinar. Come join Bea, Don, Principal Bill Zima, and me as we continue the conversation.
Please click on the Webcasts tab to register. This webinar will take place at 4:00pm on January 24, 2012.
Social Studies involves itself with human communication and events. It seems that social media was developed to enhance and encourage the interactions of people. Therefore, what is the interplay of these two realms? This webinar will seek to discover the links between our students in their social studies and their social media. How can Twitter help our students understand the thoughts of people from long ago? What part can Facebook play in encouraging young people to take a participatory role in civic life? And can wikis be used to build a better understanding of our world? Join the webinar at 3.15 or 7.15, be prepared to connect with others and find out how a more connected world can mean a deeper, more enlightened social studies student.
As preparation for this webinar, it may be of benefit to you if you have a Twitter, Facebook and Flickr account, as well as become a member of wikispaces. All are free and easy to sign up, just follow the links and bookmark the pages for the webinar. These are not essential for participation, however they may enhance and extend the opportunities on offer.
Please click on the Webcasts tab to register. We have upgraded to a new registration system, allowing you to register directly in Adobe Connect, making the whole webinar process smoother and easier! If you have any questions, please contact Juanita Dickson. Click on the time you wish to participate in and you will be directed to an online registration form. Please type your email address carefully as all information will be sent to that address. After registering you will receive a confirmation email with a log in link – please use that link to log into the webinar prior to the start time.
image by trois tetes on Flickr. Used with Creative Commons BY-NC2.0 License
The process of inquiry-based learning is predicated on good research and has shown that students can achieve deeper understanding of science through engaging and meaningful questions. This session will introduce some of the web-based materials from “Concept to Classroom” (part of Thirteen EdOnline,) and other sites that discuss inquiry-based learning. Participants will also be able to download Ready, Set, Science! and Inquiry and the National Science Standards from the National Academies Press. Then they will reflect on their own practice with a couple of activities based on key elements from those books.
Participants will:
- Begin to identify where on the spectra (from Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards) of teacher directed/student directed learning activities a lesson might fall.
- Use the “Four Strands of Science” descriptors (from Ready, Set, Science!) to examine one’s teaching of science.
- Examine how inquiry-based learning is based in constructvism, the learning cycle and the 5 E’s of science instruction.
- Be introduced to a couple of examples of how technology can support a student-centered inquiry based classroom.
- Examine web-based resources related to inquiry and classroom practice.
Please join us on Thursday, January 12th at 3:15 pm. or 7:15 pm. You should register for the one you want to attend by clicking on the webcasts tab above. Scroll down to the webcast schedule and click on the time you want to attend. You will then be able to register and receive a confirmation. Be attentive to your typing – a confirmation email will be sent to the address you type.
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Beppie K
If you are an ELA teacher, you have probably already begun to study the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. You may also have suggested that your colleagues in other content areas check out the standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. In the coming months, we’ll be offering a series of webinars where we will take a close look at the CCSS for ELA 6-12 and discuss how our MLTI devices can support our students as they strive to meet those standards.
We will begin by looking at the reading standards for literature and informational text. In our January 5 webinar, we will discuss text complexity as outlined in Appendix A of the CCSS for ELA and share ideas for finding and collecting text on the internet that can provide the resources for reading experiences that our students must have in order to meet the standards. Many middle and high school teachers are finding that their reading programs include a lot of literature but not enough informational text. Fortunately we have the tools we need to collect text that we have determined is appropriately complex for our students. This text can be gathered into digital anthologies that are customized for our students, unlike the expensive, one-size-fits-all print text books that we used in the past.
Join us on Thursday, January 5th at 3:15 pm. or 7:15 pm. and learn how to create reading anthologies for your students. To register, click on the Webcasts tab above to view our winter-spring webinar calendar and find links to the registration pages. Please note that we have a new registration process that is required for entering our webinar rooms.
IT’S ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR!
Join Rob Westerberg and Catherine Ring and Guests on their webinar on Wednesday, January 4 at 3:30 pm. The topic promises to inspire a lively exchange: “An Elementary Discussion: How in the World Can I Possibly Do This?
Addressing the Unique Needs of Elementary Arts Educators”. This will be the fourth of five webinars on arts assessment, as part of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative.
The discussion will survey participants about the challenges of doing arts assessments at the elementary level. After all, how can anyone expect that teachers will be able to teach and assess student work when they see 400 students for 40 minutes per week? Amazingly, arts educators are doing it and finding ways that make a difference for kids. Rob and Catherine will facilitate a discussion with their guests, Alice Sullivan (music educator), Shannon Campbell (visual art educator) and Barb Packales (music educator), on the unique challenges to teaching and assessing student work in elementary school, the advantages of assessing the work, and ways to implement quick, do-able and proven strategies that help improve student learning in the arts.
Argy Nestor, Visual and Performing Arts Specialist at the Maine DOE, will also participate and provide her perspective on arts assessment and how to move forward. Lots of resources will be shared. There will also be information on graduate level courses (provided by the New England Institute for Teacher Education) where participants can take their knowledge and practice of arts assessment to a new level.
To register, please visit the Webcasts tab and follow the directions for registration.
Illustration by Andrew Greenstone
Many materials used for classroom and online instruction present barriers to learning for students with disabilities and English learners. This is typically inadvertent and can be corrected with basic awareness and skills. This webinar will introduce participants to strategies and resources for selecting and creating media that are accessible, resulting in improved learning opportunities for all students. Topics include accessible instructional materials (AIM), closed captioning and audio description of video, and accessible web sites.
Please join us this Thursday at 3:15 pm or 7:15 pm. For more information about accessing our MLTI webinars and to register, please click on the Webcasts tab at the top of this page.
CC BY 2.0 Vox Efx
UDL is an educational framework for developing curriculum, selecting instructional strategies, and designing assessments that work for all learners. Serving as a guide for reducing barriers to learning, UDL supports diverse students’ needs for understanding information, expressing knowledge, and activating engagement. Referenced throughout the National Education Technology Plan 2010, which guides the use of information and communication technologies in transforming American education, UDL is essential to successful technology use in the content areas. This webinar will introduce and provide demonstrations of UDL.
Please join us this Thursday at 3:15 pm or 7:15 pm. For more information about accessing our MLTI webinars or to register, please click on the Webcasts tab at the top of this page.
What is Mass Customized Learning? Has its time come? Is it Inevitable in Maine, across the nation, and around the world? Join Chris Toy and guest speaker Bea McGarvey, Co-Author of Inevitable as we kick off this year’s MLTI Principals Webinar which will focus Bea’s book. Each month we will take up and discuss a key aspect of Inevitable.
Principal Webinars will continue to feature and discuss a key aspect of “Inevitable” for the 2011-2012 year.These Webinars will occur on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 4:00pm (exception in December due to holidays).
Each participant that registers for the December 13, 2011 webinar will receive a link to download the introduction and first chapter of “Inevitable”.
The Commissioner of Education has provided all Superintendents with copies of “Inevitable” with a suggestion that they read it and make copies available to their administrators. Administrators should check with their superintendents for a free copy.
Learn more about Bea McGarvey
To register for this December 13, 2011 webinar, please visit the Webcasts Page and follow the directions for registration or click here to access online registration directly. (This webinar was originally scheduled for December 12th)
Rob Westerberg and Catherine Ring will be hosting their third webinar in a series of five as part of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI). The webinar entitled Standards Based Assessment In The Arts will take place on December 7, 2011 from 3:30 – 4:30. Four primary focuses will be discussed:
- What IS Standards Based Assessment?
- Standards Based Assessment specifically in the Arts
- Arts Assessment in practice
- Looking to the future
Standards Based Assessment continues to be the path education is going down both as a country and as a state. Many questions and concerns arise when we apply “standards” for assessing the arts. In conversation with leaders in the field, this webinar will serve to address what standards based assessment is and isn’t, identify its exciting applications to the arts, and to ease concerns, answer questions and clarify issues around their formal implementation in the classroom. The webinar will conclude by getting a first hand account of where we stand as a country in the revision of the National Arts Standards.
Guests will include USM Professor Jeff Beaudry, President-Elect of State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education and NH Department of Education arts consultant Marcia McCaffrey and teacher leaders Leah Olson (Visual Art, Hampden Academy), Charlie Johnson (Visual Art, MDI H.S.) and Jake Sturtevant (Music, Bonny Eagle H.S.).
Click on the Webcast tab above for more information about registering and accessing this webinar.
An initiative of the Maine Department of Education with contributing partners: ACTEM (Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine), District 3 Music Educators, MAAE (Maine Alliance for Arts Education), MAEA (Maine Art Education Association), MECA (Maine College of Art), MMEA (Maine Music Educators Association), MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative), New England Institute for Teacher Education, and USM (University of Southern Maine).
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