June 2011
Welcome to the first Summer Institute for Creative Classroom Collaboratives, also known as C3 the US Department of Education Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant. This program is a partnership between Eastern Suffolk BOCES Arts-in-Education office, Riverhead and William Floyd schools, and the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts.
The purpose of this 4-year fully funded ($1.116 million) project, is to foster 21st century skills for teachers and students by encouraging creativity and collaboration utilizing the arts in all areas of teaching and learning. ESBOCES will share the tools for teaching and learning throughout the New York State and national education communities through conferences and a dedicated website.
After a year of organizing our school partners, developing evaluation measurements and materials, as well as designing curriculum, this Institute you are taking follows a combination of the nationally recognized Lincoln Center Institute Aesthetic Education model combined with 21st Century Skills' learning. As we strongly believe in sustaining learning, your professional development continues during the school year with four Peer to Peer (P2P) days with our Education Coordinator, Laura Reeder, along with the teachers in each of the participating schools and the teaching artists.
This first Institute engages a core group of second grade, arts, and library specialty teachers. This group will expand during the ensuing years of the grant to add teachers and students in grades 3 and 4, with the goal of engaging up to 100 teachers in the aesthetic education and 21st Century learning models of lifelong education through integration of the visual and performing arts.
With the direction of arts education consultant Ms. Reeder, William Floyd and Riverhead teachers and Tilles Center Teaching Artists, will collaborate on the development and implementation of in-school units of study with students in targeted classrooms, and documentation and dissemination of effective materials, practices and processes.
Student-focused development centers on preparation for attendance at a professional performance at Tilles Center and other cultural institutions. Students will dance, sing, act, write and develop artwork based on their own creative learning. They will expand on their own critical thinking and interpretive abilities, utilizing skills that transfer to all subject areas.
As the project develops, a web-based “toolkit” comprised of model lessons, assessment tools and protocols, images, and video clips will be publicly accessible via a dedicated website.
The bottom line for this effort is to align with NYS Education Dept’s Regent’s Reform Agenda that calls for well-prepared teachers and positive student achievement. We feel that the sustained professional development for teachers along with multiple teaching artist residencies for students prior to seeing performances will yield these results.
Thank you for participating in this “grand experiment.” We hope it is both beneficial to you in your practice and in its positive impact on each and every one of your students.
Carol Brown, Project Director
cbrown@esboces.org
