December Spotlight
In concert with a heady list of teaching artist-based organizations from around the state, TAO has agreed to act as lead facilitator working in collaboration with the TASC Steering Committee members (listed below) to move a statewide network of organizations forward. With a new $25,000 grant awarded at the CAC's public meeting November 17th, we will re-convene the Steering Committee to update and revise a draft Strategic Plan (now two years old) to align with the new calls to action from leaders in the field. TASC will aim to establish a statewide network of committed people and organizations (governmental, public benefit and commercial) to promote and work toward the recognition of teaching artists as equally valued partners with others in the work to improve the quality of life, education and communities throughout California.
Starting with an initial call from the California Arts Council five years ago and then ensuing planning and convening in 
partnership with the CAC, Teaching Artists Organized and our collaborating partners around the state are pleased and honored to bring TASC into being as a statewide network working in behalf of the field and in support of the goals of CREATE the State (see below for more on the CREATE the State initiative).
(Left: Wayne Cook (CAC), Erika Kraft (Sacramento Metro Arts Commission), Melinda Williams (Music Center of Los Angeles), Belinda Taylor (TAO) and Lorraine Cleary-Dale (The Armory) at TASC planning meeting November 2009)
TASC Steering Committee is currently (new members may be added) comprised of:
Glenna Avila, Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership
Susan Cambigue-Tracey, Music Center, Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County
Lorraine Cleary-Dale, The Armory
Wayne Cook, California Arts Council
Kris Murray, Young Audiences of Northern California
Jan Kirsch, Inner City Arts
Sabrina Klein, Teaching Artists Organized
Erika Kraft, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission
Betty Lee, Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership
Judy Nemzoff, San Francisco Arts Commission
Jennifer Oliver, Young Audiences San Diego
Jill Randall, The Hamlin School, San Francisco
Representative, Kern County Arts Commission
Sandy Seufert, Music Center, Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County
Belinda Taylor, Teaching Artists Organized
Representative tbd, LA County Arts Commission
As we reported last month, a new initiative, CREATE the State (see below for more info), places art back into the equation of what constitutes a meaningful public school education in our state. The initiative is driven by the CAC in partnership with the California Department of Education, State Schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson and other key players including CECESSA, California Arts Advocates, California Alliance for Arts Education, nonprofit arts organizations and boards of education and arts councils throughout the state.
Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, chair of the CAC has noted that "California has a rich network of talented and committed teaching artists, who will play a critical role in the larger arts education reform movement in our state.” We look forward to showing her just how rich a network of talented and committed teaching artists we have!
November Spotlight: The New California Arts and Education collective action -- CREATE the State -- stirs interest and hopes.
A new initiative that goes by the name "CREATE the State" (CREATE stands for "Core Reforms Engaging Arts to Educate") seeks to support policy and practices that promote creativity, innovation, and economic
development and a reinvigorated vision that places are back into the equatio of what constitutes a meaningful and effective public school education in our state. The California Arts Council is driving this effort, in partnership with California Arts Advocates, California Alliance for Arts Education, nonprofit arts organizations an d boards of education and arts councils throughout the state.
TAO reps Belinda Taylor and Sabrina Klein were in LA on October 13 and 14 at CREATE the State's first gathering, with approximately 130 attendees from education, arts and businesses around the state. Malissa Feruzzi Shriver (photo left), chair of the California Arts Council, recognizes the critical role teaching artists play now and will play in implementing the goals of this collective effort, especially working in collaboration with classroom teachers. Malissa that "California has a rich network of talented and committed teaching artists, who will play a critical role in the arts education reform movement in our state."
She oultined CREATE the State's current agenda, some of which is already in progress:
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State Superintendent of Schools, Tom Torlakson, will appoint an inter-agency task force that will work on the new Blueprint for Arts Education, a policy document that will guide the initiative.
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We will seek to restore the dance and theatre creditionals for California, which numerous other states currently have.
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We will support the organization of teaching artists statewide, to coordinate with credentialed art teachers in providing quality curriculum, professional development and expertise in our schools.
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Additional actions include a listening tour around the state, a convening in March 2012 in San Francisco, and a statewide advocacy campaign using well-known California arts and entertainment figures and luminaries.
Click here to read Malissa's full summary of the LA gathering and the complete list of action steps.
For another take on the initiative and the LA meeting, check out Alma Robinson's blog on the California Arts 
Blog on the California Lawyers for the Arts website. She concludes:
"The bottom line: The communities that most need arts education in the public school system are the least empowered and organized to demand it. That leaves it to the rest of us to have already taken care of our own, to care enough about the greater good to make the change we need. After all, the greater good is also for us. A quality education that includes the arts will pay dividends in public safety, economic development and a healthier society." Alma Robinson (right) is executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts
October Spotlight: What's that mean: the culturally responsive classroom?
What's that mean: culturally responsive classroom? We can guess (and we often do guess) that it means somehow finding ways to respond to the cultural difference amongst the students--child, youth and 
adult--that we connect with in our work. We know it's about respect. The more experience we have, the more likely we are to notice, too, that it is about examining our own cultural perspectives, biases and experiences, and learning how they may interfere with our abilities to meet the learning needs of our students.
Simply put, culturally responsive learning environments ask that teachers use students' home cultural experiences--often very different both from what we think of as "typical" school experiences and also from those of other students in the same classroom--to make knowledge and skills taught in school more meaningful and accessible.
We know from research that the disconnect between home and school life that happens when classrooms aren't competent in the home cultures of students creates a greater risk of failure at school, disassociation and lack of support from parents, and miscommunications between teachers and students that result in unnecessary disciplinary actions and drop out rates.
Art-making is a key strategy for us in creating dynamic, responsive classrooms that include all kinds of learners from every background we find in our culturally diverse populations. Teaching Artists are uniquely positioned to create effective culturally responsive learning environments, since our lessons so readily accommodate individual difference and multiple perspectives.
Consciously engaging in these practices, and using media resources to assist us in broadening our capacities, means we can play a leadership role in modeling the value of the arts in reaching every child, in every school, every day, in authentic and meaningful learning.
The Education Alliance's "Teaching Diverse Students" web page outlines a few practices as part of a pedagogy for being culturally responsive. It's easy to see why the work of a teaching artist is so naturally aligned with these practices. I'll bet, if you're a moderately experienced teaching artist, you use many of these strategies routinely in your lessons.
Learn about students' cultures
Have students share artifacts from home that reflect their culture
Have students write about traditions shared by their families
Have students research different aspects of their culture
Vary teaching approaches to accommodate diverse learning styles and language proficiency
Initiate cooperative learning groups
Have students participate in book clubs or literature circles
Use student-directed discussion groups
Utilize various resources in the students' communities
Have members of the community speak to students on various subjects
September Spotlight: "Transforming Urban School Systems Through the Arts"--the AEP regional fall meeting.
The Arts Education Partnership's national forum was SF Sept 15 and 16. At the conference, California Arts Council Board President Malissa Feruzzi-Shriver participated in a panel called "California Creates: Statewide Innovation in Arts Education," highlighting the partnership between the California Department of Education (CDE), the California Arts Council (CAC), and California County Superintendents (CCSESA), working together to address structural obstacles to arts education and debunk myths that undermine access to arts education. See excerpts from that panel discussion here.
August Spotlight: The conversation on arts education
Julie Fry and Barry Hessenius (Western States Arts Federation, WESTAF) co-hosted a new Arts Education Forum on "Barry's Blog" for WESTAF, for 4 weeks starting July 
25. Highlights from the blog include commentary by these local arts leaders, among other national leaders in the field:
Kristine Alexander, Executive Director, The California Arts Project
Paul Ammon, Professor, UC-Berkeley
Eric Engdahl, California State University-East Bay
Bob Lenz, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Envision Schools, Oakland
Jessica Mele, Executive Director, Performing Arts Workshop, San Francisco
Louise Music, Arts Learning Manager, Alameda County Office of Education, Hayward
Ruth Nott, Director of Education, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco
Chike C. Nwoffiah – Director, Oriki Theater, Mountain View
Eugene Rodriquez, Executive Director, Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center, San Pablo
Ben Sanders, California Education Partners/CORE, San Francisco
Joe Landon, Policy Director/Executive Director-designate, California Alliance for Arts Education, Davis
Paul Richman, Executive Director, California State PTA, Sacramento
Laura Zucker, Executive Director, LA County Arts Commission, Los Angeles
Ayanna Hudson, Director of Arts Education, LA County Arts Commission, Los Angeles
Chris Shearer, Education Program Officer, Hewlett, Menlo Park
July Spotlight: Congratulations to the Summer Class of 2011: Arts Integration Specialist Program
Summer intensive at Mills College draws passionate learners
An exceptionally diverse group of Bay Area teachers and teaching artists has just completed the Arts Integration Specialist Program Summer Intensive at Mills College and their positive responses underscore its success. These courses are “shots in the arm,” “booster shots,” “ways to engage ALL my kids,” and other positive reactions that add up to a collective, “wow!”
The group included K - 12 teachers and administrators, visual arts, dance and theater teaching artists from Alameda, San Francisco, Contra Costa, Napa and San Mateo counties. A surprise was a cohort--teacher, teaching artist and principal from Napa, as well as a group of four K-5 teachers from San Leandro's Jefferson School. Many educators attending were working toward their Arts 
Integration Specialist Certificates, one had just finished her credential, two were administrators, and many talked about leadership-- bringing the AISP frameworks back into their school community. The total enrollment at the AISP this summer was a record 35 participants.
Joining instructors Tana Johnson and Trena Noval this summer were two new instructors: Charles Chip McNeal, dancer from San Francisco Ballet, and Todd Elkin, visual artist from Washington High School in Fremont.
The Arts Integration Specialist Program, under the ageis of the (Alameda County Office of Education) Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership, that brings together all levels of educators and teaching artists in multiple arts disciplines around concepts from The Project Zero frameworks, Teaching for Understanding, Making Learning Visible and Studio Habits of Mind.
Among the positive outcomes of the AISP is a common language when talking about student learning through the arts. For many, this is new vocabulary and new ways of thinking about teaching and learning, and for many it is familiar, making the classes rich with dialogue and different levels of understanding and investigation.
Tana Johnson heads the AISP, describing it as “a great way to increase skills and confidence to teach in and through the arts. Those earning a certificate will go on to play leadership roles in their own school communities. We invite all AISP participants to remain connected by participating in Alliance retreats and summer institutes in the future.”
To learn more about the AISP check out the topic on this website under Professional Deveopment, or click here.
Professional Development developments
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