Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Peer-to-Peer at Summer Seminar

Date:

09 Aug 2005

Time:

08:53:31 AM -0400

Blog

I am still thinking through the Summer Seminar experience, as well as comparing it to last year (my first), to continue sharing my perceptions of the week. I also conitue to reflect on how it impacts my work and growth as a teaching artist. The peer-to-peer sessions are really the heart of the work accomplished during the week. There are daily sessions during which an average of four project teams meet to share problems, practices, develop materials, and generally use group process to improve each individual project. These facilitated discussions focus on one team at a time and the group determines which model from among five different protocols (visit the ESP website to see these outlined: www.espartsed.org). New teams are encouraged to join a peer-to-peer group but are not required to present. Established partnerships take turns presenting to their group and working on their specific need with the other teams to create new approaches, expand successes, etc. The teams commit to the process with that particular group (generally) and there may also be participants who are not attached to a particular team but are in the field. The value is not just what each team brings to the discussion but the evolution of the process itself. Each peer-to-peer experience is different but valuable to participants. It is likely that it becomes a microcosm of an arts-in-ed partnership and the interpersonal potentials partners could encounter. If anyone would like to share their peer-to-peer experiences from either last year or this, go to the discussion link on the ATA website and start a thread. We can use the site to be interactive and that interaction could begin with you! :) Well, I am going to get on with my Tuesday. Have a lovely day as we enjoy the remainder of our summers, the time when we balance our "Oh, it's still summer," with the "OH! School starts in a month!" This means different things to different teaching artists. Some of us will be prepping for programs and some of us will be making phone calls, sending letters, getting meetings to score our gigs for the year. Whatever stage you are in, remember your purpose first, your passion, and your professionalism. Then, get out and enjoy the sun! Have a wonderful day.

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

More ESP Download

Date:

02 Aug 2005

Time:

05:14:50 PM -0400

Blog

So the best part of the Summer Seminar is how it all just slowly unfolds into consciousness. I think of the week and get to now consider all the thoughts I have had since that week about my core beliefs, the workshops, the discussions, the group sessions, all of it, and now it affected me as a teaching artist. One of the telling signs of the effectiveness of the Summer Seminar this year was how project teams were totally dedicated to each other and their process of planning and learning together to make their partnerships successful. It was like a galaxy of all of these solar systems rotating together. The teams spent their meals together, took part in the peer-to-peer sessions, spoke with consultants, and really took advantage of the concentrated time to work and prepare for the upcoming year. NYSCA invests so much money throughout the state to fund quality arts in education and we are most grateful to them. The opportunity to also plan and grow as partnerships to improve practices, share ideas, and insure success is really remarkable. Who benefits? Teaching artists gain skills and training, as well as tell their tales of miracle, success, and lessons learned. Teachers get to know their artists better and understand this career of Teaching Artist, as well as deepen their commitment to arts in education, share their successes and learning. Cultural organization representatives learn more too...school administrators get to have face-to-face encounters with the field and strengthen their understanding of the value of arts in education and how their schools benefit. I will close today's note by saying that we need to continue to give each other time within the community that is NYS arts in education. Find your Arts-in-Education Roundtable in your region and attend. Seek out other TAs and just talk about what you do and how you can grow. Speak with pride about your teaching artistry and help spread the word of how your work impacts the community in which you live. Invite the press and your legislators to visit you in the classroom or to attend culminating events. Advocacy begins with each of us. Have a lovely evening and look for more reflections on the Summer Seminar experience because I haven't gotten it all down!

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Summer Seminar - A Week Later

Date:

30 Jul 2005

Time:

08:38:17 AM -0400

Blog

Good morning to everyone. It has been a week since my return and catching up on the world after nearly a week of full ESP immmersion has been an effort laced with productivity and reflection. The beauty of a retreat situation is the total focus with limited outside distractions. At Summer Seminar, there is an exceptional energy built from several hundred people all directing their thoughts and processes on a common thread, this year being the investigation of core beliefs and values. Last year it was centered on the process of inquiry. Everything revolves around that theme, including how the peer-to-peer evaluation sessions evolve. Rarely do we have an opportunity for 5 consecutive days to look at one theme and how our lives are impacted and expressed within that framework, much less design elements of our futures. This is another value of the Summer Seminar experience. So I have resumed my blog download after a week away and I am starting by asking you to think about this: what is(are) your core belief(s) 1) about yourself as an artist; 2) your place in education as a teaching artist; 3) your purpose in expressing your art; 4) the value of your efforts and approach. Take a piece of paper to a quiet place and give yourself a chance to ponder these four angles on your core belief system. I will be back with more blogging from my journal notes but right now I have a board of directors retreat for a commmunity organization to hustle off to for the day. Have a lovely Saturday and we will share more tomorrow.

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Sunday Blog

Date:

24 Jul 2005

Time:

12:50:35 PM -0400

Blog

Part of the process of ESP Summer Seminar is the re-entry! We isolate ourselves to accomplish highly concentrated planning, further personal development, share concepts and best practices, eat cafeteria fare, and spend some time late talking, dancing, walking the labyrinth, some even sleep. Then we come home to the lives we left behind, exhausted, exhilarated, and needing to assimilate it all in order to move forward. And there is the mail, the phone messages, the backed up email, the cat hair and dust bunnies, the weeds, the Asiatic lily and Hibiscus that waited to bloom, and all the ideas in one huge gridlock in the mind. This weekend I have been Slug Girl leaving a sparkly trail around the house and yard as I attend to the small details of my house and gardens while reflecting on my week and the best lessons learned. I am still having to just sit quietly and let it all steep. I know that something profound has happened and I am not sure where to start but I will say that there was a lot of discussion about the role of the teaching artist (often with rather opposing perspectives) and the field we have chosen. I will continue to deconstruct my week. But for now, I have a bunch of work to do to meet Monday deadlines and it is a perfect summer day in upstate NY so I want to get it done so I can return to the pantoum I am writing and watching the birds at the feeders. If you are inside reading your screen because you were waiting breathlessly for the next installment, go on outside and enjoy the sun. I will post more later... :)

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Final Day and So Much to Process

Date:

21 Jul 2005

Time:

11:41:03 AM -0400

Blog

Good morning to the field. I just completed my last morning at Summer Seminar and the morning session was so poignant. The creative responses to Phil's request of a group of participants to present in some form to the whole a statement about our core beliefs were wondrous. I will capsulize this over the next few days, along with many other aspects of what has occurred, that which I was able to either witness or be a participant. But this is the "everybody is fried" wrap-up day and I have to get to lunch to convene poets for an informal sharing over the last midday meal together, then a workshop, then pack to head home after the culminating dinner event. Besides, we walked out of this joyous gathering laced with teary and laughable moments to the TVs blaring the news of more terrorist acts in London and, honestly, I am shaken...again. Thankfully, the lunch parade of the daycampers on campus just passed, a thread of backpacks with bony little legs and they were not aware of horror, carrying leaves and giggles as they headed to their pizza. This is the hope and the reason for our work...these faces and voices that are the future developing right before us. What they inherit from us is overwhelming and I try to cling daily to the thought that perhaps each of us has the power to transform something, however small it may seem, to beauty, truth, joy, awareness, you fill in the rest from your core belief of why you do the work you do. More tomorrow when I am at my own desk and have had a change to percolate all that this week has been for me. Until then I will think my credo: PEACE, POWER, & POETRY.

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

ESP & the Value of Networking

Date:

20 Jul 2005

Time:

11:03:39 AM -0400

Blog

I know that some of you are interested in one question: If I spent $720 plus travel and expenses to spend a week at ESP, what would I get and is it worth it? I would have to say YES. It is more than worth it if you can find a way to budget it into your bank accounts and your calendars. The networking and community alone are really important. In the course of a 9+ hour day, you sit at meals with some of the nation's leaders in our field and talk of our good work. You have targeted workshops and discussion groups available to you for learning, developing, and expressing your miracles, your frustrations, your hopes, your fears, and your beliefs with others who are equally invested and committed to the work. You have the ability to reserve consultation time with the leaders noted above to work on problems or set goals, etc. You have experts to help you develop skills in digital technology that you can translate to your own work, in assessment tools and how to evaluate the work you do, in art making in your own discipline as well as the ability to experiment in other forms and grow, the wealth of experience that the multitude of partnerships depict in the course of the peer-to-peer sessions, and you get to let people know who you are, what you do, why you do it, and generally place you into their field of knowing. It is very rewarding and I will reflect on each of these in detail in days to come so I can give a wider view from my perspective for you all. Right now I am headed to make some art and then to a meeting.

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Tuesday events

Date:

20 Jul 2005

Time:

10:54:28 AM -0400

Blog

I spoke to you of the morning events on Tuesday. Among the offerings in the afternoon, I chose to go to the workshop with Eric Booth, as did nearly 50 others, and still it was provocative and productive. Eric started by saying that there are three ways to look at the role of the arts in learning/education: 1) the inherent reason art exists, or art for art's sake; 2) the institutional reasons, such as that the arts develop skills that translate into career paths of all sorts; and 3) art for the sake of learning (which Eric posed as the deeper and more valuable reason. He then took the turn that just because an artform is used as a tool for learning, it may not engage the student in learning more about the artform itself and expression through it. Likewise, a student may have a meaningful artistic experience and still does not invest in the academic value. It takes effective engagement in both the academic learning and the artistic expression to meet success, and this takes: 1) an authentic connection between the art form and the unit of study; 2) sufficient space for brainstorming that provides a variety of ways for a student to connect, also empowering the student to decide how and if they are engaged; 3) quality assessment and reflection (reflection that is not just tacked on at the end for a couple of minutes but that is equally as pertinent a part of the process. We discussed the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and it was stressed that true engagement is necessary before informaton or content are imparted. One of the key elements of engagement rests in the approach and presence of the teaching artist and this also links to the quality of the questions the TA asks, the type and creativity in the questions, and how that leads to student questioning. Last year the theme was INQUIRY, which I translated to WONDER to get out of the clinical and into the heart of the matter. There was much more but this is the core of the 2 hours.

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Core Beliefs and TAs

Date:

20 Jul 2005

Time:

10:42:40 AM -0400

Blog

This week we are being asked to look deeply in all ways and through every experience to look at what we truly believe about arts in education and our place within it. This is no simple task. These are the questions that were posed at the beginning of the journal we were given: EDUCATION: I believe that...a good school is one that_________;...for a learning experience to be meaningful for a student it must include___________; ...for students to succeed in school, they must have_____________; ...what makes being a teacher unique from all other professions is the ability to __________; ...quality educational programs are made up of the following elements _____________. THE ARTS: I believe that...the thing(s) the arts provide, which nothing else can provide, is(are) ____________; ...experiencing art (through reading, watching a performance or film, viewing art, etc.) is a critical endeavor because _________; ...art making is valuable to the individual because _________; ...what makes being an artist unique from all other professions is the ability to _______________; ...responding to and analyzing works of art are important activities because _______________; COLLABORATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS: I believe that...one of the most essential elements of any professional collaboration is _____________; ...___________ is the opposite of collaboration; ...a collaboration with a teacher and a teaching artist should always avoid _____________; ...if a collaboration does not have _______________, it cannot succeed; ...only through working jointly can schools and cultural organizations accomplish ___________; ...an arts partnership cannot provide meaningful learning experiences if it doesn't ___________; ARTS IN EDUCATION: I believe...the primary role for the arts in education is ___________; ...if we remove the arts from K-12 education, students will ____________; ...teaching and learning in and through the arts should have ________ as its goal; ...unlike other educational methods, integrated arts-in-education allows STUDENTS to ____________; ...arts-in-education is the best way to ___________; unlike other teaching approaches, integrated arts-in-education allows TEACHERS to _____________; ...the arts bring _______ to education (which cannot be provided by another subject, discipline, or experience); ...unlike other classroom processes, integrated arts-in-education allows TEACHING ARTISTS to _____________; ...the most effective way to integrate the arts into core subjects is to ___________. OTHER QUESTIONS I AM FORMULATING: If I could not work as a teaching artist, how would I feel about myself and what would I believe about myself? Am I impacting others positively in my work? What do I need for validation of my work and myself in order to persevere? Are my students learning in strong and special ways? Am I truly giving them something they would not experience without me? Can I change the pedagogy of how my artform is taught so that it is more organic and significant in the lives of others, rather than a "special," an "add-on," or a dreaded subject? There are other questions and beliefs but this will get you started...

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

The Process of ESP

Date:

20 Jul 2005

Time:

10:19:44 AM -0400

Blog

Good morning to all. Yesterday I finally found my way to the computer lab since the CW Post tech staff has not figured out how to make the ethernet connections in the dorm rooms functional. This has impacted my ability to report to the field and also means that I have to take time from programming to report out since I cannot do it at night. I need a clone! I also figured out that blogs do not recognize hard returns for paragraphs so I will do several theme based blogs to not have the long long block of words. I also understand that there is a desire for hard edge reporting. I would like to say that, since this is my second ESP experience, that it is a process that unfolds and it is often not until the weeks to follow that all of the benefit reveals itself. I will be blogging about the experience in weeks to come as well as this week. ESP is an intensive immersion experience. As a professional development opportunity, I think it is one of the most rewarding ones a teaching artist can absorb. The combination of new ESP partnerships, seasoned teams, the fellows and faculty available, the conversations, the information, the networking, and the collective investigation of a common theme make it an intensive and enlightening journey. It is overwhelming at times, the amount of information and the stimulation that is in the air. There is art making, there is constant dialogue, practical application of theory, leaders of the field available for consultation, colleagues who are available for insight and reflection, it is more than you can imagine. I welcome any questions via email, georgia@teachingartists.com. Be patient with me please, I am trying to experience as much as I can to give you an overview. I have internet access one hour per day to be able to meet the need while I am here, and I have a heavy spam blocker on my account so I need to clear new emails. If you email me, please put subject line that indicates you are writing regarding ATA, ESP,and/or the blog so I can identify your mail and not tag it as spam. Thanks so much.

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Days One & Two at ESP

Date:

19 Jul 2005

Time:

11:47:17 AM -0400

Blog

Good morning Teaching Artists. Sorry for the delay in blogging but technical problems in my dorm room have precluded internet connection. So here I sit in the computer lab ready to download all I have taken in during the past 38 hours since I arrived. I have been delightfully surprised how many people here at Summer Seminar have said that they were looking forward to the blog. Some were even asking why I had not posted yet. Thanks, friends, for being so on top of it...sort of like my friends who call my house and tell me it is time to change the poem on my voice mail. I need the prompt! I am pleased that folks think this is of value. I arrived at the CW Post campus at nearly 7 p.m. Sunday, just in time to see this year's ballroom dance team from PS 144, one of the schools featured in "Mad Hot Ballroom." If you have not yet seen the film, get to it as soon as you can. It is still in the art film houses but hopefully will get major distribution soon. It is a delightful and poignant film that relates to the work we do daily with students and schools. I cried, I laughed, I cried, I laughed...and I reflect on the film over and over. So here were the kids dancing for all of us. Then they taught us a basic step and took questions from the several hundred adults in the audience with poise and confidence. They taught us well and they exemplified the value of the work we do in a most wholistic way. One young lady even got in a shot about the undue pressure that ELA tests put on them and how she feels it blocks their learning. Do we have video of that for legislators?! Aside from missing our two Buffalo ATA Board members, Gary Earl Ross and Tiffany Nicely, the rest of the board is here once Dale Davis arrives this afternoon from her consulting in Washington, DC. Of course, we are all so busy being learners and collaborators that we barely have time to blink at each other so I will say hi now to Michele Kotler (who sits across the computer lab now getting caught up on her work for her great program, Community Word), Alice Seeger (who danced almost as much as me at the beach and offered much to Anne's discussion group), and Glenn McClure (who everybody wants to talk to because he is such a wealth of knowledge). The Western NY RLN sponsored a mixer in the tent on the quad that evening to welcome everyone. The positive energy among the ESP participants is a gift and there was much laughter and many charged conversations. Then off to set up my room, my computer, my home away from home for the week, some work to complete, and then to sleep on the bottom bunk. The first day of ESP involved our anchoring into the theme for the week of investigating our core beliefs. With a rapid-fire introduction to our ESP binders from Phil Alexander, a quick slideshow from the amazing Bonnie Nizamis, and morning coffee (which is infinitely better than last year) racing through our bodies, we headed from the auditorium to our day. The sessions started with the first peer-to-peer sessions for funded partnerships who work with other teams to evaluate, develop, and problem-solve together through a 4-day process. I will visit a couple of the groups tomorrow and Thursday to share what I observe. After lunch and a quick monsoon, we had the afternoon plenary with Eric Booth (Note: be sure to look into subscribing to Eric's quarterly professional publication, The Teaching Artist Journal. You can access a free sample issue on line at www.LEAonline.com). Eric demonstrated five different models of teaching, all based around William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow." Eric helped us to see that there are many ways that learning is presented and that they are not necesarily effective. Eric also showed that we are often teaching based on not just our own core beliefs but a set of assumptions, both of which, if we are acting consciously in our work, need to be reviewed and examined regularly. In the process of pushing us into the deep water of examining our core beliefs, Eric clarified for us that the word "belief" comes from the root word for "the heart;" thus, beliefs from from the heart and opinions come from the head. Beliefs require no evidence and express an intimate knowing on the part of an individual where opinions, being a cerebral formulation, tend to need justification. The quote that stuck with me from Eric's many visions is a simple one: "I think beliefs are small works of art in the medium of spirit. As works of art, they need constant reworking to stay alive." Eric also empowered us to be agents of change, to act and be the tenets of change we hope to see in the world. It starts with one and the question he gave us to ask ourselves is "How do I choose to have impact on the world?" This drives me daily, as I am sure it does for most of us. After the session with Eric, we had the option of many workshops and discussion groups. If you are interested in reviewing the offerings for the week, you can go to the ESP web site (www.espartsed.org) and click on Summer Seminar for the links to the schedule and workshop descriptions, as well as a list of the faculty and fellows. It is impressive and extensive so take a look rather than me listing here. I will highlight my experiences as I go through each day... So I sat in on a discussion circle facilitated by the sage Anne Rhodes. After introductions, we were given the prompt to ask ourselves what our core beliefs were regarding teaching, learning, and education and encouraged to record these statements. Then we buddied up to share one-on-one. After about 15 minutes of getting to know another colleague through this rich exchange, we shared as a group. Then we did the same process with examining our core beliefs about art. The size of the group was a bit of a hindrance to the type of depth we could have gotten to in the allotted time but I think we did really well. The group was open and the comments were varied and wise. They included the statements that art is freedom, art is utilitarian, art has the language that can break down the barriers between faiths and beliefs that get to the truth, among other belief statements. Then the question was posed, "Is art a language?" The concern of literacy through the arts and how does that look has recently come into my daily work with Partners for Arts Education and as a teaching artist so this had tremendous resonance for me. After this discussion, we all returned to the auditorium for a reflective reunion with Eric, who adds a great deal to his exchanges with groups by defining words and their roots, which I LOVE! We so often use words without really being clear on their roots and meanings, but relying upon our own sense or connotations. The reminders of the heart of language is crucial. Two more that Eric gave us: 1) Expert: one who is adept at experiencing. 2) Connoisseur: one who is adept at coming to know, a master learner. These both indicate soemthing a bit broader and diferent from what we may have held in our minds. Another that struck me...Courage: the full range of the human heart. And the last quote from Eric that was a tremndous gift that I would like to share is this: "The single more important role that we may take on is the role of witness." The quality of attention that we can offer a student (or teacher as learner from us) is that of recognizing something special in their learning or expression. I am reminded that we cannot ever anticipate/plan it or underestimate our impact, even if we do not see the outcomes directly ourselves. Validating the beings, the learners (both student and teacher), the artists we work with is the heart of our work. Then we ran to the school bus line to head to our Jones Beach Barbecue bonanza. The mist was so thick you could not see the waves from the patio so a bunch of us stayed to dance with Paul Rodriguez and his crew. What a blast! And the folks just visiting the beach had a variety of interesting expressions in response. The bus ride back was loud and we were all sweaty and damp. But exhilarated! I needed a shower dearly from all the dancing. I did more work while hooked into my disc player, listening to Digable Planets and Amp Fiddler to keep the music buzz happening. Then back to the bunk to stare at the 3/4 moon draped in a thick mist while I drifted off. This morning we started by stretching with Kimberli Boyd, a fabulous dancer and teaching artist, and an introduction to the new reporting tool that NYSCA arts-in-ed is developing with School Works Lab, Inc. (www.EdSpeak.org). It is a great model for anyone to adapt and will provide much usable information for the field. Take a look when you have time and see the good works already posted. So now that I have droned on to catch you all up, I hope that you have a sense of the energy of the folks here, several hundred of us. I hear the kids from the on-campus day camp coming in for their lunchtime in the cafeteria. Yesterday they were trooping through with rockets they had built to test their flying capacity. Coming into the building this morning, I was escorted by one young camper who told me that his rocket did not perform as well as he had hoped but that he thought he knew what to do to achieve success the next time. I got my kid buzz for the morning and was ready to be student myself... Have a great day and remember to be an expert! Georgia

Name:

Georgia Popoff

Subject:

Getting ready to go...

Date:

17 Jul 2005

Time:

09:06:35 AM -0400

Blog

Well, as I prepare to head to ESP Summer Seminar, I will try my first blog to test it out. Of course, planning during the week for the projects coming up in my work, the meetings and needs of the current projects, and all the life stuff means that I am doing laundry, packing, checking my computer to ready for the road, and thinking I wish I had another week. Geez. Anyway, I am looking forward to Summer Seminar and reporting all I find during the time. I know it will be a rewarding experience and that Phil Alexander and Julia Ashworth have done all they could to make the week rich for the ESP teams. If you need information on ESP, you can go to www.espartsed.org. This will also let you see the schedule for the day in case there is something you would want to ask specific questions regarding. I will report on the featured speakers and events, as well as other people and things I encounter at CW Post. Have a wonderful Sunday. I will be on the road by noon EDT and headed to ESP Land. Georgia