https://vimeo.com/137861052 A Journey from Policy to Practice
https://vimeo.com/137775675 The Story of San Diego
http://www.title1arts.org/#!library/cnm2 Link to more Title I videos featuring SD
DREAM – this video features teachers and students in the DREAM (Developing Reading Education with Arts Methods) program and research in North County, San Diego.
SDUSD Learning Through the Arts 
I watched the “Austin’s Butterfly” and the “CenterARTES” video. I like how the first demonstrates how anyone can get better with good feedback and the willingness to learn and keep trying. A failure is often just a starting point, an opportunity from which one can learn and improve. The second is nice in that it shows that giving anyone both the capabilities and opportunities to express themselves creatively leads to more confident and engaging people, especially kids. I have other thoughts, but I’ll leave it at that. Have a good one!
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Where the Hell is Matt 2012
Dancing guy Matt joins in many dance performances around the world, doing the same moves/almost doing the same moves as other participants. Many events organized independently from the video making (wedding, various cultural events), but some I can’t tell if it was an impromptu gathering for a dance mob. Definitely a good sense of taught/learned choreography at each site/event. Happy happy song.
I wonder about students watching this video. What would they get out of it? Some questions: What story is being told by the video? Similarities and differences from each performance? If you were Matt how would you do the video differently? And follow up questions, asking for details: why? What makes you say that?
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More questions: What is the video made of? What are its essential elements? What questions do students have about the video?
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CenterARTES TELL Kids Speak
Great to see R Rao, whom I’ve met at the YA national conference and her work. A wonderful presentation of student participants’ and their parents’ reflection on participating in a drama based activity. It is obvious it is much more than a polished, memorized performance.
Would love to learn more. How were performances composed, designed? What parts did students’ creativity and decision making play in the performances? I can’t see this as a performance where they were mercilessly drilled into robotic memorization.. The way the students spoke so eloquently of how they cared for the show tells me it was their show.
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I watched Austin’s Butterfly and Common Core in Action. Both were very informitive and made learn look fun.
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Ok, it’s late and I would like to say the videos made learning look fun instead dry and quiet. Loved the feedback from the kids.
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I watched Austin’s Butterfly. What I took away from this video was the importance of peer critique, what it looks like, and sounds like. There seems to be this intrinsic false understanding in most students, that the quality of their work is only determined by the teacher e.g. “Like this, teacher?” They constantly seek validation from the all-knowing adult in the room, whereas Ron Berger puts the “validation,” so to speak, back into the student’s hands. Peer critique is something that is most effective when it is part of the school’s culture. Students must learn that it’s ok to not be perfect on the first try; that it is not a form of punishment to have to make a second, third, or fourth draft; that it is ok to seek advice from peers, not just the teacher, on what you’ve done well and what you need to work on. In fact, it’s not only ok, it’s expected. Another insight was the way the children gave critique in the video. Their words were, obviously, carefully chosen. They were kind, specific, and helpful. One of the boys even prefaced his critique by saying, “Not to be mean…” just to ensure that no offense be taken. I thought that was so special how you could hear how genuine they were in wanting to help Austin improve on his work. To create a culture of critique takes a lot of thoughtful and purposeful planning by the teacher around it – it just doesn’t happen instantly. It’s a new way of thinking, a paradigm shift on how students look at their own and others’ work.
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The first video of Enrique Iglesias video was entertaining and enjoyable due to all of the dancers and color. Then I watched Where is Matt? video and loved his dance moves. I noticed everyone was super excited to join in the fun with Matt. And I wonder how was he able to travel to so many places and have so many people join him.
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austin’s butterfly- great example of perseverance and revision in the creative/learning process.
janet echelman- beautiful combination of art and science. art and technology old & new. pretty incredible work and process.
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Re DREAM
great to hear from Grandma (?) that child was so excited about what they did in school, and from Papa that confidence was built in his child.
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I watched the Center Artes and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai video. Both videos make it obvious that the arts impacts lives by bringing out creativity, happiness, and freedom to express ones self. In the Center Artes video, what touched my heart was when a young man said, “Without art, I wouldn’t be able to be creative.” That hit home for my because I paused to think about it. I’ve been in music classes since 4th grade and is still doing music today as a teacher, I look back and I can’t imagine how I would be today without music, without art. The Tsai video reminded me of my own Filipino heritage. It amazes me how captivated I was to her spoken word. Spoken word seems to be beyond art. It taps into character skills like listening. Even through listening it brings you into a sense of trance being lost in their words. I enjoyed both videos very much because it allowed me to be reflective.
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Thank you all for your appreciation for the DREAM project! It was a true honor to work with these young artists. The goal of the project is teach english through music and drama and instill self confidence and public speaking skills through art. We started off reading Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine book series, infusing music and theatre exercises. We infused Spanish in the curriculum (Eduardo Parra is a native Spanish speaker and I can speak basic Spanish) and created a bilingual play where Clementine became Clementina, and her home shifted from Massacussetts to California. While being inspired by the story, we then, with the students, rewrote the end. Sara Pennypacker also planned a visit where she talked about writing and creating narratives. The act of getting up on stage and having all eyes on you and applauding for you is very powerful. The students loved the book series and this project really promoted literacy and reading comprehension. Through theatre and music, we were able to promote a deep reading of the text. And we hope it was a positive experience for all!
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